The location in both ‘The Glasgow Sonnet No.1’written by Edwin Morgan and ‘The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket’ written by Yasunari Kawabata, is very different. In ‘The Glasgow Sonnet No. 1’, Morgan conveys to us the location of Glasgow which is desolate and poverty-stricken. Whereas, in ‘The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket’, Kawabata describes in detail, the colourful, bright location which surrounds him.
‘The Glasgow Sonnet No. 1’ is a poem written in third person. Morgan uses a Petrarch style; splitting the poem up into an octet and a sestet. The octet depicts the desolation of the Glaswegian area and the sestet goes into detail of what lies within these flats which are a key feature in conveying the level of poverty which grips this
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For example, ‘The Glasgow Sonnet No. 1’ has a dark and sombre atmosphere. This is made clear when Morgan states, ‘Four storeys have no windows left to smash’. Here, he is referring to the high rise flats in Glasgow in which today’s society deem as unsuitable to live in. This is because of the damp draughty conditions which the inhabitants have to endure. The onomatopoeic use of the word ‘smash’ reinstates the destruction of this area. It is evident that there is no sign of these damages being repaired which shows that no one cares about this poverty-stricken area. Morgan ends the octet in saying ‘that black block condemned to stand, not crash.’ The alliterative ‘b’ is a harsh and cold sound which conveys the harsh conditions which are faced by those who live there. The word ‘condemned’ makes it clear these high rise flats were rotting away and no one was willing to spend the time or money on demolishing the flats. Additionally, the onomatopoeic use of the word ‘crash’ which we associate being painful, reinstates the horrible fate in which these flats and the surrounded are subjected to. Compared to this, ‘The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket’ has a much more colourful and brighter atmosphere. This is evident when Kawabata goes into detail of the colours of the lanterns which surrounded him. ‘Not only were there crimson, pink, indigo, green, purple, and yellow lanterns, but one lantern …show more content…
‘The Glasgow SonnetNo.1’ is set in the dark, dreich city of Glasgow. Whereas, ‘The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket’ is set in Japan. It is clear that the location described in the Glasgow Sonnet is dark both physically and emotionally when Morgan states:
The man lies late since he has lost his job,
Smoke on one elbow, letting his coughs fall thinly into an air too poor to rob.
Through this statement, we feel sorry for the man described as he is sleep deprived due to the worry of being jobless. We get the sense that this man has given up hope when Morgan says the man is ‘letting his coughs fall’. The word ‘letting’ suggests that he is not bothering about his poor health. The personification of the ‘air’ reinstates the desolation as not even nature, which is usually associated with pure and beautiful, can even improve these awful circumstances. In comparison to this, in ‘The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket’, Kawambata describes what he saw in Japan:
At the base of the embankment was a bobbing cluster of beautiful varicoloured lanterns, such as one might see at a festival in a
In addition to this, the poem uses auditory imagery to shatter the dream-like atmosphere that has been created surrounding the suburb, with the “howl of the twin-cam war party” and the “techno pulse” destroying the tranquillity, and emanating the “invasion” of Australia by the Europeans over 200 years ago. This further works to evoke feelings of empathy from the reader by allowing them to observe “eye for an eye” philosophy, present throughout the poem, in phrases such as “areas we treat with the same contempt laid upon us”. These ideologies are present throughout Samuel Wagan Watson’s body of work, with many poems throughout the anthology displaying similar attitudes towards the colonisation of Australia, and the degradation of the spirituality of the land that followed.
Poetry often uses sound to maintain a flow that keeps the reader interested and involved in a poem. Onomatopoeia is used in both “We Wear the Mask” and “Ballad of Birmingham” in one way and another. In the “Ballad of Birmingham,” alliteration is used when the consonant “W” is used in the line “her eyes grew wet and wild.” (26) In the same respect, “We Wear the Mask” states “But let the world dream otherwise/We wear the mask.”(14,15) The sound of the “W” is also repeated three times in these lines. Assonance is also a common sound used in both of the poems. In “Ballad of Birmingham,” the vowel “O” is repeated in the line “No, baby, no you cannot go.”(4,13) Also, the vowel “E” is repeated in the line “It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes”(2) in “We Wear the Mask.” The way in which a consonant or vowel is repeated brings a pleasing sound to the reader’s ear. The only major difference that the two poems contain is that in “Ballad of Birmingham,” the tone of the poem changes from a normal
The main theme within Clarke’s Sonnet is his distance and inability to communicate with a lover due to his alcoholism, and the way in which his coping mechanism, and alcoholism affects this relationship. In the opening octet,
The main theme within Clarke’s Sonnet is his distance and inability to communicate with a lover. This poem is written for his lover as an attempt to connect with her, although within the poem, he is continuing to communicate poorly. The way in which he copes with this broken relationship drives the tone of the poem.
