Thomas expresses the view that he is ‘half in love with pain’ in various poems, particularly ‘Melancholy’ and ‘Rain’. In both of these poems he seems to resent his troubles but also appreciates them in a rather unusual way. He expresses this by juxtaposing his inner states of joy and melancholy and the outer states of weather and the natural world.…
How does Hardy use language and poetic form to convey meaning and ideas in ‘Wagtail and Baby’?…
Hardy's flirtation with the clergy during his early years, and his subsequent disillusionment, may also have been significant to his writings in the capacity of spiritual development and advancement. It seems that his temporary abandonment of the countryside in favour of the city and it's hectic lifestyle, along with his rejection of religion, represents a man moving away in search of new inspirations and passions to indulge - which he most certainly did if accounts of his private life are to be believed.…
The sense of the control in time within the poem is set by the final lines “White time ran ahead, along glistening tracks of steel’ and is also contrasted with “Time waited anxiously with us” helps represents that…
In the poems “An Advancement of Learning” and “An August Midnight” the connection between both poems is their focuses on their encounters with creatures, Heaney’s with a rat on a river embankment and Hardy’s with several nocturnal insects that fly through his window. Both draw on the idea of their personal encounters with creatures to portray these ideas.…
The poet’s purpose of writing this poem was to reflect and acknowledge his guilt for the mistreatment of his late wife. The persona reflects and contemplates on his behavior towards his wife while she was alive ‘Her who but lately – Had shivered with pain’ and his yearning to be reunited with her again ‘Would I lay there – And she were housed there! – Or better, together… We both, - who would stray there’ Hardy acknowledges that his love was lost – his mistreatment to his late wife ‘Her who but lately – Had shivered with pain’ and was found again, unfortunately too late…
In the poem, “Mayday on Holderness”, Ted Hughes analyses the relationship between man and nature. The theme of the second stanza is strongly focused on death, playing a part of the poem’s overall theme - the cycle of life. Another focus point of the stanza is the eternal being of nature and man’s need for it.…
The swallows flew in curves of eight’ in the first stanza, through the contrast of a swallow to a implement of battle that due to his fascination and obsession in nature these beautiful creatures have been turned into reasons for him and his wife to fight. Also the use of the shape ‘eight’ suggests the infinity symbol, is suggests that Hardy is in an endless cycle which suggests the extent at which he is consumed by nature, and that as long as he is in this cycle with nature he will also be in an endless cycle of war with his wife, and the ‘swallows’ will remain as…
After picking Tess up in the town, Alec rapes Tess while she is sleeping, symbolizing her transition from an innocent girl to a jaded woman. Through her experience of being raped and getting pregnant as a result, Tess learns that the world is full of “snakes,” people who do not have her best interest in mind, that will attempt to take advantage of “sweet birds,” innocent young girls. The segment of the quote stating “She could not bear to look forward into the vale” is an allusion because it alludes to the idea that Tess is unwilling to look forward to her future which she saw would have many trials and challenges now that she had to cope with adult problems. Tess no longer fears Alec because he had already succeeded in his quest to advantage of her.…
The poems “Horse whisperer” and “The ruined maid” portray a sense of personal experience in their poems. Andrew Foster’s poem, “Horse whisperer” tells us about how a horse whisperer was used in his society when he was needed but was then kicked out as technology advanced whilst Thomas Hardy’s poem “The ruined maid” shows us how a young and innocent farm girl has turned into a posh and classy women due to a change in her lifestyle.…
Jude’s inner thoughts are brought to light after a lengthy conversation with Sue. He questions his reasons for being with her and then comes to his conclusion through rationalization in sentences three and five. Hardy’s word choice shows Jude as an intellectual and a man questioning his relationship with Sue. The figurative language and imagery of the excerpt show what Jude thinks of the leader-writer Sue once knew. Hardy’s use of syntax, diction, and imagery depict Jude’s thought process after speaking to Sue and what he should do to fix their relationship.…
In “The Ruined Maid” a poem by Thomas Hardy, one may first portray it to be about two women who are contrasting and discussing Melia’s past and now ruined life. In the poem Thomas hardy examines the life of two women, one poor and one rich, debating which women’s life is harder. In the poem Hardy exemplifies melodramatic dialogue between two women revealing the insecurities and ethics of women in the Victorian Era. Moreover the poem satirizes how a prostitute, a woman who may have a ruined life but is still happy, is viewed by the Victorians.…
Hardy and Yeats belong to the upper classes; however, D.H. Lawrence is a working class poet and novelist. Both Hardy and D.H. Lawrence write outstanding novels and they are famous in both of the literary forms. Hardy depicts nature in terms of pessimism like William Butler Yeats and D.H. Lawrence portrays pessimism through the sexuality that stands for the blood for himself. In Freudian psychology, the snake symbolizes the male sexual power. However, in D.H. Lawrence’s poem entitled “Snake”, the animal stands for the innate (içten) glory of wild beings and the vulgarity as a whole and the pettiness (evcil hayvan düşkünlüğü) of the human beings is narrated. Secondly the snake in the poem stands for traditional values and it also symbolizes the indecisiveness (kararsızlık) of the human beings when they are faced with dangerous things. Hardy and Yeats dwell on the human beings but D.H. Lawrence depicts the bestiary in the depiction of animals. In Hardy’s “Last Words to A Dumb Friend” an elegy to a pet cat is studied. In another poem by him entitled “Snow in the Suburbs”, there is a reference to a black cat. But none of the cats have symbolic meanings. But the animals in D.H. Lawrence’s poems are all symbolic.…
Modernist concerns are expressed through T.S Eliot’s poems ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’ and ‘Preludes’. Eliot uses his fragmented childhood experiences and his thoughts on the squalor modern life to express the issues of meaningless life, isolation, the alienation and loneliness that the humans feel and lastly the damaged psyche of humanity. The issues of meaningless life is expressed through complex imagery and other language techniques like symbolism with death frequently linked to show that life was not anticipated and death was welcomed to society. Eliot also explored the modernist concern of isolation through the lineation of time in…
In the novel Jude the Obscure there are some controversial issues of that time period are being displayed. The first of which is masculinity and how that applied to certain people of different classes and genders. The masculinity of men in that time period was defined by several things, namely, a man’s control of the house hold, and the ability to think and act rationally rather than emotionally. Jude’s character gets dissected in this book and we really get a glimpse into his thought process and mind, and throughout the book Jude behaves in such a way that makes us wonder that would he have acted more like a “man”, the events in his life might have led to a happier ending for him.…