Report to Wordsworth- Boey Kim Cheng
Report to Wordsworth- Boey Kim Cheng
In this poem the 20th century poet Cheng refers to the 19th century poet Wordsworth who referred to the 17th century poet Milton. So he is thereby indirectly referring to Milton and there is a Consistency of style. He is urging him to be here at this time because Where Wordsworth wrote about the beauty of the world and was concerned about the destruction we have caused it in the poem “The world is too much with us” he is trying to tell him about the further destruction that man has caused it.
There are a number of similarities including the personification of flowers “sleeping flowers” that Wordsworth mentioned where Cheng talks about how the flowers are “mute”. Another aspect of the flowers is that flowers symbolize beauty, life and fruit. We are no longer living fruitful lives there will be no flowers left if we continue to deafen them with our actions against them. Another reference to that of the “dying clock” where Cheng brings out the urgency of the situation, how time is ticking and nobody is winding the clock. Also, it tells us about how we are progressively damaging nature; we are heading to disaster where the world will come to an end. The references to the gods are also similar in both poems. Proteus and Triton were mentioned in both, but where Wordsworth says ‘have slight of Proteus rising from the sea’ which implies that we should be afraid of his wrath but Cheng says “all hopes of Proteus rising from the sea have sunk”. Also, Wordsworth said ‘Or hear old triton blow his wreathed horn’, whereas Cheng says “tritons notes struggle to be free. Also, ‘Neptune lies helpless as a beached whale’. The water is so polluted that gods come out like beached whales. This also shows how we have killed the gods. How they don’t have a say anymore because we have gone so far in damaging the world around us we don’t stop to look at what is happening. Cheng says ‘while insatiate man moves in for the kill’. This shows how ruthless
In this poem the 20th century poet Cheng refers to the 19th century poet Wordsworth who referred to the 17th century poet Milton. So he is thereby indirectly referring to Milton and there is a Consistency of style. He is urging him to be here at this time because Where Wordsworth wrote about the beauty of the world and was concerned about the destruction we have caused it in the poem “The world is too much with us” he is trying to tell him about the further destruction that man has caused it.
There are a number of similarities including the personification of flowers “sleeping flowers” that Wordsworth mentioned where Cheng talks about how the flowers are “mute”. Another aspect of the flowers is that flowers symbolize beauty, life and fruit. We are no longer living fruitful lives there will be no flowers left if we continue to deafen them with our actions against them. Another reference to that of the “dying clock” where Cheng brings out the urgency of the situation, how time is ticking and nobody is winding the clock. Also, it tells us about how we are progressively damaging nature; we are heading to disaster where the world will come to an end. The references to the gods are also similar in both poems. Proteus and Triton were mentioned in both, but where Wordsworth says ‘have slight of Proteus rising from the sea’ which implies that we should be afraid of his wrath but Cheng says “all hopes of Proteus rising from the sea have sunk”. Also, Wordsworth said ‘Or hear old triton blow his wreathed horn’, whereas Cheng says “tritons notes struggle to be free. Also, ‘Neptune lies helpless as a beached whale’. The water is so polluted that gods come out like beached whales. This also shows how we have killed the gods. How they don’t have a say anymore because we have gone so far in damaging the world around us we don’t stop to look at what is happening. Cheng says ‘while insatiate man moves in for the kill’. This shows how ruthless