“Report to Wordsworth” by Boey Kim Cheng and “Lament” by Gillian Clarke are the two poems I am exploring in this essay, specifically on how the common theme of human destruction of nature is presented. In “Report to Wordsworth”, Cheng explores the damage of nature caused by humans and man’s reckless attitude towards this. In “Lament”, the idea of the damage of oceans from the Gulf War is explored.
In “Report to Wordsworth”, Boey Kim Cheng explores the theme of human destruction of nature as a response to William Wordsworth, an romantic poet who celebrated nature’s beauty in his poetry. Cheng writes this poem ironically in sonnet form, as sonnets are typically written about love. By using “Report”, it is implying that Cheng is writing a letter to Wordsworth informing him
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In the final line, “God is labouring to utter his last cry”. This reinforces the idea as even the creator of this world is suffering grief and despair from what humans have done.
Gillian Clarke’s “Lament” explores environmental and human damage from the Gulf War. The Gulf War occurred in 1991 after Iraq invaded Kuwait, followed by the Americans bombing Iraq. Laments are a poem type where the poet expresses grief or loss, and in this poem, Clarke laments for animals, people and the environment that have suffered during the war. “Lament” is written in 7 stanzas, with 3 lines per stanza.
In the first stanza, Clarke laments for the pregnant green turtle, which lays “her eggs” in a “nest of sickness”. “Her” is used stimulating a more personal feeling of maternity. Clarke uses the term “nest” in an ironic way. In this line, it is a metaphor and juxtaposition because nests are supposed to be a home, providing safety and comfort. But is filled with “sickness” from the debris caused by the
John Muir’s essay, The Calypso Borealis, and William Wordsworth’s poem, I wandered Lonely as a Cloud, are two wonderfully written works centered towards their love for nature. They were able to create vivd images in the reader’s head through their writing as well as emotional transitions. Both works, inspired by events in the 19th century, have their differences, however, their emotion and love for nature is the same and creates the same impact with the
In his poem “Tampons,” Bill Garvey provides a social commentary on the disconnection between the U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq and the civilians in the United States. The speaker of “Tampons” is in the local post office, and discovers a “list of needs” which are items going overseas (line 5). Garvey’s poem “Tampons” features a first-person speaker, the situation and setting which are presented within the first two lines, and imagery to allow readers to gain a realization of the casualties and bloodshed during within the war in Iraq. Garvey uses a first-person speaker who is oblivious to the harsh realities of the war in Iraq.
(insert intro paragraph here) The painful tone of the excerpt progresses into healing, suggesting that accepting the loss will bring an end to suffering, no matter how great. Seeing the fading apparition of her newly deceased lover, Satsuki is engulfed by the raw despair she likely felt when news of his death had first reached her, and it manifests in the fervently grieving quality of a passage shortly afterward. After all, she recounted the experience as “a ray of light piercing [her] heart” (do I put a page number or line number here?).
Through the use of imagery, Richard Wagamese highlights the need to mend one's connections to oneself, others, and the natural environment in his writing. Images of the natural world, especially those of forests and rivers, highlight how everything is connected and how important it is to live sustainably. It symbolizes the process of reestablishing a connection to nature, which is necessary for building resilience on an individual level. Reestablishing a connection with nature is crucial for fostering resilience in people. Modern culture often neglects our relationship with nature, even though it is essential to our health.
The following poems all teach readers the importance and significance of wildlife and the horrible treatment they too often receive from human beings. As everything becomes more modern, we can not help but stray farther away from nature. This increasingly insensitive attitude can have detrimental effects on the environment. Although the elements of poetry used in the following poems vary, Gail White’s “Dead Armadillos,” Walt McDonald’s “Coming Across It,” and Alden Nowlan’s “The Bull Moose,” all share one major conflict; our civilization 's problematic relationship to the wild.
This diptych poem is essentially engrossed with the loss of innocence through experience. Part One of Father and Child, Barn Owl, explores the innocence of childhood and the bewilderment towards the nature of death. The line “my first shot struck” consists of monosyllables which creates an emphasis on the shock that is contained within the persona for committing such an act. Part Two of Father and Child, Nightfall, is fast forwarding to a role reversal between the father and child, the child now being the carer and nurturer of the father. “Your passionate face is grown to ancient innocence”, this line reflects the fathers attitude to his surroundings at the present time, taking in the nature and once ordinary things around him, that all become extraordinary with this last inevitable walk.
