Rukhaya M.K

A Literary Companion

Category: Poetry (page 13 of 18)

Poetry Analysis: Carol Ann Duffy’s “War Photographer”

October 10, 2014 / / 0 Comments

A War photographer has the most demanding profession. A job that he has to perform in spite of himself. A profession where subjectivity, emotion and revulsion have to be side-lined. He does not have the time to even contemplate on his action, ruminate over the ethics of of photographing. It is a job in which the earliest bird gets the worm.

The first stanza illustrates how the dark room offers the photographer the space to analyze his photographs objectively as well as subjectively. The different pictures spool out into an ordered sequence as though reechoing their silence, and their heart rending agonies. The setting of the gruesome sequences are relived. Their logical categorization is juxtaposed against the abruptness of the corresponding situation, and the illogicality of the reason for the war. The room is gloomy and filled with an eerie red light at once symbolic of spilled blood. The red glow at once reminds us of The Sanctuary Lamp that is symbolic of Gods eternal presence, and is therefore never extinguished. The photographer and his actions within the dark room are likened to a priest and his preparations to intone a mass. This seems like a deliberate attempt on part of the poet to juxtapose the sanctity of the latter, against the unholiness and worldliness of the former.…

Poetry Analysis: Carol Ann Duffy’s “Before You Were Mine”

October 10, 2014 / / 1 Comment

The tone of the poetess is assertive. The title “Before You Were Mine” gives the impression that the daughter arrived before the mother. In order to be chronologically coherent, the poet should have phrased the title as “Before I was Yours”. The word “mine” sounds the possessiveness of the speaker. The speaker asserts how prior to her birth, her mother had her own private life as echoed by “from the corner you laugh on”: the girlish frivolousness that endowed her with the freedom to giggle at the slightest things. Her carefree life is seen as engaged in tête-à-tête with her friends Maggie McGeeney and Jean Duff.

The three of you bend from the waist, holding
each other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement.
Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn.

The assertion of female sexuality as representative of individual freedom is apparent here. The image of Marilyn with her skirt blown up by an air vent depicts the celebrated scene of Marilyn Monroe in the film “The Seven Year Itch.”Marilyn Monroe has forever been the pervading symbol of sexuality and femininity. Critics also point out that the girl may be viewing a photograph here where her mother and friends are at a corner in Glasgow Street.…

Poetry Analysis: Dylan Thomas’ “A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London”

October 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Dylan Thomas’s “A Refusal to Mourn” was first published in “The New Republic” in 1945. It was published soon after the end of the Second World War. The poem is an emphatic refusal to mourn the dead. Here, the dead being represented by the child. The loss of a child is the greatest tragedy; and symbolic of life lost without having blossomed. Thomas simply refuses to mourn for it would relegate the child itself to the action of mourning. This refusal to mourn is rather a celebration of every innocent life lost.

The poet points to the ambiguous nature of death as it marks the destruction of life, but paves way for newer life. Bird, beast and flower alike are common and universal to this truth. Death fathers all-it has a towering, commanding and dominating effect over all. It is a kind of all-consuming darkness, that has a humbling-effect, for, in the face of death all are equal. All distinctions of high/low, rich/poor are erased in the face of it, humbling the person with the highest earthly paradigm of virtue. The phrase ‘bird beast and flowers’ may also denote the return to the nature or the basic elements of life-a universal phenomenon that marks the end of earthly individuality.…

Poetry Analysis: Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go Gentle into that Good Night “

October 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

The poem Do not go gentle into that good night, is structured as a villanelle. It is an exhortation to die gracefully, but not without giving a good fight to Death, the inevitable. The phrase “Good night” acts both as a metaphor and a pun. Dylan Thomas being a Surrealist employs a number of images.

The poet entreats with one not to give in easily (gentle) to Death. The night is a metaphor for death, as it connotes darkness, mystery and a sense of closing. Old age should not meekly submit to the ravages of Death, but should fire and fume at the dying of the light. The ‘dying of the light’ signifies death and denotes the last time a person closes his eyes. Wise men do comprehend that dark is ‘right’ ;or rather that the dark is the ultimate truth. All the knowledge they profess to possess, cannot combat death: it ’forked no lightening’ with regards to death. Their profound knowledge has not equipped them with the means to foresee death .Yet, they do not subjugate themselves to the idea of death. Good men are remorseful towards the close of their life as they recall their frail deeds which would have otherwise ‘danced in a green bay.’ The benefits of sowing good deeds would have reaped rich benefits.…

Poetry Analysis: Dylan Thomas’ “Fern Hill”

October 2, 2014 / / 2 Comments

The poet looks back in retrospection at his childhood in the poem “Fern-Hill”. ”Fern-Hill” was the farm of Thomas’ aunt Ann Jones. The poet recalls this place as he used to spend his holidays here, away from his native Swansea.

The poet gives a picturesque description of the idyllic farm. At a time, when he was happy and carefree under the apple boughs. He is overcome with joy and it appears that the house is lilting or singing. The grass was green, green being a symbol of prosperity and freshness. The night above the wooded valley was starry. Time is personified here. The poet asserts that Time welcomed him to the heydays of his eyes, helped him climb/progress in its vision. And he was prince of the apple towns. His experience is a regal one;the noun ’prince’ also signifies that he also owned all of this property as their legitimate inheritor. The phrase “once below a time” exemplifies his typical distortion of syntax for poetic effect. The phrase also points to a fairy-tale existence.

And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.

