Compare the presentation of the psychological effects of war on the individual in 'Regeneration' and 'Journey's End'.
Amy Best English Literature - Comparative Coursework Compare the presentation of the psychological effects of war on the individual in 'Regeneration' and 'Journey's End'. Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff, and Pat Barker's Regeneration show many interpretations of the psychological effects of war on the individual. The different genres of literature, the time the texts were written and the diverse styles created by each writer together provide a contrast, helping to show many different presentations of the effects of the First World War. Barker includes the disturbing nightmares that soldiers often had, recounting the horror of death so common in the war and shows how soldiers could even become psychosomatic, becoming paralysed through mental illness. She concentrates on Rivers' attempts to help soldiers psychologically, and through this shows many different characters, both real and imagined, suffering and coping with their own individual psychological effects of war. Sherriff portrays the alcoholism that effected many soldiers involved in the war, and the ways in which men 'coped' psychologically, focusing on trivial things to escape the reality of death. I will study the ways in which the two writers present these effects and how their styles and intentions differ or show similarities. Throughout Journey's End, Sherriff shows the different methods used by the soldiers in
Larkin is often portrayed as being obsessed by death, but High Windows is as much about life as it is about death. How true do you find this statement?
Larkin is often portrayed as being obsessed by death, but High Windows is as much about life as it is about death. How true do you find this statement? Larkin was 52 when High Windows was published and the collection is dominated by poems about the loss of youth, time passing and the imminence of death. Even in poems not explicitly based on these themes, they are still hinted at. Although some of the poems are about youth, some about aging and some on death, in a way all these are referring to mortality. I agree that there are poems, such as Show Saturday and To the Sea, which celebrate aspects of life but there are far fewer poems about life than about death. The Building is one of the bleakest poems, where Larkin describes a hospital and the stark inevitability of death. The poem builds up an atmosphere by the enigmatic treatment of the building; Larkin avoids spelling out that the building is a hospital but treats it as an atheistic cathedral, left in the atheistic society. Larkin begins the account outside the building. It can be seen from far away and resembles a 'lucent comb', emphasising the busyness of the workers and the way in which individuals are depersonalised, like bees in a hive. Its height is repeated in the 4th stanza as evidence of its importance within today's society. The comparison with the 'handsomest hotel' suggests that is far more important to
Compare and contrast 'Death of a naturalist' and 'Catrin'
KMK(G)1 DANIELLE ROWLAND HALL CROSS SCHOOL 36250 Compare and contrast 'Death of a naturalist' and 'Catrin' In both poems, the writers reflect on childhood and change. Heaney looks back on his childhood and the change he took while growing up where as Clarke is reflecting on childhood as an adult, a mother and how she copes, and her views of having a child, and being in child birth. In Heaney's poem, Death of a Naturalist, he is reflecting on his childhood and the attitude he uses towards his childhood. The attitude he has changes during the poem, at first, in the first stanza, he looks back fondly at his childhood 'I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied specks to range on the window sills at home' (line11) 'But best of all there was the warm thick slobber' (line 8) This shows how much he likes nature and how much interest he has for it, how he even likes the 'thick, warm slobber'. The style and voice of this stanza is happy and childlike. We can tell it is childlike by the way it is written, using long sentences and the repetition of the word 'and', 'Miss Walls would tell us how the daddy frog was called a bullfrog and how he croaked and how the mammy frog laid hundreds of little eggs and this was frogspawn' (line 15) But in the second stanza it changes, the tone of the stanza is less happy; it is serious and uses many negative phrases 'Then one hot day when
Look again at Ulysses and write about Tennysons narrative techniques
