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Both poets present loss of innocence through the eyes of a child. Gwen Harwood’s The Glass Jar examines the idea that as children, our identity is shaped greatly by our experiences and relationships. Harwood demonstrates this idea through the notion of faith, which is conveyed by the accumulation of biblical references. religious imagery such as “sun's disciples' is used to express the child's faith and belief in the 'total power' of the 'pulse of light beside his bed'. his belief is clearly the result of childish innocence as we know that light cannot be held in a jar, and is further demonstrated as a false hope in the hyperbole" “then hope fell from its eagle height. The way that he is betrayed by the light can be compared to the sense of loss he feels when he witnesses the 'gross violence' done to his mother. As a result of his mistrust in both of his 'saviours', the child's identity as well as his view of the world has been transformed. “The Glass Jar” deals with the traumatic experience of growing up and the loss of childhood innocence and faith. In the last stanza, the words “resurrected sun” symbolises that hope isn’t lost for the sun has risen again to save the child and banish his fears. This poem represents change in numerous ways, with the child’s realisation that he is completely alone, the boys feeling of loss of innocence, and the boy’s newly found feelings of desperation and isolation.
• The Schoolboy (William Blake) (confinement of a child, loss of innocence= dry adulthood)
The speaker in this poem is a young boy who fills joyful to rise in the fresh and delightful summer morning. It is a matter of utmost disappointment for the speaker to attain school in a sweet summer morning where actually he wishes to enjoy the mirth of summer. Instead of enjoying the pleasures of summer, the child has to compulsory attended the school where he spends his day in boredom and dismay. A bird which is born cheerful and jovial can never sing sweet songs if caged. Similarly, a child if remained under the umbrella of annoying fear and tension, the scepticism of his teacher can never enjoy the natural instincts of joy and playfulness. In the fourth stanza, he likens himself to a bird and laments: how can the bird that is born for joy/sit in a cage and sing? In other words, if a child remains under fear and tension, under the skepticism of his teacher, he can never enjoy the natural instinct of joy and playfulness. If the plants are withered due to the canker of grief, no fruit will be there in the season of autumn (mellowing year) this implies that if childhood pleasures and joys are censored and truncated one has to be very sure that the adult life will be utterly dry and unproductive. O! father and mother, if buds are nip’d/ and blossoms blow away/ and if the tender plants are strip’d… The persona concludes his argument in the sixth stanza. He argues that if pleasures and joy are censored from a child’s life by strict parenting and schooling, the child’s adult life may be utterly unproductive, dry and useless. In lines 16-20, a child in school is compared to a bird in a cage. Meaning something that was born to be free and in nature, is instead trapped inside and made to be obedient. Blake's true contention is revealed: the institutions which sought to educate children through strict disciplinary methods, creating a climate of fear that invariably stifles a child's learning. children's welfare
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• The Smile (William Blake) (fake smiles, only 1 true smile which isn’t smiled a lot, appearance vs. reality)
Hopkins justifies the supremacy of life’s intrinsic offerings. Echoes the phrase “and there” or simply “and,” in order to develop his more complex basis of joy; it constructs a sense of addiction, covertly mirroring the many facets of which a “smile” comprises. Notably, this repetition is broken in the final stanza, which, subliminally, heightens the reader’s level of attention. The poet’s coda the- which reinforces the idea that one’s smile is life’s greatest, most powerful and infectious source of joy- is not overlooked by the reader, but rather resonates. you’ve got a lot of fake smiles and facial expressions but that there’s only one true smile, which isn’t smiled a lot. You can be fooled by someone’s facial expression because they’re easy to fake or manipulate and I think that William Blake tries to describe the true smile. describes different kinds of smiles and after that he describes different kinds of frowns, they all look the same but they mean different things. one smile which isn’t fake or manipulated or something like that, but that smile doesn’t happen a lot, just a few times between the beginning and ending of someone’s life. He explains that men can be fooled by expression, but that you can also fool yourself by believing something which isn’t true, you can forget those things ‘in vain’, as he says. deceit-meet, disdain-vain, bone-alone etc. The metric foot of this poem is a iambic tetrameter, most of the sentences exist of four feet a line and the unstressed syllables are followed by stressed syllables. enjambment in this poem, a few sentences don’t stop at the end of the line (written in italic in the poem). repetition in this poem, Blake keeps repeating ‘there is a smile’ and ‘there is a frown’ and the same goes with ‘it sticks’. There is no poet who has delved so deeply and critically into human nature and society, questioning our presuppositions and evoking a sense of the uncanny, like William Blake. This poem reflects the two-fold nature of human existence, as well as the duality between appearance and reality, by simultaneously revealing and concealing its inner meaning.
