MacNeice’s poem is set in the southwest of England, on a hill with a chalk horse carved into it. It is during the height of summer, when the grasshoppers are buzzing and the children are playing outside. The character is a boy or a group of boys, and they are riding bicycles down a hill near to the chalk horse. The structure of the poem is quite disjointed, with only five sentences throughout three stanzas.
Using diction, Heaney further demonstrates the speaker's transition from optimistic to pessimistic as time goes on. In the beginning of the poem, Heaney has a entirely different diction than he concludes with. Choosing such words as "glossy"(4), "sweet"(5), and "tinkling"(13), Heaney gives a sense of cheer and happiness as the reader follows along to the speaker's reminiscing, as express that the speaker has a past of joy and innocence. Heaney creating this diction is highly important in the poem as Heaney drastically changes diction in the second stanza representing the speaker's transition into depressing adulthood. Now using words like "glutting"(19), "stinking"(20), and "rot"(23), Heany provides insight on how the speaker, like many of
Firstly, Heaney uses the structure of the poem to tell us about human nature. For example, the slow, familiar rhythm of the iambic pentameter creates a reflective tone where the voice in the poem looks back at the lessons learnt in the past. This shows how we glamorize the past even our bad experience so we can learn from them. The two uneven stanzas with gently half-rhyming couplets add a softness and a musical lilt without imposing too much rigidity. This also reflects the romantic memory and romanticised view of nature that we apply on our past experience however gruesome. Plus, by using lists and multiple points of enjambment Heaney give the poem a childlike and excited tone. This conveys the image not only of children and their views on the world but how we look into the past and become children again recalling the events that faced our young selves. Finally the long first stanza filled with the collection of the good, ripe fruit is destroyed quickly from the short, second stanza full of rot and decay. I believe that this suggest that however much we we gather and hoard our wealth will always deteriorate, often though death. This emphasise how horrible the human nature of hoarding is, as it will always end in hardship.
To begin the poem Duffy uses a shocking short sentence, which contains contrasting word choice to convey an ironic tone from Havisham. The contradictory oxymoron also startles the reader and grasps our attention as we do not expect this beginning.
A distinguished sense of hollowness, and darkness is discernable in George Elliot Clarke’s poem “Blank Sonnet”. This poem expresses, the author’s difficult and awkward communication with a lover through a broken relationship. word choice and imagery is imperative to the overall effect and tone of the poem. The usage of an atypical sonnet stylization, broken sentences, forms of metaphors, symbolism, sensory language, and alliteration form strong imagery, and a sense of disconnect. The overall effect leaves the reader with a resonating feeling of emptiness.
In the first stanza Yeats expresses his conflicting loathing and admiration for modernity through the juxtaposition of “vivid faces” and “grey houses”. This represents the possibilities that modernity can bring; the revitalising of the community or the destruction of tradition and age old energy already lost by the modifications in the city. The repetition of the phrase “A terrible beauty is born” in the first and fourth stanzas articulate this inner turmoil revolving around modernity. This oxymoronic declaration is emphasised throughout the text by Yeats’ confusion towards the rebellion and its necessity. The fourth stanza embodies this conflict, removing the previously represented idea that life in pre-rebellion Ireland was a “casual comedy”, alluding to an Elizabethan play where the characters were content. By asking the rhetoric questions “was it needless death” and “O when may [British rule] suffice?” Yeats parallels the unresolved contradiction of “terrible beauty”. However, this sensitive treatment of conflict allows the retainment of ambiguity and can be related to any change within life, hence allowing audiences to superimpose their own beliefs and ideas into the poem. Yeats continues to explore his aversion towards modernism in The Second Coming with the appointment of a new “gyre” standing as the symbol for a new age. The fear of
Apart from that, the poem consists of a series of turns that reflect different parts of the speaker’s feelings and the experiences he had. The significance of these turns is made possible through the use of stanza breaks. For example, the first
In Midterm Break, Heaney reflects on the memory of his younger brother’s death, and returning home for his funeral. The poem as a whole has an overall
The poems ‘Limbo’ and ‘Bye Child’ by Seamus Heaney are poems that evoke the casualties of sexual and emotional repression in Ireland, as well as and the oppression of both women and un baptized children, in a time where religion was most prominent and people were confined to the guidelines of the church and it’s community, as it was the ruling power. Both poems present this idea through the use of a child, representative of innocence and vulnerability. Through his poetry, Heaney gives a voice to those who have been silenced by society. Heaney manages to create this extended voice and
However, the poem has fluidity despite its apparent scarcity of rhyme. After examining the alteration of syllables in each line, a pattern is revealed in this poem concerning darkness. The first nine lines alternate between 8 and 6 syllables. These lines are concerned, as any narrative is, with exposition. These lines set up darkness as an internal conflict to come. The conflict intensifies in lines 10 and 11 as we are bombarded by an explosion of 8 syllables in each line. These lines present the conflict within one's own mind at its most desperate. After this climax, the syllables in the last nine lines resolve the conflict presented. In these lines, Dickinson presents us with an archetypal figure that is faced with a conflict: the “bravest” hero. These lines present the resolution in lines that alternate between 6 and 7 syllables. Just as the syllables decrease, the falling action presents us with a final insight. This insight discusses how darkness is an insurmountable entity that, like the hero, we must face to continue “straight” through “Life” (line 20).
When a reader initially reads Donald Justice’s “The Poet at Seven,” he or she might take the easy route and conclude it for what it says, only. If this method were taken, the poem’s presumed plot would have been taken quite literally: the poet is reminiscing about his childhood memories; the poem is sweet, simple, and nostalgic. However, poems are not that simple. They are complex riddles, full of hidden meaning. To truly shed light on Justice’s purpose of the poem, it is necessary to look at the “what-if’s” through its intricate designs of language. The poem’s form is an important start when close reading. Also, to discern the hidden meaning, it is important to consider the specific word choice and how it paints a picture inside the reader’s mind. As a result, the reader will grasp the poem’s true intention. By doing this, the reader will sincerely have an understanding of “The Poet at Seven,” the way Justice probably would have wanted.
On his first day, he asks someone to read the introduction of the students’ textbook on poetry. The introduction was full of complex wording and ideas about how to understand poetry, which Keating thought was meaningless. He then tells the kids to rip out the whole introduction, saying that poetry goes well beyond the “technical aspects”.
Through the use of punctuation (or lack thereof), repetition, and rhyme scheme, John Clare 's first stanza of “I Am” expresses the speaker 's distorted sense of self and vast understanding of his morose existence. The following stanza has been chosen as the analysis point for this paper:
W.B. Yeat’s poem, Easter 1916, details the speaker’s feelings of Nationalism and heartache as he remembers those that he lost in the Easter Rising. As the speaker reflects on the time before the rising, he remembers not only how his life has changed but also how his friends and companions had transformed both in their character and in their state of being. The speaker uses metaphors to visualize the unchanging goal of Irish freedom and the coming of nights that bring about death and heartache. In this analysis, I will be focusing on the first and last stanzas of the poem. By comparing these two stanzas I will reflect on the literary devices used, as well as the differences of the speaker’s visuals from the beginning and end. Overall, the speaker