Compare and contrast 'Cousin Kate' and 'The Seduction'.

In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting 'Cousin Kate', a first person narrative poem written by Christina Rossetti written during the 19th century (1830-1894) and 'The Seduction', a third person narrative poem written by Eileen McAuley during the late 20th century (1980). The narrator in 'Cousin Kate' is a cottage maiden who chronologically narrates readers through the changes that have happened to her life after meeting a 'great Lord', of who she fell in love with, but in return was manipulated by him. The main themes which the poem explores are Marriage; motherhood; abuse of power; wealth/poverty and the female role during the early 19th century. In 'The Seduction', the problems presented are those of a fifteen year old teenage girl who was 'seduced' by a young man, by her naivety, to have sex with him under the influence of alcohol; an issue which is relevant to contemporary society. McAuley also explores the influence of the media in shaping others' thoughts. But the central issue which both poems address and emphasise is the consequences which non-martial pregnancy can cause to women: psychologically and in society. The narrator of 'Cousin Kate' presents her feelings and emotions precisely and expressively as the poem is written from first person perspective. It starts with "I was a cottage maiden", conjuring up an idea of banishment or neglect by the use

  • Word count: 5287
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast the way that murder, those who commit and the effect it has on others is present in the pre-1914 poems you have studied.

Compare and contrast the way that murder, those who commit and the effect it has on others is present in the poems you have studied. In Pre-1914 poetry, the Victorian era had differing attitudes to the act of murder, in general. It appeared that death was arguably embraced with the use of rituals. Unlike most people in modern society, Victorians do not fear death however at the same time they commemorate the persons' death for a period of time that one may call 'over-extended'. This is because of their strong religious convictions regarding the Bible - that being the resurrection of the body and immortality of the soul etc. people of that particular era are reminisced on as being prudish and incredibly God-fearing. But on the other hand, they relished reading about scandals and the deeper sides of human nature i.e. crime, detective, murder. These book topics were coincidentally, in concurrence with the happenings of the time in Victorian society. Although, it would seem that Victorians were highly moral and that ethical issues didn't arise; many people look back on the Victorian era as the 'Golden Age of Poisoning' - mainly, because of the easy availability of toxic substances such as arsenic. Because of these effortless ways of accessing deadly liquidised substances, it made poison a preferred option for non-evidential murders in the 19th Century. One of the more famous

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare the way the theme of love is viewed and conveyed by the author in the poems 'My Last Duchess', 'How Do I Love Thee' and 'A Woman to Her Lover'.

COMPARE THE WAY THE THEME OF LOVE IS VIEWED AND CONVEYED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE POEMS 'MY LAST DUCHESS', 'HOW DO I LOVE THEE' AND 'A WOMAN TO HER LOVER'. As a part of my English lessons, I have been doing a lot of work on pre-1914 (in 1914, World War I began, causing a big change in literature) poetry. There were three poems I have been focusing on, each written by a different author: firstly, the poem My Last Duchess, written in 1842 by Robert Browning (1819-1889); secondly, A Woman to Her Lover by Christina Walsh, whose life is little known and it is only sure that she'd lived and wrote the poem in 1800s; and finally poem written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) in 1846, called How Do I Love Thee, affected by author's relationship with Robert Browning. In this piece of coursework I am going to use the knowledge of the poems I gained through working with them and compare them with regard to how the theme of love is expressed and what type of love is shown in each of them. I will also take into consideration how the poems' aspects affect the reader (where I speak about how something is supposed to make the poems sound/seem like something, I refer to the impact on the reader as it is the reader who recognizes this) and my personal feelings. The first thing I want to compare is the content of each poem; that means what the poem is actually about. In contrast to My Last

