Compare the ways in which the poets you studied this year use poetry as a form of protest.
Different poets utilise various poetic techniques to express their opposition against war, death and society. Wilfred Owen in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and Siegfried Sassoon in ‘Suicide in the Trenches’ condemn the glorification of war based on their experiences in World War One. ‘Funeral Blues’ by WH Auden and ‘Do no go gentle into that good night’ by Dylan Thomas convey the poets’ common objection against the inevitability of death. In ‘In the Park’, Gwen Harwood disapproves of the negative effect of domesticity on women’s individuality in the 1950s whilst Thomas Hardy in ‘The Ruined Maid’ opposes the injustices of Victorian moral and economic constraints …show more content…
Auden utilises metaphors to express his speaker’s pain and trauma of mourning his lover, who was his “noon”, “midnight”, “working week” and “Sunday rest”. By visually emphasising the speaker’s sense of loss, Auden reflects the transience of human life and protests against the harsh reality that life “would [not] last for ever”. Similarly, Thomas angrily protests at his father’s imminent death by instructing his father to refuse “[going] gentle into that good night” and “rage against the dying … light”. Like Auden’s metaphors, Thomas’ metaphors for death enable the reader to visualise his protest against mortality, which is inevitable just as the “close of day” is. Furthermore, Auden’s hyperbolic metaphors illustrate his speaker’s inability to accept his lover’s death as he demands for “every [star]” to be “put out”, the moon “[packed] up” and the sun “dismantled”. Auden highlights the mourner’s objection against nature’s continuation, underlining his disapproval against the inescapability of death “for nothing now can ever come to any good”. While Auden evokes a mood of hopelessness and despair in the reader after the “coffin” has been “[brought] out”, Thomas elicits the reader’s sympathy and hope for his father “on the sad height”. Thus, both poets convey their protest against the inevitability of death using …show more content…
Harwood adapts the traditional sonnet’s structure to criticise the erosion of mothers’ sense of individuality in the 1950s. The sonnet’s first line has an odd number of eleven syllables, which creates the effect of the housewife whose “clothes are out of date” falling away from creativity, adding emphasis to her dowdy state. Conversely, Hardy juxtaposes the “ruined [maid’s]” “fair garments” such as “gay bracelets” and “bright feathers” against her “tatters without shoes or socks” during her farm life. Hardy’s use of contrast highlights the prosperity and “polish” of a morally “ruined” and marginalised prostitute as opposed to the hard life and poverty of a “raw country girl”, conveying Victorian women’s insecure position either way. Contrastingly, Harwood utilises enjambment between her first and second stanzas to produce a discordant effect, underlining that it is “too late” to “feign indifference” to the housewife’s loss of individuality due to domesticity. Harwood’s use of caesura in Stanza 2 emphasises her speakers’ ironic tone as she sarcastically “[rehearses]” “how nice” her life is whilst her former lover pauses and silently thinks there “but for the grace of God” go I, stressing the housewife’s emotional despair. Likewise, Hardy’s juxtaposition between a prostitute’s “pretty lively” state and a farm maid’s “megrims” and
Different poets utilise various poetic techniques to express their opposition against war, death and society. Wilfred Owen in ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and Siegfried Sassoon in ‘Suicide in the Trenches’ condemn the glorification of war based on their experiences in World War One. ‘Funeral Blues’ by WH Auden and ‘Do no go gentle into that good night’ by Dylan Thomas convey the poets’ common objection against the inevitability of death. In ‘In the Park’, Gwen Harwood disapproves of the negative effect of domesticity on women’s individuality in the 1950s whilst Thomas Hardy in ‘The Ruined Maid’ opposes the injustices of Victorian moral and economic constraints …show more content…
Auden utilises metaphors to express his speaker’s pain and trauma of mourning his lover, who was his “noon”, “midnight”, “working week” and “Sunday rest”. By visually emphasising the speaker’s sense of loss, Auden reflects the transience of human life and protests against the harsh reality that life “would [not] last for ever”. Similarly, Thomas angrily protests at his father’s imminent death by instructing his father to refuse “[going] gentle into that good night” and “rage against the dying … light”. Like Auden’s metaphors, Thomas’ metaphors for death enable the reader to visualise his protest against mortality, which is inevitable just as the “close of day” is. Furthermore, Auden’s hyperbolic metaphors illustrate his speaker’s inability to accept his lover’s death as he demands for “every [star]” to be “put out”, the moon “[packed] up” and the sun “dismantled”. Auden highlights the mourner’s objection against nature’s continuation, underlining his disapproval against the inescapability of death “for nothing now can ever come to any good”. While Auden evokes a mood of hopelessness and despair in the reader after the “coffin” has been “[brought] out”, Thomas elicits the reader’s sympathy and hope for his father “on the sad height”. Thus, both poets convey their protest against the inevitability of death using …show more content…
Harwood adapts the traditional sonnet’s structure to criticise the erosion of mothers’ sense of individuality in the 1950s. The sonnet’s first line has an odd number of eleven syllables, which creates the effect of the housewife whose “clothes are out of date” falling away from creativity, adding emphasis to her dowdy state. Conversely, Hardy juxtaposes the “ruined [maid’s]” “fair garments” such as “gay bracelets” and “bright feathers” against her “tatters without shoes or socks” during her farm life. Hardy’s use of contrast highlights the prosperity and “polish” of a morally “ruined” and marginalised prostitute as opposed to the hard life and poverty of a “raw country girl”, conveying Victorian women’s insecure position either way. Contrastingly, Harwood utilises enjambment between her first and second stanzas to produce a discordant effect, underlining that it is “too late” to “feign indifference” to the housewife’s loss of individuality due to domesticity. Harwood’s use of caesura in Stanza 2 emphasises her speakers’ ironic tone as she sarcastically “[rehearses]” “how nice” her life is whilst her former lover pauses and silently thinks there “but for the grace of God” go I, stressing the housewife’s emotional despair. Likewise, Hardy’s juxtaposition between a prostitute’s “pretty lively” state and a farm maid’s “megrims” and