"A shockingly cynical picture". In the light of this comment, discuss the Wife of Bath's account of her marriages to her first three husbands. In your response, you should consider:

"A shockingly cynical picture". In the light of this comment, discuss the Wife of Bath's account of her marriages to her first three husbands. In your response, you should consider: * what the account reveals about the Wife of Bath's character and personality * the account's significance in the poem's treatment of the theme of marriage * tone and style Within the Prologue the Wife of Bath leaps into account of her marriages to her first three husbands. We are treated to a vivid depiction of her distinct character and personality and gain profound insight into Chaucer's treatment of the theme of marriage. I will now discuss in detail how the wife paints a picture that is "shockingly cynical". To begin, the wife's merciless and uncaring nature should be considered. She takes delight in recounting the sexual demands she made of her husbands and the misery that she thus caused them. It is almost as if she gains a sadistic pleasure from doing this: "I laughe whan I thinke/How pitously a-night I made hem swinke". Moreover, the wife recalls with a boastful tone how "many a night they songen "weilawey!" She also prides herself on her ability to make them bring her "gaye things fro the faire" yet she still "chidde them spituously", highlighting a lack of respect towards her husbands. This is likewise apparent in the wife's tirade against them in which she employs a variety of

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Wilfred Owen's Anthem for Doomed Youth and Siegfried Sassoon's Attack - Explore the ways in which Sassoon's and Owen's words convey powerful feelings about the First World War in these two poems.

Wilfred Owen's Anthem for Doomed Youth and Siegfried Sassoon's Attack Explore the ways in which Sassoon's and Owen's words convey powerful feelings about the First World War in these two poems. Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are seen as the two greatest British First World War poets. 'Attack' and 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' attempt to dissuade young men to go to war and to stop them from 'dying as cattle' on the front. These views were not conventional. The British Government and the people on the Home Front were urging people to go to war and said it was 'a noble thing to die for your country. In these poems and many of their other poems Owen and Sassoon redefine war, from being a noble thing to die for you country to the poets mocking the war and describing the brutal reality of trenches and the Western Front. Therefore it is a very controversial poem. Sassoon used his powerful poetic voice to shock Britons and warmongers. His poems savaged the smug cruelty of the generals who sacrificed hundreds of lives of innocent soldiers and told people about the reality of the Great War. Owen had the same views on the war but his work had not yet been published but when he met Sassoon at Craig Lockhart Hospital during the war Sassoon noticed his talent as a poet and it was there that Owen was most inspired writing poems such as 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'. Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem

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Commentary on 'The Wild Swans at Coole' by W.B. Yeats

Ruth Haines Commentary on 'The Wild Swans at Coole' by W.B. Yeats 'The wild Swans at Coole' is a poignant and contemplative Poem written by Yeats typical of his spiritualistic and mysterious style. It was written towards the end of his career/life, reflecting his growing realisation of human immortality in that he is growing older and nearing the end of his life. Throughout the poem Yeats constantly uses the strong image of swans, which to him appear immortal, as a contrast to his own fading life to communicate his awareness of human transience. To compliment the development of this idea of nearing death, Yeats uses a combination of natural imagery, soft language and the form of a regular lyric to create an overall serene and slightly melancholic quality to the poem. At the beginning of poem, particularly in the first stanza the use of natural imagery and language creates a calm and serene tone. The poem follows a regular lyric structure in six stanzas of six lines each, it alternates four beat and three beat lines with the rhyming structure of ABCBDD. This helps to endure a feeling of movement/flow and it reinforces the calm tone created by the other literacy techniques used. The use of words such as 'October', 'Autumn' and 'Twilight' not only create the sense of time at which this poem is set, but all three evoke images of nearing the end of a time period and could be

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The poem that I have chosen to analyse is "Exposure" by Wilfred Owen.

