The poem "Futility" by Wilfred Owen deals with the speaker's desperation after the experience of death on the battlefield which leads him to question the sense of life as well as sense of creation in general.

Essay on Wilfred Owen, Futility The poem "Futility" by Wilfred Owen deals with the speaker's desperation after the experience of death on the battlefield which leads him to question the sense of life as well as sense of creation in general. At the beginning the whole situation is indistinct for the reader. The verbal indistinctness points to the role the poem attributes by using only words of someone who is immediately involved in the situation and afflicted by it. The reader has to try to infer, to try to understand the speaker's inside and outside situation, see through his verbal reaction to understand it. With the imperative of "Move him into the sun-" (I,1) the speaker starts his speech by addressing those who are with him, to continue -after a pause- speaking to himself. Those who are addressed are around him, they know the situation as well as he himself does, so that he is able to leave the situation indistinct, avoid explicit wording. This switch of the addressees, from those who are around him to himself already indicates two levels that will be dealt with throughout the whole poem: the factual language of the imperative "Move" (I,1) refers to the rational side, while the emotional language of the stanzas represent the emotional side which takes over almost immediately. While the speakers' first reactions in both stanzas still seems to be rational,

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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A comparrison of Lore and Cyndyllan on a tractor by R S Thomas

GCSE POETRY COURSEWORK COMPARING LORE AND CYNDDYLAN ON A TRACTOR BY R.S. THOMAS R.S. Thomas was a clergyman from Wales born in 1913. He attended university in Cardiff and later joined the Welsh National Party (Plaid Cymru). In 1965 he won the "Observer poetry Prize". Thomas was a poet who seemed to base his work on what he witnessed and believed in. The two poems that I will look at are Lore and Cynddylan on a Tractor. The word lore means information passed down by word of mouth. The poems show Thomas's opinions on the old and the new. Lore is based on an eighty five year old Welshman named Job Davies. Immediately we see the religious side of Thomas as he uses a biblical name for the character he has written about. Both the poems are presented in a format that makes them feel conversational and personal to the reader. This is achieved in Lore by using enjambment in the first two lines of the first quatrain to remove the rhyme and turn the poetry to conversation; "Job Davies, eighty - five Winters old, and still alive" The name Cynddylan is Welsh for brave warrior. Both poems are firmly set in the context of the Welsh agricultural background and the poets consternation regarding the mechanisation of farming and the resultant impoverishment of the land and people. Although in this case Thomas has used it to gain sardonic effect. An example of the sardonic tone is

  • Word count: 1560
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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After a Journey

After a Journey 'After a Journey' is a lament at the loss of Thomas Hardy's wife, reflecting in both its structure and tone, Hardy's feelings of sadness and regret. The language used in the opening stanza immediately conjures imagery relating to loss and despair. 'Up the cliff, down, till I'm lonely lost' line 3, is a direct reference to Hardy's state of mind. His feelings of loss and a searching for answers are powerfully highlighted both in the idea of the 'unseen waters' line 4 and of being 'lonely lost' line 3. Hardy compounds the feelings of grief by making it clear the places he is currently in only serve to heighten his feelings of loss whilst his references to 'haunts' line 9 and 'haunted' line 19, only reinforce the notion of a man grieving for and being haunted by, the memories of his dead wife. However, though there is undoubtedly a proliferation of bleak and despondent imagery used in the opening half of the poem, Hardy uses more positive language in the descriptions of his wife, 'With your nut-coloured hair' line 7 and 'When you were all aglow' line 24. The beautification of his lost love, in the context of the poem, hints at the devotion he felt for his companion and serves to reinforce the idea of a man suffering the effects of extreme loss. It is also interesting that it reflects a more general statement as to the nature of grief, that human nature

  • Word count: 1357
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Louis MacNeice's Meeting Point

Section A: Practical Criticism No reference to secondary criticism is required; this exercise is designed to test your close reading skills. Pay careful attention to the language of the following POEM and comment, as appropriate, on such technical features as form, syntax, rhythm, tone diction, imagery, voice, point of view and rhyme. How are these features implicated in interpretation? Louis MacNeice's Meeting Point is a lyric poem consisting of eight stanzas, with five lines in each. Its appearance on the page is structured and regular, however, counteracting the poem's idea of time being 'away and somewhere else.' Each stanza's first and last line are the same, almost reaffirming that individual stanza's idea, each one containing a refrain, carrying it's own little segment of the lover's journey. For example, in the first stanza the line 'Time was away and somewhere else', is this stanza's mantra and it is explored through the numbers in the stanza. 'Two glasses and two chairs' and 'two people with one pulse'. These lines convey the idea that for this couple, there is no numbers, time is not present. This idea is explored again in the last stanza, almost bringing the poem full circle if you like, time is an irrelevance when they have each other. The title of the poem 'Meeting Point' offers the reader the idea of a secret rendezvous or solicitous affair. On the

  • Word count: 1166
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Both John Thomas and Tony Kytes are daring characters who try to manipulate women around them. Compare and contrast the two men with particular reference to their attitude towards women.

