Compare the methods the poets use to have an impact on their readers in 'Limbo' and in another poem

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Q: Compare the methods poets use to have an impact on their readers in .Limbo. (page 5) and in

one other poem. (27 marks)

   The poets uses poetic techniques, language and structure to convey their ideas, attitudes and themes in their poems, which in turn creates the specified effects or impacts on the reader. The poem ‘Limbo’ is a poem based on the harsh experience of slavery through the poet’s eye; his attitudes are quite ambiguous and thus help to create a sense of subtle life faced by slaves on reader’s mind. The other poem I choose to compare for the effect is the poem ‘Blessing’. While ‘Limbo’ poses the theme of inequality, ‘Blessing’ creates a similar effect though in different context: we are driven to see, feel and imagine what it is like to receive the scarce necessity water, which we take for granted.

     Layouts in both poems are a deliberate method employed by the poets in terms of visual effects. Blessing employs fragmented lines in the first stanza illustrating the simple fact: “There never is enough water.” First Stanza sets the issue of lacking the basic necessity water for a part of the world where water has to be “imagined’. Thus the impact on those people’s lives is seemingly worrying; poet thus employs short, abrupt sentences to express the emptiness it creates for those people’s lives. Similarly poem ‘Limbo’ employs an unusual presentation to illustrate the subtleness associated with slave lives. Most lines are repeated with minor differences, that stresses the ongoing oppression, simply due to the life they are forced to live based on their race classified to be ‘inferior’ to white. The poet constantly reminds the reader: despite the suffering, culture and tradition will last forever; limbo dance, west Indian slave dance, is repeated in the background through lines: “limbo, limbo like me”. We are driven to believe in poet’s appreciation of culture in terms of ‘making the best out of worst’. It is written in the first person narrative in contrast to blessing. Both narratives are effective in both poems as for ‘Blessing’: third person perspective sets the scene whilst ‘Limbo’ creates a genuine account by employing first person narrative.

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Way in which punctuation is used is significant in ‘Blessing’; second stanza lacks full stops which are replaced by commas, that in effect illustrates the flowing water as well as fulfilling happiness it creates to the people. Repetition is featured in this poem unlike in poem ‘blessing’; hence the layouts contribute to the impact on what is being said in the poem.

     Language used in both poems creates an impact on the reader, in terms of how we interpret the poet’s thoughts and feelings about the idea they are presenting. ‘Blessing’ opens with a hard hitting simile that ...

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