Poetry is an art form that has been used to express certain messages or beliefs, and can potentially change a reader’s view on a subject. Suburban Sonnet, written by Gwen Harwood has a lot of social commentary and is speaking to you about a lot of things that it feels are important. It is looking to make a lot of points about Australian society and the sacrifice of having children and of living a suburban lifestyle. Gwen Harwood’s ‘Suburban Sonnet’ is a fourteen line poem with strong values of urban Australia.
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.
In the first stage of the poem, Morgan uses various poetic techniques to set the scene in the early evening by a Scottish loch. “The evening is perfect, my sisters. The loch lies silent, the air is still. The suns last rays linger over the water.” Morgan’s use of effective word choice creates a sense of peaceful tranquillity which is further developed with the alliteration
A character an abundant of readers forget to point out are one of the most crucial ones there is in any piece of literature. The setting makes the narrative come to life with vivid imagery that enhances the experience of reading, especially when it can be much more than just a place or time. In The Grasshopper and the Bell- Cricket and A Pair of Tickets, the settings support the concept of a location being connected to the stages of life. There is a correlation between the setting and the theme of each of the short stories.
First, the poet uses metre, a style that emphasizes the use of a specific structure, which is an appropriate way of presenting poems with positive themes such as love. In this case, the poet achieves metre through the use of a uniform number of syllables in every line of the first stanza (10 syllables per line). This approach not only makes the poem memorable in recitation and listening but also relaxes the listener which is important in understanding the subject matter. Petrach uses a qualitative metre, which concentrates on the use of uniform syllabic arrangement. As a result, he creates an aesthetic euphony thus making the listener and the reciter to enjoy the presentation of the poem. The technique is appropriate in the presentation of a love sonnet. Equally, the first two stanzas have four lines each, but the last two stanzas have three lines each. This aspect aligns with the two perspectives presented in the poem, the first being his great affection for Laura, and the second is an expression of the pain he experiences as a result of the unreciprocated love. Furthermore, he has been unable to express his feelings to her, which compounds his pain evident in the words “I had love's tinder in my breast unburned, was it a wonder if it kindled there?” (Lines 8 – 9).
Another technique used is Onomatopoeia it means the use of words that imitates sound. An example of this in the poem is shown by the use of the following word – zipping. “They’re zipping them up in green plastic bags” by using the word zipping in this sentence, helps the readers to associate with the sound of which a zip makes.
In the opening lines of Millay’s poem, it seems as if she is speaking to a lover. The tone of the poem is set in the first line, “in some quite casual way” (1). Throughout the sonnet, one senses a frighteningly casual tone, something very matter of fact, as if these fourteen lines are a passing thought in Millay’s head. The alliteration of “quite casual” supports the plain-spoken tone, giving a feel of simple, everyday speech. Millay imagines that as she is on the subway, she casually glances over and notices on “the back-page of a paper, say / Held by a neighbor” (3-4) her lover is gone and not to return.
The sonnet opens with a statement of uncertainty as the speaker admits, “I’m not sure how to hold my face when I dance” (1). Immediately thereafter, the speaker poses three questions, all of which allude to the contemplative tone of the poem. While these inquiries regard the subject of dance, the speaker also intends for them to be metaphors for the uncertainty he, as a black man, has for his place in society. His questions are rapid-fire, almost probing the audience for answers that may not truly exist. An obvious lack of breaks for these questions to be answered shows that the speaker must believe that they, in fact, have no answers. These first four sentences are crucial in the sonnet’s development, as they provoke thought and contemplation so that the reader’s mind can be in the same place as the speaker.
”The grasshopper and the bell cricket” is a short story, written by Yasunari Kawabata, written in a narrative perspective of someone watching children searching for insects using colored and decorated lanterns. I would like to think that the author is trying to symbolize life, and that it is not only one path to go. We are all aiming for acceptance and to fit in to the society, but this story tells us that
“On Being Cautioned against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because it was Frequented by a Lunatic,” Charlotte Smith’s sonnet, comments on the poet’s feelings toward this lunatic and the thought process he instigates in her mind. By using different syntax to describe her two characters, Smith draws the attention of the reader to the message in the sonnet instead of the scene on the surface. The structure of the English sonnet also lends to the poem’s power, giving Smith a perfect avenue to deliver her message.
Many people say that when speaking, it is not what you say but how you say it. In poetry, to convey certain moods and tones, the word choice or diction is essential. Beginning with a title and first line filled with irony, “Thou blind man’s mark”, thou fool’s self- chosen snare” (line 1), Sir Philip Sydney discusses the absurdity of the subject matter of this poem. Using terms such as “bands of all evils” and “ thy worthless ware” in lines 3 and 6, the