Compare the poems "Hard Frost" and "winter the Huntsman". Decide which poem paints the best picture.

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Compare the poems “Hard Frost” and “winter the Huntsman”. Decide which poem paints the best picture

“Winter the Huntsman” and Hard Frost” are both poems which have the same settings, both are in the season of winter, Hard Frost (HF) was set at the end of winter and Winter the Huntsman (WTH) was set at the beginning of winter. “WTH” is set in a forest being captured by winter and “HF” is set in a rural, and near habitation. Also the image in hard frost is completely different to image portrayed in W.T.H. The image from H.F is that there is human habitation this is proven by this quote ‘at every footstep a tiny brittle pane is broken’. With the idea of humans being able to live along side with frost gives me the effect a Christmas card feel to the poem. In W.T.H the image created by the poem is completely different. The image is a cruel and harsh. The theme is a huntsman hunting down all colour and life from summer.

        Differences in the poem are continued with the use of personification. In “HF” frost is depicted as a soldier of the army of winter, evidence of this is numerous. One particular piece from the poem describes it best, “Frost called to water “Halt!”, this personifies frost as someone who would command like a sergeant in the army. More aspects of frost being humanlike is in the following quote ‘interns poor fish’. This means that he has the power to lock away fish like people in prison cells. In “WTH” the poem personifies winter as a huntsman, evidence of this is this quote “is it winter the huntsman galloping”, I think that showing winter to be a huntsman is interesting idea. The effect of winter being a huntsman gives me image of a Huntsman hunting down the last of the summer, more good imagery from this idea is that it reflects winter as a season. It reflects it because winter like a huntsman it is unpredictable and kills animals and plants as well as being a strong season with a few deaths. I have also picked out some evidence of the image of the huntsman being of a cruel nature, this quote shows it well “Crashing his cruel whip”. My reasons for picking out this evidence is that its key word is cruel, normally a huntsman kills for keeping animal numbers down or for food. Being cruel for no reason has raised attention for winter the huntsman enjoying the deaths he causes. The idea of winter the huntsman taking deaths gives him more power than anything in the forest. Evidence of him having power is in this quote “hiding each tree from his brother”, this shows that he has the power to torture trees when the huntsman likes.

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        Both poems are littered in figures of speech. One example in hard frost is a mixture of simile and alliteration this quote is it “and tench in water bowls lurk under gluey glass like fish in bowls”. The simile in this piece of figurative language is effective because it gives effect of fish trapped in fish bowls; the bowls are formed by a unfrozen ice in the centre of a pond, giving the comparison of tench acting like goldfish. The alliteration in this poem ‘gluey glass’ reinforces the idea of the fish being trapped in bowls; it does this by ...

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