Comparing Classical Poetry And Platten's Modern Song

Steven Herrick’s verse novel “By the River” is very successful in conveying the significant ideas about human nature. He uses key themes such as grief, environmental influence and coming of age to explore these ideas. To convey the themes Herrick uses multiple techniques such as imagery, repetition, personification and positive and negative influence throughout his text.

The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail. (excerpt-Faulkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech)

Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively conveys his perspectives on human conflict through his experiences during The Great War. Poems such as ‘Futility’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ portray these perceptions through the use of poetic techniques, emphasising such conflicts involving himself, other people and nature. These themes are examined in extreme detail, attempting to shape meaning in relation to Owen’s first-hand encounters whilst fighting on the battlefield.

This internal war starts the second that you set foot in this unknown word as a baby, all the way up to the last step you take to say your last goodbyes to this world. The poem begins with a life of a child in whom people around him tended to call the child “...crybaby or poor or fatty or crazy and made [the child] an alien…”(Sexton), and the child “...drank their acid and concealed it.”(Sexton) illustrating how painful it is, not react and take actions,but counseling is the best method the child seemed fit. Furthermore, courage in a person can also cause a war, in which the author shows the imagery, how the child’s “...courage was a small coal that [the child] kept swallowing.”(Sexton) and encouraging to society to make his own future. As an adult, the person endured many difficulties, such as the of enduring “...a great despair…”(Sexton), but you didn’t do it with a companion but rather “...did it alone.”(Sexton) and endured that suffering within yourself. Being an adult is not only passing a time with your loved ones and remembering the ones that sacrificed their time to make you who you are now, from your teachers to your peers to your parents, but to actually live your life the fullest and make each day worth living.Until the last moment that has been waiting since the beginning in which the death “...opens the back door...” and “...[the adult will] put on [his] carpet slippers and stride out.”(Sexton), exemplifying how all you have done, from engulfing the pain given by the society to living your whole life just to see a tear of happiness from seeing your grandchild, will not be taken with you at the moment when you really need it the

Differences in people’s opinions can cause major conflicts, however fighting against one’s own opposing beliefs can be tougher to resolve. Poets William Blake, G.M. Hopkins and Gwen Harwood have produced various poems epitomising how these internal struggles can become quite detrimental. Despite the differences in time periods and their varying cultural backgrounds, they all convey deep messages about the struggles with worshipping their faith or religion, handling ideas surrounding mortality and dealing with life’s regrets formed by adverse situations.

Regret is expressed through the reflections the speaker makes about the man he killed. The regretful tone of the speaker reveals how he feels for killing that man. Understanding the impact caused from killing the man, the speaker humanizes war and shows its negative impact through his personal experience and remorseful tone. The dissimilarities between the tones of the two poems convey the unique artistic form and purpose of each poem. The prideful tone of the epic glorifies war by celebrating a victory and condescending on the other side, while the remorseful tone of the lyric allows the reader to reflect on the negative effects of war through the speaker’s personal experience and feelings towards

Even in the structure of the poem, Wilfred Owen shows us a compassionate portrait of loss by switching between and comparing the soldier’s experiences ‘before’ and ‘after’ war time, and the related memories and emotions, for instance:

Through poetic techniques, Mark O’Connor emotionally and intellectually captures readers into distinctive images of the struggles in life and inevitable death, in order to teach us the importance of perseverance as well as to parallel society.

It is human nature to interpret and reinterpret life and find meaning of one’s place in the world. Without such knowledge, or belief for that matter, any possibility of humanity is lost. Hence, humans are plagued with the necessity to interpret themselves and their connections to their surroundings—both human and physical. Because one’s connections and contexts for interpretation are endless in some sense, humans are inherently a divided self—the culmination of all given interpretations they make for themselves and interpretations from others. In addition, this totality of interpretations through the lens selves as being what is around you, it follows that poetic-rhetorical language is necessary in discussion of the divided self.

There are a select few things in this world that can bring a grown man to tears and open up a hard heart to experience a variety of emotion. Poetry is one of these rare beauties. Poetry has comforted soldiers on the battlefield and babies in the night. Through vivid imagery and a range of themes and stories, poets have a unique gift to truly create art through words on paper. One poem that highlights this, being full of beautiful imagery, complex mood changes, and valuable themes to remember in life is “Virtue” by George Herbert.

