Childhood - Frances Cornford. Grown ups are old on purpose. Grown ups are grand on purpose. This is what the speaker first thinks in Cornfords Childhood. But as the poem goes on he reaches an epiphany; realising that grown ups are no more in con
Grown ups are old on purpose. Grown ups are grand on purpose. This is what the speaker first thinks in Cornford's "Childhood". But as the poem goes on he reaches an epiphany; realising that grown ups are no more in control of their destiny as he, a child is. The speaker's perception is limited by their understanding of the world and growing up. It is only after an encounter with an aunts friend does she come to a realisation. Cornford uses rhyming and varies the line length to help convey the childlike style of the poem. In the first part of the poem, Cornford uses descriptive language to paint a picture of adults. They are described as "choos[ing]" to have "Stiff backs and wrinkles" and "veins like small fat snakes". These simple descriptions help trigger reader memories and remind them of old aged people in their lives; while the verb "chose" shows the speakers inexperience with the world. Cornford then uses a short line "On purpose to be grand" I think Cornford only uses the adjective "grand" to keep the rhyming pattern, though it can also infer that the speaker views old age as a bit upper class. Cornfords uses rhyming and simple language to create a childlike feel to the opening, the rhyming patterns evoking memories of nursery rhymes. However, as soon as the speaker comes to his realisation, the rhyming stops and the diction also becomes more complex. This suggests the
One Flesh
"One Flesh" Elizabeth Jennings has produced this poem with an extraordinarily deep meaning that has seldom been seen in other poems of this genre. The poem in itself is pessimistic while the message is the exact opposite. The first thing that I wish to discuss is the sole title of this poem. It is of great significance because it can be related to several times within the poem. One Flesh is biblical and it is meant to say that when a man (or woman) marries, he or she becomes one with the other. In actual fact this poem can be compared to William Shakespeare's 116th sonnet. Before we actually commence with the poem there are a few facts about Elizabeth that we should include as they may be useful later on when interpreting this poem. Elizabeth was a well-educated woman who was born in 1926 and died just three years ago. She worked in publishing and as a librarian. Most of her poems were based on spiritual and emotional topics and they were often quite person as is "One Flesh". Her poems included suffering, relationships, loneliness and religious faith. This is highly peculiar because "One Flesh" has every single one of those characteristics. Our first concern before explaining the actual meaning of the poem is the diction used. We can clearly observe that it is simple. This could be linked to the way in which Elizabeth has decided to demonstrate a very boring lifestyle. This
Sylvia Plath,
A commentary of "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath "Daddy", one of Plaths most famous and detailed autobiographical poems, was written in the last years of her life and is saturated with suppressed anger and dark imagery. The sixteen stanza poem, through Plaths use of ambiguous symbolism, arguably is bitterly addressing Plaths father, who died when she was only eight, and her husband Ted Hughes, who had broken her "pretty red heart in two" (st.12, line 1). The poem is intense with once suppressed emotion, setting an aggressive, desperate, almost psychic tone and is highly concentrated on the theme of death. With Plath's application of various techniques including diction, imagery, enjambment, contrast, repetition and oxymoron, the poem comes across as shocking with the intensity of feeling and the passionate sadness that highlight the suicidal messages conveyed. As is pointed out, the context of the poem "Daddy" is that of Plath's husband's affair with another woman. Grieved to the point of psychotic anger Plath's use of imagery throughout the piece accentuates the hopeless despair of the speaker at the conflicting male relationships in Plath's life: first her father and then husband. "Any more, black shoe In which I have lived like a foot..." The metaphor of 'black shoe' possibly used to denote a person, suggests a stifling image. The speaker claims to have lived in that shoe,
Compare and Contrast Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est and Shakespeare's Speech From Henry V.
