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Analysis of the Poem Winter Piece by Charles Tomlinson Essay

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Winter-Piece, by Charles Tomlinson, depicts the effects of the wintery season; blinds are drawn, windows are sprayed with hail and possibly rain and snow. The fierce wind closes the gates ‘like gunshot’. Birds, like crows, are coerced to fly away leaving behind them a home which they once loved, due to the cold that deprives them of the provision of food. The spider ends up frozen to death, ‘ death-masked in cold ‘ yet it does not let go f its grip. Through the thick snow, the house peeks out behind ‘its holed and ragged glaze ‘, which highlight sense if destruction and mutilation. This piece of literary work has a free form, and it is made up of one stanza, hence the poet does not utilize stanza breaks, with twenty-one verses. The poem …show more content…

Charles Tomlinson gives total power to the cold- it takes lives – like that of the spider ‘ grasp unbroken and death-masked in cold’. Other figures of speech like similes- ‘ gates snap like gunshot’, and metaphors- ‘bladed atmospheres’, emphasize the ice-cold freezing temperature and convey auditory and visual imagery making the imagery more vivid. The alliteration ‘flying fifteen’ – accent on the f, signifies what the winter causes the birds to do , they migrate due to the intense and numbing weather. The use of the pronoun ‘You’ makes the poet feel exposed, since he wants to build a dialogue with the audience. The ways Tomlinson writes makes it able for the reader to visualize what is really happening. The techniques the poet uses underline his messages. The tense and the speech give the poem a sense of urgency and importance and enables the audience the makes itself present in the situation, being able to feel the piercing and the numbness caused by the cold. The poet describes the winter as almost being inhuman, since it is taking the life out of nature itself – since it is causing death and lack of fertility. The poet employs connotations when he writes – ‘embattlement’ , ‘gunshot’ and ‘ mediaeval’ since they remind the reader about war and ‘cold’ , ‘frost’ and ‘frost-fronds’ reminisces the audience about the season of winter. The tone utilized is compassionate towards the

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