How does Ratsushinskaya depict her suffering? Discuss with reference to two poems.

How does Ratsushinskaya depict her suffering? Discuss with reference to two poems. Irina Ratsushinkaya was born in Ukrainian on the 4th March 1954. She grew up in Soviet Russia and from an early age rebelled against the strict regime unable to adopt to lack of freedom. In Russia freedom of speech was also forbidden, as there was a great threat to the Russian Soviet if people started expressing political heresies. This was hard for Ratushinskaya as she was a poet, influenced by the fact that she loved literature and art. However, she believed in having the right to speak her own mind and her poetry played a big part in her life. Ratushinskaya was eventually arrested for writing poetry, as she still persisted in fighting the strict regime. In the Soviet hard labour camp where she was imprisoned Ratsushinskaya suffered beatings, force-feeding and solitary confinement in brutal freezing conditions and became so gravely ill that many feared that she would not survive her sentence. She once said, "The calling of a poet is to speak the truth, even though it may be a subjective truth." Which shows her determination to survive the regime, and how it would never make her stop writing her poetry. Irina Ratushinskaya has written many poems, most of which portray her will to survive and also the torture she went through in the camp. Two examples of her poetry that show this well are,

  • Word count: 2169
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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The Relationship Between Man and Nature in the poems of Robert Frost and R.S. Thomas

The Relationship Between Man and Nature. English Coursework. In this piece of coursework, I'm going to discover the relation ship between man and nature, using two poets' works. The poets I am studying are Robert Frost and R. S. Thomas. The works I have chosen by Robert Frost are Mending Wall, Two Look At Two, After Apple-Picking, and Mowing. I will study Mowing and Mending Wall in more detail. The works I have chosen to study by R. S. Thomas are Lore, Farm Child, The Evacuee, and Cynddlan On A Tractor. I will be studying Lore and The Evacuee in more detail. Mowing - Robert Frost. This poem is, as the title suggests, about mowing. It's one man out in the fields mowing with his scythe and his imagination running away with him, making him think that his scythe was whispering. "What was it it whispered? I know not my self. ...The silence, which was why it whispered and did not speak." It's silent in the fields, only a bird or two, maybe, to keep him company. It's so silent, his mind makes him think that there is something else there; he's basically going mad from the silence. He personifies the scythe, saying that it 'whispered'. You and I both know that that scythe, that any scythe, is an inanimate object, it can't talk. His imagination runs away with him. The language used in this poem is rather more formal than you would hear in normal language. Could you imagine

  • Word count: 1468
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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By looking at 'Birches' and 'Out, Out-' by Robert Frost, compare and contrast the ways in which the poet conveys the theme of childhood.

Robert Frost spent most of his life living in the countryside of New England in America and had personal experience in the rural lifestyle. In the poems "Out, Out-" and "Birches", we are given insights to two very different aspects of childhood in the rural countryside - the harsh, burdened, laborious side in one and the carefree, joyful, exultant side in the other. We are also made aware of the universal brevity of childhood and life in general. In "Out, Out-", the speaker seems omniscient and detached from the other characters in the poem. He narrates the tragic story of a poor boy whose childhood is deprived of the freedom and carelessness he ought to have. We can see how much the boy longs for freedom from the lines "To please the boy by giving him the half hour That a boy counts so much when saved from work." - he knows how precious those carefree moments are and appreciates them but cannot have them. The narrative way in which the poem is told shows the reader how unfortunate other people's childhood can be. "Birches" is very different as it's the speaker reminiscing about his own childhood - a childhood brimming with excitement and lived to the full. We can feel the energy and vibrancy from the line "... he flung outward, feet first, with a swish," which is in complete contrast to the "...big boy Doing a man's work..." in "Out, Out-". Since this poem was written from

  • Word count: 1008
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Poetry Analysis of Robert Frost's