• Pied Beauty (G.M. Hopkins) (praise god for everything odd or unique looking)
sounds throughout the poem (“dappled,” “stipple,” “tackle,” “fickle,” “freckled,” “adazzle,” for example) enacts the creative act the poem glorifies: the weaving together of diverse things into a pleasing and coherent whole. poem is a celebration of ‘pied’ things and the beauty of pied things: that is, things that are made up of two different colours, often containing black and white or dark colours with light colours. These ‘dappled things’ exist thanks to God, says Hopkins: they all reflect his creation. Whether it’s the ‘stipple’ (or freckled markings) on trout swimming in the water, or the wings of finches, or the contrast of colours (such as the black-and-white of clouds) in the sky, these depictions of ‘couple-colour’ in the world of nature are to be celebrated. ‘Pied Beauty’ is, in the last analysis, a poem about difference, and a celebration of difference. the sounds of words appear to change, to be in constant flux. So ‘tackle’ turns to ‘fickle’ which quickly changes into ‘freckled’; even the rhyme of ‘strange’ with ‘change’ points up the fact that things are rendered unfamiliar to us because they alter.
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• Anniversary (Gwen Harwood) (impact of death)
Australian born poet + writer. Brought up in Brisbane and later moved to Tasmania. Her poems mainly feature references to nature, religious imagery, and question motherhood and the role of women. Poem broken up into 3 stanzas each representative of the seasons and the person’s grieving process. Constant rhyme pattern (ABABC). Main theme is the impact of death. STANZA 1: "Light" in contrast to death, as well as being a religious symbol "Coloured Life of Stone" representing the happy and joyful life of the persona's late wife. The use of the word stone as a metaphor for his wife as stones are quite indestructible. "Your words hung weightless in my ear" "Remember Me" is the husbands lasting impression of his wife. STANZA 2: "In the fresh babbling rush of Spring"- This line is the first suggestion of a child "dream filled light" recurring motif of the light "echoed through all of the whispering…" Echoed meaning to hear again, whispering symbolic that he is the only one who can hear. STANZA 3: "Rods of Light"- Use of the Word "Rod" as oppose to 'beam' 'ray' etc. "Flocking Starlings"- Repetition from Stanza 1 "Stone into Golden Ochre"- Attributes from his wife are developing in his daughter. "Orbit of my pain" Recurring, returning pain. "Remember Me." As if this time he is saying the words himself.
• I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, not Day (G.M. Hopkins) (deep depression, insomnia, grief, unanswered prayers)
Presents a purely personal bout of grief, with his morbid sonnet. Through a damning snapshot, he soliloquises directly to the reader amongst “the black hours,” declaring his deep depression, and God’s seeming ignorance. Strategically manipulates sentence structure in order to convey his grievous experience. Through the enjambment of: “…But when I say/Hours I mean years, mean life,” Hopkins reinforces the passage’s significance, communicating to the reader that his grief is relentless- it goes on and on, persisting through every hour, day, month, line. Adding to this lament, is in fact that his prayers of mercy are left unanswered; they are merely “dead letters sent to dearest him,”- particularly troublesome given the poet’s devout Catholicism, and recent ordainment. Hopkins acknowledges that for “the lost”- those whom are nonreligious- this sensation of grief would be far greater, in that it would also encompass a sense of solitude. In scenarios of grief, solace is found in the form of faith. four lines describes a terrible night when Hopkins was tossing and turning and pretty much too weepy to get forty winks. last six lines of the poem spiral even deeper into despair: "I am gall, I am heartburn." lines 5-8) reveals that actually, this isn't just one off night for the poor guy: it's years of depression that Hopkins has endured. And what's worse, even God isn't responding to Hopkins. And that's tough news if you're an Anglican who converted to Roman Catholicism and became a Jesuit priest, which is what Hopkins did. Not the best cure for insomnia, it turns out. the final two lines which, in sonnet speak, are called a "volta" and typically introduce a second idea that contrasts the first one. as bad as it is for him, what with his depression and his alienation from God and all, it's even worse for non-believers, who are completely "lost" to God and to the Church. volta—some turn in the poem that juxtaposes the idea of the first twelve lines with the final two. So the volta can be taken as one of core "structural" elements of the sonnet form. One should go to sleep at night and wake only in the morning, when day has arrived; but because the speaker wakes up and finds he cannot get back to sleep, he is doomed to lie awake, in the ‘black hours’ (black because it is literally night, but also because of the speaker’s depression). he feels as if his prayers have been going unanswered, like ‘dead letters’ which are returned to sender, unopened. a heartfelt poem about lying awake at night worrying. about self-analysis and soul-searching. “O what black hours we have spent / This night!,” what he means by hours is really years — years of horrible, dark depression. He feels that his deep mental and physical distress is something that God built into his very nature; his bones built it in him, his flesh filled with it, his blood brimmed with “the curse,” — his dark depression. But by “the curse,” he also means the rather literalistic Christian belief that the first parents of mankind were cursed for disobeying God.