The predominant emotion is of uttermost delight. He expresses his appreciation of the peacefulness of the morning nature.
The atmosphere the poem conveys is pleasant and of a soothing nature. This due to the fact that he’s a romantic poet.
In this poem, there is a metre and this creates the slow-type movement that prevails throughout the poem. Rhyme is also deployed. The rhyme scheme determines the sonnet style of writing. The first rhyme scheme is used to describe what he sees and the second about what he feels. The idea of a sonnet is to split a poem directly in two. These two sections explain two different themes and is as though they are two paragraphs of a story.
In this poem there is a wide range of similes and personification.
‘The city now doth, like a garment, wear, the beauty of the morning.’
He is comparing the morning to a piece of clothing. The morning is wearing the beauty as if a person was wearing an expensive and attractive piece of clothing. We can also judge the period of time from this poem. We can tell the city is not very built up, therefore, being around the mid 1800’s. It is more like a village rather than a city. There are more open fields rather than tall skyscrapers. There are three types of personification used in this poem and this helps it to make it very affective, such as ‘The river glideth at his own sweet will:’ From this, we set in our minds the peaceful scene. It is very calm and the river is flowing how he pleases. They are giving the river the features of a human who is very laid-back and who is not stressful.
‘The very houses seem asleep;’
As it is so early in the morning, streets are full of emptiness, Wordsworth says that they are asleep. When humans are unconscious, they are dormant. This is exactly what the houses are like at this time. The final piece of personification is ‘And all that mighty heart is lying still.’ To me this is the most interesting and is expressed very skilfully. London is the heart of England. Wordsworth makes London as though it is very important and without it, England would not survive. London, full of docks, allows trading to take place using ships. In my view, these are very effective and bring life to the poem. Whilst reading it, the images appear in your mind. This poem gives a view of the landscape in the eyes of Wordsworth, but this is not held in the same way as R.S Thomas.
A landscape view in the eyes of R.S Thomas is very different as we can see in the poem ‘A Day in Autumn.’
The poem is about one day in autumn and the fact that is quickly going and the dreaded season of winter is soon arriving. It is going to be cold for quite a long time now so you should cherish it while it lasts.
‘It will not always be like this:’
From the first line you feel suspense. This attracts the reader to read on as you wonder why such a powerful phrase has been used and you wonder what else is to follow throughout the rest of the poem.
The message is that nothing lasts forever and that you should cherish it while it lasts. The next few lines describe the setting. As it is autumn most of the leaves have fallen down but there are still a few decorating the bare naked trees and the gloomy day.
‘A few last leaves adding their decoration.’
‘ Braiding the cuffs of the boughs of gold;’ The leaves have lost their green shade and have changed to a gold tint.
We know that the lawn is full of dew as the lawn is acting like a mirror. Particles of transparent water lie on the grass and reflect objects which face it.
‘a bird preening In the lawn’s mirror.’
People do not take any interest of the autumn day to Thomas so he says, ‘pause a minute, let the mind take its photograph of the bright scene.’ After all that work, take a break and admire the scene as you will have to wait another year before autumn arrives once again.
‘Something to wear against the heart in the long cold.’
In the first part, he says how beautiful the scene is and then just like that, he metaphorically takes it away. He reminds us of the cold which is to come.
The predominant emotion in this poem is very sentimental like in the fact that he shows us of his feeling towards people’s attitude to the day and he likes to admire the old things. There is also a hint of sorrow. He does not want autumn to end as we will be overcome with cold. He wants to relish it while it lasts.
The atmosphere conveyed is full of bitterness and yearning of what is to come. And the point that people will regret it when it’s gone. That’s why he says stop and take a look at this image of the scene.
Unlike Wordsworth, R. S Thomas uses a metre. He does this to slow down the tempo of the poem. Each line in most cases consists of only one word with two syllables. Even though in some cases, this is different. This adds great style to the poem.
Again, unlike Wordsworth, Thomas does not have a wide range of diction as it only includes one metaphor.
‘mind take its photograph’
The mind is doing something which humans do. It is taking a picture as if it has a camera installed in its mind.
After discussing the views of the two poets on landscape, I will now see their views on people. I have chosen to express a poem called ‘The Solitary Reaper’ by William Wordsworth.
The poem is about a woman who is all alone and is reaping and binding the harvest. The poem Describes to us of the activities in her life which mainly involve the reaping for harvest and her beautiful singing.
The first paragraph basically describes she is in exile and she has no others to communicate with. Whilst working, she ‘sings a melancholy strain:’ The second paragraph is very peculiar. Her singing is compared to different birds. First of all, she is compared to the nightingale saying that the nightingale did not ‘ever chaunt More welcome notes to weary bands of travellers in some shady haunt.’ The first signs of a romantic poet writing this poem is when he exaggerates whilst saying ‘A voice so thrilling ne’er was heard In spring-time from the cuckoo bird,’ He is saying that the reapers singing is of better quality than the cuckoo bird. He wonders what theme her singing is to do with. If R. S Thomas had written a poem on the solitary reaper, he would not have had her singing; he would have her crying with pain after such a job. It is so difficult to live with out interacting with others. You may need their help or just need someone to talk to. Thomas would exaggerate the bad things in which her life was filled with.