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Romanticism

"God made the country, and man made the Town" (William Cowper). With detailed reference to at least four poems you have studied, compare the ways in which the Romantic poets explore the impact of industrialisation upon people living in the countryside and towns of eighteenth-century Britain. London, by William Blake, Composed on Westminster Bridge, by William Wordsworth, The Green Linnet, also by William Wordsworth and Work, by Charles Lamb are poems that explore the broad changes that occur during the Industrial Revolution. They expose the true affects of the revolution and what it has caused upon social, economic, and spiritual values. By studying these poems it is clear the Industrial Revolution has made a hectic and busy life style for the people of Britain. Industrialisation mixed the whole hierarchy system in Britain. The middle class could own factories and make more money but one person's heaven is another person's hell. The lower class worked in dangerous, cramped, squalid working conditions enduring long hours of hard labour. But this is what inspired the Romantics. The Romantics were artists in different forms such poetry, novels or art. They believed that emotions run deeper than cold hard logic and that peoples opinions should be expressed to the fullest. As long as someone talks through their emotions and what they truly feel instead of what society wants has

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Pre 1914 Poetry

Pre-1914 Poetry Coursework To study how pre-1914 poets have explored the different aspects of the theme of relationships over a period of time. When we read the five poems we gather that the poems all have different aspects of the theme of relationships. The poems I have chosen are 'The Laboratory by Ancien Régime, The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy, Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare, Remember by Christina Rossetti, The Little Boy Lost and The Little Boy Found by William Blake and lastly On My First Sonne by Ben Jonson'. These poems written before all have similarities within it comes down to the themes of relationships however they all have different aspects, views, feelings and the theme of relationships may vary. Overall in this essay we are looking at the themes of relationships and see what the different aspects the poets have explored over a period of time which overall have a striking resemblance and within this essay I would like to explore it... Various methods are used to explore the theme of relationships in 'The laboratory by Robert browning' and 'The man he killed by Thomas Hardy' are comparatively similar. The laboratory made in the 1842 era, has a distinct subject, a person who kills (or is about to kill) her rival in the presence of her lover - who appears to be connected to the speaker in some way - perhaps her husband or an ex-lover who has spurned

  • Word count: 4039
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare the presentation of relationships in "My Last Duchess", "Porphyria's Lover" and "The Laboratory".

Compare the presentation of relationships in "My Last Duchess", "Porphyria's Lover" and "The Laboratory". "My Last Duchess", "Porphyria's Lover" and "The Laboratory" are all dramatic monologues, a fictional speech presented as the musings of a speaker who is separate from the poet, normally to a silent audience. These three dramatic monologues are all written by Robert Browning, famous for his poetry mainly associated with hatred, distrust and deceit, the darker side of human nature. These three poems also focus on relationships, not only relationships between characters in the poem, but also relationships between Browning and the characters, the listener and the speaker, the audience and Browning and lastly what the speaker says and what actually happened in the reality (of the poem). "My Last Duchess" first appeared in Dramatic Lyrics in 1842, the poem presents the reader with an unnamed duke who keeps a portrait of his Last Duchess behind a curtain, which only he can control who to reveal to. The Duke then goes on to tell the tale of the life of his late Duchess, how she displeased him because of her lack of dignity. This triggered his anger and irritation and eventually he chose to have her killed. Although the Duke mainly speaks of his late Duchess, he unintentionally reveals more about the personal qualities of himself. The reader knows that as a Duke, he possesses

  • Word count: 4021
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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As a part of my English G.C.S.E coursework

As a part of my English G.C.S.E coursework I have to analyse and contrast two poems; the first is 'Cousin Kate' by Christian Georgina Rossetti, and the second is Seduction by Elaine McAuley. 'Cousin Kate' is set in the Victorian ages. It is about a young, beautiful working class maiden, who is taken away from her simple life by a lord, to a life of riches and luxuries. She lives a very shameful life because she lives with him and is sexually active with the lord before marriage. She even has a child with him. The maiden's much more attractive cousin appears and the lord is intrigued by her. He leaves the maiden for Kate. The poem has a twist at the end; Cousin Kate is only interested in his money, but she cannot conceive any children for him, and the maiden already has a son of the lord's and he will inherit his father's wealth and land as his heir. A once poor cottage maiden will now live the life of luxury again but in the right way. In 'I was a cottage maiden', by using 'I', I can tell that the poem is in first person and is being told from the victim's perspective; this also gives the reader access to the narrator's thoughts and feelings. The poem is in past tense. 'Cottage' emphasises that she is from a working class background and 'maiden' suggests that she is a virgin, but being in past tense, the use of the word 'was' indicates that she is no more. 'Hardened by the

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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How Far do Owen(TM)s Poems Break with the Jingoistic Literary Tradition Established by Various Poets during World War 1?