Both John Thomas and Tony Kytes are daring characters who try to manipulate women around them. Compare and contrast the two men with particular reference to their attitude towards women. Tony Kytes is the main character of 'Tony Kytes, The Arch-Deceiver', which is a story written by Thomas Hardy in the 1890s - contained in his book titled 'Life's Little Ironies.' (1894) (The story is set in the Midlands during the First World War.) Thomas Hardy was an influence to 20th Century writers, and as recognition of his work his ashes were buried in Poet's corner in Westminster Abbey, and his heart buried in his wife's grave - Emma. DH Lawrence was obsessed with honesty, particularly with regard to sexual matters. By writing about sex he was breaking social taboos as well as the then laws on decency. 'Ticket, Please' isn't as indecent as some of his creations. From this story is the infamous John Thomas, who was created by Lawrence some thirty years after Tony Kytes was discovered. This time difference between the two characters may account for some of their contrasts and indeed the difference between the women of the stories, as the 'Victorian' women were certainly less peremptory than the women of the wartime were. The women of the Victorian era had more respect for the men as a result of their upbringing. From a very young age they were taught that they were inferior to the

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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T. S. Eliot described the use of myth in modern literary works as a way of controlling, of ordering. Do the mythical and classical references in The Waste Land help to give it order and shape, or make it more fragmentary and disordered?

Transfer-Encoding: chunked T. S. Eliot described the use of myth in modern literary works as ‘a way of controlling, of ordering’. Do the mythical and classical references in The Waste Land help to give it order and shape, or make it more fragmentary and disordered? “A collage of materials”[1]. This brief description of Eliot’s Wasteland by Kroll captures well the fragmentary nature of Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland’, although this essay will argue that whilst the poem has a highly-disordered structure, the use of such extensive mythical and classical references do give some order to Eliot’s work – in terms of the message it is trying to portray. In the aftermath of World War One, many including Eliot became disillusioned with the ‘modern’ culture and ‘progress’ that was being made by European society… as it was progress that had led to the deaths of millions. The various mythical and classical allusions made by Eliot in the Wasteland – and there are several – allow the poem to act as a sophisticated metaphor of why Eliot believes that Europe should return to its cultural traditions and a time when people were united, rather than continue to place materialism and superficiality above everything else, as this is what arguably led to the political arguments which caused the World War in the first place. One example of literal fragmentation in

  • Word count: 971
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen and Could You Not Write Otherwise? by Alan Paton.

INTRODUCTION Poems are one of the oldest forms of literature and it is one such form of literature that has evolved with the passage of time but has never been abundant. Poem is one of those forms of literature that surpasses the history of written texts (Horálek, 2019). It has been seen and discovered that poetry was employed by the people in the earlier generation as a way of oral history and genealogy as well as law. It is safe to say that writing poetry needs a strong understanding of the English language. However, the question that arises is what is the purpose of poetry? and what should a poet be writing about? This paper will try and answer these questions with the help of two poem namely, “Dulce et Decorum” and “Could you not write otherwise?” (Malaba, 2015). DISCUSSION The poem by Wilfred Owen titled “Dulce et Decorum” (1920) is a war poem and unlike many other war poems that came during the time when Owen was writing, this poem criticizes war and talks about the horror of war. The main purpose of writing a poem in the first place is to convey the innate feelings of the poet and this poem exactly does the same. Owen was a soldier himself which means he had first-hand experience of war and battlefield. The poem brings to light the struggle a soldier has to go through in their everyday life which is hardly talked about by any of the poets

  • Word count: 866
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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An Analysis of "The Heart of Woman" by W.B. Yeats

An Analysis of �The Heart of the Woman� by W.B. Yeats O what to me the little room / That was brimmed up with prayer and rest; / He bade me out into the gloom, / And my breast lies upon his breast. ��������The line �O what to me the little room� could possibly allude to the woman�s heart and how it accepts love inwardly in order to fill the spaces of her �room.� Similar to how a room is filled, one can interpret that love can also abstractly fill the �little room.� Also, the line �That was brimmed up with prayer and rest� could express her passiveness when receiving love, similar to how prayers and rest are passive. In prayer, one expects a deity to impart everything without relying on any work while rest excludes a person from exerting any effort. So it can be inferred that in the first two lines of the poem, the woman is still na�ve about the experiences of love and lacks the sense of maturity for her to understand what love is. The third line �He bade me out into the gloom,� in a sense can mean that there is an attempt to accomplish something. Literally bid means to make a proposal and in the context of the poem, �bade a person out into the gloom� can mean that there is an effort to complete a certain

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Tony Kytes The Arch Deceiver

Introduction Tony is a nice and gentle man but he has a thing with the ladies and he has a problem in the little town of Wessex that he living in. There are three women that he likes and one of them is the one he wants but he cannot seem to make his mind up. These three ladies are called 'Milly Richards', 'Unity Sallet' and 'Hannah' at the moment Tony is engaged to Milly Richards and is getting seduced by the other two women. He gets caught be Milly and she doesn't care what other women think or say to Tony. She can trust Tony and that he wouldn't go with any of them women. All that Tony has to do is wake up and smell the coffee and marry Milly and stop fooling around with those other two women. Through out the essay I will discuss the matter in more detail. Tony is a womaniser it shows this in the text e.g. "O the petticoats went off and the breeches went on? ". Tony says this in a religious manor as if having sex with women is like his religion. Tony does have a sensitive side though for example "Milly Richards, a nice, light, small, tender, little thing and soon said that they were engaged to be married". He talks about Milly in a soft and tender way like he truly did love Milly and it was his right choice. Again it shows Tony is a womaniser because he is seeing other women and they are called Unity Sallet and Hannah, he still cannot make his mind up. But he is a small

  • Word count: 480
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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