Tuesday, 20 October 2009
comparitive analysis between the deserter and the hero.
- Although the two titles seem to differ, with one being a hero and one being a deserter really they are about the same circumstances. Both men in the poems were trying to escape the war.
- The mothers of the men are both misinformed and think their sons are hero's that died for their country.
- The hero uses enjambement and so does the deserter.
- The rhyming pattern in the hero is AA,BB,CC and in the deserter the rhyming pattern is A,B,C,B.
- The soldier in the deserter was killed by his own country and the hero was killed by an opposing country.
Comparison of Recruiting and The Target!!!!
- Recruiting is showing the public the truth behind the propaganda "Lads, you're wanted, go and help." The Target is very blunt and shows what can really happen on the front line.
- Both poems use guilt to emphasize their message.
- Both use caesuras and enjambments.
- In recruiting the second and fourth lines rhyme in every verse (ABCB) whereas the Target uses rhyming couplets.
- Recruiting is very literal and doesn't describe much emotion, however, the Target uses a lot of imagery and is visceral.
- Both tell that the soldiers will die no matter what happens. In the target the poet writes as a soldier who has just killed another man but did not have any choice because he did it to save himself.
- Both have a mixed number of syllables per verse, this shows that the poet hasn't focused on this.
- Recruiting is probably written about the poet's own experiences as he was an officer in WW1. Ivor Gurney was also a soldier in WW1 but a lesser one than E.A. Mackintosh and so is showing his own experiences and what he probably had to do.
- Ivor Gurney writes about the people left at home and all their worries about their relatives on the front line. E.A. Mackintosh however tells them to forget their other life and to learn to "Live and die with honest men."
- Both poems have four lines in each of their stanzas, which is the typical length for a poem.
Monday, 19 October 2009
Comparison of two poems by Wilfred Owen
We are going to compare two poems by Wilfred Owen. One is from the book; The Send Off and the other we found on the internet; Disabled.
He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.
About this time Town used to swing so gay
When glow-lamps budded in the light blue trees,
And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim, -
In the old times, before he threw away his knees.
Now he will never feel again how slim
Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands;
All of them touch him like some queer disease.
There was an artist silly for his face,
For it was younger than his youth, last year.
Now, he is old; his back will never brace;
He's lost his colour very far from here,
Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,
And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race
And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.
One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg,
After the matches, carried shoulder-high.
It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,
He thought he'd better join. - He wonders why.
Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts,
That's why; and may be, too, to please his Meg;
Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts
He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;
Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.
Germans he scarcely thought of; all their guilt,
And Austria's, did not move him. And no fears
Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts
For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;
And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;
Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.
And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.
Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.
Only a solemn man who brought him fruits
Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.
Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes,
And do what things the rules consider wise,
And take whatever pity they may dole.
To-night he noticed how the women's eyes
Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
How cold and late it is! Why don't they come
And put him into bed? Why don't they come?
This poem is about someone who has come home from the war and who is now disabled. It could be considered a sequel to The Send-Off because The Send-Off is about someone going into war, and Disabled is about someone coming back. Disabled may be referring to the people he saw around him when he was on sick leave from the war and The Send-Off may be referring to him going to the war.
In Disabled, Owen turns fear into a proper noun; "And no fears Of Fear came yet." This sentence means that the man in the poem didn't fear Fear yet. The use of personification turns fear into a concrete noun making it into someone and making it scarier. When it is a proper noun it seems to be more important, and as it is usually not capitalized the slight change is very noticeable and it makes you feel that you can't escape it. However, Owen does not use personification in The Send-Off and this shows how he can use different techniques for different effects and doesn't always have to fill his poems with every technique, but can use just a few and make them powerful.
When you read both poems you feel empathy for the people in it, but we think that we feel more empathy for the character in Disabled because of what he's gone through; "Legless, sewn short at elbow." This verse is very to the point and makes you realise what's happened. In The Send-Off you feel empathy for the women and children who are losing their loved ones because they are going to war. You also know that most of them won't come back so you feel for them more. When you read it you have the benefit of hindsight and you know what is going to happen to them when their loved ones don't come back.
The last stanza of The Send Off is contrasting to the previous stanza. While before it made it seem as though when the soldiers arrived home they would get a heroes welcome, the last paragraph contradicts this point. "May creep back, silent, to village wells, Up half-known roads" This shows the darker side, the real side of what happens when they eventually return home. The word half-known suggests that even though they may have spent most of their lives living there, the war had had made even the most important and memorable things in life seem distant and foreign.
from Ed Parry, Lucy Oliva, Georgie Bray and Ashley Layer group 3
Comparison of "The Hero" and "Spring in War - Time" ;)
Comparative analysis of joining the colours and the send-off.