Compare and Contrast Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est and Shakespeare's Speech From Henry V It is terribly ironic that in the current international crisis over war I may be analysing two pieces with very contrasting views on the subject. Where Shakespeare glorifies the art of war and the honour surrounding it, Owen devalues a respected Latin phrase, which tells of the honour of war. I will first interpret Owen's poem (Dulce et Decorum Est), and later move on to Shakespeare's piece, and finally compare the two. Owen, himself fought and died in the First World War, and in all his poetry, (which is all war poetry) he conveys the terrifying horror of war. Owen said "The poetry is in the pity" meaning that he did not worry about the popularity of his poems, it was just his means of communication to the public allowing him to transmit the lasting pain caused by war, and dispel any thoughts that war is full of pride and shining uniforms. He starts the first stanza describing the terrible state of the men, he conveys the men as gender less and old. The contrast of this from when they left, with boots gleaming, mood high and now "bent double like old beggars", and "cursed through sludge". This also contrasts greatly with the image of the men marching confidently, shoulders back and chest puffed out, instead they are bent over like old women. He also mentions "hags" this word
Compare and contrast views of the First World War as presented by the poets of that era and by Pat Barker in "Regeneration".
Compare and contrast views of the First World War as presented by the poets of that era and by Pat Barker in "Regeneration" The First World War was looked upon as a heroic and courageous task to perform for your country. The young men of that era were influenced by propaganda to fight in the war as it portrayed true chivalry. These views were also opposed by many but expressed by similar means which were poetry and novel writing. Although these were the main forms of literary pieces there were those who wrote diaries and extracts. This essay will look at the views of the First World War poets in contrast to Pat Barkers Regeneration. Regeneration is a war novel which looks at the harsh reality of the First World War as experienced by young men from the United Kingdom. Although barker had no direct experience of the World War 1, her writing strongly shows her opposing view which is similar to Sassoon and Owen. Regeneration is set in a mental hospital where a series of realistic and fictional characters are interwoven. Two of the main characters included Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, who were admitted into Craig Lockhart where Dr. Rivers treated them for the psychological injuries they both attained throughout the duration of the war. Regeneration is a novel which looks at the psychological damage in which war has on the soldiers. Rivers diagnoses their illness to
Choose 3 poems by Wilfred Owen that look at different aspects of war. Compare how Owen deals with each aspect and consider what his overall message might be.
Choose 3 poems by Wilfred Owen that look at different aspects of war. Compare how Owen deals with each aspect and consider what his overall message might be. Wilfred Owen was born the 18th of March 1893 in Oswestry. He was the eldest of four children and was brought up in the Anglican religion. He studied at the Birkenhead Institute, at Shrewsbury Technical School and at the University of London. He enlisted for war in 1915 and later that year was sent to France. In 1917 he was diagnosed as being shell-shocked after being wounded three times and was sent to the Craig Lockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh. Here he met with the war poet Siegfried Sassoon. This meeting seems to have been exceedingly valuable to Owens career as a poet. Sassoon's pacifism reaffirmed Owen's views about the war and influenced his poetic style, encouraging him to write in a more colloquial and ironic style much like that of Sassoon's. Later, Owen was sent to Scarborough and had more time to write and work on his writing technique. His style developed using both assonance and half-rhyme which was greatly admired by his peers. In late 1918 Owen was sent back out to his former battalion and a month later was awarded the Military Cross for bravery. The war ended on the 11th November 1918 at 11 O'clock, just a week after Owen had been killed in one of the last and most futile battles of the First World
A Comparison of the poem "Disabled" by Wilfred Owen and the song, "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" by Eric Bogle.
A Comparison of the poem "Disabled" by Wilfred Owen and the song, "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" by Eric Bogle. The poem "Disabled" and the song, "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" both show the horrors of the war from a soldier's perspective, describing from the day they joined the war and how this affected their lives after the war. The soldier in "Disabled" lived a joyous life in his youth. He liked to play football with his pals and then used to go out and get drunk together. He had a girlfriend and joined the war to please her and also because "someone had said he'd look a god in kilts". He was not yet 19, and legally a minor for the war, but this never concerned him, nor did it concern the authorities who knowingly wrote down his lie, "Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years." He was silly enough to lie about his age, not thinking about the consequences that awaited him and what war really meant, "And no fears of Fear came yet"; he wasn't afraid of death because he was too young to understand the horrors of war. He only thought about how smart the soldiers look while they salute and other such army etiquette ("For daggers in plaid socks; of smart solutes"), and how he would be marching amongst them. But the war changed him. In the present he is in hospital and is crippled by the war, "Legless, sewn short at elbow". He can no longer play football or party
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
