Comparing poems A Parental Ode to My Son Aged Three Years and Five Months, Catrin, and For Heidi With Blue Hair
'A Parental Ode…' is a poem, which has been written about a son
through his father's eyes. It is a poem emphasizing the beauty and
virtues of his son, talking as if he is a creature of fantasy; though
in reality the father's son is a mischievous child, getting into
trouble, which is distracting the father from writing his poem.
'Catrin' is written in the same format as 'A Parental Ode…' but in
this poem it is the mother viewing her child (which in this case is
Catrin). This poem is a lot more serious and down to earth. It talks
about their relationship and how they have grown together whereas 'A
Parental Ode…' is about the troubles that the father's child gets up
to and is more bubbly and amusing. 'For Heidi With Blue Hair' shares
some characteristics as 'Catrin' in the sense that it is the same
poem. This poem is written about a girl who has dyed her hair blue,
basically as it says in the title. It tries to be amusing by using
irony so it does have some similarity to 'A Parental Ode…' in a
humorous sense but 'A Parental Ode's…' humour is more direct.
'A Parental Ode…' is a poem by a father idolizing his son. It is
written in 'real-time' - that the father is describing his son as he
is writing the poem. The father is writing about his son, a
troublesome child that is naughty. His father, however, does not want
to show this in the poem as he makes no reference of it but you find
out that he is ghastly. The father likes to romanticize the image of
his son by using fantasy creatures (elf, sprite, puck, imp), and by
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...w the frustration and anxiety that the
mother is feeling. The mother wanted us to feel the same frustration,
so she makes the poem more difficult to understand which ash been
cleverly done with the metaphors. I feel that by using such words
about the birth and the child like ' a struggle and saying that she
wanted 'to be two', I come to feel that Catrin was an accidental baby
and the mother didn't want her but now she is stuck with her daughter.
So to conclude, I would say that all three poems are about viewing a
child, but it depends on who is viewing them; whether it is the father
in 'A Parental Ode…' the mother in 'Catrin' or actually the poet in
'For Heidi With Blue Hair'. Different people are perceiving all these,
but I wouldn't go on what they say, it's just their opinion, not what
the child actually is like.
Clarke displays the “Catrin” poem about parental and child relationship and the bounds between parent and child. The poem begins with poet’s voice to a child and the poem highlighted the difference between mother and child and the common problems parents have with their children. Also the poem is about the loving but sometimes the tense relationship changes between mother and daughter and Catrin has strained relationship with her mother.
Presentation of Family Relationships in Carol Anne Duffy's Poem Before You Were Mine and in One Poem by Simon Armitage
The poem consists of two stanzas, the first in the past, and the second in the present. But the images of conflict in the poem continue, showing how the parent-child relationship hardly changes over time and is still ridden with strain. An uneasy feeling is developed in the poem through the use of enjambment, creating the lack of any rhythm. The absence of a rhyme scheme further adds to this. This could have been done by the Clarke to mirror the uneasy conflict present in the poem between the mother and daughter. However, it could also represent the natural and sporadic emotions of the mother or even a personal experience of the author. The poem is also named “Catrin” after the daughter, but the name is never used in the stanzas. This may have been done to show that the mother and daughter are so close that they do not address each other by their
I have elected to analyze seven poems spoken by a child to its parent. Despite a wide variety of sentiments, all share one theme: the deep and complicated love between child and parent.
not link a chain of events, but instead is used so that the poet can
...nal family. The second poem uses harsh details described in similes, metaphors, and personification. The message of a horribly bad childhood is clearly defined by the speaker in this poem. Finally, the recollection of events, as described by the two speakers, is distinguished by the psychological aspect of how these two children grew up. Because the first child grew up in a passive home where everything was hush-hush, the speaker described his childhood in that manner; trying to make it sound better than what it actually was. The young girl was very forward in describing her deprivation of a real family and did not beat around the bush with her words. It is my conclusion that the elements of tone, imagery, and the recollection of events are relevant to how the reader interprets the message conveyed in a poem which greatly depends on how each element is exposed.
of the dead in his poem to be not such a physical thing, but the
Exploring Parent-Child Relationships in Poetry In 'Before you were mine' by Carol Ann Duffy, '*Mother…' by Simon Armitage, 'On my First Sonne' by Ben Jonson and 'The Song of the Old Mother' by WB Yeats the theme of parent-child relationships is explored. However, each poem makes a different comment about this relationship and the tensions it can create. Parent-child relationships can bring joy and security but also pain and restrictions. The title of the poem 'Before you were mine' instantly tells the reader that the relationship here may be unbalanced. The speaker of the poem is somewhat possessive, the word 'mine' suggesting ownership.
is told to us in the last two lines of the poem. "I only know that
short part we can see the way the poet is using ridicule when he says
little to do with the actual emotions that are the subject of the poem. In "East
it to the subject of the poem, but the subject (whom we assume is a
First Love is about a shy guy who apparently has seen a girl to which
people want to continue to read the poem a few more times. His was of
In conclusion, each nature of relationship is portrayed in a different way. Refugee Mother and Child shows the relationship between a mother and son. Poem at Thirty-Nine illustrates the relationship between a father and a daughter, and Piano portrays the relationship of a mother and son. I think Refugee Mother and Child shows the strongest nature of relationship between a parent and child because the each line has a huge impact on the reader. The nature of relationship keeps increasing as the poem begins.