Rosemary Dobson seems intent on presenting a view of life as bleak and generally uninteresting - Discuss

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English Homework Week 8

“Rosemary Dobson seems intent on presenting a view of life as bleak and generally uninteresting

In the poems by Rosemary Dobson it generally presents the view of life as bleak.  “The Tiger” is an example of this.  This also reinforces the limitations on her poetic inspirations.  The idea is presented by the effective use of imagery, tone, sound devices and the temporary progression.  However, the poem by no means is uninteresting due to the use of these techniques.

Imagery is used by the poet to express her poetic concern.  The poem “The Tiger” is completely an extended metaphor. As the central metaphor, the tiger symbolizes the poet’s creativity and potential.  However, such an image is expressed in a restricted way as the tiger is “behind the black bars of the page” which represents the poet’s poetic inspirations that is also trapped under the fixed attitudes of society.  Aside from the central image, the poet also uses a range of other images to enhance her concern. Images such as “sun” and “sky of stars” contrasts the “tiger” as the “sun” and the “stars” are free but the “tiger” is not.  The image of the tiger’s “unblinking eyes that stare into the gold heart of the sun” suggests that the poet is seeking for a way to freedom.  The images help the reader to visualize “life as bleak” as the poet is finding it hard to express herself and also thrill the reader with the hope created.  Therefore, the poem is interesting.  

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A fixed tone is created at the beginning of the poem.  It again reinforces the thematic concern of the overall theme.  The tone does not change throughout the poem suggesting the constant constraint the poet felt.  This is created by words such as “rage”, “smouldering” and “furious”.  Which again highlights the irritation the poet herself felt due to the lack of freedom on the poetic inspirations. Therefore, the tone creates a sense of “life as bleak”.  However, the poem is not uninteresting as the words used to create such tone are emotive and effective to stir up the reader ...

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