A: Look again at "Ulysses" and write about Tennyson's narrative techniques In "Ulysses", Tennyson presents the characteristics and attitudes of the eponymous central character through the dynamic form of the dramatic monologue. Through an adroit blending of literary techniques including those of structure, form and language, he seeks to clarify much of the mystique behind the mythological background of Ulysses, and reveal his persona of desire and heroism, alongside his undesirable traits of contemptuousness and hubristic pride. Throughout the poem, its form and structure allow Tennyson to reveal the character of Ulysses as he wishes him to be portrayed. "Ulysses" takes the form of the dramatic monologue, with Tennyson adapting the persona of his mythical character and using this form to reveal Ulysses' character through his own words. This choice of form, combined with the structural use of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, allows the poem to adopt a rhythm that is one of the closest imitators of human speech in verse. This makes the words that Tennyson, writes and Ulysses "speaks" take on a much more personal tone and a deeper meaning, fully disclosing his character and attitude in a way that a more artificial and structured form, for example the Spenserian, simply could not achieve. This effect is added to the by the extensive and contrasted uses of enjambment
Sailing to Byzantium
Sailing to Byzantium W.B. Yeats' poem 'Sailing to Byzantium' is an allusion to the agony of old age and human mortality, and was written as a part of a collection of poems called 'Tower'. It is in very old verse form which is written as a narrative verse in first person, with four eight line stanzas. It has a rhyming scheme of ABABABCC, or two trios of alternating rhyme followed by one couplet. This rhyming scheme gives the reader the sense that the final two lines of each stanza are the most important, and that the first six are leading up to the conclusion of the stanza. Each line takes the rhythm of iambic pentameter. The tone of the poem provokes a sense of sadness in the reader as it tells of a man's desire to live forever, and how he can't accept that he has grown old and will soon die. This tone is reinforced by the sound of the letter 'o', heavily used throughout the poem. The poem talks of the mortality of the living, and how the elderly are a reminder of this. The youth are caught up in the moment and do not wish to be reminded that there will come a time when they too will grow old and die. Upon this realisation, he decides to travel to the holy city of Byzantium. Byzantium (which was renamed Constantinople, then Istanbul) was a city in the Eastern Roman Empire. The journey to Byzantium is not a literal one, but a metaphorical one which represents the acceptance
Critical Response: 'The Sentry' by Wilfred Owen.
Critical Response: 'The Sentry' by Wilfred Owen 'The Sentry' by Wilfred Owen, written as a result of a horrific incident the poet witnessed in the trenches of World War One, tells the reader of the terrible conditions and experiences that the men endured throughout the war. He focuses on a particular memory of when a sentry was blasted from his post and was badly hurt. Owens description of this traumatising event evokes clear images in the reader's mind and it becomes even more poignant when we consider this is a real life experience of the poet. The first lines of this poem quickly bring us to realise the abysmal conditions of the trenches in world war one. The descriptions of the weather: "Rain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime" shows the strength and volume of rain falling on the men, and by using onomatopoeia in the word ''guttering" Owen describes the rain effectively. The following lines: "Kept slush waist high that, rising hour by hour Choked up the steps too thick with clay to climb" convey the extreme height and speed that the level of water is rising, the repetition of "hour by hour" emphasises the length of their endurance. Owen uses alliteration to convey the persistent and constant rain and levels of water and mud. "clay" indicates the mud's swampy thickness and which connotes a fast drying sludge and near impossible conditions. "Waist high" again
Presentation of In Flanders Fields - script
Presentation of In Flanders Fields - script Our presentation is on In Flanders Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. There is an irregular rhyme scheme = aabba aabc aabbac Almost all lines are 8 syllables long The rhythm sounds like that of a nursery rhyme - there is an iambic pentameter with a very regular line length and rhyme scheme. This is in great contrast to the actual words all about death and war. Stanza 1 * Line 1 - 'In Flanders Fields the poppies blow' presents a nice natural image of poppies swaying in the breeze. * Line 2 - 'Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place...' 'row on row' signifies the enormous number of graves, as it is not a definite, but an infinite number of crosses. We all know that the crosses symbolise the graves of the dead. McCrae doesn't say it explicitly yet; he uses euphemisms of death as he knows the people at home will. This gives the poem a much sadder tone preparing us for what is to come. * Line 3 - '...and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below...', the larks have been personified and symbolise how the natural world was trying to carry on but could not, because of the war. This seems to distance the natural world from the world of war, as if they don't belong together. * This symbolises how the world carried on bravely despite the war, but the sweet, nice
"What are the poetic skills Tennyson uses in his narrative poems?"
