English Poem Analysis Unit

colloquialism

using colloquialisms(a word or phrase that is not formal or literary and is used in ordinary or familiar conversation)

link 1

overall the poets use of a simile and development of the speaker’s tone towards his life effectievly help the speaker convey his attitude towards his life and thus reveal parts of his identity to the reader as the poem progresses.

get the impression that hid identity is unknown and ocnflicted.

paragraph 2

John Clare powerfully uses imagery throughout the poem to communicate how the speaker is questioning the value of his existence. Firstly, he uses visual imagery to mirror how the speaker feels defeated and troubled. For instance, when the speaker explains that all that is left of him is the “vast shipwreck” of his “life’s esteems”. The word “shipwreck” illustrates how he feels defeated as if all he ever valued(his esteems) is gone, and has lost his own self-esteem. This suggests that he feels as if he is simply living the “remains” of his life and that he has broken apart himself and thus can’t evolve further with all this baggage, reflecting his struggles with his identity. The adjective “vast” emphasises how the speaker has no hope towards reconciliation or resolving his identity crisis, establishing a tone of melancholy which draws sympathy from the reader. Moreover, John Clare thoughtfully uses a metaphor to illustrate how the speaker is feeling trapped in his existence and how he longs for elsewhere. This can be seen in the last stanza where the speaker explains that he wants to lie in the “grass below-above the vaulted sky”. The word “grass below” alludes to his desire to die because he feels exhausted, which is counteracted by this desire to lie “above the vaulted sky”, again showing his internal conflict. The poet's choice to describe the “sky” which is usually a symbol of freedom or a sign of eternity, as “vaulted” suggests that the sky is arched, and closing in on him, trapping the speaker and limiting him. This clarifies to the reader that the speaker is longing for both the cradle, where he wants to “sleep” like he in “childhood sweetly slept” and be taken care of, and the grave, where his soul can abide with god, causing him to ultimately get stuck between the two. Overall, the poet's use of vivid imagery effectively portrays the speaker’s identity crisis and desire to free himself from the expectations of others and define himself on his own terms.

Meter in poetry

Refers to the number of beats in a line, the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllablesdefining the rythm of the poetry.

Number of feet= groups of unstressed/stressed within a line.

Metonomy

type of figurative language in which an object or concept is referred to not by its own nature but instead by the name of something closely related to it.

eg. the tongue as a language

Asyndeton

figure of speech in which coordination conjunctions are excluded, eg. “rot, rot and die”

metaphor

A figure of speech which describes something by saying its something else(a comparison)

simile

A comparison stating who things are like/as each other.

Tenor(the thing), vehicle(what its compared to) and grounds(common) - EVALUATE effectiveness

aporia

He is disguising his certainty, pretending to not know

Imagery (5 types)

Visual-

Audiotry:

Tactile:

Gustatory:

Olfactory

oxymoron

two words with opposite meaning together

irony

meaning one thing and saying another

enjabment

the continuation of a sentence or clause over a line break

humour

comedic appeal

tone

How a speaker/author says something (attitude)

repetition

Purposeful re-use of words and prhases

Anaphora: Repetition at the beginning of a clauses.

Epistrophe: Repetition of a word at the end of succesives clauses and sentences.

Hypophora

a question that is asked and then answered.

Aporia

an expression of real or pretended doubt or uncertainty especially for rhetorical effect(speaker under a guise).

Euphemism

using softer and less direct way to say something

an expletive

a fill-in swear word

eg. Ah rass- my ass

Use of language

Standard english, conventionality, Creole, Gujarati, spelling phonetically.

caesura

a purposeful pause/ break in the line with a , - : .

End stopped lines

poetic line ending with punctuation

liminal spaces

always inbetween spaces, physically and emotionally

allusion

indirectly refrencing

4 types of sentences

declarative- statmenet

Imperative- command

exclamatory- !

Interrogatve- ?

implications

what it suggests

hierarchy

hierarchy

through poetry you can name and unmane things (power of language)

give a voice to the voiceless

free verse

unique, breaks boundaries of conventionality(doesn’t conform)

To purge

to get rid of somethind unwanted

loosely structured terza rima

Early purges:

ABA BCB CDC

symbolic words

meaning anc connotations of the words

diction

word choice

trochaic rythm then becomes iambic

DA dum DA dum INTO da DUM da DUM

spondee

two consectuive stresses