Lionel Trowling Said That Thomas’ Poetry Was “Truly Terrifying”. How Far and in What Ways Do You Agree with This.

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Lionel Trowling believed that there was a “truly terrifying” element in Thomas’ Poetry. Thomas achieves this by clever use of imagery, tone, verse. In the poem Rain, Thomas uses vivid, evocative and tangible imagery which gives the poem a sense of immediacy. The poem, as in most of Thomas’ poetry, is written in simple English, “in the language of ordinary men” as Thomas said, which increases the lucidity of content in the poem (but not necessarily the symbolic or metaphorical content), and also adds to the sense of immediacy, for simple language elicits imagery in our minds faster than enigmatic language. The simplicity of language also gives the poem a deep sense of ingenuousness and honesty, and gives the content a sense of powerful sincerity and truth. The tone of the poem is incredibly dark. Throughout the poem a trend can be seen; within every clause there is at least one dark and frightening word. For example, “Rain” is mentioned in three times in the first line, each time at the end of a clause and followed by a comma leading into the next clause, giving each consecutive clause a deeper and more penetrating sense of melancholy. The repetition of the word rain also augments its importance. In the following line examples of dark words can also be found, for example, “On this bleak hut, and solitude”. Strangely, on the word “die” at the end of the third line, there is no comma ending the clause, and sentence carries on; perhaps this is Thomas wanting to forget that he shall die. The sentence actually ends on “solitude”, followed by a full stop. We then have the repetition of “rain” in “Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon”. More importantly, Thomas is expressing here his longing to die. Symbolically, rain in this poem seems to be having a cathartic effect on Thomas. The rain is “dissolving” and purging his soul, saying in line four that the rain is

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