I think the parents in both poems will worry about their children in the same way. For certain the parent in Nettles will worry about his son, and the worries will change but this in particular wont as he says ‘My son would often feel sharp wounds again’ (referring to the nettles) which means that he will feel wounds in the future either physical or emotional.
The parent of Parental Ode concerns also would change as he grows up. The parent would still be concerned whether their child would fall down the stairs or concerned that the dog will bite them if they provoke it; but it isn’t likely that these concerns will last too long. The concerns will change to doing well in school and staying out of trouble like drink and drugs.
Nettles was written in 20th century and Parental Ode was written in the 19th century; yet even though they were wrote in different centuries the concerns are still pretty much the same. Both parents just want their children to be safe as in Nettles the parent slashes all the nettles down for the child to be safe. In Parental Ode the parent wants to send the child above to be safe.
Thomas Hood conveys his feeling effectively by using numerous techniques. Firstly he uses interjections which are written with brackets, these show the observations which the poet was taking whilst writing the poem. Most of the time these contradict what the poet just wrote about his son ‘Thou happy, happy elf! (But stop, first let me kiss away that tear!)’ First he says how happy is son is then his son begins to cry.
The poet uses parenthesis in his poem too, which in brackets says how the poet is feeling.
The poet uses exclamation marks too. These emphasise the way the poet is feeling and also emphasises the way he feels about his son. The exclamation marks also effect the fathers pride in his child ‘Thy fathers pride and hope!’ which makes the father sound like he’s boasting about his child.
The poem also rhymes at the end of each line which gives the poem a smooth flow and makes the text feel like it’s supposed to be there.
The poet uses parenthesis to separate imaginary (the way the poet wants his son to be) with the realistic way his son actually is! Showing a growing annoyance for his son too!
Vernon Scannell conveys his feelings alittle differently. Firstly the poet uses military language in the poem; this makes the situation seem a lot worse than it actually is. It also makes the situation seem like it concerns older people than a young child, as the army doesn’t usually recruit your toddlers, so they’re not really two things that you would relate together. This would also emphasise the concern that the poet has for his son as the word ‘nettles’ doesn’t particularly sound serious, yet adding words like ‘spears’ ‘billhook’ ‘slashed’ makes it sound more dangerous.
‘The busy sun and rain had called up tall recruits’ This makes it seem like everybody is out to get his son. It makes it seem like his father can’t protect his son from these nettles if something as big as the sun is involved.
‘The busy sun and rain had called up tall recruits behind the shed’ This gives the impression that the sun is ‘recruiting’ a new army, so as much as the father ‘slashes’ at the nettles… they will always come back with a new bed.
In my opinion, the poet uses an oxymoron with ‘nettle bed.’ Bed is something a lot of people will refer to as comfort, soft, warmth and safety. Nettles on the other hand are something people will refer to as pain, discomfort, hard and sharp. Therefore in my opinion these two words don’t go together as they mean the complete opposite.
I can relate to Parental Ode in the sense that my parents have been in the position where they have been concerned about the very same things as falling down the stairs and falling and bumping my nose. Nettles too with the sense that no matter what I cannot be protected by my parents from nettles; as they are everywhere. Plus the fact you can’t be there to protect your child every nano second of their life.
However I can’t relate to what it must be like to be the parent worrying about the child.
