Comparing the way two poets, John Claire and Ted Hughes, write about
the theme of nature and the season of summer.
Through out my essay, in which is to follow, I will be comparing the
way two poets, John Claire and Ted Hughes, write about the theme of
nature and the season of summer. The two poems that I am to study are
Work And Play written by Ted Hughes and Summer Images written by John
Claire in the 1800's.
In both the poems the poets are talking directly to us (the reader).
Although both poems are about summer and nature they are coming at us
from very different points of view.
In Work and Play Ted Hughes Talks directly to us about how nature in
terms of the swallow deals with summer 'the swallow of summer she
toils all the summer' and how nature in terms of human beings deal
with summer 'But the holiday people were laid out like wounded flat as
in ovens roasting and basting'. He makes the comparison between the
beauty of the swallow and ugliness of the humans throughout the poem.
When thinking of summer one can't help but get a rosy picture in ones
mind, the beach, the sun, and the fun!! But Hughes paints a more
realistic picture for us. He shows us the down side and instantly
wipes away the mental picture and shows us its not all fun.
Through out the poem he also points out how we are destroying our
surroundings giving it a very green, environmental feel to it. He
pacifically concentrates on cars, petrol and pollution 'Serpent of
cars that crawl through the dust' 'in hailing petroleum'. As you can
clearly tell Ted Hughes is constantly contrasting the humans (nature
at its worst) with the swallow (nature at its best).
John Clair's poem comes across from a different angle. He concentrates
on everything that is right with nature; through out his poem we get a
very romanticised view of summer, and in every stanza he describes
nature to its full beauty 'much beauty intervenes', 'turn up the
silver lining to the sun'. Every word that John Clair uses in his poem
he manages to romanticise in some way, for example 'the jetty snail
creeps from the mossy thorn' John Claire softeners the word thorn by
adding a soft word in front of it, in this case the word was mossy.
In the time that Claire was writing this poems was seeing nature
through rose coloured glasses, but he was also summing up what people
of his time thought of nature.
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In the essay I hope to explain why I picked each poem and to suggest
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In this essay I will compare and contrast a collection of different poems by Carol Anne Duffy, Robert Browning, Ben Johnson and Simon Armitage.
The two poems I have chosen to explain are Piano by D H Lawrence and
In the early 20th century, many writers such as T.S. Eliot (Thomas Stearns Eliot) and Langston Hughes wrote what scholars of today consider, modern poetry. Writers in that time period had their own ideas of what modern poetry should be and many of them claimed that they wrote modern work. According to T.S. Eliot’s essay, “From Tradition”, modern poetry must consist of a “tradition[al] matter of much wider significance . . . if [one] want[s] it [he] must obtain it by great labour . . . no poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists’ (550). In another term, tradition only comes within the artist or the art itself; therefore, it should be universally monumental to the past. And, Langston Hughes argues that African-Americans should embrace and appreciate their own artistic virtues; he wishes to break away from the Euro-centric tradition and in hopes of creating a new blueprint for the African-American-Negro.
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In this essay I will be arguing how Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou similar writing styles affected their community and brought to light a positive way of thinking. Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, and novelist from Missouri. Hughes played an influential role in the Harlem Renaissance era. Hughes was known for being conscious and it echoed in his work. He used music as well as imagery to tell the world the struggles that African-Americans endure in their era. Hughes poems told stories that were relatable and reflected his community. Maya Angelou was an American poet, actress, civil rights activist, along with many other things. As a civil rights activist, Angelou worked alongside with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and