Compare And Contrast The Ways

Compare and Contrast the ways in which the poet describes the breakdown if the relationship. Comment on the effectiveness of their verse-craft

I chose to compare the poems: An Anniversary, by Vernon Scannel

Dismissal, by John Tripp

A Winters Tale, by D.H. Lawrence

In the poem “An Anniversary'; the poet describes the relationship and it’s breakdown as two leaves on a river, this is and example of ‘Personification’. In contrast to this poem in the poem “Dismissal'; Tripp describes the breakdown very much as it was, describing two people in a dreary pub, this is an example of ‘Pathetic fallacy’ as the setting is very boring and dark like the breakdown of the relationship. In “A Winters Tale'; Lawrence uses a similar verse-craft to Scannel in “An Anniversary'; with the relationship being described as a field but he still uses people in the poem to describe the people in the relationship. Lawrence also uses ‘Pathetic Fallacy’ as he describes a cold winter’s day when the relationship broke down.

In “An Anniversary'; the poet says:

“The sky’s smeared monotone.';

This means the sky was smeared with one colour, which may signify a boring colourless relationship.

“Two willow leaves glide smoothly on

The water’s shimmering skin;';

This is an example of ‘Enjambment’. It describes the leaves floating smoothly but apart from each other. The use of enjambment here helps the rhythm of the poem carry on smoothly like the leaves gliding. It could signify the two people still going on in life smoothly but not together. When he says “the water’s shimmering skin'; it gives the impression of being murky below and shiny on top. This could show there is more to the relationship than what people see initially or that when the relationship was still happening it may have looked alright to everyone else watching but there were things going on beneath the surface that weren’t alright.

“Once, on a branch in the sun, they danced

And often touched each other;

They will not touch each other again,';

In the relationship this signifies that they were once happy together but now they will never be together again. It could also mean that from the beginning the re...

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... and downhearted that the relationship is ending. He also knows that the relationship is over and can’t go on but he still has some feelings for the woman. He may feel upset that she has come so promptly when she knows what he will say but she probably just wants to get the hurt and pain over with.

The structure of the poem is “ABAB'; when the 1st and 3rd and 2nd and 4th lines rhyme with each other e.g.:

“Snow and Go';

“Emerge and Verge';

They are the last words in verse one that rhyme.

I think the three poems, although they are about the same thing, describe it very differently. Dismissal describes it very much like speech whereas An Anniversary uses nature to describe the breakdown. A winter’s Tale is a mixture as in stanza one it uses mainly imagery with the field to describe the relationship, but in stanza two it uses run-on-lines to describe his feelings. Then in stanza three it uses a mixture by using the simple ABAB structure from verse one, but still using his thoughts of the woman, rather than imagery of the field, to describe the relationship.

All three poems describe the breakdown very differently but very effectively.