To explore the ways in which the poets present relationships, I selected three different poems: ‘Nettles’ by Vernon Scannell; ‘Praise Song for my Mother’ by Grace Nichols; and ‘Harmonium’ by Simon Armitage. Each of these poems develops relationships, but all show a different relationship between an offspring and a Parent. To understand these different perspectives of relationship, it is important to understand the culture from which these came from. Simon Armitage is from England, Marsden which is a large village in West Yorkshire. Scannell also comes from England, from a small market town called Spilsby. Different from the two, Grace Nichols comes from Guyana, South America, in a small rural village. These different cultures may show a different understanding of relationships.
All these poems are similar in theme but their attitudes and purpose are completely unique. ‘Harmonium’ celebrates through the musical instrument the golden memories of their relationship which are indirectly implied through the harmonium. ‘Harmonium’ is about the rather easy relationship between a father and an elder son. On the other hand ‘Nettles’ explores the impulse for a parent to protect their offspring. ‘Nettles’ is about the inevitability of downfalls (“wounds”) being experienced through life. Whatever the father does the nettles will always grow back, and his beloved son will be hurt once again. ‘Nettles’ focuses on the reaction of the father to portray the relationship as the son is too young to communicate well, so the protection is the sign of the fathers love. The poem ‘Praise Song for My Mother’ is very unique compared to the others. ‘Praise Song’ is a traditional song from African cultures to celebrate a lost friend or relative. The poem i...
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... the harmonium literally, ready to be “carried out”. The second stanza expands on the harmoniums features, with relationships to the father. The third stanza considers the history of the harmonium, which once brought people together over generations. The last stanza involves the description of the harmonium being taken away, paralleling the eventual approach of the father’s death. ‘Praise Song’ is based around the first three stanzas of three lines each which are very similar in format. The forth stanza is introduced the same way as the others but this time it is extended. It brings attention to the ‘Praise Song’ final line about the mother’s advice to the daughter’s future and moving towards “wide futures”. This last line intrigues me as she is reflecting on the ways in which her mother nurtured her and supported her allowing her to grow and follow these ambitions.
"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own," said Robert Heinlein (YourTango). Affirmative, love can be really powerful in which the value of love from others is the greatest ecstasy in life. Love is existence everywhere around us; we are born to love and love to die with the love of family, lovers, and friends. In Galway Kinnell’s poem “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps” Kinnell writes about the love between parents and child, and it was published in 1980. Kinnell was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He is married, and has a son and two daughters on his own, so that the poem “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps” is relating to his own married life as he mentions about his son, Fergus, in the poem. Galway Kinnell is an excellent poet for his poems are always “connect to the experiences of daily life” (Poetry Foundation). The main theme of this poem is the speaker of the poem portrays a serious and resentful attitude towards the speaker’s child interrupting their act of passion, but eventually leads into a sentiment of commitment and innocence when the speaker realized that the love of a child is significantly more important than sex. In “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps,” Galway Kinnell uses tone, diction and irony to express the humorous and admiring outlook of sex, and also the effects of children on sex intercourse.
Both poems are set in the past, and both fathers are manual labourers, which the poets admired as a child. Both poems indicate intense change in their fathers lives, that affected the poet in a drastic way. Role reversal between father and son is evident, and a change of emotion is present. These are some of the re-occurring themes in both poems. Both poems in effect deal with the loss of a loved one; whether it be physically or mentally.
Presentation of Family Relationships in Carol Anne Duffy's Poem Before You Were Mine and in One Poem by Simon Armitage
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and
Explore Armitage`s presentation of his relationship with his parents in the poems: Mother, any distance and My father thought Simon Armitage`s two poems are from a collection called Book of Matches
The components of marriage, family and loss has played a big role in Anne Bradstreet’s writing of “Before the birth of One of Her Children”, “In Memory of Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet”, and Edward Taylor’s “Upon Wedlock and the Death of Children.” In, these writings both authors Puritan culture and their faith plays a big role. In these poems one author starts questioning their God and the other to take honor in their God throughout their grieving process, while both showing different aspects of their everlasting union with their spouse, and the love for their children.