Comparison between Spring in War-Time and The Deserter
Comparison of The Hero and Reported Missing
- Reported missing's rhyming scheme is abbaaccadeedaa where as the Hero's rhyming scheme is aabbccdedeffgghhii which makes the hero sound more lyrical like a song unlike reported missing which sounds less like a song so each line has more impact as there's more description to absorb.
- Both poems show a character trying to look at the brighter side of their situation although in reported missing the character is in denial and doesn't want to accept the harsh realities of war.
- The hero contains speech which makes the poem more personal and emotional for the reader as its more real and portrays a empathic story.
The Hero and Spring in War Time
Our Follower
Comparison of 'Spring in War Time' and 'The Target'
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Comparisons between 'The Hero' and 'In flander Fields'
Fields':
- They are both written in the same time period.
- Both Poems are writen in 3 stanzas.
- The Hero is written in couplets and In Flander's Fields is written in the
scheme 'AABBA, AABC, AABBAC. - Both poems use enjamberment to great effect.
- The Hero doesn't have a distinct rhythm. In Flanders Fields has a sort of rhythm.
- Both poems are about death. The Hero is about the death of someone whilst In Flander's Fields is written as if by one of the many dead.
- In Flanders Fields uses repation and this coupled with the last stanza makes the poem sound rather erie.
- The Hero starts as if 'Jack' was a hero and had died fighting the enemy. We find out later that he actually died trying to escape. This gives the poem a rather dark ending.
- In Flanders Fields there is a slight use of archaic language (Ye).
- In Flanders Fields uses semicolons to move the peom on whilst The Hero uses comas only.
By Nathan, Dan and Henry
Comparison of Recruiting and Spring Offensive
- Meaning - Recruiting shows the real truth behind recruitment posters and how they lie, and Spring Offensive is about war in spring-time and how soldiers spend all this time getting ready to fight, just to go and die. In a way, Recruiting shows what life is going to be once you've signed up through these recruitment poster to go to war, and Spring Offensive proves it and describes it in more detail.
- Both poems don't have a point of view from someone in the poem, but it is from the poet, telling us the poem, not the poet writing about someone telling us the poem.
- Recruiting emphasises on the meaning of the poem and the truth behind the recruitment posters, Spring Offensive emphasises on the effect on the reader and hits you at then end because you read about how they are all getting ready, and then what leaves you with the biggest impact and what makes you remember the poem is how they all die at the end.
- Recruiting has a regular rhyming pattern; ABCB whereas Spring Offensive has a very irregular rhyming pattern. In Spring Offensive each stanza is of a different length and has a different rhyme scheme, in Recruiting, each stanza is of the same length and has the same rhyme scheme.
Comparitve points on 'Recruiting' and 'The Send Off'.
1. 'Recruiting' has a rhyming scheme of ABCB whilst 'The Send off' has ABA and Ab rhyming schemes.
2. 'Recruiting has a set rhyme scheme whilst 'The send off' is just sentances.
3. They both focus on the dark side of war.
4. Both poets died in the war, so probably shared similar experiances.
5. Both poems have enjambement and caesural pauses.
6. 'Recruitment' has a much more defined rhythm, whilst 'The send off' has different punctuation at the end of each line which gives a different rhythm.
7. 'Recruitment' is much more literal.
8. Both poems get more sinister as you go through.
9. Both poems are done as though reflecting on the war.
10. Both poems are about going into the war, not about the actual fighting.
By Tash Beaumont, Georgie Bray, Ashley Layer and Lucy Oliva.
Saturday, 17 October 2009
eleanor and jenny
Joining the colours is written in third person where as the target is written in first. This makes the target feel more personal but joining the colours gives a more overall look at the war.
Both poems seem to tell a story if you put them together. joining the colours is about how the soldiers who are soon to be fighting are 'smooth cheeked' as if to say they healthy and ready for what they don't think wont be as horrific as it turns out. The target show the truth about war so you can see what the soldier experiences when he's there, and how he tries to justify it in his mind.
Both poems were probably written around the same time if you look at the birth dates of the writers. this could mean that any similarities in what has been written are true.
The target has rhyming couplets but joining the colours has a ABAB rhyming scheme. A s a result the target flows differenty so each line links to the last so the poem gradually builds a picture in your mind making each line more memorable. The rhyming scheme for joining the colours has a harsher impact because the lines seem to stop dead as you read them which is quite effective.
