Post 19th century poetry relating to nature

English Coursework: Post 19th century poetry relating to nature During this piece of coursework there are six poems which I am going to analyse. All of these poems are written during the 20th century and all of them have some relation to nature, however as we will see nature is a very broad topic and can be interpreted very differently depending on the poet. Some poets view nature in a very romantic and lovely way, others think of nature as disturbing and sickly. People such as Ted Hughes manage to put a sinister spin on even the most innocent of situations. Whereas poets such as Seamus Heany portray nature in a more realistic, reminiscent light. Poetry is an art form and allows individuals to express their opinions and feelings to a large audience. That used to be the case anyway, today Poetry is still an art form, but one only kept alive by the study of it, however poetry and poems are still interesting to study and provide an insight not only into the period in which they were written but also into the poet's life and feelings. I am going to closely examine three poets and, for each analyse two of their poems closely. The three are, Seamus Heaney who was born in 1939 and is still alive today. He was raised in Northern Ireland and his work is set against the background of the 'Troubles'. He is the national poet of Ireland. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995. Ted

  • Word count: 4441
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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"Don't be a twit Clive". "Minimum of Two" presents a bleak view of human relationships. Discuss in relation to three stories.

"Don't be a twit Clive". "Minimum of Two" presents a bleak view of human relationships. Discuss in relation to three stories. "Minimum of Two" demonstrates a bleak view of human relationships, however there are a few hopeful ones. The boy and the boy's friend show negative and pessimistic relationships. Jerra and Rachel show a plain relationship at first, however it turns more optimistic during the end. The girl and the mother have a negative damaging relationship, which does not change. All these characters demonstrate a desolate view of relationships at some stage in the novel. The boy and the boy's friend show a plain, windswept relationship. The boy's friend and his girlfriend travel up the coast together to his mother's holiday house. The boy is quiet and doesn't want to lose his friend. He follows them wherever they go and doesn't want to accept that things are different, "he swears things are the same", No Memory Comes". The boy has been friends with him nearly his whole life, and doesn't realise that his friend his moving on. The boy knows that his relationship with his friend is becoming distant. The boy is trapped in the past and terrified that things are changing. He is going to have to let go of the past, but he does not want to be separated from it. The boy and the boy's friend showed a very ordinary relationship, that was not going to last. In the start of

  • Word count: 697
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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How do 'Telephone Conversation', 'Not My Best Side' and 'You Will be Hearing From Us Shortly' each portray prejudice, racism and stereotypes?

How do 'Telephone Conversation', 'Not My Best Side' and 'You Will be Hearing From Us Shortly' each portray prejudice, racism and stereotypes? 'Telephone Conversation' by Wole Soyinka, 'Not My Best Side' by U A Fanthorpe and 'You Will be Hearing From Us Shortly' by U A Fanthorpe all have prejudiced elements in them, each in different ways giving each poem different effects upon the reader. They each use different styles, forms, structures, tones and language features to illustrate these points. 'Telephone Conversation' is a poem about a 1960s black man applying for a room from a white English landlady. The landlady is racist; she is portrayed as a stereotypical 1960s woman who believed that the white race was far superior to the black. We learn of her views by her feelings on he black man's application, when the man mentions 'I am African', her immediate response is 'How Dark?' showing to the man and the reader that she is prejudiced against dark Africans. Her racism is repeated throughout the poem, due mainly to direct speech, quotations from the actual telephone conversation between the man and the landlady, e.g. 'Are you dark? Or very light?' Her racist remarks stand out from the poem as they are in direct speech. The fact that most of her comments are questions makes the conversation seem more like an inquisition, as if the black man has done something wrong.

