By looking at the shifting dynamics of relationships, life, death and memory, Harwood highlights the fact that we are living in a world where time is constantly slipping out of our hands. She reminds her audience that each second lost will never be experienced again, that aging will inevitably affect us all. Harwood seeks to accept this fact with grace, through the support of love and friendship. “The Violets” focuses upon a recollection from childhood, highlighting the transience of time and the overpowering intensity of certain memories when they take hold. The poem consists of two settings: the present moment: as an adult picks flowers at cold dusk, and the memory of a child, waking from sleep in a hot afternoon, and grieving over the lost day.
She believes they are using her for their own survival and in doing so, she is slowly dying inside. Therefore this poem shows changing identity due to motherhood through portraying the mother as a shell of her former self. Gwen Harwood also uses the technique of irony and contrast in her poem to trivialize the role of motherhood. The poem is written in sonnet form, with a regular rhyming
Throughout many of her poems Duffy writes of loss of innocence from numerous perspectives. She does so particularly in ‘In Mrs Tilschers Class’ and ‘Lizzie, Six’. ‘in Mrs Tilcher’s Class” showing the initial joys of childhood which are lost with the gaining of knowledge, and ‘Lizzie, Six’, a shocking portrayal of child abuse and loss of innocence. The theme of innocence presented in these two poems can be illuminated by Pugh’s poem ‘Sweet 18’, which is a dramatic monologue from an older woman, dreaming of a youthful boy with ‘the unknowing’ ease of his age. To begin with, Duffy writes about childhood as ultimately a loss of innocence as children ‘come of age’.
At the very start of the novel, the importance of symbolism is established through Liesel’s first book, “The Gravedigger’s Handbook”. She steals it from the cemetery ground after her brother’s burial, even though she cannot read or understand a single word of it. Soon after the burial, Liesel is sent to a foster family in Himmel Street by her mother. At this point, “The Gravedigger’s Handbook” is used to heighten the emotional intensity of comforting the pain and sorrow Liesel feels about her brother’s death and the abandon by her mother. The book is an indication of the end of her old life but a start of her new life in Himmel Street as it symbolises her last connection with her family.
The last stanza reaffirms the strong bonds of family love. The line ‘Faint scent of violets drifts in air’ recalls the past and enriches the present where the persona is going through hardships in life. As she has looked back to the childhood memories for sustenance and support, it shapes her life and allows her to gain strength from comforting memories. The idea that the past is irreclaimable and neither death nor time can distort the memory of the moment is evident. “Father and Child” is essentially concerned with the loss of innocence through a negative experience, which allows the persona to grow.
Before You Were Mine The poem “Before You Were Mine” by Carol Anne Duffy, speaks out the thoughts of a daughter mourning over her mother’s death and wishing that her mother had enjoyed herself more when she was still young. The theme of love both from the speaker for the mother and from the mother for the speaker is explored in this poem, as the poet employs various language techniques such as symbolism, imagery and repetition. The tone throughout the poem is gentle and loving, and the use of the first person narrative point of view shows the close bond the speaker has for the mother. Using these techniques, the poet is able to express the speaker’s sorrow for the loss of her mother and the genuine love her mother had for her. The poem starts with “I’m ten years away from the corner you laugh on”, showing that the speaker is reconstructing her mother’s past before she was born, imagining her happy childhood.
Discuss ways in which Thomas presents memory in ‘Old Man’ in your answer; explore the effects of language, imagery and verse form. Jan Marsh says ‘the sense of searching (for the) mislaid key, is the central theme to Thomas’ life and works’ This critical quotation is accurate as this central theme is portrayed throughout Thomas’ poetry. In Old Man Edward Thomas contrasts age with youth and explores memory as he looks back on his daughter plucking the old mans bush. The lack of consciousness within his daughter and the innocence triggers the thought of remembrance. Thomas begins to think will she remember picking the plant when she is older.
Analyse how the writer develops ideas or themes for a particular purpose in a short story. In the short story ‘Miss Brill’ written by Katherine Mansfield, Katherine develops the theme, the loneliness of old age for the purpose of showing society, especially young people how their exclusion and treatment of the elderly population effects them and their way of life. Katherine helps develop these ideas through the characters, interior monologue and the key incident in the story. ‘Miss Brill’ is about an elderly old lady how is socially isolated and impoverished. The story takes place on an autumn afternoon and the local garden “Jandins publiques” in France.
Tennyson depicts the Lady of Shalott to be a beautiful, having a “lovely face”, and yet mysterious person, when defining to be like a “fairy”. The poem tells the story of her secluded lifestyle and shows how her beauty is vastly juxtaposed by the dull, repetitive life she lives. She lives a life in fear of death, an image which Tennyson uses over and over, such as the area around the Island, “where the lilies blow”. The lily is a flower that is linked with death, so therefore Tennyson is showing how the Lady of Shalott is surrounded by the thought of death and the Island and towers are there to imprison her, but also to protect her from the harsh realities of life and death. Tennyson also uses words such as, “Gazing” and “Overlook”, to portray a sense of longing.
The effect is Harris’s death, she realizes, but what is the cause? Her journal also becomes her second confidant the one she can confide in when she needs an ear to listen, but not a mouth to comment. “Until the night that Harris died, I loved the sound of rain...Now I hate it. It makes me think of someone crying” (44). It is the result of writing in her journal that prompts the answer to Terri’s question.