“My son aged three fell in the nettle bed
Bed seemed like a curious name for those little green spears
That regiment of spite behind the shed”
This scheme of rhyming the last word of every second line continues throughout the poem’s entirety and in a strange way is quite comforting.
Although the subject matter is nettles and being stung by them. The theme of this poem is war, although at first this may be unnoticeable. But once you reads it again you‘ll find many connotations of war contained within descriptions. Such as:
“Green spears”
“Regiment of spite”
“Fierce parade”
“Recruits”
Although all of these examples are related to war (the theme) they are also related to nettles (the subject matter). Many of these expressions are great adjectives and descriptions on their own but in this poem they are done a lot more justice than in a straightforward poem in which the theme is the same as the subject matter. In this poem however when they can relate to both of these things even when they’re different shows writing skill. And the way they flow so well shows even greater talent.
The image of pity is apparent throughout the poem and examples like:
“With sobs and tears”
Are commonplace throughout the poem and serve to provoke a reaction in the reader as it brings the image of nettle stings and pain back into the readers mind. Which nobody would like to endure (nettle stings), the fact that some people do makes the reader feel sorry for those that do. In addition, the feeling of pity is brought back each time stronger as each example builds on the previous ones and deploys more information about the pain the boy’s going through, like in the quote:
“The boy came seeking comfort”
This helps provoke a reaction of pity as it shows the boy has to get help from his father, getting help is not a humans first response as all humans want to be as independence as possible, dating back to caveman times where weaker humans were sacrificed because they were a burden. So any person seeking help is normally thought of as a type of desperation in most people’s minds. The boy does this because he doesn’t know what else to do.
Scannell has wrote a very skilful poem in Nettles and uses many parts of speech in its structure including metaphors like
“That regiment of spite”
In addition, personifications like:
“Recruits behind the shed”
Regiment of spite is a good metaphor as it is linked to war, a regiment being like a team of soldiers also because its a regiment of spite, its like a team of spite, nettles hurt people in spite and they grow in clumps representing the regiment. Recruits is personification of nettles as nettles aren’t living things and cant be recruited for things however the new recruits symbolise the new nettles growing up from where the other nettles died like new waves of troops being sent onto a battlefield to replace the old troops. Also these metaphors and other parts of speech are crafted brilliantly to fit into the poem exactly and precisely, making this poem a very enjoyable one to read. The skill of the writer is ever present through nettles and along with other things helped make this poem a fascinating and exhilarating piece of writing.