Prrescribed Poetry 2014 Higher

Poetry 2014 Higher

(Yeats)

 

1.    I would agree that Yeats uses evocative language to create poetry that includes both personal reflection and public commentary. One of the reasons I have loved studying his poetry is that he managed to give me a sense of himself and the time he was living in. His poetry elicited an emotional response through his interesting and varied themes and his brilliant use of language.
           
The first poem I studied, 'The lake Isle of Innisfree', is a perfect example of how Yeats used evocative language to create poetry that is personally reflective. This poem expresses Yeats' desire to leave the oppression and boredom of the city and his longing for the beauty and simplicity of the island of Innisfree. Even the name of the island evokes feelings of freedom and peace.

 

He paints a vivid picture of Innisfree. His images are clear and easily accessible. There is a “small cabin”, “a hive for the honey-bee” and “a purple glow”. As I read this poem, I felt a strong desire to visit the countryside.
              
These images are then contrasted with urban living. The colour and beauty of the island is juxtaposed with the mundane concrete jungle of the city where everything is “grey”.

 

 

 

(Dickinson)

 

2.    Without doubt, Dickinson is an original poet both in terms of theme and language. Her unique style is highly dramatic and I would strongly agree that it can both disturb and delight its readers. The idea of one's mind being trapped in one's body as you are being lowered or “dropped down” into your grave is highly disturbing. The alternative interpretation of the poem being about mental breakdown where “a Plank in Reason, broke” is equally upsetting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Larkin)

 

3.    I agree with this statement in the main; in several of Larkin’s poems, he is a detached but perceptive observer of the realities of ordinary life, and these realities are often illuminated by images of lyrical beauty. However, his subject matter is not limited to the ordinary or mundane in life. His poems also address the monumental events and issues of human experience – finding purpose and meaning in life, coming to terms with death, mortality and the passage of time.

 

The poem,‘Ambulances’, serves as an example of Larkin observing the ordinary realities of life. Ambulances, illness and hospitals are a feature of ordinary life but Larkin’s imagery confers lyrical beauty on them. His opening line "Closed like confessionals they thread" is mysterious and unsettling. "Confessional" implies sin and secrecy, and one wonders what is happening inside the ambulances as they speed through cities in emergencies. Larkin observes ordinary details, the colour and the crest on the ambulance, but as a perceptive and philosophical observer he comments on their universal significance:
"They come to rest at any kerb

 

 

(Plath)

 

4.    The above statement can be applied to some of Plath’s poems on the course. Plath makes effective use of language to capture the workings of a tortured mind, which perceives a cruel and barren universe.

 

‘Elm’ is a poem, which I found very haunting in its depiction of Plath’s personal experience of suffering. The opening statement, "I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root", suggests a journey into the depths of the unconscious. The "bottom" beneath the roots of the elm tree also suggests darkness and as the elm is associated with poison (the poison-elm) the tone is ominous and sinister.