Poetry (lowell, Plath & Owen)Essay Preview: Poetry (lowell, Plath & Owen)Report this essayStage 2 English StudiesMr. KulezaPoetry MajorElliot HuntThe poetry studied this year from the anthology The Worlds Contracted Thus has presented the thoughts and views of several poets, with many of these poets holding a gloomy outlook on life. This point is further exemplified through the poetry of Wilfred Owen, Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath. Wilfred Owen places extensive emphasis on the meaning of life and the meaning of war while Robert Lowell seems to be more concerned with more personal issues such as his mothers death and then there is Sylvia Plath who is even more introverted through her poetry and focuses heavily on analysing her own thought processes and suicidal tendencies. On studying ach of these poets and their words I have come away from the experience feeling quite depressed.
Praise
An honest discussion of life and the power of music in both a critical and personal perspective. This book will stimulate you to continue reading and improving on reading.
Praise
This is an excellent book that encourages you to consider all aspects of the lives of poets, both critical and non-critical – because in our world we can think but we cannot create. Much of what poets have achieved through this work has been achieved through a social action or a community which has been shaped by and to the poet as a whole, which I feel is both positive and neutral to the world we inhabit.
The work is really a wonderful read, and the way it is presented can be a bit confusing and, due to the focus on writing it can be confusing and quite difficult to understand.
The way in which this work deals with the meaning of life is well received by all, and will be interesting to hear the thoughts and feelings of the author and his audience.
Notes
P. B. O’Boyle in the Guardian: The Poet Laureates’ Collection. Cambridge University Press. 2002. ISBN 10.069162559.
I. C. Pfeffer in the Guardian: The Poetus’ Journal. Cambridge University Press. 2003. ISBN 10.069162543.
II. A. Cushing in The New Yorker: Politics, Poetry and the History of Modern Literature. Harper Collins. 2012. ISBN 10.069162558.
Wilfred Owen is a poet who writes with such passion of personal experiences that a sense of sadness and gloom is created through his poems. Owens poems are strongly based on the effects of war on himself, and his world. Owen is an insomniac, as expressed through his poem, Dulce Et Decorum Est, when he writes, “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace/ Behind the wagon that we flung him in”. This poem is has such an effect on the reader, from the beginning of the poem when Owen describes the battlefield on which he fought in the war and the horrific gas attack with one man dying horribly and painfully as he could not get his gas mask on in time. Owen must also be commended for the vivid use of similes, “coughing like hagsfloundring like a man in fire or lime…obscene as cancer”, just as Sylvia Plath uses in her poem Balloons and the use of alliteration, “Knock-kneed …ecstacy of fumbling, Fitting…white eyes writhing”, that the reader cant help but be affected by the strong message Owen has created. Through the fourth stanza Owen expresses his own suffering, and the impression death has on him, making the reader feel sorry for the poet. Owen uses a creative medium of vivid descriptions and an irregular rhythm, unlike Sylivia Plaths poem, Aftermath, which is written in a Sonnett, to make the reader feel somewhat responsible for the war in which he fought as the poem is directed toward the reader and speaks to the reader, “if you could hear… my friend”. However, it is the final stanzas that have the most impact on the reader, as Owen uses satire toward the men, women and children who support the war to portray his dishonourable opinion of the war. Owen also uses these creative mediums in his poem, Futility. Futility is a poem that questions the meaning of war and, ultimately, the meaning of life. It is the beginning of the poem we are presented with this theme through the death of a soldier, resulting in Owen further reflecting on this in the second stanza. Owens poems are very sombre, especially Futility, which expresses that he is sad and depressed, philosophical and anxious especially in the second stanza when Owen uses the sun to represent a body who can not awaken the dead soldiers, “O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break Earths sleep at all?” The tone of this poem is very gentle as can be seen through the elongated vowel sounds, “move him…fields unsown…in France…clay grew tall”, and the common use of gentle consonants such as M and N, “Until this morning…full-nerved, -still warm…made fatuous sunbeams”, as in Dulce Et Decorum Est when there is a broad use of the consonants, B, D, G and K. Throughout his poem, Futility, Owen uses personification, “it wakes the seeds…the clays of a cold star”, as does Plath in her poem, Balloons, which creates a more personal approach to the poems. Owen uses rhetorical questions often throughout his poetry, especially in Futility, “was it for this the clay grew tall?” which makes the reader think more strongly about the poem and question life just as Owen does.
Robert Lowell is a poet who wrote through gloomy personal experiences, just as Wilfred Owen did. Lowells poems are very reflective and confessional, often expressing his mental illness and his living arrangements in a mental institute for some time, especially in his poem, Sailing Home from Rapollo. This poem contains a great use of similes throughout that add strength to Lowells feelings of the subject, “fir trunks as smooth as masts… wrapped like panetone”, as does Plath in her poem, Balloons. Orwell discusses the death of his mother and the events post her death, in the first stanzas expressing his concern on the meaning of life, just as Owen does in Dulce Et Decorum Est. Orwell uses a vivid use of colour to add contrasts to the poem, “crazy yellow and azure sea-sleds…black and gold casket was like Napoleons… Dour and dark”, unlike Owen who does not often use colour in his poems. Sailing Home from Rapollo is a very clear to read poem that is written to his dead mother, as though she could read it, adding a sense of gloom due to the unfortunate events of Lowells mothers death, “after twenty minutes I could imagine your final week”, unlike Plaths poem, Aftermath, which is not directed toward anyone in particular. In Sailing Home from Rapollo, Lowell expresses his opinion to those who have no values, as his mothers death has made him realise the importance of life, quite the opposite to Owen in his poem, Dulce Et Decorum Est, where he questions the meaning of life. Another of Lowells poems that he expresses his feelings immensely is Home after Three Months Away. This is a poem that expresses Lowells feeling of coming home from the mental institute, after three months, and returning to his baby daughter who had grown immensely since he had last seen her. The stanzas contain similes, “hung like soggy toast…lather like a polar bear”, to add the intensity of Lowells feelings of the subject, just as Owen does in his poem, Dulce Et Decorum Est. The tone of this poem is constant and gentle, yet rhymes inconsistently adding to the pressures of Lowells everlasting impressions on his daughter, “After thirteen weeks my child still dabs her cheeks to start me shaving”, just as Plath expresses in her poem, Balloons. Through Lowells expressive nature, he portrays his strong feelings on his illness, and the unfortunate events he endures being a mentally ill man, using metaphors, “a lioness who rules the roost”, to express his