Friday, 16 October 2009
Comparison of The Hero and Spring in War Time
1. In The Hero there are 10 syllables in each line but the poet hasnt concentrated on keeping the same number the whole way through as there are 11 in some. however in Spring in War Time there are 7 syllables in each line apart from the last, which has 3. this gives a clear ending to the poem as if it was read out to you, you would know where it finished.
2. The Hero uses rhyming couplets apaert from the middle which uses alternate rhyming. This gives a very clear middle section to the poem. Spring inWar Time uses alternate rhyming all the way through.
3. The Hero has many enjambements and creates a feeling as if the poem is being spoken aloud. Spring in War Time doesn't focus on technicallity that much and looks and sounds and you would expect a poem to.
4.The Hero is about a greving mother being told for the first time that her son is dead. she is told he died a hero when really he was a coward and was selfish as well. Spring in War Time is similar to this as it is also about a dead soldier but this time by a greving wife/fiancee/sweetheart. she hasnt been told any lies, or so it seems in the poem, and she is telling the world that nothing will be the same without her man.
5.Nesbit has published her poem to immortalise her dead love and as a tribute to him. Sassoon, however, has published his to show the public that what they are told might not be the truth and that 'brave' men aren't always brave in the light of battle.
6.The Hero is written in 3 stanzas, each 6 lines ong. Spring in War Time is also written in stanzas, this time 4, each 4 lines long. they both give a sense of regularity and this makes it comforting to the reader, to have something familiar in front of them.
1-3:Abi, Kate, Laurie and Alexia
4-6: Alexia
Comparison of "The Bohemians" and "Lamentations"
SIMILARITES:
- Both of the poems have only one stanza
- Neither of them have a specific rhyming pattern
- They both use the technique of enjambement
DIFFERENCES:
- In The Bohemians, the mood of the poem is rebellious, lazy and also sympathetic, whereas in Lamentations it is a poem with the mood of sad, slightly disturbing, grief-stricken and distress.
- Although both of the poems rough outline of the story is about war, they are to do with completely different stubjects within war. The Bohemians is about "certain people" who were rebelling against the uniform which soldiers had to wear. They "would not clean their buttons" and "preferred their hair long." The reason for them doing this was beause they assumed they would die in war and therefore didn't think it would be neseccary for them to dress apropriately.Whereas Lamentations is about a guy who's brother had "gone west" which could mean the brother had literally gone west or that he had died, as later it says "his ramant grief."
- The symbolism in The Bohemians is of independance, uniqueness and being virtuous. Whereas the symbolism of Lamentations is of how war drives some people mad.
- In both of the poems they use different techniques, but neither of them use the same ones: a simile is used in The Bohemians: "sped like evil for quicknes." And peronification is used in Lamentations: "from the blind darkness."
By Rachel, Evelyn, Izzie and Alix :)
Comparative Analysis of 'Flanders Fields' and 'Spring in War Time'
- Both appreciate everyday life
- Both discuss nature and wildlife [poppies, sunsets, battlefields, etc]
- Both are centered on a person/ people who have been killed
- Both talk about flowers growing over the place of death, but one talks about poppies and the other about violets
- Both refer to the past: in 'Flanders Fields' lines 7 to 8, and in 'Spring In War Time' lines 2 to 4
- Both sound as though they are speaking to someone or the poem is directed at somebody
Differences
- Stanza length
- Rhyming pattern - one is alternate, whereas the majority of the other is rhyming couplets
- At the end of each poem the last stanzas have different moods: 'Flanders Fields' is almost threatening and angry, 'Spring In War Time' accpets the loss but is going through the process of grief
- In 'Flanders Fields' - the author has personified death to add emphasis to the negative emotions felt towards it
- In 'Flanders Fields' they continuously repeat the title of the poem although 'Spring In War Time' doesn't even mention the title of the poem once
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Comparison of Spring In War Time and Lamentations
-Lamentations has irregular rhyming, where as Spring in war time has an ABAB structure.
-Both refer to the loss of a loved one, although Lamentations is viewing the person grieveing, and Spring in war time is written from the point of view of the person grieving.
-The poem Lamentations uses 'blind darkness' to show death in a more brutal mood where as Spring in war time uses 'sprinkled blackhorn snow' which gives the poem a lighter tone.
-Spring in war time is very descrpitive of the setting where as Lamentations focuses on the description of the man grieving.
-spring in war time uses enjambment 'heart to sing.....of its nest' Lamentations also uses enjambment but not to perfect the rhyming pattern, but to variate the lines
-Lamentations uses the rule of three 'moaned, shouted, sobbed' for effect on the reader. Spring in war time does not use this.
