Comparison of 'Blessing' and 'Island Man'

6/12/09 How are people presented in 'Blessing' and 'Island Man'? Characters are the people whose personalities, emotions or actions are portrayed in a poem and poets use various techniques to present their characters. In 'Island man' we see a Caribbean island man who is away from his home of the blue seas, the soft sands and is waking up reluctantly to the horrible reality of London, leaving his peaceful past on the pillow. Whereas 'Blessing' is strongly about the desperation of people in water ridden countries, but with the very rare stroke of luck and a water pipe bursts, then the utter appreciation and gratitude is shown. Receive The structure of the poems is related to how the characters are portrayed. The structure of 'Island Man' consists of five verses of different lengths in which some words are separate. This gives the poem a pause to represent the slow strain of effort from the island man to wake up. In contrast the visual poet Imtiaz Dharker's 'Blessing' is made up of four verses that grows in shape. This is to emphasise the pick-up of speed as the tone of the poem changes from the temptations of the mind to the frantic desperation of the hands. In each poem the style of language used affects the perception of the characters as well. In 'Blessing' as the island man is still waking up from his home life in his dream, the repetition that the poet uses reiterates

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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compare how death or threat of death is presented in the poems you have studied.

Ryan Harrison AQA GCSE titles Question: compare how death or threat of death is presented in the poems you have studied. Choose two poems from list A and list B. Education for leisure by carol ann. Duffy. Education for leisure; in this poem the first line suggests that there will be something to do with death as the first line is "Today I am going to kill something, ,anything" this suggests the person is a murderer for some kind of animal or possibly a human, in this poem that person that is talking has no feeling, I can tell its talking about them self because in the poem every single line it refers to him/her self like in line nine " I am a genius, I could be anything at all" there he/she refers to there self as a genius and saying that they could be anything saying they have the power, the person is acting like this because they are sick and tired of being ignored as they say at the beginning of the poem, this person has no feeling at all to go and just kill someone face to face looking in there eyes to see there pain, in the poem the person starts off killing little gold fish, then a budgie, he thinks he can do anything he wants as he said in line two to three " and today I am going to play |GOD|" as he has killed a fish and a budgie he says in line seventeen "there is nothing left to kill" so he calls the radio and tells the man he is talking to a superstar, he

  • Word count: 772
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Poets' memories of their childhood.

ENGLISH ESSAY The four poems that I have looked at are all based on the poets' memories of their childhood. Two of the poems are of loving memories, while the other two are based on not so happy memories. 'Autobiographical Note' by Scannell is the first poem. It is based on the loving memories of going to the 'Picture Palace' every week as a child. The second poem is slightly different to the first. It is 'I shall return' by McKay. It is about how he wants to return to Jamaica where as a child he was very happy. The third poem is by Thomas and is called 'Going Back'. It describes the hard time the poet had as a child because of being an evacuee. It is different from the second poem because the poet does not wish to return to the place of his childhood. The first poem by Scannell 'Autobiographical Note' is started with a description of where he spent his childhood, in Beeston. He puts across the picture of Beeston as a town which is not particularly rich. This image is created by the description of the children. The poem describes them as 'natural enemies of cops and schoolteachers', implying that the children are troublemakers with 'snotty noses'. They are also described with 'cut-down coats' and 'heavy boots'. All of these words create images of children in well-worn clothes living under quite poor circumstances. The poem also comments on how they were

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Comparing Nothing(TM)s changed with Two scavengers in a truck, Two beautiful people in Mercedes

Comparing "Nothing's changed" with "Two scavengers in a truck, Two beautiful people in Mercedes" Both poems "Nothing's Changed" and "Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes" describe there individual societies in a great deal. It is obvious to the reader what the poets thinks of the societies and poet makes it very hard for the reader to disagree with there point of view. "Nothing's Changed" was written by Tatamkhulu Afrika who lived in a multi-cultural area called District 6, which was once an affluent area but has turned into something close to a slum. The poem is set just after the apartheid ended. Apartheid was the racial, political, and economic segregation of non-European people that literally means "separateness." The narrator feels strongly about how the phrase apartheid has been abolished but racial discrimination still exists. At the end of the poem, his anger seems ready to turn to violence against the white society: "Hands burn for a stone, a bomb, to shiver down the glass." The fact that he is describing himself as an ostracised child here is even more powerful as he makes the point that he has always felt like this growing up has not changed anything. The poem keeps referring the reader back to the title. In the first and second stanzas it is District 6 and the poet's feeling towards it which haven't changed , in the third and fourth

