With detailed reference to

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Comparative poetry essay

Rebecca Newiss 10O2

24th June

With detailed reference to “Candle in the Wind” and “Remembrance Day” compare how the different authors present and explore the situation of being an outsider.

        The two poems “Candle in the Wind” written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and “Remembrance Day” written by Andrew Peters are both heart wrenching, impulsive, emotional and thought provoking poems.  Both poems expressively highlight the issues of suicide, drugs, bullying, isolation, acceptance and being an outsider.  They do this with powerful vocabulary and very effective language features.

        Within this essay I intend to discuss how different authors present and explore the situation of being an outsider within the context of a poem.  I will find the effects that the mood, tone and the raised issues have on their targeted audience and how the authors create a vivid image in our minds.  Also how the atmosphere is created.

        Firstly, I will analyse the poem by Elton John, “Candle in the Wind”.  There are many themes and issued raised in this poem that are very significant and truthful in the portrayal of Marilyn’s life.  She was lonely and isolated from the rest of the world and often had nobody to rely on, this is shown throughout the poem, “Loneliness was tough” and also “Never knowing who to cling to”, these lines show she could never trust anyone and her life was very strenuous.  Interrogation from the media and her bosses was also a theme as these were people that ruled and dominated her life, pressure she received from these caused her fatal death, “All the papers had to say that Marilyn was found in the nude”.  Pressure is a large theme that played a part in Marilyn’s life, she was trapped and could not escape, she had been fabricated into a sex symbol superstar and there was no turning back for her,  “They set you on a treadmill and made you change your name”. Woven into this poem are the themes of suicide and drugs, although there are no lines emphasizing these issues the presence of them are made apparent, “Pain was the price you paid”.

The title of this poem, Candle in the wind, is very significant in the description of Marilyn’s life.  The candle represents light; this is Marilyn, was a star, an icon, she shone out over others, she had many talents and was the sex symbol of her time.  The wind represents all the evil and betrayal she had to encounter and the pressures of her life such as, the media, her bosses, her drug use and admirers, these were always there provoking her and expecting great demands from her; these became consequential stains on Marilyn.  If you can picture a candle in the wind, we all know that it will not last long, the wind will prove more powerful than the flame and the flame will soon be extinguished. This is much like Marilyn’s life, she was the vulnerable candle and the media and drugs were the wind, the wind had total control over her existence.  It was unpredictable when the wind would turn on her and when she would die out.

 

        This poem is set out in stanzas; this puts the poem into sections and causes the poem to flow when it is sung and when music is added.  It is not a rhyming poem as the last word in the line or sentence does not sound alike to the ones above or below.  But the lines link and interpret not just as a poem but also as a song.   The pace is quite slow, the words in the poem are deep and meaningful, it would not sound right to say these words with an fast pace as they would not penetrate to the audience and the author would not get is message across successfully.  It is a mournful time for Elton, he wants to establish feelings into this poem and with the help of the pace he can create this emotion, tone and mood.

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There is an intense somber and emotional tone to this poem as this is highlighting a death of somebody who Elton obviously respected and thought a great deal about.  He does not want to express Marilyn’s death as a happy occasion as we are not remembering the good aspects of her life; we are reminiscing the bad and hard times she had to persist.  Elton creates a doleful atmosphere whilst he works his heavyhearted emotion into this poem, it is very moody and deeply inspiring, “Your candle burned out long before your legend ever did.”

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