Poetry Analysis of Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice" In his poem "Fire and Ice" Robert frost compares and contrasts the two destructive forces: fire and ice. In the first two lines of the poem he presents two options for the end of the world: an end by fire or by ice. He takes the position of fire in the next two lines and relates fire to desire. This comparison suggests that Frost views desire as something that consumes and destroys. Desire does indeed have a way of consuming those it infects. However, in the next stanza Frost makes the case for the destructive force of ice. He compares ice to hate. This comparison relates to the reader a view of hate as something that causes people to be rigid, unmoving and cold. Also, ice has a tendency to encompass things and cause them to crack and break. The last line of Frost's poem asserts that the two destructive forces are equally great. Fire, or passion, consumes and destroys quickly, leaving ashes in its wake. Ice, or hatred, destroys more slowly. It causes object to become so immovable that they crack from the pressure created, leaving split fragments that once were whole. From the views frost states in this poem it would be fair to extrapolate that he believes the world will end in violent war for coveted things. However, Frost also could conceive of an end of the world caused by people becoming too rigid, unmoving and set in their

  • Word count: 371
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Robert Frost's 'Acquainted with the Night' - review

Robert Frost's 'Acquainted with the Night' is a lyric poem which expresses the solitude and loneliness of the speaker, and also provides a self- revelation of one being alienated and not knowing where to belong, by presenting a story where the speaker finds acquaintance in the night as he walks down the sad city streets. The melancholy imagery is the first thing that relates you with the poem's theme. The setting of which he walks in the 'saddest city lane' (4) differs from Frost's usual countryside setting, which corresponds to the feeling of him not belonging to this world. Through images of walking in and out of the rain, the furthest city lights, the dark night and the saddest city lane, readers identify with the speaker, a lonely person who has become acquainted with the night. Nothing can be more powerful in expressing loneliness than the image of a man walking alone in the rain, in the middle of a sad street; and him being in the rain is emphasized by replicating 'in rain' in '[walking] out in rain - and back in rain' (2). The notion of distance is emphasized by words such as 'walked', 'out walked', 'passed', 'stood still', 'far away', 'further'... to express the sense of non-belonging, as he feels a distance from all these human objects. In addition, a collection of sight and sounds of the night is used to enhance the image, from the 'interrupted cry' (8) the speaker

  • Word count: 1481
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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How does Robert Frost communicate his sub-textual meaning in "The Road Not Taken"?

How does Robert Frost communicate his sub-textual meaning in "The Road Not Taken"? Robert Frost was born in San Francisco in 1874. He moved to New England at the age of eleven and became interested in reading and writing poetry during his high school years in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Frost drifted his way through a string of occupations after leaving school, working as a teacher, cobbler and editor of the St Lawrence Sentinel. His first professional poem, "The Butterfly" was published on November 8, 1894 in the New York newspaper, The Independent. In 1895 Frost married Elinor Miriam, who became a major inspiration in his poetry until her death in 1938. By the nineteen-twenties, he was the most celebrated poet in America, and with each new book - including New Hampshire (1923) and a Further Range (1936) - his fame and honours (including four Pulitzer Prizes) increased. Robert frost lived and taught for many years in Massachusetts and Vermont and died on January 29, 1963 in Boston. Robert Frost's poem "The Road Taken" depicts an image of a solitary traveller who has come to a fork in the road in his journey and must make a decision on which way to proceed. The much anthologized work has become the subject of numerous arguments. It raises the evident question of whether it is better to choose the path in which many travel, or to choose the road less travelled and explore

  • Word count: 1145
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast 2 or more anthologies. Consider the principles and preferences which seem to underlie the compilers selections, and the purposes which the book might serve for specific readers.

