How do the writers of four poems reveal their attitudes to nature?

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How do the writers of four poems reveal their attitudes to nature?

Many poets use poetry to convey their feelings for nature. Poets like Seamus Heaney, John Clare and Alfred Tennyson use a variety of techniques to reflect their experiences, connections and emotions in regards to the natural world.

Seamus Heaney’s Storm on the Island presents his feelings to nature in several different ways. The first of these is through use of emotive language. Throughout the poem, Heaney uses words like “tragic” and “savage” to connote his views of how aggressive nature is to the reader. These words of anger give the audience a sense of the rage that Heaney sees in forms of nature like the wind which he is describing and the fear that he has for it. Heaney cleverly uses this to exemplify his emotions towards nature; fear for the aggressive nature of it but also respect for its strength. This is similar to the way Alfred Tennyson uses language to show readers his attitudes to nature in The Eagle. Tennyson makes use of possessive language such as “his mountain walls” to give the eagle he’s describing a sense of possession over the walls and the land. Alongside this, he uses words such as “azure” – a colour often used to describe the sky but also associated with royalty in heraldry – to give the bird a royal presence whilst describing the scene. This good use of possessive terms alongside clever description enables Tennyson to connote a sense of respect for the eagle to the reader. This, like with Storm on the Island, is used to reflect the poet’s sense of respect for nature using language, however, unlike Heaney, Tennyson uses a sense of possession and grandeur to give a more positive form of respect for the eagle than Heaney’s fearful respect for the wind. John Clare puts a different spin on the use of language to reflect his attitude to nature in Sonnet.  Clare uses terms like “I love” repeatedly to show the audience how his feelings for nature – love. Unlike Heaney and Tennyson, Clare’s use of language here reflects purely love rather than respect but he goes about this a similar way – using descriptive and emotive language to show the reader his emotive connection to nature. All three of these expressions provide a strong account of the poet’s feelings for nature, whether it is of fearful or positive respect or even love, by establishing a connection to the reader through a common emotion. This technique is used effectively and extensively in The Eagle, Sonnet and Storm on the Island.

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Another technique used by Heaney in his poem Death of a Naturalist is using a simile to convey emotions about a topic to the reader. In the poem, Heaney comments on frogspawn claiming that it “grew like clotted water”. This simile connotes an image of a thick, solid-like liquid just as frogspawn is, in its jelly-like form. This is an effective method of conveying   emotions to the reader as it is an oxymoron – a description that contradicts itself. Water, due to its liquid-like qualities, cannot be clotted as it does not bunch together. This simile, therefore, shows the audience ...

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