BRAD HARDSTAFF
Brian Patten has produced a great poem called “The River Story”, which is about a river and how human pollution has affected it over years and years, plus he describes what it was like before and how the river was living. Brian Patten wrote this poem in a huge amount of detail and specifically to show how a river can be affected from human population and the aftermath from the devastation and destruction of the humans to the river. Brian Patten’s purpose for “The River Story” is mainly about describing the place that the river is situated and also to evoke emotions because Patten wants the reader to feel sorry and sympathy for harshly damaged river.
The theme is developed throughout the poem by the way Patten has described the “river as wearing lily – pads like medals” and “kingfishes were his secret agents”, these quotes all come under how happy the river is and what a great life it is living. As the poem continues it starts to introduce humans and how they vomit their poisons into him and clogged with garbage and junk. These quotes represent the damage that the humans had caused and how the river is slowly dying and becoming close to nothing but dried up dirt.
The structure of the poem has a huge influence on the reader. The poem is has only one stanza with 35 lines, no chorus and the lines varied in length. Patten has put in a few rhymes but there is no rhyme scheme, which indicates how the river has not got a boring life, or dose not have scheduled daily life.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Within the core of every text lies a set of distinctive ideas. Well-known Australian poet, John Foulcher, composes poetry that explores the underlying violence he finds in all levels of nature. The reality of nature is beautiful yet at the same time has a cruel and savage underbelly. Foulcher’s poem ‘Loch Ard Gorge’ distinctly exposes ideas and images communicating the fragile balance between places and the natural world, as well as the passions that reside within us all. ‘For the Fire’ captures the same notion as well as the idea that life works as a cycle in which humans are involved, and similarly ‘Summer Rain’. The distinctive ideas found in the heart of all texts allow responders to gain insight and understanding of themselves, others and the wider world.…
- 920 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Reflections Within is a non-traditional stanzaic poem made up of five stanzas containing thirty-four lines that do not form a specific metrical pattern. Rather it is supported by its thematic structure. Each of the five stanzas vary in the amount of lines that each contain. The first stanza is a sestet containing six lines. The same can be observed of the second stanza. The third stanza contains eight lines or an octave. Stanzas four and five are oddly in that their number of lines which are five and nine.…
- 4292 Words
- 18 Pages
Good Essays -
In Foulcher’s poetry he shows the different types of relationships people can have with their surrounding environment. In the writers poems ‘Loch Ard Gorge’ and ‘Summer Rain’ he focuses on the different elements of nature that people have to live with. This is portrayed by using a range of poetic techniques such as, symbolic imagery, connotative language, adjectives, contrast and metaphors.…
- 562 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
1. Does the horse think, or is the writer using this to postpone his thoughts…
- 1007 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Prompt: Write an essay in which you discuss how the poem's diction (choice of words) reveals his attitude toward the two ways of living mentioned in the poem.…
- 2536 Words
- 11 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
How does Owen Sheers use language, form and structure to explore ideas about separation and division in ‘Winter Swans’?…
- 589 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In Emily Dickinson's poem "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain", Dickinson describes what seems to be a funeral in her mind. When one thinks of a funeral, they usually think of a ceremony for a person who has died. This funeral that Dickinson is experiencing in her brain, is actually a funeral for the death of her mind. Emily Dickinson describes events that usually take place at a funeral but the ideas she pitches to the reader doesn't exactly exemplify your ideal funeral. She tells the reader how there are mourners, a service, lifting of a box implying it is a coffin and nobody is being burried. In Emily Dickenson's poem, the reader can elaborate upon elements of poetry such as imagery, symbolism, diction, and metaphor that create a better sense of understanding.…
- 1001 Words
- 3 Pages
Better Essays -
Tattoos are permanent symbols that last forever, while relationships can’t be guaranteed permanent now a days. Kim Addonizio chooses tattoos as a symbol in this poem “First poem for you.” Water and lightning is what makes the poem most symbolistic. “Lines of lightning pulsing just above your nipple can find as if by instinct the blue swirls of water on your shoulder where a serpent twists facing a dragon.” Though symbols can have more than one meaning to them the poem helps to point of the specific meaning of these symbols.…
- 471 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Poems have a way of drawing an audience to several interpretations. This is clear in Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “The Fish” as the speaker has second thoughts of capturing a fish to eat after realizing the severities it went through. This poem does a great job of using several techniques to get its point across on the central theme, which is interpreted as the ongoing struggle of humans versus nature. The author uses several literary approaches to convey its message. By utilizing diction, figurative language and imagery, the power of man over the environment is easily developed.…
- 1191 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
Poetry arouses great emotions in people. How have four poems “aroused emotions” in you? What have you learnt about war and the emotions associated with it?…
- 1149 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
How does the poet vividly convey ideas concerning the influence that nature has upon man?…
- 1113 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
In the poem “An Echo Sonnet”, author Robert Pack writes of a conversation between a person’s voice and its echo. With the use of numerous literary techniques, Pack is able to enhance the meaning of the poem: that we must depend on ourselves for answers because other opinions are just echoes of our own ideas.…
- 912 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
B. The Magi are not sure whether they are traveling to see a birth or a death. This is a foreshadowing of the death of the new born sons by Herod and the pending death of Christ…
- 1065 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Your marks for the Poetry unit of work will be derived from an assignment and from a short test.…
- 1551 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
“The Widow’s Lament in Springtime” by William Carlos Williams is a lovely poem that goes straight to the heart of anyone that has lost a loved one. Death is a physical energy that can drain and change an individual’s entire outlook on life as well as any joy that has been experienced. Some people are so affected that they see no relief in sight and want nothing more than that relief. What is amazingly captured by the author of this poem is the woman’s separation from her husband. She feels devastated and not sure she can go on without him. She lament’s sorrowfully even as her surroundings are coming to life. The poet uses the element of alliteration. This is evident in the words flames, flamed and fire; and later in the poem feel, fall and flowers. Assonance is also very visible as is reflected later in the poem with words like they, today and away. Symbolism and pathos add to the poem making it a very poignant story.…
- 982 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays