Compare the way the characters of Salome and Anne Hathaway are presented in Carol Anne Duffy's poems.

Megan Field 11MJO October 04 CKE Compare the way the characters of Salome and Anne Hathaway are presented in Carol Anne Duffy's poems. Carol Anne Duffy wrote both Salome and Anne Hathaway. In this essay I am going to be comparing how the characters of Salome and Anne Hathaway are presented in Duffy's two poems. Duffy's intention as with all of her poems is to give historically famous women who were previously unheard a new voice. Both these poems are written in the women's view like a monologue, both deal with death and have a sexual content. Anne Hathaway is Shakespeare's wife. It is written in the style of a sonnet to celebrate her husband's work, Shakespeare wrote many sonnets. I can tell this because there is a rhyming couplet at the end, it is a fourteen line poem about love with a regular rhythm pattern of 10 syllables per line where the second syllable is stressed. It is therefore an iambic pentameter. It uses lots of heavy imagery written as metaphors and similes throughout the poem. "My lover's words were shooting stars which fell to Earth as kisses". In history we learn that Shakespeare in his will, left Anne the second best bed. Before reading this poem I thought she would have felt degraded, humiliated and upset about being left this bed. This poem showed me Anne's feelings from a completely different perspective. The poem is a reflective, celebration of

  • Word count: 1171
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Comparing Head of English to R.E your poem and recent visit.

Gemma Lee Comparing Head of English to R.E your poem and recent visit The purpose for the head of English is to in some way give English teachers a bad name. Carol Ann Duffy is a visiting poet to an all girls school, at the school she finds that the head of English is unwelcoming and tries her best to make her feel small. She wants the audience to know the ordeal that she went through, so this is in some way to get revenge and to entertain the audience by showing what her version of a stereotypical English teacher is like. She is also mocking her, by over elaborating on her actions and the things she says. The purpose for R.E your poem and recent visit is a reply to the poem Head of English. Andrew Mayne is saying that it is unfair to give all English teachers a bad name, and tries to show through his writing what they are really like. He finds the poem offensive and so in return tries to offend Carol Ann Duffy in some way, by using the same style of mocking ness and over elaborating. His purpose to the audience is to show humour about the way in which he mocks carol Ann Duffy for her poem. Also, its purpose is to entertain and to prove a point to anyone who has read the poem head of English, so he is standing up and going against the views of Carol Ann Duffy. The attitudes and values of the head of English is that she doesn't like visitors coming into the school and

  • Word count: 981
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Compare the poems "On my first Sonne", "The Song of the Old Mother", and "The Affliction of Margaret" in the theme of death and grief.

Hyung-woo Cho English Compare the poems "On my first Sonne", "The Song of the Old Mother", and "The Affliction of Margaret" in the theme of death and grief. PARA1 on my first son The point of view, what is it about PARA2 the song of the old mother The point of view, what is it about PARA3 on my first sonne Structure, language, imagery PARA4 the affliction of Margaret Structure, language, imagery PARA5 on my first sonne Personal and poet's respond PARA6 the song of the old mother, the affliction of Margaret Personal and poet's respond The poem, "On my first Sonne" is the elegy that Ben Jonson wrote about the death of his first son, Benjamin. The writer shows his deep sentiment after such a cruel event happened to him. Te shows his grief and despair of a father using first person account because the death of his son was happened to the poet himself and he wants to convey what he feels directly to the audience. Compared to "On my first Sonne", the poem "The Song of the Old Mother", written by William Butler Yeats, is about an old woman complains that she always work hard and laments the idleness of youths. First person account is used to show the old mother's grief about herself working so hard and not to be respected. Loads of the techniques such as use of structure, language, and imagery are used in the poem "On my first Sonne". The poem is in rhyming

  • Word count: 596
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast how each of the three poets deals with the problem of separation from the person that they love.