Exposure The poem that I have chosen to analyse is "Exposure" by Wilfred Owen. Wilfred Owen is one of the worlds Britain's poets of the Great War of 1912 - 1918, he unlike many others told through his poems what the war was really like, from first hand experience, he protests against the war. A year after war broke out, he joined the "Artists' Rifles" and later the Manchester Regiment. He quickly became an officer and felt responsible for the deaths of hundreds of young men. He felt deeply annoyed that the British public saw the war as glorious and honourable. He wanted to show them the reality of war and he did this through his descriptive poems. He was awarded the Military Cross in October for bravery at Amiens. However, on the 4th of November he was killed whilst attempting to lead his men across the Sambre canal at Ors. The news of his death reached his parents on the 11th of November 1918: Armistice Day. He is an English poet noted for his anger at the cruelty and waste of war and his pity for its victims. The areas of the poem that I will be concentrating on are the theme of anti-war and death; his word choice and figures of speech; and his powerful use of imagery. The theme of the poem is very important, as it is the message that he is trying to get across. The title of the poem "Exposure" is very significant as it can mean three things. Exposure

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A Critical Analysis of ‘Strange Meeting’ by Wilfred Owen

A Critical Analysis of 'Strange Meeting' by Wilfred Owen 'Strange Meeting' by Wilfred Owen is written to reflect upon war: a place worse than hell! It begins with the relief of one soldier as he is flung magically away from the battlefield. Only after making contact with one of the spirits does he realise where he is. It continues with a large monologue by the awakened spirit describing the waste of life caused by war. It presents many valid statements on war that can be found beneath the subject matter. It closes with the acceptance of death as the hell of war has now past. This poem contains several underlying messages as well as the subject matter, which is clearly laid out. The line 'I am the enemy you killed, my friend' best encapsulates one. The general setting of the poem as well as this leads me to the conclusion that Wilfred Owen is proposing that enemies at war can be friends outside of it. This adds further to the argument that war is senseless and evil. Another message is set out by the line 'now men will go content with what we spoiled'. This points out that men not involved in the war will feel content with their 'achievements' and wars will go on because they do not know the evil it causes. 'None will break ranks though nations trek from progress' states that no one will dare to defy convention and wars will go on, leading everyone further away from

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Compare and Contrast the Two War Poems -'Dulce Et Decorum Est' and 'The Charge of The Light Brigade'

Compare and Contrast the Two War Poems - 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' and 'The Charge of The Light Brigade' Wilfred Owen and Alfred, Lord Tennyson demonstrate their strong views and responses to war very differently in the two war poems: 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' and 'The Charge of The Light Brigade' Tennyson's poem of 1854 was written about a battle that took place in the Crimea, in southern Russia. Tennyson was not personally involved in the battle and got his story from 'The Times.' His son told of how he wrote 'Charge' in just a few minutes after reading the article. And although it has been said that this battle would have been forgotten if this poem did not exist, Tennyson wrote it not knowing all the facts, which means he only knew one side of the story, unlike Wilfred Owen, who was in the war from the start until he died shortly before it ended. Owen asks us to question all the certainties that Tennyson is celebrating. Owen wrote 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' as he was being affected by World War One through first-hand experience; he was a lieutenant. It becomes apparent during the poem that Owen was strongly opposed to war, as he recounts a horrifying time that affected him deeply. Tennyson's message, however, was more patriotic and he wrote to praise England for the admirable soldiers who deserved honour and were worthy of respect for their actions. He describes a valiant

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How does Tennyson bring mental pessimism and Victorian optimism in his use of myths and legends?

How does Tennyson bring mental pessimism and Victorian optimism in his use of myths and legends? Ans.: "And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night." [Dover Beach: Mathew Arnold] "The year is at the spring And day is at the morn, ... God's in heaven, All is right with world." [Pippa Passes: Robert Browning] These above quoted two quotations are from two renowned poets of Victorian arena show the contrast attitudes to their time. Browning is very optimistic of everything because he does not have any mental torment of his age. On the contrary Mathew Arnold is very critical of his age, which he has found barren and sterile dominated by materialistic views and so spiritually degenerated. But Tennyson is almost a mixture of Browning's and Arnold's feelings. In some of his poems he is very happy about everything in which he is passing his life and in some of his poems he is very melancholic about his surroundings. These joys and sorrows are pre-dominated in him due to some of mental crises and the condition of the Victorian age in which he was. Some of the greatest poems created by Tennyson are based on myths and legends. He possessed the talent of giving the myths and legends a very new look just to show how these poems adjust with the people and the crises of his time. These poems