  • Word count: 4477
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Comparison of 'Once upon a time' by Gabriel Okara and

Comparison of 'Once upon a time' by Gabriel Okara and 'A Martian sends a postcard home' by Craig Raine Gabriel Okara was born in 1921 in Ijaw country in the Niger Delta, in Nigeria. He was educated at Government College, Umuahia, and then slowly rose from a humble bookbinder to international success. He began to write plays and features for broadcasting and his poetry appeared regularly in 'Black Orpheus', a newspaper, starting with the first number. He became an Information Officer in Enugu, then Head of the Newspaper Division, Ministry of Information, Port Harcourt and is now currently Writer-in-Residence of the Rivers State Council on Arts and Culture. However, his poems strike a chord with many of the population, namely "Once upon a time". Craig Raine was born in Shildon, County Durham in 1944. He was briefly educated at Exeter College, moved on to Oxford, and finally became a man of many qualities that led to his wide range of jobs - editor, essayist, journalist, librettist, literary critic, playwright, publisher, scholar and translator. Like Okara, he is also famous for being a critically acclaimed poet famous for his figurative language and concrete details. It begs the question somewhat, how did these two men from very different backgrounds manage to write two separate poems that, however differently the style of writing was, conveyed a similar message that brought

  • Word count: 2104
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare and Contrast the loss of childood innocence "Death of a Naturalist" and "The Early Purges" by Seamus Heaney

Compare and contrast the way Heaney presents the loss of childhood innocence in "Death of a Naturalist" and "The Early Purges" By Emily Ashford In the course of this essay I want to contrast and compare two poems by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney. His anthology "Death of a Naturalist" was written in reflection of childhood and the loss of innocence possibly based on his own experiences. This anthology has received much praise and recognition over the past few decades. Seamus was brought up in the deep hearted countryside of Ireland. He grew up alongside nature and alongside 8 other children, although he was the oldest and maybe understood some things before the other children; such as death and the "facts of life." In the poems "Death of a Naturalist" he learns the true realities of nature, and how the frogspawn and frogs come to be there. In "The Early Purges" he learns not to be sympathetic toward cute and fluffy but ultimately resource draining animals. Both settings are rural rather than urban however, the each poem focuses on different areas of the countryside; "Death of a Naturalist" is based around where "all the year flax-dam" grows. Flax - dam it a stagnant pond where harvested flax is left to decompose to prepare for manufacture into linen and other materials. The poem is narrated by a young boy, he is recalling events in which he explored nature where the "flax -

  • Word count: 1275
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast the soldier and futility

'The Soldier' and 'Futility' are two poems which discuss war. Both poems were written during the war by Englishmen. Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooke died in different stages of the war as a result of it. Both poems discuss death and hate in several ways. The two say that there is a lot of hate in war but they each see death for your country from a different perspective. In 'Futility' Wilfred Owen says that war is a terrible thing because there are so many casualties. He also says that the cause of war is usually petty and that people dying for their country is awful. As well as this he says that it is better to live than die doing your duty. Wilfred Owen has a different view towards war because he lived through most of it. He was killed during the final year of the war, in 1918. Rupert Brooke, on the other hand, didn't live through much of the war. He died in the early stages of it, in 1915. He was twenty-eight years old. In his opinion war is necessary and one had a duty to fight for King/Queen and country. Rupert Brooke also thinks that people should be proud to fight for their country as we see in the words 'Dulce et decorum est', which is Latin for 'wonderful thing to die for your country'. These words are found in another of Wilfred Owens poems though but it is used sarcastically. It is as if Wilfred Owen is laughing at the people getting gassed and dying like in his other

  • Word count: 792
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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The Endless Steppe - review

The Endless Steppe The book is a war-time autobiography about Esther Hautzig's exile to Russia during World War 1. At the beginning of the account it is set in Poland and then transfers with the movement of the refugees she is with to Russia. Esther Hautzig wrote the book looking back on her past life in 1968. The First World War affected Esther's life from 1939 when Hitler's armies marched on Poland until when she was released from exile in 1946. In 1940 the Russians who were allies of Germany occupied Vilna the place where Esther and her family lived. Ether and her family embark upon their adventure when they are accused of being capitalists and are arrested by some Russian soldiers. Esther grows up a lot during her experiences in exile. She evolves from a rich girl living in a well-off family and takes everything for granted into a responsible, independent young woman. She learns to be grateful over the smallest of things and also learns how important family is when half of it is taken away from her. There are various different incidents which show what Esther learns from her exile and, show her growth into a responsible young woman. The first incident that I have chosen shows Esther's immaturity at the start of the story. It is the part of the story where all of the other children at school have silk panties and Esther really wants some to be like all the others. Her