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare the Girl in Not My Best Side with another female Persona in a poem in the Identity Collection

Compare the Girl in "Not My Best Side" with another female Persona in a poem in the "Identity" Collection... The girl in "Not My Best Side" by Ursula Fanthorpe is almost vindictively feminine, flaunting her sexuality at the reader. I have chosen to compare this confident female with the almost completely opposite, almost shadow, of a girl in "The Unknown Girl". The words of the girl in Fanthorpe's poem display the character of a self interested, sexually liberated woman who is prepared to openly challenge the time's conventions. What is more, she announces this immediately, without preamble: "Its hard for a girl to be sure if/ She wants to be rescued", straightaway dispensing of the traditional role of the heroine desperately trying to escape the clutches of her captor. Her colloquialism, her casual style, and her utter frankness are in deep contrast with the more subtle and refined wording of "An Unknown Girl", and the complete obscurity that the girl is forced into- we do not know anything of her. She is almost a fleeting shadow, not even a real person- almost the opposite of the forceful, definite, presence of the heroine of Ucello. Fanthorpe uses the modern terms of "fancy", "I mean" and "like" in order to enhance our image of a teenage girl who is simply interested in the body and wealth of her prospective men. This is emphasised through her fear that he "might have

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Havisham and Anne Hathaway

Poetry Comparison Havisham and Anne Hathaway By Carol Ann Duffy The poems Havisham and Anne Hathaway by Carol Ann Duffy are about the personal relationships between couples; the former has a relationship which has been entirely destroyed and has swung into the prospect of hatred and resentment, the latter is about a relationship in which the married couple are 'head over heels in love' for each other. In Havisham, the speaker is the literary character Miss Havisham, from the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. In the novel, Miss Havisham is a depicted as a wealthy spinster, who was left at the altar at her marriage by a man named Compeyson, and this poem by Carol Ann Duffy is an attempt to draw out the thoughts of Miss Havisham. The second poem is about the love between William Shakespeare, the famous English poet and playwright, and Anne Hathaway, his beloved wife, who is a real person unlike Miss Havisham, but once more the poem is an attempt to draw out the thoughts of Anne Hathaway. In terms of the happiness between the couple, it is the total opposite of the relationship in Havisham. In the first stanza of Havisham, we can see her true hatred of Compeyson, the man she was to marry, and how the emotional impact on her mind has made an effect on her physical appearance. 'Beloved sweetheart bastard...I could strangle with.' The first sentence is an oxymoron

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Comparisons of 'The Wild Horses' and 'Pike' In these poems, the horses are portrayed as natural and a part of nature while the pike are unnatural and don't fit in with the rhythm of nature. Firstly, in 'The Wild Horses', Gilmore

Samia Naifeh 11SV Comparisons of 'The Wild Horses' and 'Pike' In these poems, the horses are portrayed as natural and a part of nature while the pike are unnatural and don't fit in with the rhythm of nature. Firstly, in 'The Wild Horses', Gilmore portrays the horses as having a beat or a pace which mimics their heartbeat. This is evident in the rhyme scheme: AB AB CC DEED which is in each stanza. The polyrhythmic structure is like a heartbeat and the noun heartbeat suggests the need to live and the pace reflects the speed which is natural. However, the pike poem has no rhyme, ellipsis or enjambment which adds to the broken lines. This is illustrated in the poem when the author describes 'the jaws hooked clamp and fangs not to be changed at this date'. this reinforces the point that the poem has no beat like the heartbeat in 'The Wild Horses' which emphasizes the broken lines give and gives the poem unnaturalness. On the other hand, the horses are natural objects as they are compared to natural objects. This is indicated in the first stanza when the speaker says 'let the dark mountain shake to the thunder/ Where the wild horses trample the fern'. these two lines sound pray like as the imperative verbs and the use of alliteration give the poem an idyllic opening which is calm and pastoral. Whereas, the pike are compared to man made objects which have nothing natural

  • Word count: 1298
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast The Flea(TM) by John Donne and To His Coy Mistress(TM) by Andrew Marvell.