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The World of words in Wilfred Owens Anthem For Doomed Youth and Dulce Et Decorum Est

The World of words in Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem For Doomed Youth' and 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' Good morning everyone/teacher. Today im going to talk about the world of words in Wilfred owen's anthem for doomed youth and ducle et decorum est. Words are nothing but the voice of human feelings and emotions. They depict anger, love, despise, acceptance, optimism, pessimism and the list goes on but for a poet, a writer, it is an outpour of his sensitivity. The poet under consideration here has his own special way with words and he expresses an entire galaxy of emotion through well chosen and with arranged words Wilfred Owen was a poet who was widely regarded as one of the best poets of the World War one period. The war poetry, written between 1793 and 1815, was idealistic and also patriotic. Owen started writing anti-war poetry but later he too became a firm supporter of war. The two poems which I am going to be comparing and contrasting are all inspired by war. The poems are Anthem for Doomed Youth and Dulce et Decorum est. Wilfred Owen's poetry has expressed his outrage of war and the sheer pity of the sacrifices of young soldiers made in battle. The patriotic view of war and religion are questioned repeatedly in his poems. He also ponders the purpose for the existence of the human race. Techniques such as juxtaposition, similes and metaphors are also employed into the poems to

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Explain how the poets of Happy is England Now in the anthology Up the Line to Death present World War I

Explain how the poets of Happy is England Now in the anthology Up the Line to Death present World War I The section Happy is England Now is situated at the start of the anthology, Up the Line to Death. In this section, the editor, Brian Gardner has arranged the six poems in such a way that it is clear these poems are largely pro-war. Therefore, most of the poems in the section uphold the stereotypical beliefs held by the public before and during the war. However, this is not always the case; with the inclusion of "Men Who March Away" ("Men...") by Thomas Hardy, Gardner adds a poem whose stance towards the war is at the very least ambiguous. As a result, Gardner can show that he is not forgetting the real horrors of the war, horrors which are hardly mentioned in this section. This fact is very important to Gardner; in the introduction to the anthology, he describes the war as a 'tragedy'. From this it can be seen clearly that Gardner wants to make sure the brutalities of the war are not forgotten and so with the inclusion of "Men..." he makes sure that everything is not as it seems. It is almost as if Gardner is trying to give a subtle hint to the reader as to what might follow in the rest of the anthology. This is juxtaposed with the poems "Happy is England Now" ("Happy...") and "England to Her Sons" ("England..."), which are very pro-war. The contextual nature of the poets

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Compare and contrast attitudes to war illustrated in Jessie Pope’s ‘Who’s for the game?’ and Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce etDecorum est’ and ‘Disabled’.

Compare and contrast attitudes to war illustrated in Jessie Pope's 'Who's for the game?' and Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce et Decorum est' and 'Disabled'. At the start of the First World War, war was portrayed as a glorious and credible cause. Fighting in a war on behalf of your country was deemed as the duty of any credible man. The ability to represent one's country on the battlefield was one of the greatest honours a man could have. Through the interference of war there was an outcry of patriotism. Men were overwhelmed with ideas of being able to fight for their country's prosperity. Men flocked to sign up and fight for their country. Women forced their husbands and sons to go and carry out what was believed as their duty. The newspapers and the pro-war journalists who wrote in them played a very influential part in convincing men to recruit. One such journalist for the Daily Mail was Jessie Pope who composed unsophisticated war poetry encouraging men to enlist in the army. The patriotic ideals and the concept of war were all dismantled when soldiers returned from war and spoke of the horrors of war leading to a change in people's attitudes towards war. Wilfred Owen was a soldier who experienced war and showed his hatred of it through his poetry. But before joining the British army, Wilfred Owen was an English teacher who visited hospitals during the First World War and

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