Extended metaphors can be found in Belfast Confetti and Falling leaves. The use of imagery can be seen as an extended metaphor as it uses punctuation to create a story throughout the poem.
He has structured the poem very skilfully. He uses a fragmented style to show the reader the state of mind he was in. This long and short line contrast also reflects the confusion and frustration Carson must have been feeling. He used present continuous verbs to represent the situation right before our eyes.
Belfast Confetti and Falling leaves are very similar in the way that both poems are a person’s view on war. Falling leaves in the women’s point of war and Belfast Confetti is an innocent man’s view on war. Both speakers are kept in the dark of the situation at hand. The panic and confusion is causing them great discomfort. Falling leaves shows us how a writer can use nature to symbolise war. This simplistic but heart-felt poem can be seen as an allegory. The first stanza is very literal and is about leaves and snowflakes but then the mood changes as we go to the second stanza she uses more powerful and harsh words for instance “beauty strewed” and “withering” both of these words have dark connotations of death or carelessness of life. This shows the social unrest that the writer is going through.
In Belfast Confetti the mood is complex with fear, frustration, and anger and panic. He tries to give the reader an image of what it felt like to be caught up in the riots. Conversely, in London the tone conveys to the reader more despair and helplessness than Belfast Confetti. He uses situations such as “Harlot’s curse” to show the social problems that the population was facing.
The tone and mood of the London and Belfast Confetti are very similar as the topic is around the same issue. Both Blake and Carson are angry about how the situation is being dealt with. They want some constructive action to be taken about the situation at hand. The 4th quatrain of London projects the anger very well. He uses powerful words such as “blasts” and “marriage hearse”. The mood not as complex as Belfast Confetti however not as simple as Falling Leaves.
Margaret Postgate Cole uses this allegorical device to show her opinion on war. She thought that war was unnecessary and nit needed. She described the men being “strewed like snowflakes”. She is trying to use this cannon fodder to show us how they throw away soldiers and leave them there to die and waste away. The snowflakes symbolises e the men falling in battle and how they just fade away and are lost and forgotten about once they had died and fallen to the ground they would lie there and waste away.
Blake uses London to criticise the social problems faced by the citizens of London. He uses repetition and satire to condemn the church. Ironically, the poem is very well structured. This is an immense contrast to the context of the poem. The criticism starts from the very beginning when he says “I wander through this chartered streets.” Immediately get an image of London owned by everyone. He uses repetition the make more of an impact on the reader. “Every” is repeated five times in the second quatrain. This emphasises the suffering of the poor. He uses experiences of his own like in Belfast Confetti to show the social unrest in the country.
This device is also used in The Ruined Maid at the end of each quatrain the word “ruined” is woven and this gives the poem an overall negative connotation. Again structure is used ironically in this poem to show the contrast between the innocent farm girl and the former farm girl who has now been “ruined”. Both writers use plosives and biblical harsh sounds. In London he uses the onomatopoeia “blasts and blights” and in The Ruined Maid Hardy uses “blue and bleak” to describe the ruined woman’s cheeks. Both of the poems relate to the social issue of prostitution.
Social classes and status is mentioned in London and the ruined maid as well. In London William Blake is talking about the lower class which consists of poor people. People in those days were very judgemental and didn’t mix with other classes people knew their place and stuck to it. This topic of social discrimination is again brought up by the Hardy who illustrates the life of a ruined woman very well. She has no reputation as she is ruined and we can see this by the way she starts “O didn’t you know I’d been ruined”.
Overall, we can see that Belfast Confetti and London are about experiences that have happened to the poet. They both were about the same issues in life and both were trying to persuade the audience that this was not the way life should be.
Falling Leaves and The Ruined Maid show us the women’s view and place in life in the Victorian era. They wanted the reader to lead a better life by reading their experiences and make the world a better place to live in. They wanted freedom and for people to live harmoniously together not to be fighting like in Belfast Confetti or social discriminating people because of their wealth and place in society as a whole like in London and Ruined Maid.
In my opinion I think these poems present us with great social unrest. They are very symbolic poems and illustrate great meanings.