Compare and contrast 2 or more anthologies. Consider the principles and preferences which seem to underlie the compilers selections, and the purposes which the book might serve for specific readers. Poetry is very powerful and can create a range of emotions and enrich our lives. Poems can be there to help us through difficult times, to make us laugh, cry, reminisce or just entertain us. The value of poetry is endless. I am going to discuss 2 anthologies- Wendy Copes 'heaven on earth, 101 happy poems' and Andrew Motions 'Here To Eternity'. Both are highlighting the impact that poetry can have on our lives. I will look at the selection of poems, and will discuss a few in detail. Since becoming Poet Laureate in 1999, Andrew Motion has been tireless in his efforts to raise the profile of poetry. In his anthology he has brought together a wide range of poems, exemplifying his belief that, if we let it poetry has a unique power to enrich our lives as it diversifies them. The poems have been arranged in ten sections: Self, home, town, work, land, love, travel, war, belief and space. Although the poems are about these subjects they are about much more and can reflect many of the other topics in the sections as well as deepening the readers understanding of life and the world. This is reinforced by the title - 'here to eternity' it suggests that the world is much bigger than

  • Word count: 6877
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"Advertisement" by Wislawa Szymborska - Commentary.

amina* English- per. 3 September 14th, 2003 "Advertisement" - Wislawa Szymborska Commentary In the poem Advertisement, by Wislawa Szymborska, the author cleverly employs a variety of literary techniques to help accentuate the irony, enticement, and harm of prescription drugs. The literary techniques which are used to exemplify this are personification, tone, and the structure of the poem itself. In this figure rich poem, it is ironic that Szymborska seems to be encouraging the use of drugs to ease pain at the beginning of the poem, all the way through to the last three lines. Although the shortest part of the poem, the last lines seem to be the most powerful, by explaining the harm and addiction with drugs. They are also the most influential because they convince the reader that Szymborska is trying to tell readers that in reality drugs do ease pain temporarily, but eventually they are addictive, harmful, and not worth it. By giving the drug human qualities, it helps the reader in understanding the power and influence of drugs. "I can minimize injustice, lighten up God's injustice." This excerpt illustrates the effectiveness of personifying the drug by going as far as saying the drugs are so powerful that they can replace a supreme being, such as God. When the author writes, "I mend broken cups with care," she is using "a broken cup" as a synecdoche for broken,

  • Word count: 1014
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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The Road Not Taken and The Path of Life.

The Road Not Taken and The Path of Life "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" is a poem about the decisions that one must make in life. When a man approaches a fork in the road on which he is traveling, he must choose which path to take. The choice that he makes, as with any choices made in life, affects him in a way that changed his life. Thematically, the poem argues that no matter how small a decision is, that decision will affect a person's life forever. "The Road Not Taken" is told as a first-person narrative. The narrator is looking back on the decisions that have affected him. The decision that is illustrated in the poem occurred at a much earlier point in the narrator's life. Everyone has made decisions, and since it is the purpose of this poem to discuss and address those decisions, it would be easy to look beyond the narrator and see oneself. The word choice used in the poem very effectively portrays the speaker. The language used is very simple, almost as if the narrator is not speaking but thinking. In this regard, the language of thoughts may be considered simple. The straightforward, almost quiet and seducing tone acts to draw the reader into the poem allowing the reader to become the narrator. Throughout the poem, Frost uses images that may be

  • Word count: 803
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Seminar: Felicity and Mr Frost Prose Version

Lyndsey Boreham 12th October 2002 Seminar: Felicity and Mr Frost Prose Version Felicity whined as her mother tugged at her shiny red raincoat, "Come on sweetheart, school starts in a minute, the class won't get very far without their teacher." The rain was hammering now and Susie looked fondly down at her three-year-old daughter as she splashed in every puddle on the way to St. James Primary on Madison Street. "Not far now darling" sighed Susie; this journey was so much quicker alone, although it wasn't felicity's fault that her nursery school was closed because of a hole in the roof. "Mummy - Carry" Felicity held her small gloved hands up to her mother, "I'm tired, carry me mummy." Susie hoisted Felicity into her right arm while attempting to carry a folder bulging with lesson plans and year 4 homework in her left. Felicity's soggy yet bright blonde hair clung to her pink cheeks as she mumbled to herself about ponies and wellington boots. At last Susie saw the entrance to the school and made her way up the steps, you see Susie taught English at St. James Primary School, and today her daughter was coming to school with her. Frantic early morning telephone calls to friends whom owed favours were fruitless, "typical of the nursery to be closed on the day we have that important seminar",

  • Word count: 772
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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