Compare and contrast how each of the three poets deals with the problem of separation from the person that they love. Introduction In recent weeks in English we studied 3 poems of varying origin and of various types of poetry. We studied Havisham, by Carol Ann Duffy, Stop all the clocks by W.H. Auden and Valediction: Forbidden mourning by John Donne. All of which are about the loss of loved ones, but in a different way. In 'Havisham', the bride (Miss Havisham) was left at the altar by her to-be-husband; she has sat in her dressing room in her wedding dress for year after year since that day. In 'stop all the clocks...' someone has lost a loved one, they have died. The poem is about what the person expects to happen when something so big happens in life and everyone else just carries on like it's another day. 'Valediction: Forbidden Mourning' is somewhat different though, it is not necessarily the loss of a loved one, but a parting. The writer of this poem wrote it for his wife when he went away; it is about all the good things that will come out of them being apart. Like when they come back together how happy they will be and although it will be a test, it will be worth it. In the following piece of coursework I will be comparing the differences as well as the similarities of

  • Word count: 1542
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Choose 4 poems which deal with people on the edge. Consider how they are presented and what we learn about them.

Jak Money 11G1 Choose 4 poems which deal with people on the edge. Consider how they are presented and what we learn about them. The four poems I chose were: Stealing, Hitcher, Education for Leisure and Laboratory. The themes in each were: stealing - insanity and theft, Hitcher - a hitchhiker and the truth, Education for Leisure - death and arrogance, and in the laboratory - eccentricity and paranoia. All of these poems deal with people on the edge. They all have people who inflict pain or damage for pleasure or amusement. The language in Laboratory is very old fashioned compared with the other poems, which are relatively modern. It was written long before the others but this language makes the poem harder to read and much harder to understand. The poem is set in an old fashioned Laboratory, full of medicines and poisons, and this is made clear by the vivid description such as "faint smokes curling whitely" and "thou pliest thy trade in this devil's smithy" When this is compared with the language in Education for Leisure, which is very modern and has no hidden references like in Laboratory "the devils smithy" which talks about hell and the devils lair because of all the potions and poisons in the laboratory. It is very ordinary text with nothing exiting to mention, however the ideas mentioned are very extraordinary. It is much the same in hitcher with no exiting language

  • Word count: 960
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Explore the memories of childhood presented in "In Mrs Tilscher's class" by Carol Ann Duffy and "Childhood" by John Clare

Explore the memories of childhood presented in "In Mrs Tilscher's class" by Carol Ann Duffy and "Childhood" by John Clare The memories of childhood presented in the two poems "In Mrs Tilscher's class" by Carol Ann Duffy and "Childhood" by John Clare are explored in many different ways. One of the ways Duffy explores the memories of childhood is by remembering the happiness of being a child and creating a happy tone. "Sugar paper. Coloured shapes. Brady and Hindley faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake." This quotation shows that Duffy explores her memories of childhood to be happy by describing a horrendous crime to have disappeared in Mrs Tilscher's classroom. "Uneasy smudge of a mistake" suggests the horrific incidents to have been rubbed away because it is so happy and peaceful when you are in Mrs Tilscher's class room. Brady and Hindley's horrifying antics also suggest the dangers of the adult world. It also gives the impression that the classroom is like a different world, a fantasy world where only happiness exists. The way Duffy mentions the sugar paper and the coloured shapes also give a sense of happiness because it makes the reader think of bright colours and activities which are associated with the pleasure of being a child. Likewise, in "Childhood" Clare also describes the contentment of childhood. "On the heaths, in the meadows beside the deep

  • Word count: 1199
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Comparing Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy with * by Simon Armitage.

Comparing Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy with * by Simon Armitage There are many similarities and also many differences between the poems, Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy and * by Simon Armitage. Both poems are about the relationship between a mother and her child. The gender of the child is not specified in either of the poems but we assume that the main character in Before You Were Mine is a little girl and in * it is a young man. Because the main character's 'assumed' gender is the same as the poets, the poems could have been written about the poets own childhood and relationship with their mothers. Neither of the poems can be fully understood at a first reading and need to be studied in depth to get their full meaning, especially in *. The title, Before You Were Mine suggests that the poem is about what happened before the (mother) belonged to the child. This is quite unusual as we usually think of the mother owning and caring for the child, not the other way round. The title, * is unusual as it is not expected as a title for a poem. Because the poem has a lot to do with time, measures and the sky, the poem could possibly suggest that we are all stars or turn into stars when we die. It could also imply that the mother talked about in the poem is a star because she gave up her past life for him, looked after and loved him and helped him measure his new

  • Word count: 1089
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage -These poets write honestly about their experiences. Explore the memories expressed in their poems and consider what views they are sharing about growing up.