She utilises a diptych structure which portrays the contrast of a child’s naive image of death to the more mature understanding they obtain as they transition into adulthood. This highlighted in ‘I Barn Owl’ where the use of emotive language, “I watched, afraid/ …, a lonely child who believed death clean/ and final, not this obscene”, emphasises the confronting nature of death for a child which is further accentuated through the use of enjambment which conveys the narrator’s distress. In contrast, ‘II Nightfall’, the symbolism of life as a “marvellous journey” that comes to an end when “night and day are one” reflects the narrator’s more refined and mature understanding of mortality. Furthermore the reference to the “child once quick/to mischief, grown to learn/what sorrows,… /no words, no tears can mend” reaffirms the change in the narrator’s perspective on death through the contrast of a quality associated with innocence, “mischief”, with more negative emotions associated with adulthood, “sorrows”.
The excerpt taken from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring leaves a lasting impression on the importance of the environment and how humans have killed hundreds of thousands birds and insects due to the usage of pesticides. She uses rhetorical strategies such as diction and tone to convey what she sees as the destruction of the ecosystem. The careless actions of human beings is shown throughout this passage by the use of diction and tone the author creates. Carson immediately criticizes humans, she refers to their use of pesticides as “a habit of killing”. The reader can sympathize with the animals that have been killed by the plentiful amounts of poison and instead feel something akin to disdain towards the actions of the farmers.
1. “‘The ancient teachers of this science,’ said he, ‘promised impossibilities, and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little they know that metals cannot be transmuted, and that the elixir of life is a chimera. But these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles” (74). —The word “he” refers to M. Waldman, a man who the narrator refers to as “short” and his voice as “sweetest I ever heard”.
In the poem, “What Every Soldier Should Know”, Brian Turner, details the ever-present threat of death in a war zone. This poem expesses not only the terror of the American soldiers, but also exemplifies the emotions that the Middle Eastern soldiers feel towards the American soldiers. The soldiers are experiencing death, chaos, and disorder, but for some of the middle eastern people, they experience that every day. A lot of Middle Eastern people are normal people, defending their home land, their family, and their country.
Selfishness and selflessness in Australian Society Humans are the most selfish creatures to ever walk the earth. We can however, also be considered as the most selfless beings. The theory of nationalism and sacrifices towards the ‘greater good’ are the two leading forces behind this sense of self-value that have been present in society for centuries. The destruction of the environment for personal gain as well as the destruction of human life for the benefit of the country are examples of these forces. I am passionate about this issue because I do not believe in the carless and unnecessary waste of life or the environment.
Both the modern lament “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” and the Anglo-Saxon lament “Lament for Boromir” use caesura and anaphora to emphasize the theme of ubi sunt, intense pain and loss. In, “Lament for Boromir”, J. R. R. Tolkien uses caesura and anaphora to emphasize the theme of ubi sunt, or the phrase ‘where are they?’ and intense pain and loss. The “Lament for Boromir” is a song sung as Boromir floats away in a boat at his funeral. A lament is a poem expressing grief usually intense and personal. Tolkien writes, “His head so proud, his face so fair, his limbs they laid to rest” (27).
Nature is easily projected onto, as it allows for a sense of peacefulness and escapism. Due to its ability to evoke an emotional reaction from the masses, many writers have glorified it through various methods, including describing its endless beauty and utilizing it as a symbol for spirituality. Along with authors, artists also show great respect and admiration for nature through paintings of grandiose landscapes. These tributes disseminate a fixed interpretation of the natural world, one full of meaning and other worldly connections. In “Against Nature,” Joyce Carol Oates strips away this guise given to the environment and replaces it with a harsher reality.
At first glance, the two poems seem alike, with many parallels corresponding to the importance of nature and its impact on human beings. Although both poems have different tonal approaches, they both come to the same conclusion that nature is a necessity to all human beings. Wordsworth’s livid tone in “The World is Too Much with us” presents his true feelings towards the materialistic ideals during the Industrialization period whereas “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is more light and simple. Wordsworth begins his poem “The World is Too Much with us” by mentioning that humans are always “getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; little we see in Nature that is ours” (Lines 2-3).
However there is a deeper connection between romanticism and nature all together. Many poets consider nature as the source of human ideas and emotions. “Henry David Thoreau says a poet who lived in a cabin on Walden Pond for two years, believed that people were meant to live in the world of nature”. Although the work of nature is characterized by search for self or identity, the poet William Wordsworth getting inspiration from Coleridge and nature wrote of the deeper emotions. Romanticism and nature are connected because the artists and philosophers of the romantic period romanticized the beauty of nature, and the power of the natural world.