-Spring in war time uses personification saying 'every bird has heart to sing' whereas Lamentations does not use this because its talking about a person already.
by BLOG PARTY
ellie, leanne, cleophie, alice
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
The Hero and In Flanders Fields
SIMILARITIES
- In their structures the poems are very similar as they each contain three seperate verses
- They both include enjambement, which I feel makes you want to carry on reading
- The mood in both poems is quite proud and determined even though they are both based on death
- In both poem the writter makes you feel sad for them because in The Hero they have lost a loved one and in Flanders Fields they have lost their lives
- They both talk in the past tense but as if it has happened very recently
DIFFERENCES
- The Hero is a story about lies and In Flanders Fields is about the truth
- The Hero is straight forward and follows a story where as In Flanders Fields you have to read between the lines of the poem to realise the poppies symbolise the dead soldiers
- The Hero is based on the tale of one person, where as In Flanders Fields it looks at a large population
- The Hero has a rhyming scheme of mainly ryhming couplets and In Flanders Fields it has a random rhyming pattern
- I think that In Flanders Fields is quite lyrical, because it uses repition, rather than the more strutured story that is in the poem of The Hero
Eleanor Izzie Alix Jennifer
My comparison of 'the send-off' and 'the falling leaves' by bex hill.
Comparison of 'Perhaps' and 'Reported Missing' by Natasha Black, Katie Rees &+ Katie Sadlerrr 10B
- In 'Perhaps' she has accepted that her lover will never return - whereas in 'Reported Missing' she is being slightly stubborn and refuses to accept his death.
- In 'Perhaps' the mood is conflicted between bravery and sadness although in the other poem the mood is just sad.
- 'Perhaps' has quite a lot of repetition compared to 'Reported Missing' which has almost none.
- The structure is very different between the two: in 'Perhaps' there are 5 verses with 4 lines and the other is just one large stanza.
- The rhyming patterns are also very different. In 'Perhaps' it's very simple - just alternate rhymes on each line e.g. again, blue, vain, you (end words of each line in the first verse). In reported missing its an ABBA pattern e.e dead, place, face, stead.
- In 'Reported Missing' there are 10 syllables in each line, in 'Perhaps' it goes 10, 10, 10, 6. I think that 'Perhaps' reads better because of this.
- In 'Perhaps' the last verse contradicts all of the other verses so far. In the others she says how she is try to move on and in the last verse she says how there will always be a part of him that still loves him. There is nothing like this in 'Reported Missing', only it ends on the word dead which is quite dramatic.
- The last line in 'Perhaps' also breaks a rule/ pattern that has been going on in the rest of the poem, again there is nothing like this in the other poem.
- 'Perhaps' also includes a case of emjambement and a caesura, and this makes the poem seem more interesting. There is nothing like this in 'Reported Missing'.
- Vera was 21-25 during the war, compared to Anna who was 15-19, beacause of this i think Vera has an older perception of the war.
Comparison of The Target and Lamentations
- Lamentations has 1 stanza and The Target has 5 stanzas.
- Both have powerful openings e.g: 'I found him' and 'I shot him'. Both these opening use active verbs which give the statement s bold power. they put a vivid image in to your mind.
- Both poems use enjambement to create a complex pattern as the rhyme is there but the idea is carried on. it also makes you focus more on what is being said.
- Both poems are about people being killed but are different points of view. The Target is from the point of view of the 'Killer' and Lamentations is from the point of view of someone witnessing someone's grief of losing their brother.
- The Target has an AABB ryhme scheme (Ryhming Couplets) and Lametations has an ABAB scheme.
- Lamentations uses personification eg: 'the blind darkness' and 'the bleeding war'. The Targert doesn't use personification but does use an elipsis for great effect: 'Prehaps he was the only son...'
- The Target is more up beat and sing song as it is written in Iambic Tretameter. Lamentations ont he other hand is slower and more merose.
- Lamentations uses a euphemism for death ('gone west') whereas The target just says 'die' very plainly.
- Both poems are about someone who is confused either the writer as in The Target, Ivor Gurney himself was rather disturbed and spend the last few years of his life in an aslymum, or the man the poem is written about like in Lamentations.
- Lamentations has alot of physical description about he man who's recieved the bad news. The Target has more description about feelings.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Comparison of The Hero and The Seed-Merchant's Son
- Meaning - The Hero is about the woman's grief and how she's been lied to. The Seed-Merchant's Son is about the man's grief and how he realises how precious life is. Both poems have a definite story line but I think that The Seed-Merchant's Son has a more interesting story line because it has more elements to it with how he realises how precious life is.
- Each poem is in a different tense, with The Hero in the present, and the The Seed-Merchant's Son is mainly in the past.