"What are the poetic skills Tennyson uses in his narrative poems?" To finally come to a conclusion on this question we will be referring to 3 narrative poems which are, 'The Lady of Shalott', 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and 'Mariana.' A narrative poem is a poem that tells a story such as 'Mariana' which tells us a story of a girl who is waiting for her lover who would not return to her. The poetic skills that can be used in such poems are techniques such as description, use of mood and atmosphere, use of words, structure (stanzas, rhythm, rhyme scheme) and style (repetition, imagery, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, metaphor, contrast, simile), also narrative skills, e.g. suspense and tension (created within the story). In 'The Lady of Shalott', Tennyson divides the poem into 4 parts. The first part (part 1) sets the scene and consists of 4 stanzas. The second part (part 2) also consists of 4 stanzas. In this part we are inside the tower and we meet the lady, we also learn the she has a curse on her and that she must not look out of the window. In part 3 there are 5 stanzas. Here Sir Lancelot is introduced riding and singing on his way to Camelot. The lady can not resist and goes to look at him. The curse is broken and it is upon her, "'The curse is come upon me,' cried The lady of Shalott" (part 3 stanza 5 lines 8-9) Part 4 is the climax to the story
Compare Owen’s use of language in “Dulce et Decorum est” and “Futility”.
Compare Owen's use of language in "Dulce et Decorum est" and "Futility". Both poems are different approaches of war describing the horrors of it in different ways. One is dealing with the moment of death while the other one is about the philosophical ideas after a death opposed to showing the death. The sun is the central issue in the first line of Futility. It says, "Move him into the sun," which is not said as a shouted command but said very gently. Owen is clinging onto the hope of waking the man up but knows in his mind that the man is dead. He does this because he has just been shocked by the death and can't accept the death and is willing to try any thing to wake the dead man. In the whole of the first verse, Owen hints to us that the dead man used to be a farmer. He talks of how the sun woke him every morning and as if it whispered tasks to be done. Owen shows this by saying, "Whispering of fields half-sown." Owen compares death with sleep and thinks that if the sun can wake sleeping people then it can wake dead too. In the second verse he goes on to talk about what the sun has done in the past. He mentions how the earth was made and woken by the sun, by saying, "Woke once the clays of a cold star." In this poem Owen sees the sun as an omniscient power and a life giver. Owen mentions, "Are limbs, so dear achieved, are sides full nerved, still warm, to hard to
Analysis of Does It Matter? by Siegfried Sassoon
Analysis of "Does It Matter?" by Siegfried Sassoon "Does It Matter" is an angry, heavily ironic war poem written in 1917 by the famous World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon. On first read, it appears that the poet is addressing an injured soldier who has returned from the trenches, asking this man whether or not it is important that he is missing limbs and sight, instead highlighting the virtues of the world and offering these as a remedy for his pains. The poem is written in a nursery-rhyme-like structure, where there is an obvious rhyming pattern and distinctive rhythm, and where many lines even have an equal number of syllables. For such a complicated subject matter, the poem is also rather brief - very succinct at just three stanzas comprising of five lines each. The opening lines of each stanza begin similarly with a question asked but never answered: Does it matter - losing your legs?... There is a lot to discuss even here. Firstly, we notice that the question itself is not answered - Sassoon does this very deliberately. Of course he goes on to back his rather naïve point by highlighting the constructive aspects of living without the use of one's legs, but he leaves a great void here, like the unfilled silence after a particularly awkward question. We, as readers, can easily answer the question of whether or not it matters in our own minds - of course it matters, and
