Strength of Human Emotions in Poems
English Coursework Compare how strong human emotion Is conveyed in three poems from Section C of the Anthology and three other poems you have studied. Poetry engages readers with different forms of emotion; these emotions can be conveyed through stylish and subtle use of extraordinary language, form, structure and context, all of which provide an additional dimension to the literature. Emotion Is defined as a "strong feeling" and this will be explored in the paired poems: 'Having' and 'Remember'; 'A Mother In A Refugee Camp' and 'Mother Any Distance'; 'Sonnet 1 16' and 'If.
The key themes in these passages are the universal feelings which we all experience, such as love and resentment. The poems In each pair share similar subject matter and messages. Poetry Is a thought-provoking way to explore the challenges encountered throughout our lives. These are demonstrated by the look and shape of a poem, the sophisticated vocabulary and emotion which can be depicted. Looking at the poems, I will explore how emotion is displayed and communicated to the reader. A Mother In a Refugee Camp' by China Achebe Is about the sadness of a mother who prepares o have her dear son take from her due to an unfortunate illness in the midst of a civil war refugee camp. The poem goes through four changing stages of emotion: reflection, sickness, pride and subsequently yet unfortunately ending in death. These emotions are universal experiences. Meaningful language Is used In the first line, "No Madonna and child could touch", a religious reference used to describe the epitome of a mother and son relationship.
The poem vividly describes the horrors taking place in the civil war, in lines such as, "heavy odors of diarrhea" and unwashed children with washed-out ribs" which graphically depict the experiences of disgust, as Intense pathos Is created at the expense of the children. Strong language is used so the reader can detect the stench of the odors and conceptualize the unwashed ribs of the children, as they're so desperate and in need of care. Huge pity Is Invoked In the reader as they can vividly picture what is happening In the camp.
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The "ghost-smile", Is a false, fake smile displayed as the mother tries to behave with courage and strength at the most emotional time of her life, also provoking the reader as it did for me into feeling condolence and sympathy awards her. She is there in the present yet her mind is completely taken away from the camp Into reflecting upon memories. Comparatively 'Mother Any Distance' by Simon Remarriage is a more thought-provoking poem as it delves into the ordeal of a young man leaving home and breaking free from his mother.
It is thought-provoking because it allows the reader to reflect on one's own thoughts of this whether it is yet to come or a previous encounter. Loss and separation are two emotions felt In the paired poems but in contrasting contexts. 'Mother Any Distance' focuses more on restoration whilst 'A Mother in a Refugee Camp' on total heartbreak. 'Mother Any Distance' is written in free verse allowing flexibility in structure and vocabulary.
Likewise, words invariably used to portray distance are used to create a sense of the loss that Is soon to take place, "acres", "years" and "zero-end", these Impact the reader leading them to understand that the distance between the mother and son in this 1 OFF created through such lines as "she soon would have to forget" and "other mothers there had long ceased to care". However, in both poems there is a feeling of not being able to deny something that looms large.
The repetition of the word 'mother' shows us the maternal love she feels and the inability to let go of her son as he moves into adulthood. Fantastic imagery is used such as the metaphors "Anchor", safe foundations and "Kite", this represents the process of flight. The "endless sky to fall or fly', the son is preparing to fly, to leave safety, knowing not what lies ahead. In 'Mother Any Distance' the stanza size seems to increase as the distance between them grows. As in 'A Mother in a Refugee Camp' the mothers are devoted until the end.
I feel that 'Mother Any Distance' captivates me more as it has made me think owe my own experience will be and also because this is a more universal event. By contrast, 'A Mother in a Refugee Camp' is something that many cannot relate to or cannot understand the pain and agony. Carol Ann Duffy 'Having' focuses on the emotions of loss and separation. Having or Miss Having as she is known in Charles Dickens' 'Great Expectations' is an elderly character who in her younger life was left at the altar and continues to obsess over this.
The selection to not include the Miss at the start of her name is unknown; I feel that it may be due to her coming creature-like and Duffy wishing to focus on her as person and not Just a spinster. Duffy self-consciously transforms this novel character from being depressed in 'Great Expectations' to a more aggressive angry character in the poem 'Having'. An interesting and controversial alliterative 'B' oxymoron "Beloved sweetheart bastard. " is used in line one. This shows that possibly Having still has thoughts of love towards her ex-fiance©e but still holds a grudge long after their parting.