Compare and contrast 'The Flea' by John Donne and 'To His Coy Mistress' by Andrew Marvell. Metaphysical poetry was type of poetry that was very popular during 17th century. Metaphysical actually comes from the Greek words Meta and physical. Meta meaning beyond or after and physical meaning physical. The poets wrote in contrast to the highly stylized Elizabethan Lyric poetry written by poets such as Shakespeare, Spencer and Wyatt. This poetry was quite traditional in terms of subject e.g. love poetry which was joyful, fluent and full of sweetness and melody. In contrast metaphysical poetry was quite rough in terms of sound and rhythm. Metaphysical poetry comprises several literacy devices such as conceits, and an usually simile or metaphor. A conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs and entire poem or poetic passage. It is a far fetched idea which is made believable by the logical and powerful way it is argued. I will be comparing 'The Flea' by John Donne and 'To His Coy Mistress' by Andrew Marvell. Both poems were written in the 17th century, both poems have similar structures as they both have three stanzas therefore I'm going to use the layout to organise my essay. I will compare each stanza with the same stanza from the other poem. The first poem of the two is called 'The Flea' written by John Donne. Donne was born in 1572 and died on March the

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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never offer your heart to someone who eats hearts and the Lie

GCSE other cultures poetry coursework compare and contrast "the lie" by Maya angelou and "Never offer your heart to someone who eats hearts" by Alice walker, paying close attention to love. We have been studying two poems by poets from other cultures. One of the poets is Maya angelou she wrote a poem called "The Lie". The other poem we are studying is "never offer your heart to someone who eats hearts" by Alice walker. Both of these poets were alive during the civil rights movement, they were highly political and were both feminists; they also both suffered a trauma at the age of 8. Maya angelou was sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend Mr Freeman. She wrote about this in her autobiography "I know why the caged birds sing". Alice walker was shot in the eye by her brother with a BB gun. Their literature had similar themes, they both wrote about gender, relationship, and kinship, in this essay I'm going to be comparing and contrasting the two poems, paying close attention to love. Both of these poems are about romantic love, rather than filial love. Both the poems are written about being hurt by love, being betrayed, and about having your trust abused. "The lie" is written about a woman. Describing how she feels because someone has threatened to leave her. She says "I hold curses in my mouth which could flood your path, sear bottomless chasms in your road" she is saying

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Many of the poems explore feelings parents and children have for each other, examine On My First Sonne and compare it with two other poems, one by Catherine Anne Duffy and one by Simon Armitage

Many of the poems explore feelings parents and children have for each other, examine "On My First Sonne" and compare it with two other poems, one by Catherine Anne Duffy and one by Simon Armitage Poems that explore feelings parents and children have for each other are On My First Sonne by Ben Johnson 1616, Kid by Simon Armitage, and Before You Were Mine by Carol Anne Duffy. On My First Sonne is a farthers elegy about his dead son. In it he is saying farewell to his beloved son and trying to a way of coping with all his feelings of pain and grief without showing too much emotion, this poem is him trying to find a way to deal with his pain. He starts the poem by saying: "Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy..." This is him being very accepting of what has happened as he uses the phrase "farewell" where he could have used a word of similar meaning like goodbye. Farewell has a different meaning however as it shows the persona felt ready to let his son go whereas to say goodbye is cutting a meeting or time together short. This is slightly ironic as it is his 7 year old son and shows he is trying to put on a front and not showing his true emotion in this poem. He then goes on to say "my right hand and joy" which shows he expected his son to do so much, like being next in line, that he never got the chance to do. This contradicts his emotions as he said farewell

  • Word count: 1464
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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