Thanks Merwin

The poems in this section are about the hardships of life and the problems that people have to face, yet there is an undertone of hope in them too, the problems may not be solved, but the poems show that there is a sense of faith in human resilience.

The last stanza however, gives a sense of peace and rest, as the elder finally ‘descends into the dreaming.’ Jonathan Hill uses many poetic devices and techniques to help achieve the images and meanings that are conveyed. The alliteration used in the poem give a sense of the growing grief and loss, as well as movement. The use of alliteration in the last stanza, conveys a sense of sinking and resting at peace. The poem itself maintains a rhyming pattern throughout the six stanza’s, with the exception of the 4th and last stanza.

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

Construct a close reading of this poem that demonstrates your awareness of the poet’s body of work.

Are you thankful for thanks? Well, thanks should be at the top of your list! Why be thankful for an insignificant word though? However, thanks, according to “Ode to Thanks,” can “melt iron and snow.” This word rings everywhere and brings happiness where otherwise dark, dangerous shadows would take over. In the poem “Ode to Thanks,” Pablo Neruda gives thanks to the word thanks by describing all of the marvelous things it does for us using figurative language, writing an ode, and using powerful poetic elements and structure. Without gratitude and exchanges of “thank you's”, our world would be filled with depression and hatred.

The poem suddenly becomes much darker in the last stanza and a Billy Collins explains how teachers, students or general readers of poetry ‘torture’ a poem by being what he believes is cruelly analytical. He says, “all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it”. Here, the poem is being personified yet again and this brings about an almost human connection between the reader and the poem. This use of personification is effective as it makes the

The poet uses many metaphors, repetition and morbid diction to illicit the response I had to this poem. Firstly, Butson compared the emotions and internal struggles of a

The soldiers who had attended the war were shown to have died brutally, like “cattle”, yet when reaching the home front, it is seen that they are laid to rest in a much more civil and dignified manner. The concept of this can be seen as an extended metaphor throughout the entire poem, with the battle front seen as a world filled with violence, fear and destruction, where as the home front is perceived as a place marked by order and ritual, a civilized world. The second sonnet opens with “What candles may be held to speed them all?”, invoking a more softer and compassionate tone towards the audience, more specifically through Owen’s use of a rhetorical question. It captures the readers’ attention, engaging them to feel empathetic and notice the shift of energy from anger and bitterness to a sadder and more somber tone. Owen’s use of descriptive language, as simple as it seems, such as ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ provokes the audience to view the horrors of the war as if they had been placed onto children, because in reality the ‘men; who had signed themselves into war to fight in glory for their country had really only just been boys themselves.

Throughout the poem Crichton Smith successfully creates a haunting portrayal of his guilt-laden grief over his mother 's final years and the role he played in her neglect. This neglect is evident in the vivid image of his mother 's home combined with her frailty. Crichton Smith adds to this his own role in failing to rescue her and subsequently emphasises the extent to which he is plagued by regret.

It’s apparent how much Howe adored and loved her brother in “The Attic”; she calls him the “exiled grown prince” and encourages us to “Praise him”. Yet, this poem does present a key theme of immense emotional pain appropriate for an elegy, whether it be the speaker or her loved ones. She addresses this from the perspective of John:

In Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads, he writes, “I have wished to keep my reader in the company of flesh and blood, persuaded that by so doing I shall interest him” (297). With this assertion, Wordsworth highlights his desire that readers of his poetry respond with sentiment when presented with genuine, unembellished characters. His attempts to prove this claim can be seen in the poems Michael and The Ruined Cottage. Observing how the two poems handle certain rhetorical devices—a frame of narration, personification of nature, meditation on ordinary objects, and Biblical allusion—reveals their intended purpose as promotions of empathy. Discerning the similarities and differences between Michael and The Ruined Cottage allows the moral lessons within Wordsworth’s poetic experimentation to be uncovered.

There are many interesting things in such a fantastic short poem. The irony he used created sorrow for the readers about the child attending church instead of marching the streets of Birmingham

People would not want to hear that their loved ones merely gave up and died passively. This poem in itself is a celebration of life, the poem is not only about death but it is an affirmation of life. To further emphasise the points being made Dylan Thomas utilises a wide range of literary devices. Parallelism is used from lines seven to fifteen to juxtapose the different attitudes of the so called “genres” of men at their death. This is used to outline that if you continuously lead one set type of lifestyle whether it is as a “wild man”, a “grave man” or a “good man” you will not be satisfied when your time comes to die. The only true way to be satisfied is to live a life of balance; only with a good contrast can you be at peace.

Several poems in the anthology explore the intensity of human emotion. Explore this theme, referring to these three poems in detail and by referencing at least three other poems from your wider reading.’

Stafford furtively conceals the profound meaning of his poem behind a story of the narrator, who stops alongside the road to care for a deer. The genius behind poem is better understood when the superficial meaning is expressed deeply.