Duffy uses vivid colors as symbols, starting in line three, "dark green pebbles for eyes" Rene representing the emotion of envy, with her sinister thoughts. Also, "pebbles" demonstrate that her feelings are unhealthy as she wishes such hatred to another human being. From line three, this turns out to be a continuous theme throughout the rest of the poem. At the end of the poem, emphasis is used with "the heart that b-b-b-breaks. " Having is hiding from the outside world as she is old and trembling whilst she reflects on her younger years.
The poem is written in free verse, allowing a flow through freedom of a variety of words and sentence structures as there are no constraints as in a sonnet. The stanzas are broken down into lines of four, called a quatrain; the stanzas go through four stages of emotion; hatred, horror, reflection and further hatred, finishing the way it started, returning to the emotion of hatred. 'Remember' by Christiana Rosettes is written in first person as is 'Having' thus the reader has a sense of a relationship with the protagonists in the poem, creating more pathos.
Rosettes was bought up in the times of the Pre-Raphael movement, possibly explaining why her poems were controversial with formerly inaudible religious references such as "Pray'. In these paired poems protagonists are similar in hat they are soul-destroyed and are both going through or reminiscing on emotional break downs. Repetition of the personal pronouns "me", "you", "our" and "l" highlight the intimacy of the personal relationship and highlight loss between two people, also affecting the way we interpret the poem as it could be about anyone. Having' in its regular verses of four is much unlike 'Remember' with a solid block of emotional her. "Remember me when I am gone away', a very melancholy line stating how sad she is and that soon she will be departing, setting the tone and atmosphere for the rest of the poem. Gone far away into the silent land" says that where she is going will not be dreadful, she can be calm and relaxed here but "far away'; she will not be able to return. However, this could be viewed as a euphemism for death and like Hafnium's "beloved sweetheart bastard" create an oxymoron feel. Remember' is a sonnet (a 14 lined poem), self-contradictory in its paradoxical form in which the feel of the poem changes two lines from its conclusion from a demanding command at the start of each quatrain "remember me" to "better by far you should forget and smile" a happier and quite nostalgic quote. It follows the rhyme pattern, ABA and iambic pentameter, which are regular patterns; this gives the poem a flow and beat. Along with the precise use of punctuation, used in the middle of lines on clause emphasis, called a caesura, often incorporated to emphasis a point, "Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay. Compared to Having which follows no rhyme scheme, this is due to the constant use of enjambment. The emotions conveyed in 'Having' and 'Remember' are those of confusion and love. 'Sonnet 116' by William Shakespeare was published in 1609 in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. The focal point is the emotion of love which is defined as "a strong feeling of affection", which in Shakespearean times perhaps had more meaning and more importance.
Love is prominent throughout the poem through the use of poetic devices and fanciful language in the metaphors, "the star to every wandering bark" and "an ever-fixed mark', in an attempt to define the indefinable love. Shakespeare is trying to declare to us that love can't be altered by any means "love alters not with his brief hours and weeks. " Love is eternal, "bears it out even to the edge of doom". To summaries what Shakespeare is attempting to say Where there is life there is love'. The poem has a rhetorical theme of love and what it is, which can be interpreted in many different ways.
Comparably love, like the poem, has no real end or conclusion. After all, love is a philosophical perception. Rudyard Kipling 'If like '1 16' explores the conflicting emotions of love and pride. 'If is a didactic poem, meaning to give instruction. 'If serves as an instruction in this case to an exceptional leader, illustrating the actions a man should take throughout life, such as never giving up, "If you can wait and not be tired by waiting". The creative use of an exclamation mark, manfully be a man, my son! " captivates the reader's attention and adds sudden enthusiasm to a rather serious poem.
Writing to children, the rhyme scheme ABA assists coherence and comprehension. The paired poems are written in iambic pentameter, offering a regular pattern which also adds a ironically and infatuating quality to the poem. 'If' is written in four stanzas of eight rhyming lines, in its order of ABA, whilst '1 16' is split into three quatrains and a couplet. The structure of the paired poems emphasizes the emotions depicted. The rhyme scheme in 'If gives a sincere yet uplifting feel whilst '1 16' is more sophisticated.
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