The poem Nettles, written by Vernon Scannell, consists of a single stanza, it has alternate rhyming lines. The poem seems to be a narrative account, focused on the perspective of a father who has viewed an accident involving his son. The poem, The Manhunt, is made up of a series of couplets, which are mostly unrhymed. The poem describes the phases of the wife’s search for answers from her injured husband who has recently returned battered and broken from the Bosnian War. The poem seems to end when the search is brought to a close. Scannell uses war imagery to explain his hatred of the military (Scannell himself joined the army at the age of 18 and must’ve developed some very strong and negative thoughts based on his own experiences). He uses …show more content…
the metaphor ‘regiment of spite’ to show that there are many nettles (theory based on the use of ‘green spears’ used to describe the nettles) and like soldiers in war they are standing to attention as if ready to attack the enemy. Scannell also uses personification as he is making the nettles sound like people. Similarly, Simon Armitage uses imagery of war to. He uses the description of the husband’s injuries to show that war is a bad thing and it damages people physically and mentally. This is shown in ‘parachute silk of his punctured lung’. Parachute is also a word connected to warfare, as they are commonly used for paratroopers. The imagery of war that both of these poems create is quite a negative image, as proven by actual events in our world. In the poem Nettles, Scannell uses personifies the nettles as an opposing force.
They are a ‘regiment of spite’, and are described using the metaphor ‘spears’. Within the first three lines of the poem, the nettles are presented as aggressive and a violent group of soldiers to reflect the speaker’s need to protect his child. The speaker is shown as taking revenge against the nettles, the writer again personifies them, describing them as a ‘fierce parade’ as if they were soldiers standing to attention, cut down by his scythe. The nettles are given a ‘funeral pyre’. Additionally, Scannell uses alliteration when he says ‘white blisters beaded on his tender skin’. The alliteration using the ‘b’ sounds suggests that the swelling, painful injuries, and the child’s skin is ‘tender’, a strong contrast to the language used to describe the nettles. Similarly, Armitage uses strong language to describe injuries of the husband in ‘The Manhunt’. Many of the first lines of the couplets have prominent verbs, reflecting the activities of the wife as she conducts her ‘search’. Words and phrases like ‘handle and hold’, ‘explore’, and ‘mind and attend’ are all referencing to the carful treatment of her husband’s injured body; this suggests her patient care for her husband’s mental state. The speaker uses metaphors to refer to parts of the husband’s body. Armitage compares them to inanimate objects rather than to living things. He says that his jaw is a ‘blown hinge’. Going into depth, this could
suggest that he is no longer open to her meaning that he perhaps cannot talk about his feelings and experiences. His collar bone is ‘damaged, porcelain’, a metaphor that reminds us of something hard but also fragile and cold. This is a reminder of the ‘frozen river which ran through his face’. Vernon Scannell seems to have wrote ‘Nettles’ with a rhyme scheme of ABAB, which is fluent throughout the poem. An example of this is ‘bed, spears, shed, tears’ (These words are found at the end of the first four lines). This shows a ABAB rhyme scheme. ‘The Manhunt’ cannot be compared to this as it has no rhyme scheme. The first 3 stanzas have a AA rhyme scheme since the words at the ends of the lines rhyme. An example of this is ‘phase, days’ and ‘trace, face’ (Found in the first and second stanzas). The rest of the poem is inconsistent and irregular, meaning the stanzas do not rhyme.
Nevertheless, one of the most important imageries is the fact the rifle itself represents war; thus, the soldier takes so much care of the rifle because the rifle, or the war, once took great care of him by shaping him into the man he is today and, most importantly, by keeping him alive. Imagery, therefore, proves how Magnus delicately transmits information so that an appropriate characterization could take place, which informs the audience about the soldier’s character and, ultimately, the importance of war to the
...his novel believe war to be the most disgusting and most distructful thing in the universe, the Tralfamadorians enlighten one human on their thoughts of war. They don’t feel Billy should put as much time as he does into dwelling on something like war that is inevitable. They ignore it and rate it relatively low on a scale of importance. From World War II, Billy is left with many vivid memories that he would rather not have. He has first handedly seen what he thinks is the most evil thing in the universe. He is frequently haunted by images of his experiences. But maybe if he would just tell himself that there is nothing he can do about war, maybe if he just looked the other way and ignored it, maybe then he would be happy and in a state of peace like the Tralfamadorians.
In the beginning of the short story, the young boy is already imprinted with the ideas of war from his father. His father was a former soldier who “had fought against naked savages and followed the flag of his country..” (Bierce 41). The image of war that is imprinted on the young boy from his father is that of nobility and righteous that comes from war.
