Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

The use of language is also very important in both poems. Imagery is a technique that is used frequently in 'The Seduction' and in 'Cousin Kate'. In 'Cousin Kate' the maid says

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

One difference between the boy and the lord is that the lord doesn't really have to try to impress the maid or Kate. He can just use his power and money. The boy in 'The Seduction', however, has to try to impress the girl. The poem tells us he is wearing a leather jacket; this could be to make him look older or more sophisticated. "He told her about football; Sammy Lee and Ian Rush" also suggests that the boy is showing off. He tells her about football because he knows a lot about it and so shares all his knowledge in the hope that he will look intelligent and so he will impress her. The use of language is also very important in both poems. Imagery is a technique that is used frequently in 'The Seduction' and in 'Cousin Kate'. In 'Cousin Kate' the maid says ' even so I sit and howl in dust, you sit in gold and sing'. ...read more.

Middle

Later in the poem it says "and on that day she broke the heels of her high white shoes". This is telling us that she has lost her innocence and is no longer pure. Another example of this is in 'The Seduction' where the girl rips up all her magazines "until they were just bright paper, like confetti strewn on the carpet". The confetti is linked to weddings. The word confetti is used as it is immediately linked to marriage, and again purity. Finally, 'The Seduction' says "with a softly rounded belly". The word belly is used because it is a childish word and I think it reminds us that the girl is still a child. Symbolism is also used in 'Cousin Kate'. The maid says "you sit in gold and sing". Gold is a symbol of wealth and riches, also the singing represents happiness. The maiden says "so I sit and howl in dust" as dust is a symbol of poverty and dirt. ...read more.

Conclusion

This is used to describe the maid's feelings about Kate's relationship. She says that although she really loved the lord, Kate does not. Finally in 'Cousin Kate' the maid says "yet I've a gift you have not got". By this she means that she has a son and as she later goes on to say ("and seem not like to get") this shows us that Kate may be infertile and may never be able to conceive a child. The maid knows how much the lord wants one "to wear his coronet" or gain his inheritance. There are also many comparisons in 'The Seduction' of before and after the girl becomes pregnant. Before she was pregnant she dreamt of holidays and teenage parties. After she is pregnant the girl says: "Where were all the glossy photos of summer? Day trips to Blackpool, jumping all the rides" After she is pregnant she no longer feels that she will be able to go on the holidays that she used to before she was pregnant. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Pre and Post 1914 Comparison section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related GCSE Pre and Post 1914 Comparison essays

  1. How do Blake and Wordsworth use language to present their view of London

    This emphasises Blake's anger with the poor because they have not followed the example of the French and instead they have accepted their position. The fact that the "manacles" were "mind-forged" suggests that the people are limiting their own lives and that their lack of their ambition is to blame for their poverty.

  2. Compare the ways that a range of poems explore social issues. Falling leaves, belfast ...

    He used present continuous verbs to represent the situation right before our eyes. Belfast Confetti and Falling leaves are very similar in the way that both poems are a person's view on war. Falling leaves in the women's point of war and Belfast Confetti is an innocent man's view on war.

  1. Write an essay showing how elements of mystery are used in Signalman, Monkeys Paw ...

    In the 'Signalman' it identifies two main characters, the 'Signalman' and the narrator. In the story, it tells us that the Signalman is 'dark, heavyset man with a swallow completion.

  2. How do Rossetti and Angelou portray oppression in their poems, "Cousin Kate" and "Still ...

    The chant has a rallying effect which is, and was probably meant to be, quite intimidating to the reader with the repetition of the last phrase "I rise" thrice on their own respective lines giving an almost menacing power to the "black ocean".

  1. Compare and contrast how gender roles are represented in a variety of love poems.

    dads magazines and a bag filled with shimmering, sweet paint thinner", this shows he likes to get high on paint fumes, and likes to read his dads adult magazines showing he don't have respect for woman also that the dad gives him the magazines at such a young age, this

  2. How are attitudes to love and relationships presented in To His Coy Mistress, The ...

    The woman is seen as na�ve as the man uses blatant mockery which shows that the man sees himself as in control of their relationship. In the context of To His Coy Mistress, the term coy is taken to mean that the female of the speaker is saying that she wishes to avoid him, all the while flirting with him.

  1. Little boy crying

    The last line "You must not make a plaything of the rain", this means that the boy should not make the things of his father for playing only. There are many aspects of implied, some of it are in line 4 "With three-year-old frustration" this implied us that the little

  2. Cousin Kate and The Seduction

    The man who she had sex with and spent her days near the river with had got her pregnant and left her. The mood was happy and playful at the beginning of the poem, "She had nodded, quite enchanted, and her eyes were wide and bright".

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work