These Poets write Honestly about their Experiences. Explore the Memories Expressed in their Poems and consider what Views they are sharing about Growing Up Carol Ann Duffy expresses her views and gives her true experiences to do with childhood and growing up. She uses a range of techniques in her poems, like similes to emphasize her feelings and emotions and imagery, where she uses metaphors to help create the picture and mood of the atmosphere of each poem. For example, the Primary School classroom. Simon Armitage also writes about everyday experiences, childhood, growing up, changes and regrets. He uses less imagery than Carol Ann Duffy, but in one particular poem 'Kid', he uses a great more rhyme. They both include experiences towards school life, where Carol Ann Duffy writes about the younger years and Simon Armitage writes about the older years at school. These two poets are similar in some ways, but can be quite different in others. For example, in Duffy's 'Stealing' it shares the feelings of a child who steals for no reason and Duffy adds comments from her own experiences. It can make the reader feel quite depressed and sad, whereas in 'I am very Bothered' by Simon Armitage, it is again about a child with regret for something he did at school, but instead of being sad it uses black humour and is more horrible "...stench of branded skin..." In 'Mrs Tilscher's

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast Seamus Heaneys 'Death of a naturalist' with Carol Ann Duffy's 'In Mrs Tilschers class' and comment on which one you find more effective'

'Compare and contrast Seamus Heaneys 'Death of a naturalist' with Carol Ann Duffy's 'In Mrs Tilschers class' and comment on which one you find more effective' The poems written about in this essay are 'Death of a naturalist' and 'In Mrs Tilscher's class' these are two similar but very different poems. Firstly this part of the essay is about Seamus Heaney's 'Death of a naturalist'. The purpose of this poem is to inform, explain, describe, imagine, explore and entertain as this is a very entertaining poem, which make the reader imagine the pictures for the words. The theme of this poem could be one of two things, firstly the poem could be explaining the beautiful and the disgusting side of nature which makes the naturalist in the boy die. Secondly it could be about growing up and forgetting about the exploring days. The poem is written in 1st person as the use of I is used in the poem. The structure of the lines are short and are in two sections which could be trying to explain the beautiful and disgusting side of nature there is no rhyme but there is an iambic pentameter rhythm. The tone of the poem is formal and serious in the second paragraph of the poem. The choice of vocabulary is quite elaborate and the poet uses a wide range of long and complicated words such as "flax-dam" which shows that the boy in the poem could be one of the more intelligent naturalists. There is

  • Word count: 633
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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A Critical Analysis of Carol Ann Duffy's 'In Mrs Tilscher's Class'

A Critical Analysis of Carol Ann Duffy's 'In Mrs Tilscher's Class' In Mrs Tilscher's Class by Carol Ann Duffy, many issues are addressed about her class that play a part in explaining the subjects of the poem. To begin with the content and subjects of the poem are based around a school year in Mrs Tilscher's class. Her entire class is trapped and enthralled during the school day. They are taught information, into intricate detail. For example the poem begins with the line, 'you could travel up the blue Nile with your finger'. This simply begins the world of imagination to which each and every child is subjected. Straight after that, the poem goes on to describe how the children are chanted the scenery of the world by Mrs Tilscher. She remarkably inserts images of geographical places, historical events and general knowledge firmly in the children's brains. 'Tana', the great dam, 'Ethiopia', the last great King, Haile Selassie, 'Khartoum', where General Charles Gordon was assassinated on the step of the embassy and Lord Kitchener stepped in to relieve him at the siege. The great 'Aswân' dam was known about and also the great pyramids of Egypt. Children viewed books as enthralling, fascinating and enjoyable to read which was remarkable for children of such different backgrounds. Carol Ann Duffy often uses short, sharp sentences in this poem to get her message across quickly and

  • Word count: 1793
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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