Handling the Issues of Rage and Murder in Poetry
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Handling the Issues of Rage and Murder in Poetry
The two poems I am going to analyse are 'Education for Leisure' by
Carol Ann Duffy and ' The Hitcher. These poems both have potentially
dangerous speakers.
The first line of 'Education for leisure' contains murderous feeling,
this grabs the reader and submerses them into the poem.
"Today I am going to kill something. Anything"
The poet uses direct and powerful words, by using the word 'something'
instead of 'someone' the poet makes it unclear what the speaker wants
to kill.
In 'Education for Leisure' the speaker thinks that his readiness to
kill makes him somehow smarter then anyone else. This is shown when
the speaker says;
"I am a genius..."
The speaker seems to kill for killing sake. This sadism is shown in
line five when the speaker says;
I squash a fly against the window with my thumb.
We did that at school. Shakespeare."
This can be interpreted in two ways, one way is that killing and
Shakespeare can be associated with boredom. The other way is a line
from 'King Lear' By William Shakespeare
"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport." (4.1.57-58)
Carol Ann Duffy uses this a another way of symbolising the speakers
delusional view that he is a God.
The poet reinforces the point that the speaker is delusional when he
says;
"The cat avoids me. The cat
Knows I am a genius, and has hidden itself."
The speaker thinks here that the cat thinks he is a God and has hidden
out of fear, he thinks the whole planet revolves around himself.
The speaker also thinks he is famous.
" I dial the radio
and tell the man he's talking to a superstar.
He cuts me off."
By now the speaker is probably getting very frustrated, he then takes
a drastic step.
"I get our bread-knife and go out.
The pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm."
By saying 'your arm' instead of 'someone's arm' Carol Ann Duffy brings
the reader into the poem by making the point that people like the
speaker do exist and this sort of thing could happen.
The speaker in 'The Hitcher' is observably feeling very depressed.
"I'd been tired under
the weather,"
The speaker is presumably mentally ill, he picks up a hitcher "...in
Leeds"
One difference 'The Hitcher' has to 'Education for Leisure' is that in
'The hitcher' we know someone is killed.
"I let him have it
on the top road out of Harrogate - once
with the head, then six times with the krooklok
in the face..."
even though we're not directly told that the hitcher is dead it's