I 'M Ashleigh Christensen's Life In A Nutshell'

I’m Ashleigh Christensen and I’m here to present my anthology ‘Life In A Nutshell’ which is focused on the themes of life, love and death. Now I know what you’re all thinking, oh great a presentation on poetry from hundreds of years ago that’s not relevant today, well this is not the case. Poetry may be seen as a genre for older people however it can be quite relevant to the youth of today. My anthology shows that no matter the time or place poems written hundreds of years ago are still relevant to experiences revolving around love, life and death in modern times because we all will fall in love, live life and eventually die.

The first of my three poems focuses on the theme life, the poem is “A Poison Tree” written by William Blake. The

This shows that by fighting and not sorting the problems out that the pain can grow and people can leave, either by dying or leaving. This poem is still relevant today with many songs, movies and television shows being based on life and the drama’s that happen. People fight with each other and this hasn’t changed from when this poem was written, we can learn from this poem that it is best to forgive and forget because if grudges are held, regrets can be made and stay with you forever. Death is an example of this, suicide can happen and you may never move on because you never forgave that

They can use the power of flattery to try and get what they want and this still happens today, much like in the poem where the message is that you want it, we’re in love, so let’s have sex and enjoy our time. This is much like the song ‘Blurred Lines’ by Robin Thicke where he complements her by saying “you the hottest chick in this place” and then the song continuing on to say that he knows she wants him and that they don’t need to wait, this can be seen in the lines “Just let me liberate you, you don't need no papers, I know you want it, must wanna get nasty”.

The final poem is Futility by Wilfred Owen, a soldier in World War One and is about the theme; death. Now I know by now you are all thinking death, this doesn’t relate to me, however I’m sure at one point in our lives we all experience death, either ourselves or someone close to us.

The poem was written during World War One and is about the front line of the war. The poem concentrates on the ‘futility’ of war and how death is unescapable. In this poem there is a possible connection to the Bible as it frequently uses ‘Him’. The poem could be compared to the sacrifice Jesus made for everyone, whereas in the war, the soldiers sacrifice their lives for their