His relation with the barn is so intricate that he is “famous among the barns.” The farmyard is referred to as “happy yard.” It is the child that is really happy here.…

Poetry Analysis: Dylan Thomas’ “The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower”

October 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

The prescribed poem was included in Dylan Thomas’ collection namely 18 Poems.(1934)It represents the basic elemental force of Nature that embodies the meanest form of life and yet holds the intriguing power to sustain it. This elemental force is similar to the Shelley’s West Wind in it being both preserver and destroyer. This paradoxical nature of the force that permeates Nature is its hallmark. ”Green’ is at once the symbol of fertility and prosperity. The 22 lines are divided into four stanzas of five lines, rounded off with a coda at the end.
The energy “drives the flower”: it enables the blossoming and fruition of nature. The word ‘fuse’ connotes explosive or exponential growth that this force is capable of. And more significantly, it drives his green age; it renders him evergreen not only biologically but also in terms of spirit.

There is use of hyperbatic(inverted) word order to underline the revolutionary zeal of the force and its enforcing quality. The rose is a pervading symbol of the brevity of life as echoed in the poems with the ‘carpe diem’ motif. The poet is at a loss for words to tell the ‘crooked rose’ ravaged by the onset of this inexplicable phenomenon,that he too has been bent by the ‘wintry fever’.…

Poetry Analysis: Dylan Thomas’ “The Hunchback in the Park”

October 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Dylan Thomas’ “The Hunchback in the Park” represents the relegation of the individual in a society that prefers the normal over the abnormal. The dialectical pair in accordance with hierarchy in such a stance would be normal/abnormal. The park represents a place of social communion. The hunchback appears to be isolated even in such a social setting: “a solitary mister”. He appears to be propped up between the ‘trees and water’; that is, he appears to be foregrounded in nature owing to his isolation. His reference of time is indicated by the bell at dark. His is a stagnant , sterile existence.

The hunchback in the park
A solitary mister
Propped between trees and water
From the opening of the garden lock
That lets the trees and water enter
Until the Sunday sombre bell at dark

Eating bread from a newspaper
Drinking water from the chained cup
That the children filled with gravel
In the fountain basin where I sailed my ship
Slept at night in a dog kennel
But nobody chained him up.

His preoccupation against nature attributes to him traits of an animal existence. He comes across as an animal as he eats from a newspaper and drinks water from his ‘chained’ cup.…

Poetry Analysis: Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips”

October 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Flowers are emblematic of relationships. As they are given out on joyous occasions (marriages, birthdays) as well as on sad occasions(at the hospital, death).They reflect very poignantly the power of relations. It has both its positives as well as negatives. Sylvia Plath in “Tulips” portrays how she wanted to divorce herself permanently from her worldly associations as she was caught in an emotional rollercoaster ride. This explains her repeated attempts at suicide. The prescribed poem has been stated by critics, to be penned in the hospital after a typical suicide attempt. Tulips in the poem stand for “feigned empathy”. The poet Ted Hughes states that the poem was written when Sylvia Plath had suffered miscarriage and had to be hospitalized for appendectomy in March of 1961. This, he explains, is the reason for the recurring references to birth and death.

“The tulips are too excitable” asserts the poetess, as it brings with it the uncertainty of relationships. It is winter in her life, as there is gloom and frostiness all around. Though it is snowed-in, the atmosphere is peaceful as it is surrounded by white. The speaker claims that she has nothing to do with any sort of turmoil/(explosions) outside, or the hassle of relationships.…

Poetry Analysis: Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus”

October 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” is a revolt against established social institutions and power politics.”The speaker is a woman who has the great and terrible gift of being reborn.”The only trouble of being reborn is that first you have to die. She is the phoenix, the libertarian spirit, what you will. She is also just a good, plain, resourceful woman”(Sylvia Plath). The poetess in the poem visualizes herself to be the female version of the mythical archetype, Lazarus. Lazarus lay buried for three days in the grave till Jesus raised him from the grave. (John 11:1-44). The poetess inverts gender here, and mythification with reality. Here, she also refers to her own attempts at suicide.

At twenty in 1953, Plath attempted suicide by consuming a huge number of sleeping pills and concealing herself in the cellar beneath the house for three days. She tried it again by driving off the road, and survived the ‘accident’ yet again. In 1963, however, she won/lost to Death/Life. She often identifies herself with victims of persecution in the Nazi concentration camp due to the mental agony and anguish that she experienced. Both of these victims may be emblematic of the male dominated monopoly in society that she dies in and tries to arise from each time.…

Poetry analysis: Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror”

October 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

The Mirror is an emblem of the objective truth in the present tense in Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror.”  It is silver to the extent of perfect reflection. Therefore it is exact and precise in its projection of image. It has no preconceptions pertaining to emotion, memory or logic. In other words, it is the best Critic. For even the best critic is biased to a certain extent. Whatever it sees is swallowed by it into its frame. As it swallows images to project, it does not tell how many will ‘digest’ this ‘swallowing’ of images. It is ‘unmisted’ literally and metaphorically, says the poetess by love or detestation. It is perfectly neutral in manifestation. It reiterates that is just truthful (objective), and not cruel.It reveals how being truthful can also prove to be detrimental. It reminds us of a quote in Gregory David Robert’s Shantaram: ”Truth is a bully we all pretend to like.”

The phrase ‘eye of a little god” reminds of Arundhati Roy’s “God of Small Things.” The word ‘eye’ may denote both vision and insight. A miniature God, it is free from emotion, reason and worldly ethics. It even has its own geometry-‘four-cornered’. Most of the time of the mirror is occupied focusing on the opposite wall (or background).The wall is pink with speckles.…

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