English Poetry
Using Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening and The Road Not Taken, write about the way Robert Frost uses some apparently simple situations to explore life's journey. Robert Frost often writes about journeys. Although his poems may at first seem plain, they have wider meanings, which often regard life's journey. Because people can often relate to Frost's writing due to his simple language, he is a still a very popular poet today. His life spanned two important eras of literature - the Victorian and Modernist eras - as he was born in 1874 and died in 1963. He was American but travelled to England, which may account for his vivid descriptions of the world and his knowledge of the decisions in life which have to be made. 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening' is a typical Frost poem. It centres on this theme and a natural setting. The narrator is travelling near woods. He is alone and has complete solitude: 'Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though'. The poet here suggests that this man is on his own in an isolated area as even the owner of the woods does not live nearby, but in the town. The man is aware that the owner will not be there, perhaps suggesting that he was looking for time alone. Snow is filling up the woods, suggesting suffocation and a feeling of entrapment. In the second stanza the reader is again reminded that the man
Poems from other cultures
"Poems from other cultures" Both poems, 'Hurricane hits England' and 'Search for my tongue' explore the importance of feeling confident with your identity. Furthermore, how it seems to have changed once they settled in another country, facing modern cultures. The arrival of a hurricane in England, which tends not to occur usually triggers thoughts about the writer's experiences/life in the Caribbean, on the other hand. The opening line from 'Hurricane hits England' shows that the poet has triggered thoughts about her past. This makes her reflect about life at home in the Caribbean. The following two lines, "Half the night she lay awake, the howling ship of the wind", I believe she is using the ship as a metaphor to show how the storm carries memories. I also think she is reflecting on when a ship carried her from her homeland when she may have been vulnerable due to slavery in the past one-two centuries. Later she says, "Like some dark ancestral spectre, fearful and reassuring". This is very contradictory; also known as a paradox. The second stanza the poet's mood, changes she is rather abrupt with short instructions to African gods, this is highlighting her culture as well. This changes to the first person after the first verse, which could mean she is closer to herself and being pretty reflective. Furthermore, the third and fourth stanzas start out asking rhetorical
Poetry from other cultures.
Theme: Poetry from other cultures. Texts: John Agard and Moniza Alvi. Task: John Agard 'in 'Half Caste' and Moniza Alvi in 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' both deal with the issues of being born of mixed marriages. 'Half Caste' and 'Half English'. Write about the different ways in which the past explore what this means to them. John Agard and Moniza Alvi have two different attitudes in there poetry about there mixed racial backgrounds. John Agard uses a very proud attitude as on the hand Moniza Alvi is very unsure about her personal identity. It is not just there attitude towards there mixed background but there style of there written poetry is also different. Through examining the text and reading the poem it is clear that they are two different people with very different approaches to life. There writing techniques are different as John Agard uses his own rules when he writes, as Moniza Alvi sticks to the correct English grammar and spelling. John Agard's poem is very different to Moniza Alvi's poem, they talk about the same issues concerning race, but they have do not have the same views on there own race. John Agard is very proud of his mixed racial origin, and in the poem says that it is not clever and makes a mockery of people who discriminate him, he is proud to be who he is. He uses a very powerful name for his poem 'Half
Poetry from other cultures
Poetry from other cultures Compare and contrast the notions of culture and identify in 'Half-caste' by John Agard and 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan' by Moniza Alvi. The poems I have chosen to analyse are 'Half-Caste' by John Agard and 'Presents from my aunts in Pakistan' by Moniza Alvi. I have decided to focus on these poems because I believe they project strong messages and discuss the issues of identities and mixed race. Furthermore, both poems are autobiographical and the poets are from different cultures to each other. As readers, it is very interesting to understand their different views about mixed race backgrounds as we are from a different culture to them. John Agard is a respected Caribbean poet who has won the Paul Hamlyn Award in 1997. On the other hand, Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and has achieved the Poetry Business Prize in 1991. Both poets confess the difficulties of living in different cultures and not knowing their fixed nationality. John Agard was born on 21 June 1949 in Guyana. His mother was white and Portuguese but his father was a black Englishman, therefore making him half-caste. He began to write poems at the age of sixteen and many were published in the school magazine. In the 1970's he moved to England where he not only progressed to become a literary poet but also moved on to develop into a performing poet. From there, he has
pre 1914 prose
