In ‘Hitcher’, the narrator tries to draw sympathy upon himself in the opening stanza. He explains that he has been “tired, under/the weather” but that his boss was giving him pressure over missing work. The opening stanza also is quite innocent; the narrator has done nothing wrong yet. Armitage does this to show the multi-dimensional side to such a person, the idea that most of the time they do nothing wrong. Armitage uses the same technique as Duffy to show the irrational behaviour that anti-socialists conduct. The narrator hits the victim “six times with a Krooklok”. He is delighted when he tells us that he “didn’t swerve” upon doing such. Again, like Duffy’s narrator, the narrator in ‘Hitcher’ takes great pride in his work.
In both ‘Hitcher’ and ‘Stealing’, the narrators are presented as jealous. In Hitcher, the narrator explains how he is alike is victim. He tells us that they were the same age, however, they were completely different. The narrator seems envious over the victim’s laid-back attitude. The murderer is currently under a lot of stress concerning work, whilst the victim couldn’t care less whether he had a job. Furthermore, the victim is happily “following the sun” whilst the narrator is precise about his destinations when saying that he “picked him up in Leeds” and that he was on the “top road of Harrogate”. Duffy presents her criminal as jealous after he reassembles the snowman only to find that it’s just not as good as it was previously when the correct owners had made it.
Both authors use specific language to create the persona of their narrator. In ‘Stealing’, Duffy uses colloquial language to illustrate the experience of the thief. The narrator says that he “nicked a bust once” and that he “flogged it”. Both these phrases make the audience worry over how many times this person has committed a crime; only those who do things often use language like that. In ‘Hitcher’, Armitage’s narrator speaks in a matter-of-fact tone. He says “I let him have it” and other such phrases to show this. By doing this, Armitage creates an air of disbelief to the audience – they find it shocking that they want to read on and think about what the man is really like. The narrator also uses insensitive verbs such as “bouncing” when describing his murder. This is done to present the harshness of the murderer, not only to the victim but to the general public.
The structure also indicates what both Duffy and Armitage believe about the narrator. Both ‘Stealing’ and ‘Hitcher’ have regular stanzas with 5 lines in each. Both poets do this to show that the criminal commits his crimes on a regular basis. At no point is there any enjambment to represent a change in their actions. In ‘Stealing’ there is little rhyming, and the rhymes that do occur happen half way through a line, such as “chill...thrill”. This conveys an idea of confusion within the narrators mind. In ‘Hitcher’ there is only two rhymes throughout the poem. The first is at the beginning and the last ends the poem. The first is heavily connected to work with words like “hired” and “fired”. The last is more relaxed in tone, which represents his change into a more relaxed person after he found condolence by killing an innocent person with contrasting views about the world.
In ‘On my first Sonne’, Jonson uses strong emotion to get his point across. Jonson writes in the first person, which enables him to do many things. Firstly it enables him to express his thoughts directly, without having to use metaphors, which may blur or alter what he really thought. Secondly, it allows them to talk about their personal thoughts and feelings. Lastly, this lets us see things from their point of view.
In the beginning, he talks to his son directly and expresses how proud and affectionate he was towards his son. The direction of the poem emphasises the love, and makes it seem personal, which helps you imagine the poet’s feelings. After this, he uses metaphorical language which revolves around God. He explains that God “lent” him his son, and that by “fate”, he was taken away from him. In this part of the poem, the audience seem to become slightly happy due to the fact that, whilst he is sad over his loss, he accepts his reasoning behind it. Jonson also takes comfort in the fact that he couldn’t have stopped the death of his son. Later on in the poem, he also explains how the death to his son was good for his son, as he couldn’t have to suffer a misery like age, and wouldn’t have pain. Jonson then reverts back to his affectionate side when he says “rest in soft peace”. The sudden and numerous changes in Jonson’s emotions creates an air of uncertainty. He then concludes, by saying that he will avoid pain in the future, as he will never love anyone as much as he did before.
The words and phrases Jonson uses are extremely emotional. He explains that his son was his “best piece of poetrie” which is extremely touching. Whilst being an established poet he still thinks that his son is more worthy than anything else in his life.
The structure of the poem is also quite relevant. It has rhyming couplets without fail, which is similar to most love poetry. This portrays that he has always loved him without fail.
‘Sonnet 130’ is another love poem, but is completely different to ‘On my first Sonne’. Again, like Jonson he writes in first person, enabling him to do many of the fore-mentioned things.
Shakespeare avoids writing his love poem in a traditional way. Usually people would exaggerate how perfect their woman is but completely miss the point that Shakespeare makes. At the beginning, Shakespeare lines up compliments, only to go off at a tangent to go against the reader’s expectations. He writes that his “mistresses eyes are”, so the audience expect the usual, traditional compliment but then reverts and says “nothing like the sun”. However, the underlying statement is clear to be that she is beautiful, but that he just doesn’t feel the need to exaggerate how much. This is a mockery of other poets and his characters (Malvolho for example), who tend to write and speak in such a fashion. In line 9, Shakespeare finally starts with a compliment to humour tradition and to show his affection, but then he swiftly manoeuvres his compliment into another mockery. After the volta, Shakespeare stops his subversion and concludes that actually, his love is “as rare” as anyone else’s, he loves her just the same as the poet who wrote that his lover was as beautiful as whatever!
The way Shakespeare writes this sonnet makes his love seem more genuine than others of that period. The realism in this poem makes it more readable for the audience due to the fact that they are not swamped with ridiculous over-exaggerations. He also writes it in sonnet format, with iambic pentameter and an alternate line rhyming scheme. This emphasises the love aspect of the poem, as nearly all sonnets were love based. This also portrays Shakespeare’s love towards his lady as being similar and comparable to others. Shakespeare also indents the last two lines after the volta, which emphasise the most crucial message in the poem. This conclusion shows the audience that love is unconditional, and makes the poem just as romantic as any other.
