My thought shall never be that you are dead:
Who laughed so lately in this quiet place.
The dear and deep-eyed humour of that face
Held something ever living, in Death’s stead.
Scornful I hear the flat things they have said
And all their piteous platitudes of pain.
I laugh! I laugh! – For you will come again –
This heart would never beat if you were dead.
The world’s adrowse in twilight hushfulness,
There’s purple lilac in your little room,
And somewhere out beyond the evening gloom
Small boys are culling summer watercress.
Of these familiar things I have no dread
Being so very sure you are not dead.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This poem has quite a complicated rhyming pattern (A, B, B, A, C, D, D, C, E, F, F, E, G, G)however, in contrast to this the pattern of the syllables in extremely simple - there are exactly 10 syllables on each line (line 6 could have 11 but it depends on the way that you speak the words)! I think that Keown is writing this poem to express her feelings that a loved one has been reported missing, and she is trying to assure herself that he is alive. I think that her missing loved one is her husband, boyfriend or fiance, instead of her dad or brother etc. I think this because on line 8 it says 'this heart would never beat if you were dead' shows that it is her partner who was reported missing not a member of her family. Throughout the poem quite a lot of hope is shown by Keown and it is showing the reader that he strongly believes that her missing partner is not dead.
ReplyDeleteABI.(:
On the above comment it is supposed to say 'that SHE strongly believes that her missing partner is not dead'. Just in case you were wondering :L
ReplyDeleteAbi [;
This poem has got quite a complicated rhyming pattern, some of them are rhyming couplets:
ReplyDelete"who laugh so lately in this quiet place
the dear and deep-eyed humour of that face."- and others are ABA. There are 10 in syllables in each line which is a nice round number;. We think this poem could've been published because Anna Gordon Keowen wanted to tell everyone and show everyone her grief and make it heard that she doesn't believe that her fiance is dead.
The poem is about Keowen thinking about how her fiance could not be dead. in her grief she's going through a period of self denial. she's ignoring everything she's been told and just believing he's died - "being so very sure you are not dead".
It's very sad because the probability is that he had died and never returned. She was only 58 when she died which means she was 15-19 years old when the war was going on.
group 2 - felicity and katie
Anna Gordon Kewon was born in 1899 in London and was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College,Dresden and Ireland.She married Dr.Phillip Gosse, a well known writer and physician. When she died in 1957, he prestented a large collection of her writings to the University of Leeds. One of her best known works is the sonnet of "Reported Missing" which was written in her teens, during the First World War.
ReplyDeleteAlexia group 2 :P
The poem makes us feel sorry for her because it is almost certain he won't come back, but she loves him so much she won't believe. It makes us wonder and feel worried about how she will cope if she does get the news that he has died. Also, if Anna Gordin Keown is writing about her own experiences then she was very young at the time.
ReplyDeleteThis poem shows great emotion and is very well written. It really expresses the feelings of those who loved and lost in the war. I don't think Anna gordin Keown was wrting about her own experiences because she was very young at the time of the war and she married again years later. If this is the case then this shows a lot of empathy.
that was from laurie group 2!
ReplyDeletethe general feel of the poem is determination. the writer doesn't feel grateful for any sympathy that people are showing because she believes he isn't dead and saying he is, is wrong. she is saying she be the last to laugh when he returns home safe and they've been mourning for nothing. its quite inspiring that she still has belief even when everyone else has forgotten.
ReplyDeleteThe power for the love this women feels for this man must be strong, as shown in line 8 - "this heart would never beat if you were dead". This implies that these two people have such a strong connections that even their hearts are together.
group 7
I had a look on google for some information about Keown, and found out that this is not written about her own experiences and her own partner. It says on wikipedia that when she died, 'her husband presented some literature to the university of Leeds in her memory'. If this is true, then either she didn't write this first-hand, or she married somebody else after the person in this poem passed away in the war.
ReplyDeleteTash, group 6 [I think]
I have noticed that from the list of writer techniques that in Reported Missing one of the features used is Naïvity. This means the poem is simple and the thoughts are optimistic, and the optimistic approach in particular is true to this poem.
ReplyDeleteEleanor Group7
tash we are group 7. :)
ReplyDeleteIn the poem, in the second line it says 'so lately' which shows he has only just gone missing and she had seen him not very long ago.
In the third line there is description of the man. for example 'deep-eyed humour of that face' This is a memory of him and a description of his face.
I like the part of the poem where it says 'This heart would never beat if you were dead' she is saying that she would be dead if he was so she knows he is still alive as she is.
Bex group 7 :)
How do you know it is her fiance? I thought it was her son! That is because it says 'little room' and she doesn't get sad when she sees 'small boys'. What do you think?
ReplyDelete