The entire theme of this poem revolves around the speech of a dead man who throughout his life has been lost and always cries out for help to people who never understood. The author uses the imagery, contrast as well as a vague tone to show how the people around this man is isolated and misunderstood him leaving him to his pain and misery. In this poem, Stevie Smith uses a mixture of various conflicting emotions, symbolism that evokes undertones of death, isolation, melancholy, and metamorphosis to explore the dead man’s pain. A close analysis of the waves of lyrics that the author uses to narrate this tale reveals a solemn moral at the heart of this composition. That moral is the ambiguity and reality of the hearts of each one of us. We may always seem joyous, but each person deep in their

Poets write about happiness, love, life, loss and desire it is never about a neutral feeling. Poetry is inspired by highs and lows; but William Wordsworth’s refreshed look on life is put into his poetry. The crisp blank paper is transformed into a piece of artwork, Wordsworth was an artist when it came to poetry. His words even today haunt many, especially from his masterpiece “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge September 3, 1802.” The poem, though not one of his most well-known pieces offers a refreshing look at the world through its timeless theme and its inspiring language creating a unique and innovational sonnet.

All five poets in this essay have experience some form of personal, psychological or physical conflict in their lives. Poet Laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson was one of the most celebrated and respected poets during the Victorian era. He was hugely influenced by Romantic poets and created powerful and vivid images throughout his poems. Tennyson is also considered to be a master of poetic rhythm. Unlike Tennyson, Simon Armitage a poet of the modern era, studied the effects of television violence on young offenders, and later worked as a probation officer. This was a job in which had great influence on many of the poems from his first collection. In a similar way Stevie Smith whose father abandoned his family and mother died at a young age, expresses her own personal experiences through her writing, which consisted of a mix of deep sadness and sardonic amusement to illustrate her feelings about being oppressed by a patriarchal society. Very similarly, Gillian Clarke a modern day poet, born and raised in Wales recognises the contribution made by women to society and would like to see the work done by women valued as much as the work done by men. Her subjects are often about domestic matters and her work frequently reflects this. In contrast, William Butler Yeats, who is doubtlessly the most celebrated of all Irish poets, was deeply affected by the developing conflicts between the Irish rebels and English troops, later using his memories of conflict to create his own poetry.

Every so often, a truly powerful work of literary merit emerges. The literary movement of the First World War led to an extraordinary flowering of poetic talent. The influence of English war poet and soldier, Siegfried Sassoon, extended far beyond his own works. His journey through the conflict of war reflected a wider evolution of the literary world. I find that following the evolution of Sassoon’s poetry throughout his life contributes to the understanding of the reality of the ‘Great War for Civilisation’. Through his poetry, Sassoon exposed war as it really is – destructive, brutalising, and an indefensible waste of human life – something which was not conveyed in the traditional, idealistic views of his romantic contemporaries. In combining realistic detail with a bitter satirical edge, Sassoon made his concern with truth his primary focus. In doing so, he created a poignant and didactic body of memorable verse which I believe remains unrivalled and unique. It is the gritty realism and raw anger that Sassoon embraced in his poetry that I have come to admire for its uniqueness, and that inspired me to compile this anthology. This anthology is a compilation of poems which highlight the dramatic transformation of Sassoon’s poetic style that accompanied his attitude towards the war, from a patriotic idealist to a modernist. A poetic language that can articulate the trauma of the war and the trenches. Following the evolution of Sassoon 's poetry, both

William Ernest Henley is an outstanding person and an astonishing writer. He has a perplexed way of putting his words together. “Henley published several books of poetry, but he is best remembered for the poem “Invictus”, which reflects his resilient struggle with the deadly disease” (Diniejko). “Invictus” is a very complex, and a truly remarkable poem. The word complex is used because for many people that read this poem might not understand the feeling that William Henley is trying to send through this particular poem. It takes tragedy, affliction, hardships, and struggles to occur in someones life to be able to relate to such a powerful poem. William Henley speaks about strength and surviving these unpredictable world when everyone