Larkin vs Abse on Relationships Essay

Harwood explores the intersubjectivity between the individual and the Other throughout ‘At Mornington’ through the use of inclusive pronouns, such as “we”. The line from stanza two, “by your parents’ grave in silence” expresses the potency of the individual’s empathy. The silence represents the acknowledgement of the Other, through nonverbally inhabiting the same space. This representation of the comfort of another being, conveys the extent of the acknowledgement, and contends the notions of existential nihilism through the implicit values of “dasein”. The last stanza of the poem contains the line “the peace of this day will shine”, this line reflects on the consequences of death. “We have one day, only one” the epanaleptic repetition of “one” emphasises the finite nature of our life and suggests an assertive tone to the statement. The motif of the day represents the lifetime of the individual; the metaphor of the day represents the cyclic nature of life and alludes to the biblical notion of death and resurrection. The cyclical representation of life and death symbolises the transition from loss to consolation, through the acknowledgement of the other, and through the developed acceptance of the individual’s

Fairy tales tell us that once upon a time a girl met a boy; they fell in love, and lived happily ever after. Reality is not that simple. Long-term relationships force couples to get to know each other, involve themselves in each others’ worlds, fight through the hard times, and eventually develop deeper connections as noted through distinctive stages of Knapp’s relationship model. Although I have dated the same person for over two years, our communication through relationship stages makes it seem as though I am now dating a different person than the one I met years ago. Following dissolution and subsequent repair, I realize the most exhilarating of roller coaster rides develop through sets of ups and downs, much like the

Despite the differences in context, a comparative study of the poetry of John Donne and Margaret Edson’s play, ‘W;t’, is essential for a more complete understanding of the values and ideas presented in ‘W;t’. Discuss this with close reference to both texts.

In ‘I kneel to pick frail melancholy flowers among ashes and loam’ a tone of loneliness and sadness is established as the persona enters. Harwood describes the violets as ‘frail’ and ‘melancholy’, terms that arn’t usually associated with flowers. This is also explored in the juxtaposition of ‘ashes’ and ‘loam’. Ash is symbolic of death and decay which contradicts the ‘loam’, symbolic of life and birth. The persona’s dark and unpleasant perceptions reveal their uncertainty and state of mind. The present tense indicates the persona’s adulthood and their sense of longing and unsatisfaction conveyed through the nostalgic delivery of

He describes the dresses and the cheep fabrics of “nylon” and fake colours “lemons mauves and olives” and from the way he uses foods can be interpreted to have a significant symbolic meaning in the sense that these organic foods become out of date in time, which could be suggesting he has a bitter opinion on marriage that it will soon become dull over time and never last. In the penultimate stanza he writes how “none thought of the others they would never meet or how their lives would all contain this hour” he really expresses Larkin’s view on marriage and commitment, as he appears to feel that marriage limits chances and options it also raises the question as to whether he feared marriage and the change it could have on his life and freedom. This would suggest that as opposed to hating marriage Larkin merely feared it. The line “ sun destroys the interest of what’s happening in the shade” metaphorically could be interpreted to show how fabulous display of a wedding can “destroy” or distract what happened out of view from the public like the stress, disputes and reality of faults in the relationship. The imagery of the sun also creates a bright beautiful link with weddings that people see on the surface juxtaposed with the reality of dullness as the years go on.

The three penultimate lines of the poem all set up well a finale which encapsulates Larkin’s feelings towards death perfectly. He poses questions about what the elderly know, as to whether they can ‘never tell… how it will end... never, throughout their whole hideous inverted childhood’, asking if they at any point within that stage of losing one’s dignity, and reverting to the ways of a young child, understand just how final their final breath will be. He then answers his question in an almost stoic fashion saying that ‘we shall find out’. He clearly at this point exposes the more personal side to the poem, explaining in an almost frightening, eerie way, that it will happen to the best of us, all of the things he’s said, and that all of these unanswerable questions on how the elderly somehow remain so calm, knowing that death is so prominent, will only be answered when one finds themself in that very same, miserable set of circumstances.