There is no greater bond then a boy and his father, the significant importance of having a father through your young life can help mold you to who you want to become without having emotional distraught or the fear of being neglected. This poem shows the importance in between the lines of how much love is deeply rooted between these two. In a boys life he must look up to his father as a mentor and his best friend, the father teaches the son as much as he can throughout his experience in life and build a strong relationship along the way. As the boy grows up after learning everything his father has taught him, he can provide help for his father at his old-age if problems were to come up in each others
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.
Family bonds are very important which can determine the ability for a family to get along. They can be between a mother and son, a father and son, or even a whole entire family itself. To some people anything can happen between them and their family relationship and they will get over it, but to others they may hold resentment. Throughout the poems Those Winter Sundays, My Papa’s Waltz, and The Ballad of Birmingham family bonds are tested greatly. In Those Winter Sundays the relationship being shown is between the father and son, with the way the son treats his father. My Papa’s Waltz shows the relationship between a father and son as well, but the son is being beaten by his father. In The Ballad of Birmingham the relationship shown is between
The repetition of the... ... middle of paper ... ... ld of art and literature. Since the "marriage", the parent generation, is already dead or dying, therefore every new creation is now also afflicted with disease and condemned to death. Consequently this means the end of hope for a renewal of society, but since the stanza begins with the word "how", this is also a voice of accusation and a demand for change.
During the early seventeenth century, poets were able to mourn the loss of a child publicly by writing elegies, or poems to lament the deceased. Katherine Philips and Ben Jonson were two poets who wrote the popular poems “On the Death of My Dearest Child, Hector Philips”, “On My First Son”, and “On My First Daughter” respectively. Although Philips and Jonson’s elegies contain obvious similarities, the differences between “On the Death of My Dearest Child” and “On My First Son” specifically are pronounced. The emotions displayed in the elegies are very distinct when considering the sex of the poet. The grief shown by a mother and father is a major theme when comparing the approach of mourning in the two elegies.
The author uses imagery, contrasting diction, tones, and symbols in the poem to show two very different sides of the parent-child relationship. The poem’s theme is that even though parents and teenagers may have their disagreements, there is still an underlying love that binds the family together and helps them bridge their gap that is between them.
The relationship between a father and his son can be articulated as without a doubt the most significant relationship that a man can have throughout the duration of his life. To a further extent the relationship between a father and a son can be more than just a simple companionship. Just like a clown fish and a sea anemone, both father and son will rely on each other in order to survive the struggles of their everyday lives. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Gabriele Muccino’s The Pursuit of Happyness both depict a story between a father and son using each other as a means of survival when faced with adversity. When placed in a tough situation father and son must create a symbiotic relationship in order to survive. Upon the duo of father and son can creating a symbiotic relationship, it will result in a mutual dependency on each other. This theme of paternal love is omnipresent given the bond between the two characters.
Authors use poetry to creatively present attitudes and opinions. “A Man’s Requirements,” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment” are two poems with distinct attitudes about love that contain different literary approaches. In both of the poems, love is addressed from a different perspective, producing the difference in expectation and presentation, but both suggest the women are subservient in the relationships.
... place in the house after the death. The line, “Is solemnest of industries” uses the word industry, which conjures an image of an assembly line and a ritual of going through the motions with little thought going into it. The turn before the second stanza shifts the focus from the mourning process to the recovery process. Through the metaphor of “Sweeping up the Heart” like with a broom, the living are urged to clear the pain and sadness out of their hearts. The final lines leave the message that you should not waste your love or emotions about the deceased for when they are dead but to save them until you join them in death. The last line, “Until Eternity-” implies some sort of afterlife where you could share these sentiments with them and see them again, which is enhanced by the use of the dash at the end to lend mystery and uncertainty to what eternity will hold.