No Hands Poetry Essay

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Senjuti Gupta

No Hands – Poetry Essay

The poem “No Hands” is about a woman who is annoyed and frustrated with the pilots who are flying their aeroplanes very low in the countryside, and are destroying the peace and serenity.  The narrator feels very deeply about the countryside and thinks that it is the place of peace and thoughts.

The poet’s main aim is to concern us with the low-flying of aeroplanes in the countryside.  She wants us to realise how irritated she is with the pilots, as they are flying the planes extremely low.

The poet wants to engage us with her thoughts, feelings and emotions.  She feels very strongly about the countryside and is very irritated why the planes are flying over the countryside.  She wants us to think about the countryside’s values and to know that it is not there for planes to fly across, but it is there for people to spend their time and look at the beautiful scenery.  The poet is conveying a message through the poem, that we shouldn’t take the countryside for granted, but we should take it as a place to express our thoughts and feelings.

The method of narration is in first person narrative which is effective as it conveys her anger and disapproval more strongly.  The language is conversational, informal and direct.  It is coming straight from the heart; therefore this helps to achieve her overall aim.

The form of the poem is a sonnet as the poem is made up of 14 lines, it has a set rhyming pattern and nearly each line has 10 syllables in a pattern of stressed and unstressed – iambic pentameter – “over and over; willow warbler song”; therefore it links to conveying her disapproval and anger, as they are all heavily stressed words, therefore it establishes the mood.

The title “No Hands” is immediately very effective, as it reminds you of our childhood, when the children used to ride their bikes without any hands.  The poet has deliberately used this as the title as it is common to everyone, and views back on their memories.  The poet’s use of deliberate economical language has produced many ideas in our heads.  She has used this very cleverly, as it is only two words.  The title suggests that the pilots could be endangering and risking others and their lives.  The title conveys lots of words such as danger, irresponsible, childishness, challenging and daring.

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In the first line, “War-planes have been at it all day long” the poet may have used the word ‘war’ to make us think of danger and unpleasant things even if there isn’t any war.  The word ‘war-planes’ is a compound word and she uses this to give us a visual image.  The poet has used all heavily stressed words to create the mood of the poem.  The poet has used long drawn vowels and monosyllabic words to make the situation clear and also, exaggerated it to let us know that she is angry with the pilots.  The whole nature ...

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