Comparisons

Compare how poets present romantic love in ‘Singh Song!’ and in one other poem from ‘Love and relationships’.

Singh Song and Sonnet 29 I think of thee

Similarity:

Both show the breaking free of societal and traditional expectations and restraints in the pursuit of love.

SS - “I run just one ov my daddy’s shops… but ven nobody in, I do di lock” - rebellious, not living to father’s expectations

“Yor lemons are limes/ yor bananas are plantain” - love is powerful

“on her Sikh lover site” - contrast family traditions, modern

S29 - “my thoughts do twine and bud about thee, as wild vines, about a tree”

sonnet - traditionally written by men about women, inverting the male gaze and coming across as shocking, assertive

Difference is that SS has a more happy and playful romantic relationship, while S29 shows a more unhealthy and possessive romantic relationship.

Compare how poets present romantic feelings in ‘Winter Swans’ and in one other poem from ‘Love and relationships’

When we two parted and Neutral tones

Similarites:

Both uses connotations of death to express the death of their relationships and their grief over it

WWTP:

“ A knell in mine ear”

  • the sound of a bell rung signifying a death in a funeral, which symbolises the death of their relationship, using the imagery of death

“ In secret we met — In silence I grieve”

  • a difference in pronouns suggest that the grief is one-sided and how only he is affected

  • Use of anaphora, describes their relationship

  • secret relationship so he grieves in silence

NT:

“They had fallen from an ash, and were grey”

  • Monochrome

  • dead, decay, imagery of death

“ The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing”

  • Personification

  • Irony because a smile usually connotes happiness and liveliness

Both shows the lack of change and lack of progression of emotions

WWTP:

  • “In silence and tears” & “With silence and tears”

    • Cyclical structure shows no change and emphasises his struggle to move on and how he is trapped in grief and misery

    • The past reflects the future, no resolution

    • Has a tone of sadness, emotional

    “Consistent structure” shows no change in feelings

NT:

  • “We stood by a pond that winter day” & “A pond edged with greyish leaves”

    • Cyclical structure shows no change

    • Difficulty of moving on

    • Uses pond as an object of memory

      "Consistent structure shows no change in feelings”

Differences:

NT uses negative descriptions of his surroundings to reflect his emotions while WWTP uses internalised feelings (one-sided)

NT:

“We stood by a pond on that winter day”

  • pathetic fallacy, cold, sorrow, reflecting the state of their relationship

“a few leaves lay on the starving sod”

  • sibilance, tone of harshness and desperate

  • despair

“chidden of God”

  • fundamentally God is against their relationship

WWTP:

“Why wert thou so dear?”

  • rhetorical question

“That thy heart could forget”