Theme:Pain and Suffering Flashcards
‘eighteen years ago…I can see/you walking away’
L= present tense even though in past - memory still vivid and painful. Structure:
line break separates pronouns - emphasizes son parting from father.
Direct address to son - suggests feelings unresolved in speaker.
‘We stood by the pond that winter day’
L = past tense. Visual memory of parting
still vivid; suggests impact on him. L=
verb = lack of movement suggests an
impasse in their relationship. Winter - symbolises emotional coldness and death of relationship.
‘like an ominous bird a wing’
L = simile. The bitter smile is a sign their
relationship is over and she wants to take flight away from it.
‘God-curst sun’
L= harsh consonant - bitter -sun normally
symbolises life and hope C = Hardy was an
agnostic. No sign of evidence of god’s love;
speaker loses faith and hope.
‘starving sod’ / ‘greyish leaves’
L= alliteration. Barren soil symbolises dying relationship; adjective - grey -
dying, like their love. R = imagery conveys
bleak mood of speaker to the reader.
‘a pond’
Hardy’s poem begins and ends in the same place. He cannot forget the memory, suggesting deep pain. He cannot move on.
‘Drifting away/ behind a scatter of boys’
-enjambment emphasizes son’s growing independence as he moves away from his father but also his father’s desire to hold on to him (there is no end stopped line)
‘Gnaws at my mind still’.
L = powerful verb suggests ongoing pain
and guilt at leaving his parting from his son. Caesura emphasizes impact of
parting. R = sympathy for father’s pain.
C = Day=Lewis dedicated the poem to his
son Sean; he divorced Sean’s mother and left the family home.
D = on a deeper level, about his guilt at
leaving the family, not just leaving his son at boarding school.
‘keen lessons that love deceives, and wrings with wrong’
L= adjective suggests sharp pain of romantic rejection. Plural lessons’ =he has experienced rejection many times since their relationship ended.
Speaker bitter and cynical = love ‘deceives”;
pessimistic. He’s lost his faith in love as a positive force.
Alliteration and verb ‘wrings’ - emphasizes the twisting pain of rejection but also implies he
perceives himself as the deceived victim. R = feels
speaker is self-pitying?
Monosyllabic end rhymes ‘God/sod’ emphasize his
bleak depression
‘eddying…like a winged seed loosed from its parent stem’
L = simile. A seed (child) must become independent
from its parent if it is to grow. Verb ‘eddying’ suggests child is vulnerable; no clear direction.
Must find its own path
‘pathos of a half-fledged thing’
L= emotive metaphor. Son = vulnerable. Not ready
to become independent. R = pity for him.
like a satellite wrenched from its orbit’
L = simile. Verb = painful. Not ready for parting
Son’s life’s revolved around him.
Umbrella sentence:
Whilst ‘Walking Away’ deals with a father’s pain at parting from his son, ‘Neutral Tones’ describes the pain of romantic rejection.
TS1:
In both poems, the speakers recall memories of their pain, which suggests that they are still haunted by them.
TS2:
Both poets use natural imagery to describe painful feelings.
