What Are The Literary Devices Used By Glasgow Sonnet Poem Analysis

1159 Words3 Pages

Glasgow Sonnets Essay - Rachel Watt

Glasgow Sonnet by Edwin Morgan is a realistic poem discussing poverty in Glasgow. Set in the mid 20th century in one of Glasgow's most poverty stricken neighbourhoods. A family live in lives in a derelict tenement which is crumbling around them. Morgan shows his empathy and anger at the situation the family are experiencing. Morgan uses personification, metaphors, alliteration, structure, irony, word choice to effectively describe the place which is the Glasgow Tenement. To begin with in 'Glasgow Sonnet' Morgan uses personification to effectively describe the tenements as dangerous and hostile. Morgan describes the environment surround the tenement as the 'mean wind wanders,'. The word 'mean' reveals …show more content…

The tenement flat is described as frightening with 'the kettle whimpers,'. Whilst kettles boiling aren't normally depicted as having feelings the poet uses personification of the distresses kettle to that of a person who is very unhappy. This shows the reader how unhappy the Glasgow tenements make the family members living in them feel due to how joyless the place is. Lastly, in 'Glasgow Sonnet' Morgan uses imagery to emphasise how ghastly and somber the Glasgow tenements are of a place. The poet shows us how destitute the tenements are as they are described as being very poor quality with 'roses of mould' growing on the walls. Even though the reader normally associates 'roses' with love and nature, the word mould creates an appalling picture of the spores accumulating across the room. This at first glance could be viewed as a joyful and happy image yet the place is completely opposite when we realise it is not flower but a fungus. This reveals to the reader how their is absolutely nothing positive about this place it is disease ridden, uninviting and uninhabitable. The reader forces us to think about the environment the family are subjected to living in Glasgow in this era which is a modern

Show More
Related

  • Nancy Cato's Poem 'The Dead Swagman'

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are multiple examples of visual imagery in this poem. An example of a simile is “curled like a possum within the hollow trunk”. The effect this has is the way it creates an image for the reader to see how the man is sleeping. An example of personification is, “yet both belonged to the bush, and now are one”. The result this has is how it creates an emotion for the reader to feel

    Read More

  • Allusion in Billy Collins poem “Schoolsville

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    Allusion first helped describe the ironic aspects of the poem by focusing on the odd setting of the poem. Collins description of the speaker’s town shares many traits of a regular town, but also incorporates traits from a school environment. The following lines will help explain the setting and how it relates to a school environment. The first example of this is shown in lines four through six; “I can see it nestled in a paper landscape, chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard” (Collins). In these lines Collins describes the physical setting outside. Paper landscape is being compared to actual grass landscape outside. Chalk dust is white and powdery, as is fresh snow falling from the sky. And black boards are dark and cold, as are dark nights when the sun goes down. Chalk, paper, and black boards are all found in a school environment, and each one of these aspects help bring the setting to life in the readers mind. The reader can relate to what they are picturing as they continue reading the poem. Th...

    Read More

  • The Simple Gift and “The River that wasn’t ours”

    1242 Words  | 3 Pages

    The verse novel, ‘The Simple Gift’ explores how relationships and place can impact detrimentally on one’s identity and sense of belonging. Herrick uses Billy to highlight how social issues such as dysfunctional families can lead to isolation and loneliness. Using first person narrative, “I”, Herrick in the poem 'Sport' establishes the barriers to belonging. Herrick uses flashback and hyperbole “he came thundering out” to highlight detachment from home prompted by Billy’s abusive alcoholic father. Detailed repetition of “I was ten years old” intensifies the poignant loss of Billy’s innocence and his displacement from a childhood sanctuary. Consequently the poem ‘Longlands Road’, uses personified enjambment, “rocks that bounce and clatter and roll and protest”, to capture the image of an angry boy who is searching for a sense of belonging. Imagery created through vivid descriptive language, “rundown and beat / the grass unmown around the doors”, depicts the impoverishment and disrepair of “Nowheresville”. While Billy’s description of “Mrs Johnston’s mailbox on the ground...” expresses his contempt and frustration. Subsequently, the ramifications of Billy’s discontent, portrayed by the sarcastic statement “It’s the only time my school has come in ...

    Read More

  • Commentary on Robert Hayden Poetry

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    The diction helps exemplify the imagery even better, the reader can sense how the speaker’s home felt like as well as the father’s hard work. The speaker awakens to the "splintering, breaking" of the coldness. This allows the audience to feel a sense of how cold it was in the speaker’s house. One can infer that the poem is set in a cold city or town during the winter, which gives the reader an idea of how cold it might be. “Slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house,” represents how the father battles to keep the family away from harm of the cold and darkness, implying that the speaker grew up in poverty. His father’s “cracked hands” shows how hard his father worked to keep his family safe.

    Read More

  • kettle bottom

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    All the poems in Kettle Bottom display a powerful message. Some of the poems messages are happy while are extremely upsetting. The readers of these poems are able to learn about the horrific conditions that people in poverty were forced to live in but also about how they made the best of those situations whenever possible. The dangerous work conditions and the inhumane treat of people living in poverty is extremely disturbing and tragic. These poems are able to show first hand examples and experiences of people involved in these situations. Despite all the dark and deaths that the poor experience they still are able to find some light in it all with the birth of new things.

    Read More

  • Comparing and Contrasting Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 and Clause McKay's The Harlem Dancer

    603 Words  | 2 Pages

    The speaker uses metaphors to describe his mistress’ eyes to being like the sun; her lips being red as coral; cheeks like roses; breast white as snow; and her voices sounding like music. In the first few lines of the sonnet, the speaker view and tells of his mistress as being ugly, as if he was not attracted to her. He give...