Tim O’Brien states in his novel The Things They Carried, “The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty. For all its horror, you can’t help but gape at the awful majesty of combat” (77). This profound statement captures not only his perspective of war from his experience in Vietnam but a collective truth about war across the ages. It is not called the art of combat without reason: this truth transcends time and can be found in the art produced and poetry written during the years of World War I. George Trakl creates beautiful images of the war in his poem “Grodek” but juxtaposes them with the harsh realities of war. Paul Nash, a World War I artist, invokes similar images in his paintings We are Making a New World and The Ypres Salient at Night. Guilaume Apollinaire’s writes about the beautiful atrocity that is war in his poem “Gala.”
The powerful diction used within the passage express the true internal struggle that the narrator is facing. The reader is able to pick up on the physical and emotional pain that the narrator is going through as a result of this struggle because of the author’s use of vivid adjectives. Words such as “nerve-jangling,” “violently,” “digging,” and “ringing” convey the intensity of the narrators emotional state. In context these adjectives may convince the reader that the this passage is about the narrator going insane. He is having major reactions to minor details such as ringing sounds and itchy skin. He is hearing nerve-jangling sounds, violently scratching himself, and digging his nails into his skin, causing himself to bleed. Many of the descriptions in the passage a...
Owen opens his poem with a strong simile that compares the soldiers to old people that may be hunch-backed. ‘Bent double, like old beggars like sacks.’ ‘like sacks’ suggests the image that the soldiers are like homeless people at the side of a street that is all dirty. This highlights that the clothes they were wearing were al...
The effect this word creates is dehumanization of those suffering, since “tit” often refers to the breast of an animal, making the anguish less relatable.... ... middle of paper ... ... It is this rhythm that brings out the repetition and clash of elements, especially with parentheses, which allows us to look at the element of starvation while considering the reaction of the press. The poem’s final line “our sympathy as real as silicone” is an outstanding simile that does the poem much justice (Axelrod 15).
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
The poem is an easy read, but intriguing at the same time. This poem is about a person who might have been injured in a battle of some kind or a war. The setting is a hospital. Plath leaves many details to the imagination, but the setting is concrete. This poem is written in the first person.
The bleeding of the thumb when cut comes deep from the heart, and, look! A whirling pool of wine-coloured blood! The body inside is torn into smithereens, hence the written poem `Cut' itself is to alleviate the pain, reassemble it bone by bone, to play the role of `a pill to kill the thin papery feeling'. Yes, and the twenty-eight days of moon's dragging and crackling of her `blacks'. What a relief as the blackberry liquid breaks the tension!
In Heaney’s poem, ‘Requiem for the Croppies’ alliteration is used to show the struggle of Irishmen, during the rebellion. Some examples of these are “reins and rider” and “shaking scythes” which speeds up the pace of the poem, showing the quick movement of the Irishmen around their own country as they try to stay a safe distance from the British attackers.
The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.
This use of personification helps the reader understand the point behind the personified blade: all it wants is blood -which is why it 's made so sharp and cold. Another use of a personification is clearly seen in the second stanza: “Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-leads, which long to nuzzle in the hearts of lads” (5-6). Owen personifies the “bullet-leads” (5) and describes them as blind with a longing to “nuzzle” (6) in the hearts of soldiers. This personification paints a savage image and helps the reader understand the bullets main objective, which is to bury itself in the hearts of young soldiers. This savage bullet wants only the death of the young men participating in the war. The poem 's personification of war-like weapons highlights human traits, emphasizing that they are terrifyingly human in nature. Owen uses alliteration specifically on these words due to the fact that they are a depiction of the inhumane images he wants the readers to visualize. The standout use of all the figurative language helps Wilfred Owen emphasize and cast a light on the savagery of the cold, cruel weapons of
The poem comprises three stanzas which are patterned in two halves; the rule of three is ingeniously used throughout the poem to create tension and show the progression of the soldiers’ lives. There is a variety of rhyming schemes used – possibly Duffy considered using caesural rhyme, internal rhyme and irregular rhyme to better address the elegiac reality. The rhythm is very powerful and shows Duffy’s technical adroitness. It is slightly disconcerting, and adds to the other worldly ambience of the poem. Duffy uses a powerful comparative in each stanza to exemplify the monstrosity and extent of war, which is much worse than we imagine; it develops throughout each stanza, starting with a syntactical ‘No; worse.’ to ‘worse by far’ and ending on ‘much worse’. Similarly, the verbs used to describe the soldier’s shadow as he falls shows the reader the journey of the shadow, as if it’s the trajectory of soldiers’ lives. At first, the shadow is as an act...
In Stephen Crane’s poem “War is Kind”, Crane reveals the horrifying realities of war with his use of imagery and repetition. Throughout his poem, Crane depicts images that linger in one’s mind that are hard not to be sickening. Crane describes a field as a place where a “thousand corpses lie” and portrays the shroud that a mother receives after her son died defending his country as “bright [and] splendid”. After envisioning these scenes, people can not help but become morose. These images force people to visualize aspects of war they did not realize existed. After becoming aware of these realities, many people develop a sense of hatred for war, because no one wants to see a thousand young men killed in a field and a mother receiving the shroud