When examining both Robert Browning’s, My Last Duchess, and Charlotte Mew’s, The Farmers Bride, the reader witnesses the poems positions of marriage in the natural world. Within both works, it is quite evident how each relationship is vastly different from the modern world, yet parallel it at the same time. Whether it be: the interactions between the two people or the conditions of the marriage, it is made more than apparent that both can be applied to modern conceptualizations of marriage.

Compare how the poets present love in “Nettles” and in one other poem from the Relationships cluster.

“Grauballe Man,” is a bog body that has been preserved for more than two thousand years. It is one of Seamus Heaney’s North collection poems. The Grauballe Man is considered to be one of the most well-preserved body of all time, it was discovered in the peat bogs in Jutland, Denmark. The body showed no signs of violence indicating that the man was murdered rather than dying of natural causes. The poem indicates Heaney’s preoccupation with the body because it evokes him of the atrocities that has happened during ‘The Troubles’. Heaney utilizes imagery to describe the bog body, utilizes metaphor to associate bog body and the victims of Northern Ireland, and utilizes allusion to make historical references.

In the insightful book “My Antonia,” Jim Burden tells about his life growing up with his grandparents and his relationship with the Shimerdas. Reflecting upon this marvelous novel, I find that I relate to several moments in the astonishing story. First, a part of the story I relate to is when the narrator speaks of how the Shimerdas are great people due to the fact that they are always willing to give, even when they do not have much for themselves. Second, I relate to the part when Antonia and Jim kill the massive rattlesnake, and Jim feels that he is a grown man for doing so. Lastly, when Mr. Shimerda kills himself, it reminds me of when my teacher, Mr. Anderson, told me that most suicides are caused by money. These details stuck out to me, and I found I was able to relate them to events that have occurred in my own life.

In William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying and Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the atmosphere is ignorant and confusing because the characters are offbeat and unnatural. Moreover, both authors use symbolism to depict the bizarre atmosphere of their apocryphal works. Throughout As I Lay Dying, Addie Bundren’s coffin symbolizes the eccentric and unbalanced relationship of the Bundren family. Similarly, in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother represents goodness and how it eventually can lead to death. These symbols influence and create the atmosphere of peculiarity in both pieces. The symbol of the coffin in As I Lay Dying and the symbol of the grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” create an unusual

In this essay I will be commenting on the presentation of relationships in two poems. The first poem is ‘Les Grands Seigneurs’, in which the speaker remarks on her life before marriage, where she was adored and worshiped by men, and how it has changed after marriage. ‘My Last Duchess’ is a dramatic monologue in which the speaker comments on his late wife and her character, suggesting that she was unfaithful to him and hinting that he may have murdered her because of this.

Through the poetry collections ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ and ‘Mean Time’, it can be inferred that the poets’ contemplations on the modern world are similar to how Enright describes The Movement, being about an ‘honesty of thought and feeling’. This comparison can be made between the two poets due to their poetry often being written with ‘a yearning for the past’ (Katherine Viner) mainly linked to place and time for example, which can be observed in Larkin’s poem ‘Here’ and Duffy’s poem ‘Before You Were Mine’. This ‘yearning for the past’ often shows their feelings on the modern world to be pessimistic and cynical, showing the theme of isolation, such as in Duffy’s ‘Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team’. However, it can be argued that their

In order to understand the effects of illusion on marriages in modern literature, we will explore two pieces: The Dead by James Joyce and Odour of Chrysanthemums by D.H.

Around the seventeenth century the poets Andrew Marvell and John Donne expressed their feelings through poetry. Both John Donne, born in 1572 and Andrew Marvell, born in 1621 in England, are known for their ideas of metaphysical poetry. Metaphysical poetry is a persuasive poem that uses a conceit. It focuses on imagery, paradoxes, arguments, philosophy and religion. Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” and John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” focus on the theme of love, which was trending at that time. Although both poems justify the importance and essence of love, the tone differs in each poem making them distant from each other. The figurative language also makes the two poems different. However, they both focus on the idea of Carpe Diem, enjoying the moment and not worrying about the future. Through comparing these poems, the differences and similarities result in the true understanding and effectiveness of the poems.