The predominant emotion is bearing with life. She has no other choice apart from living here. She is not like others who would moan and make their own lives full of misery. She just carries on with life like she has no other choice and this is how it should be. She tries to make her life as good as possible by singing which makes her happy.
In this poem both a metre and rhyme is employed. I think the rhyme helps the poem to flow and move. The metre is that there are 8 beats per line in most cases. This keeps the poem at a decent speed rather than Thomas’ short, more snappier poems. To keep the metre constant, abbreviation has been used several times. For example, ‘ ne’er, whate’er and o’er.’
Comparisons are used in the sense of her singing. On two occasions if her singing compared with two different birds. First with the nightingale, saying that the reapers notes are more welcoming.
‘No nightingale did ever chaunt More welcome notes to weary bands Of travellers in some shady haunt;’
Then she is compared to a cuckoo bird saying ‘a voice so thrilling ne’er was heard, In spring-time from the cuckoo bird.’ We know the poem is set in Scotland because of the use of the ‘Hebrides.’ These are mountains in Scotland and Wordsworth says that her singing travels as far as them.
A poem to do with humans by Thomas is the ‘Tramp’. We can tell by just reading the title, it is not going to be full of happiness. They both write about people, but Thomas somehow always seems to pick the worse of people like tramps rather than something like a family man.
The poem is about a rich man and his views of a tramp. He talks about what he feels and wonders what the tramp if feeling. It is as though he is comparing his life with the tramps.
One day, in the morning, the tramp is there knocking at the rich man’s house asking for some tea. He judges the tramp by saying ‘Strong for a poor man’ as though he knows what tramps are of certain build. He thinks that all tramps are poor and unable to survive.
‘On his way-where?’
As he is a tramp, he has no plans and no prospects. He doesn’t know how his day will end up. He lives life by the minute. He walks around with his head buried in the ground and the rich man walks looking up. This shows the tramp is not happy with his lifestyle but what can he do. He has neither opportunities nor chances. No one is willing to give him a chance as they believe they are better than him. The rich man is looking up. His life is full of chances and opportunities. He is very proud and snobby. He does not pay any attention to what is below him. During the time the poem was written, America and Russia were a part of the cold war. This was deadly and included nuclear warheads. The American president warned, if there was attack on his native soil, then US navy planes would be ready to deploy in a matter of minutes and bomb them back. This is why he says ‘over us the planes build The shining rafters.’ We have now devoted our lives to technology and without it we could not survive.
‘Of that new world We have sworn by.’
In the final paragraph he compares his life with the tramps. Whilst the rich man sleeps in his bed, the tramp sleeps in a ditch filled with ‘dead leaves.’ The tramp can sleep without any problem as his ‘dreams are not haunted’ like the rich man’s. He has everything to loose so his dreams turn into nightmares. He wonders whether the tramps dreams are rich in thinking does he dream he will be rich and he has nothing to loose. The rich man ‘wakes early’ because ahead of him a new day lies and the tramp ‘wakes cold as he sleep outside.
The atmosphere conveys real life. Rather than stating all of the good things like Wordsworth, Thomas shows what really happens. The world is full of tramps that have no future or prospects.
The main atmosphere is cold in the sense of grief. The tramp has nowhere to live and no job.
The metre shows there are only a maximum of 6 beats per line making the poem a lot shorter and quicker than Wordsworth’s poems. This is used to make the poem full of Solemnity.
The only use of comparison is in the main idea. This is comparing the lives of two different people, the tramp and rich man.
‘On his way-where?’
This is intriguing in one sense as it also makes you think about life. You wonder what your plans are. But you also feel a sense of security as you know that you will have a home to live in, and that you will have to go to school the next day. Unluckily for the tramp, he does not.
From the two poems ‘On Westminster Bridge’ and ‘A Day in Autumn’ we can see the two different views on the subject. Wordsworth exaggerates the idea. When it is not very glamorous, he makes it sound outstanding. Thomas just likes his poems to be more realistic. The two use the same style on their poems based on people as well. Wordsworth’s poems tend to be long with some sort of rhyme and rhythm. When thinking of the different topics, Thomas tends to talk about the more harsh things in life rather than Wordsworth’s life with no problems as this can be seen in Wordsworth’s poem ‘The solitary Reaper’. She is a labourer in a field and this work in reality is very hard, back-breaking work. But Wordsworth does not see this and his romantic style, he beautifies the poem destroying any sense of harshness to be found. With Thomas however, it can be seen that he views the harshness and reality of life giving his poetry a more realistic touch.
I prefer reading Thomas’ poems because these topics actually are involved in my life. I, like many others have to see people suffer. We see tramps on the streets and to me this is a distressing thought. Wordsworth over exaggerates to this I do not agree. When he says that the view on Westminster Bridge is the best around the world, I do not agree. I have been and heard of many places which are better in my view.