  • Word count: 1003
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Poetry Analysis-Childhood

English Coursework Laura Hui To what extent did these poems effectively construct the theme of childhood? Innocent. That's what we were during the course of our childhood, before we became corrupt, greedy and stressful. The poems "Half-Past Two" (HP2) by U.A. Fanthorpe, "Piano" by D.H. Lawrence and "My Parents kept Me from Children who were Rough"(Rough Children) by Stephen Spender reminds us of how innocent life was when we were children. They reveal to us how arrogant we were lacking knowledge of the real world. Through diction and persona, emotion and depth, the poems play on the nostalgic senses for our bittersweet childhoods. "Once upon a schooltime", that is the first line of the poem "Half-Past Two" it immediately shows that it is narrative, almost as if telling a story to a child. The second line of the first stanza, "He did Something Very Wrong", this emphasizes the childlike thinking, the guilt of doing "Something Very Wrong" the very simple minded child worrying about a simple thing. Then the author's voice comes in, as if stating a side note, "(I forget what it was)" this shows again the narrator and the persona in the story, an adult telling their tale. The next line, starting a new stanza "and She said he'd done Something Very Wrong" the capitalization of "She" shows the child understands authority and portrays the teacher in a very high position. The third

  • Word count: 2056
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Spring Offensive and Exposure , Whos For The Game? and God! How I Hate You, Dulce Et Decorum Est and Does It Matter. War poems compared.

English War Poetry Coursework The First World War began in 1914 and ended in 1918. Throughout the two years many men volunteered thinking that it was an opportunity to fight for their country. But they were badly mistaken. Instead of what they thought war was going to bring them, excitement and adventure, they received horrors beyond imagination. 'Spring Offensive' and 'Exposure' are two poems where the setting and atmosphere contribute to the ideas expressed by the poets. Wilfred Owen, who fought in the war and knew what the conditions where like, wrote both these poems which show different sides of war. One shows what war was like in the spring and the other shows what war was like in the winter. In the first section of 'Spring Offensive,' Wilfred Owen describes what the soldiers were doing just before they went to battle. The soldiers relax and think of what could happen to them, "Knowing their feet had come to an end of the world. Marvelling they stood, and watched the long grass swirled." The soldiers rest before they go to battle. The word 'Marvelling' means that the soldiers stand there on the green grass and looking at the beautiful nature around them, thinking how this might be the last time they see something as beautiful. The words "...May Breeze, murmurous with wasp and midge;" The 'm's' and 'w' emphasis the sound of an insects in the summer and that adds to the

  • Word count: 1736
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Comparative poetry essay The Horses and The Wind

Comparative essay (The Horses and The Wind) -Ulfah Alkaabi "The Horses" is an unusual poem which talks of a future time when men will need to depend once again on creatures from the natural world, when we have destroyed much of our planet. "Wind" is a written by Ted Huges, it is a descriptive poem conveying the power of the forces of nature, using a series of poetic devices to present the reactions he experiences. The opening lines in each poem provide a powerful start. In "Wind" the poems with the idea of a house being like a ship tossed by the wind at sea. "This house has been far out at sea all night", an effective metaphor to signal isolation and the power of the wind. In "The Horses" the poem starts with a long feel of war and is immediately stated that it is the end of technology, "Barely a twelvemonth after / The seven days war put the world to sleep". It begins with an extremely retched and saddening atmosphere. In each of the two poems, there is effective use of similes. In "The Horses" there is efficient use of simile to evoke the powerful arrival of the horses. The use of simile, to describe the horses, "We saw the heads / like a wild wave" heightens the sense of an overwhelming power, as if the people could be swept away by their strength. In "Wind" the similes are in use to demonstrate the strength of the wind. The author writes, "flexing like

  • Word count: 496
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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