A poem in which the language and use of poetic technique gives us an insight into the less pleasant side of life is King Billy by Edward Morgan. King Billy is a poem that revolves around the life and death of a Glasgow Gang leader in the 1960’s called Billy Fullerton. It also looks at the poverty at this time in Glasgow. It is written in a free verse and uses many different writing techniques to get across the felling of emotions of Edwin Morgan. The theme of violence is depicted by the menacing introduction to the poem as we open at the funeral of a murderous gangster.
The poem instructs the poor, African American residents of New Orleans to abandon their homes with their “splinters and pocked roofs”, to “leave the pork chops drifting in grease and onion”, and to “leave the whining dog” along with “that purple church hat”. These ethnic and cultural references throughout the poem provide the reader with a better sense of the everyday details concerning the lives of those who became known to the world as merely victims of Katrina. The idealistic demands of the state government for all of its citizens to simply leave and the reality of the situation is exemplified in the following lines, “Go. Uh-huh. Like our bodies got wheels and gas,/like at the end of that running there’s an open door … Get on out.
“Ash” could connote the remains of the dead or of a crumbling building, insinuating decay and sorrow. The metaphor “play fortresses” gives connotations of danger, suggesting the residents feel threatened by the outside world. This relates to the theme of violence and highlights a sense of detachment between the desolate flats and the rest of the world, again focusing on the main theme of
This is also ironic, as humans themselves are a part of the earth and nature, yet are destroying it for their own ends. The imagery of the dump is used to symbolize the dystopic wasteland that society is approaching, a consumer society consuming itself. The confronting revelations of the persona’s experience compels the reader, as a vision of hell is established, as “attendants in overalls and goggles” and “laborers” allude to “devils” and “demons”. These “figures” of our future are portrayed in a pathetic fashion, as they “poke” around, and “wander in despondence”, looking for “scraps of appetite”, in order to fuel their humanity. The people who fork through the trash symbolize that we may, one day pick at the remnants of our long lost culture, 'with an eternity in which to turn up some peculiar sensation'.
Also the use off an oxymoron "restless silence" foreshadows the tragedy that is to come. Larkin presents loss off time with the adverbs "never", "all day", "domesday", "past", "lasting" and "leaving" these adverbs represent the negative impact of war and how time passed so fast. Larkin places capitals at the beginning off line, this reinforces authorities power at he beginning of the war, and how they had such a massive impact on people's loss of lives. Larkin uses both poetic devices and language devices technically through out his poem, all of these devices highlight the impact off war and the extreme losses people had
Eliot portrays life as tarnished through urban decay, which is typical of the modernist era. This can be seen in ‘Love Song’ when Prufrock observes the “half-deserted streets ... one-night cheap hotels and sawdust restaurants”. These recurring images of urban isolation emphasise the corruption present in society. Similarly, in ‘Preludes’, the persona describes a woman he sees as clasping “the yellow soles of feet in the palms of both soiled hands”. The colour yellow, which symbolises decay and disease, is used to show the woman’s state of mind, which has been corrupted by the society she is part of.
In Lying in the Hammock, numerous interpretations believe the author is representing that he has wasted his life. According to Franz Wright of the Constant Critic, the meaning that Wright was trying to convey is, “You must change your life as I have wasted my life” (Wright, Franz). A popular interpretation of Robert Frosts’ Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is that the author was contemplating death or suicide. According to Jeffery Meyers of Modern American Poetry the poem is implying a “subconscious desire for death in the dark, snowy, woods” (Meyers). In On His Blindness, many interpretations focus on the negative mood and resentful tone of the poem surrounding the author’s blindness.
The narrator claims that the hallway of the building in which Winston lives “smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats”. This initial image exposes the dilapidating condition of this society, for it is a world that smells and is offensive to its citizens. Not only does this society offend the sense of sight. The imagery of the “rotting nineteenth – century homes,” suggest that the society of Oceania is not moving forward because it is still trapped in the past. The citizens of Oceania are made to feel the decay of the society in their own body.
However, a “tyrant spell” has entranced her and, she “cannot go.” The second stanza continues horrific place. Bound describes giant trees with branches that are being weighed down with cold snow, and these might describe horrific moments of her life. She says, “The storm is fast descending,” furthering the sentiment of being trapped in this dreadful situation. Bronte affirms this notion in the last line by ending once again with the words, “I cannot go.” The final stanza, Bronte describes very difficult conditions. There are “Clouds beyond clouds” in the sky, then “Wastes beyond wastes below.” Wastes are barren land, creating the impression of a lonely, uncomfortable place where a woman would not wish to be alone on a stormy winter's night.
In the opening stanza of Death Alone, Neruda uses dark imagery to emphasize the harsh reality of desolation that surrounds the event of death. He explains that when we are on the verge of dying, we “[collapse] inwards from skin to soul” (7) and our “heart[s] thread[] a . . . dark tunnel” (3), the tunnel being symbolic for the solitude that compliments death.