Creating a Sense of Menace and Unease in Poetry

Creating a Sense of Menace and Unease in Poetry

A Comparison of four poems which create a sense of Menace and unease

I have chosen ‘Hitcher’ as it gradually builds up tension and unease

throughout the poem, the poem is quite personal as it is relating to a

man and his everyday life. I chose this also because the poem is

written as if it was a story. Hitcher is the story of a man who is

under a lot of pressure from work and feels the need to rebel. He

hires a car and picks up a hitchhiker. The driver hits the hitchhiker

with a krooklok in the face, and then throws him out onto the road.

‘Education for leisure’ is a chilling poem; I chose this because it

had a leading storyline which leads the audience to a point of

suspense where he kills someone. Education for leisure is about a

person who has a passion to kill, and the endless desire to play God.

The third poem I chose was ‘The man he killed’ which is about a man

who has killed an enemy of war in battle and throughout the poem is

trying to convince himself of why he did it. I chose ‘The man he

killed’ because it describes the emotions of the killer in detail and

you as the reader are able to build a relationship and at the end of

the poem you feel somewhat sorry for the killer.

The last poem I chose was ‘My Last Duchess’, this is a poem about the

Italian Duke of Ferrara, who is explaining to the slave of another

duke about a previous wife. The reason that I chose this was because

throughout the poem there is a sense of pride and power and the Duke’s

stubborn nature about the death or murder of his late duchess.

Hitcher is a dramatic monologue, as it is an imaginary person talking

and not the poet. The character feels very trapped and oppresse...

... middle of paper ...

...ble. He is Jealous of someone else’s outlook on life. He

is proud and arrogant. He is possessive and protective he now feels

that he owns his Duchess as she is in his painting.

Education for leisure is similar to Hitcher as both characters have a

desire to kill. They are both arrogant and aggressive and care not for

others. Their off hand and casual response to murder creates suspense

as the reader can relate which make s the poem personally threatening.

It is a chilling poem which causes the reader unease.

All the poems have a relevance to our lives which make them personally

threatening in different ways. Suspense is gradually built up by

punctuation and use of words. The way all of the poems are written is

extremely effective and the reader experiences various emotions and

changes their view of the character through different points in each

poem.