- The Hero emphasises on how she's been lied to where as The Seed-Merchant's Son emphasises more on how his son used to be and in the end, the moral.
- Craftsmanship - Both poems have a rhyme scheme, but both are very different. The Hero has two; rhyming couplets and alternate, and The Seed-Merchant's Son just has rhyming couplets. Using two different rhyme schemes in The Hero makes it seem more complicated, so it has a more serious mood and you focus more on the meaning, than the craftsmanship. With The Seed-Merchant's Son, the rhyming is simple and slightly childish but this just adds to emphasis on how young he was when he died.
- Neither poems have a very simple rhythm, but The Hero does have a more complicated rhythm and this again makes the poem more serious, whereas with The Seed-Merchant's Son, the simpler rhythm emphasise again on how young he was. Herbertson has not made the rhythm really simple though because then it would like a limerick and would detract from the meaning.
- In The Seed-Merchant's Son the writer uses symbolism when he describes the seeds; he represents them as new life. This shows us the moral. In The Hero, Sassoon doesn't use symbolism, but I don't think it needs any.
- In The Hero, the writer uses one metaphor; "cold-footed useless swine," This metaphor in context emphasises the lie that the woman is being told and adds to the seriousness and effect of the poem. In The Seed-Merchant's Son Herbertson doesn't use metaphors but I think if he did it wouldn't add anything, just take away from the simple feel and the emphasis on the age of his death.
- Both poems use enjambment and ceasural pauses.
- Effect - You feel empathy in both poems: In The Hero, you feel very sympathetic for the woman because you realise that she is being lied to and that many others like her might have been lied to as well. In The Seed-Merchant's Son you feel sympathy for the Seed-Merchant because he is now all alone and his son was the only thing that was keeping him young.
- The Seed-Merchant's Son has moral whereas The Hero doesn't. The moral in The Seed-Merchant's Son is that you don't appreciate what you have or life until it's gone.
Monday, 12 October 2009
Background information on Agnes Grozier Herbertson
A little bit of background information on Agnes Grozier Herbertson, poet of 'The Seed-Merchant's Son':
- She was pivately educated at Oslo, in Norway, the city of her birth, where she became a novelist, short story writer and journalist.
- After her marriage, she moved to England and lived in Liskeard, in Cornwall.
- She also wrote poems, 'The Seed-Merchant's Son was writen in 1916.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Suggested poetry analysis terminology
Symbolism | The use of an object to represent an idea |
Cynicism | Expressing pessimistic attitudes; assuming the worst of things |
Alliteration | The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words |
Connotation | The related meanings or associations of words |
Ambiguous | Having double or multiple meanings |
Personification | The assigning of human qualities to nonhuman things |
Rhythm | The beat or pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables |
Lyric | Poems with a song-like quality. Poet expresses his personal reaction to things |
Narrative | Poems that tell a story |
Assonance | The repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables |
Tone | The writer's attitude towards his/her topic |
Simile | A figure of speech that compares two unlike things, using the words like or as |
Naïvity | Taking a simple approach; often optimistic and over-simple |
Onomatopoeia | The use of words to indicate sounds |
Pathos | Creating a sense of pity in the reader |
Enjambement | Ending a line of poetry without a punctuation mark, in the middle of a phrase or clause |
End-stopped | Ending a line of poetry on a punctuation mark at the end of a phrase or clause |
Mood | The overall feeling a poem awakens in the reader |
Metaphor | A figure of speech that compares two unlike things directly, without the use of an intervening word |
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Edith Nesbit
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Ivor Gurney
Born at 3 Queen Street, Gloucester in 1890.He enlisted as a private soldier in the Gloucestershire Regiment. He was wounded in April 1917 and gassed in September the same year. After his release from hospital he was posted to Seaton Delaval, a mining village in Northumberland, where he wrote poems including 'Lying awake in the ward'. His first volume of poetry, Severn and Somme, was published in November 1917, followed by War's Embers in 1919.
Background information on the poet of 'Reported Missing'
Anna Gordon Keown (1899 - 1957) was an English author and poet.
She married writer and physician Dr Philip Gosse (1879-1959), son of the esteemed Edmund Gosse. Her husband presented a large collection of literature to the University of Leeds in her memory when she died. This is known as the Keown Collection.
She had many pieces of work in the collection, one of the most famous is her book The Cat who saw God published in 1932, a comic drama about a cat who is possessed by the Roman Emperor Nero who decides to settle down with an old English spinster. In November the 14th,1932, 'TIME' listed it as one of their "Books of the Week", noting it as "amusing in the English manner."
She wrote 'Reported Missing' during her youth in word war one.