How Far do Owen's Poems Break with the Jingoistic Literary Tradition Established by Various Poets during World War 1? Although Wilfred Owen and the jingoists deal with the same subject of war in their poems, their attitudes towards the topic differ dramatically and this is shown through the style and content in which the various poets have written. The Jingoists had a chauvinistic and positive attitude towards the war. They have illustrated their aggressive patriotism through their poems, which deliver the clear and concise message: that war is morally correct and men who don't sign up to fight are inferior. These sorts of messages were used to try and recruit members of the public and to illustrate the type of men who were ideals and chivalry in terms of war according to what the Jingoists believed. Ultimately the Jingoists poems were used to persuade the general public to believe that war was the way forward. Their poems create an inspirational mood, one that indicates patriotism and optimism. On the other hand, Owen had a totally opposite opinion of war. He was strongly against war as he could not see what it achieved, only the suffering it caused. The ideas that he expresses throughout his poems concerning the war and fighting are all negative with their angry and bitter mood. Unlike many of the Jingoists who used their poems to try and recruit members of the public,

  • Word count: 3847
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Pre 1914 Poetry Comparative Literary Tradition

Both John Donne (1572 - 1631) and Andrew Marvell (1621 - 1678) use themes and images that are typically characteristic of the time in which their poems were written, in particular expressing the attitudes held towards women during this period. One of many themes used in these poems are the narrator's attempts to persuade the woman to sleep with him. Both Marvell and Donne use this, in their respective poems, 'To His Coy Mistress' and 'The Flea'. Both of these poems capture the frustration felt by the narrator, as for one reason or another he cannot get what he wants. In 'To His Coy Mistress', the frustration felt is due to the reluctance of the woman. He feels that the coyness felt by the woman would be immaterial, should they have infinite amounts of time, but he describes time as ' at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near; ' 1 This pre-occupation with time is characteristic of the metaphysical poets of the time, and many adopted a more carpe diem mentality as a result of this. The metaphor for time as a chariot at one's back is interesting as it gives the impression that time is always catching up with you, and you are never rid of it. This can be linked to Donne's 'The Sun Rising', in which the narrator's initial anger towards the sun is due to his reluctance to accept that it is already morning, and that time hasn't done what he has wanted it to

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Using Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' as your core poem, show clearly, by close textual analysis of at least three poems in total, how this section deals with the concept of Love and as seen through different eyes

Using Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' as your core poem, show clearly, by close textual analysis of at least three poems in total, how this section deals with the concept of Love and as seen through different eyes. Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' is related to the constraints of time and how it will affect the relationship with his partner, in particular love and physical passion. In contrast Lovelace's 'To Althea, From Prison' shows a different kind of love, he is talking about many types of love: the love he has for his wife, the love he has for his fellow royalists, the love he has for his king and ultimately the love he has for his God. Lovelace's poem is about a love without a sexual and physical driving force. Finally, Herrick's 'To the Virgins' is similar in theme to Marvell's 'Coy Mistress' as it too deal with issues of time and how it affects the pace if courtship and marriage. Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress' is made up of three stanza's each with its own purpose. From the poem it seems that Marvell is trying to court a wealthy girl, but she seems to be procrastinating. The purpose of the poem is to convince her to fall in love with him so the can marry and have a physical relationship. The structure of the poem plays a major part in this. The first stanza begins with 'Had' or in other words 'If' meaning this is a hypothesis, which automatically gives the

  • Word count: 3467
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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