Pre 1914 prose "Great expectations" Great Expectations written by a famous man called Charles dickens. "Great expectations" is a famous and tense novel which was first published in the year 1860 to 1861 every fortnight in a magazine called all year round. The plot is based on a young boy called "Pip", who in the first chapter meets and odd fellow in a gloomy, dark cemetery, pip walks on and soon finds himself turned upside down bye an ex-convict who threatens pip at the throat that he would cut out his heart and his liver if pip dose not do as he says. This dark gloomy fellow scares pip which makes you sympathize for pip. In chapter 8, pip is at a house with his mean sister and her kind and caring blacksmith husband Joe. As pip is a working class orphan he has no parents just is evil sister. Then a rich old, creepy women called Miss havishem asks pip to come round and to play, as he doesn't want to, his sister forced him. When he arrives he ends up in a room with no external light only candles and a dead like figure who demands him to play is Miss Havishem, she demands him to play with her beautiful older then pip daughter, Estella, whom pip falls in love with, you feel sorry for pip now because he cant get her because she is upper class and he is garbage to her. In chapter one, Dickens sets the scene by describing the marshes, saying it is an open dark place and that's
Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan
Introduction The poem " Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan" is about a young girl called Monzia Alvi, which additionally is the writer. She emphasises about her clothes and jewellery that her aunts have sent over from Pakistan. In her writing conveys an image of self-confidence and ambivalent about her self. The structure and language of this poem is spread out across the page to make the reader read the poem slowly. The have to read it loud as well to emphasis the image and to give a better feel and understanding. For example "I longed for denim and corduroy" This is read slowly to create an image to the reader that she is sad or homesick and ambivalent. However the language is a sequence of personal memories. It could be seen as repetition because she brings us back to the image of her memorise and sadness of her culture or background. The poet is clever because she illustrates that she can contrast her images to sadness and homesick for example "But often I admired the mirror-work tried to glimpse myself in the miniature glass circles, recall the story how the three of us sailed to England" This shows or conveys that she is homesick and confused, but her clothes remind her of her culture and reminiscing on her good times she had with her aunts. However she gives an imagery of her clothing or traditional name for example " Salwar Kameez" This is an example
Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan - review
Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan, is a twentieth century autobiographical poem. It is about a girl who is trying to decide whether she wants to adapt to the Pakistani way of living and dressing or stay with the English tradition. Although born in Pakistan, Moniza Alvi was brought up in England, the daughter of a Pakistani father and an English mother. This poem explores the dilemma of divided culture, divided families and a 'self' that feels the pull of somewhere else. Moniza Alvi finds it tough to decide between her own culture and the place where she has spent most of her life. Its hard for her to make her mind up and she has ambivalent feelings, and feels confused as there is both a good side and bad side to living in both countries 'England' and 'Pakistan'. The clothes that Moniza Alvi receives from her Aunts are very beautiful and she admires them but they make her feel as though she is not good enough to wear the clothes. "I tried each satin-silken top- was alien in the sitting-room. I could never be as lovely as those clothes." From this quote we know that the presents were very rich and delicate because of the way Moniza Alvi uses alliteration to emphasize that the material of the clothes were as soft as the words used to describe them.
The poems
The poems "This Room" and "Not my Business" can be seen as a contrasting pair. Compare the two poems focusing on: themes, language and structure. The poem "This Room" suggests it has a theme of liberation and freedom. The first stanza hints at this e.g. "This room is breaking out". From line 14-15 talk about celebration by banging pots and pans. Perhaps the room has been oppressed for so long that its joy of freedom can only be expressed with sounds. "Not my Business" is a definite contrast to "This Room". The writer uses this poem to express apathy and oppression in the country they are in. Another theme that could be seen in this poem is fear. Fear of the jeep, fear of "They", and fear of losing the yam from his hungry hand. Both writers use personification in their poems. The use of personification makes the object seem alive when it isn't. In "This Room" the writer personifies the room by saying it's "breaking out" (line 1). This could mean breaking free of things like oppression, death or material belongings. The effect of this is the room is more animate and it gives more meaning to the text as a whole. It also gives a vivid imagery of what is going on, allowing the reader to understand the poem. The writer uses onomatopoeia ("bang" and "clang" in lines 14 and 15). Onomatopoeia is a form of aural imagery. The purpose of using onomatopoeia is to produce the sound of
What is a Hurricane?
What is a Hurricane? Hurricanes are severe tropical storm with wind of 73mph or more. They only occur in the Western Hemisphere over the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. The Hurricane season is from June to November when it is the time of the year when seas and oceans are at their hottest temperature. There are on average six Atlantic hurricanes each year; over a 3-year period, approximately five hurricanes strike the United States coastline from Texas to Maine. How do Hurricanes form? Hurricanes need to have tropical oceans, which are over 270C with moisture and light winds. If the right conditions last long enough, a hurricane can produce violent winds, incredible waves, torrential rains and floods. Hurricanes are made by the rapidly evaporating water, which forms water vapour. During condensation energy is released allowing further convection. From this, clouds form. The sea continues to heat the air, so evaporation, convection and condensation will keep happening. Air is sucked towards the centre of the hurricane to replace the converted air, which creates stronger winds. This is called the "eye". As the uplift increases the stronger the winds get. Hurricanes rotate in a counter clockwise direction around an "eye" because of the rotation of the earth. Why are Coastal Regions most at risk from Hurricanes? When hurricanes move onto land,