    Read More

  • Childhood

    1580 Words  | 4 Pages

    In conclusion, although childhood is the main theme within all these poems, each reflects upon on a certain aspect of childhood. Half Past Two and Houses both dwell upon the creativity of childhood and the freedom it brings to children, who reside within ‘clockless land’ free of the responsibilities adulthood brings in Piano. Hide and Seek and Salford Road both seek to show us the process of growing up, and while Hide and Seek refers to the negative aspects of adulthood, Salford Road seems to represent the path to adulthood that all children must eventually go down. Finally Piano and Soap Suds brings to light the briefness of childhood, in addition the cherished memories that ‘summer’ brings to which all can escape to find solace and comfort.

    Read More

  • Autobiography at an Air-Station by Philip Larkin

    1512 Words  | 4 Pages

    The ironic use of rhyme and meter, or the lack thereof, is one of the devices Larkin uses to emphasize his need to break out of industrial society. The typical rhyme scheme is not followed, but instead an ironic rhyme scheme is used in the sonnet in the form of abab cdcd efg efg. Larkin writes this poem as a sonnet but at the same time diverges from what a typical sonnet is supposed to be. He is commenting on society’s inclination to form restrictions on those within it. By writing out of the accepted form of a sonnet, his writing becomes more natural because of a lack of constraints due to following certain rules and fitting a certain form. He breaks free and writes as he pleases and does not conform to society. Just as with the rhyme, ...

    Read More

  • The Taxi

    1442 Words  | 3 Pages

    To begin, the reader may gather that the poem has a very dark and saddened tone. Due to Lowell's vivid imagery, a mental image of a dark urban setting is created. It also seems very cold, with the mentioning of wind and nighttime. Readers may be able to relate to urban places they know, adding to the reality of the poem. Connections can be made. The imagery is left in such a way that the reader can fill in the gaps with their own memories or settings. Also, since the poem uses free verse, the structure is left open to interpretation. This makes the poem more inviting and easier to interpret, rather than reading it as a riddle. However, though simple in imagery, the poem still captures the reader's interest due to the creation it sparks, yet it never strays away from the theme of bei...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast John Keats And Anthem For Doomed Youth

    1486 Words  | 3 Pages

    The form of a poem can be understood simply as the physical structure. However, there are various aspects that make it up that contribute towards the goals of the poet. I find that the sonnets “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be”, by John Keats, and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, by Wilfred Owen, make efficient use of their formal elements to display the depth of the situation of their poems. Keats uses a Shakespearean sonnet structure to organize his thoughts being displayed throughout the poem and to construct them around the speaker’s fear that is the central focus of the sonnet. Owen’s sonnet is a Petrarchan sonnet, although it has a rhyme scheme similar to a Shakespearean, which allows him to display a contrast between the images the

    Read More

  • A Critical Analysis of Judith Wright's 'the Killer'

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • More Than Just A Shirt

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    A specific example of a man who tosses three girls out the window and then plunges to his own death serves to show us the horror of the situation. the poem then continues on to tell us of in humane conditions in Scotland. It ends by telling us about the slaves who picked and planted the cotton. The speaker seems to be telling us a story in order to inform us of what's going on in the shirt industry.Robert Pinsky doesn't have many obvious examples of diction in his work, although hints of it can be found. There is a simile in the first line of the tenth stanza.

    Read More

  • Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets, Smith uses nature as a vehicle to express her complex emotions and yearning for a renewal of her spirit. Utilizing the immortal characteristics of spring and the tempestuous nature of the ocean, Smith creates a poetic world that is both a comfort and a hindrance to her tortured soul. Even while spring can provide her with temporary solace and the ocean is a friend in her sorrow, both parts of nature constantly remind her of something that she will never be able to accomplish: the renewal of her anguished spirit and complete happiness in life once more. Through three of her sonnets in this collection, Smith connects with the different parts of nature and displays her sensible temperament with her envy over nature’s ability to easily renew its beauty and vitality.

    Read More

  • The Scorned Lover of Sir Philip Sidney's "Sonnet 31"

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sir Philip Sidney’s “Sonnet 31” might, at first glance, appear to be a man asking a series of questions to no real end. Closer examination, however, reveals that this is a work that delves deeply into its speaker’s—and perhaps the author’s—psyche, offering its readers as much insight into human nature today as it did when it was written in 1582. Astrophel, failing at effectively communicating to or winning the affection of his desired, seeks to better understand the circumstances of his existence. Perhaps too afraid to gaze into his own reflection and seek those answers from himself, Astrophel instead consults the moon, which promptly comes to embody the plight of the speaker and perhaps anyone who has gazed at the moon longingly searching for answers but finding none.

    Read More

  • Sonnet Eighteen Poem Analysis

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare’s Sonnet Eighteen is normally regarded as a love poem, but is it? While the speaker is comparing his lover to a summer’s day in Sonnet Eighteen, Shakespeare’s speaker argues that his verse will allow his love to be immortalized, while even the most beautiful of summer days can fade into night. It initially seems that his subject’s beauty will be everlasting, though the speaker then reveals that only his own writing will stand the test of time. Evidence of Shakespeare writing this poem for the purpose of praising himself occurs throughout the entirety of the poem. In the first line, for example, his use of ‘I’ is emphasized by the rhythmic structure whereas the word ‘thee’ is not. This suggests that Shakespeare meant to focus on

    Read More

More about What Are The Literary Devices Used By Glasgow Sonnet Poem Analysis

Open Document