I transformed the poem by writing it as a story as though I am the reporter interviewing the guests at the wedding. I modernised the story by making Nell and Tom ordinary people. In the article, I have used the language that ordinary people would use. The guests I interview are Nell, Maude Clare, Tom and his mother. These were the main characters in the poem and I felt that it would be more exciting interviewing these people as their responses would be more controversial for a magazine interview especially as Maude Clare and Thomas may have diverse stories. Thomas would deny the accusation made my Maude Clare that she was pregnant perhaps.
As a reporter for a magazine, I am reporting what the characters actually say in the interview. A magazine article records spoken responses and the language is as the characters speak. I have demonstrated this is my own article with the use of colloquialisms. The poem I transformed is stylised and informal by the way it is written in verses, the rhymes and the language used. E.g. “The lilies are budding now” a metaphor for being pregnant. Symbols are also used in the poem to describe their love such as the chain and the dead leaves. . Nell and Tom are working class people; therefore I used colloquialisms for them to transfer the story into a modern setting. E.g. “Benefits” used by Tom when talking about Maude’s baby and “tart” to describe Maude Clare.
In my second draft of writing the article, I changed the layout into columns, as this is the common format used in magazines. I also made it easier to read and because this is the format of my style model. I also made the questions in the interview more leading as they were too vague and some were very similar. For example, when I asked the question to Nell “Have you thought about how you will fell when the baby is born?” I changed this to “Have you thought about how you will feel when Maude’s baby is born?” I changed this so it is not confusing for the reader who read the article, it will be clear as to what I ‘m asking about. The headline “Bride forgives new husband” in the article was made bolder so it is more eye caching and grabs the reader’s attention. I also made the font of the headline bigger as the headline in my style model; HEAT magazine uses this same format
After transforming the genre of the poem into a magazine article, the purpose has changed. The 19th century poem Maude Clare is a poem with a moral showing how faithless men can be. It shows the position of women in the nineteenth century. Nell would rather marry a faithless man than not be married. In those times, marriage gave women social status. The audience for this poem are women. The purpose of the magazine is to sell copies and for people to be entertained. The story is sensationalised for people who are interested in scandals. The article and interviews reflect real life as it is about human relationships which make a good story as the readers can relate to the people when they read their responses. As I mentioned before, I used colloquial language for the characters to show it is real life therefore it is easy for the audience to understand and relate to the situation. The reported speech also makes the story more realistic, it makes the story come to life whereas the structure in the poem a series of verses and conversation.
The way I have changed and shaped the text is reflected in the differences between the 19th century poem and the magazine article. The poem is written as narrative in third person whereas the article is sensationalist with interviews where as a reporter I ask questions searching for the truth. The poem uses dialogue and regular rhymes. The title in the poem, Maude Clare is the main character but I transformed this title into the headline “Pregnant ex disrupts wedding.” Nell is the main character in the article whereas Maude Clare is the main character in the poem. I invented other characters in my magazine article to make the situation more believable. These characters are Nell’s best friend Louise and Martin, a friend of Toms. Other changes are that the poem is written in verses but I transformed my article by writing in columns as this is the format for a magazine. The interviews in the article give an insight into the characters feelings and thoughts as the reporter asks insensitive questions and the characters give direct responses contrary to in the poem, we have to guess how they feel by the language used such as metaphors. As a reporter, I repeat questions to find out the truth of what really happened. The reporter only cares about making headline news so the story is more straightforward in the article compared to in the poem; we have to work out what is going on for ourselves.
