Compare And Contrast The Ways In Which

The Poet Describes The Breakdown Of The Relationship. Comment On Their Versecraft Essay, Research Paper

Compare and Contrast the ways in which the poet describes the breakdown if the relationship. Comment on the effectiveness of their verse-craft

I chose to compare the poems: An Anniversary, by Vernon Scannel

Dismissal, by John Tripp

A Winters Tale, by D.H. Lawrence

In the poem An Anniversary the poet describes the relationship and it s breakdown as two leaves on a river, this is and example of Personification . In contrast to this poem in the poem Dismissal Tripp describes the breakdown very much as it was, describing two people in a dreary pub, this is an example of Pathetic fallacy as the setting is very boring and dark like the breakdown of the relationship. In A Winters Tale Lawrence uses a similar verse-craft to Scannel in An Anniversary with the relationship being described as a field but he still uses people in the poem to describe the people in the relationship. Lawrence also uses Pathetic Fallacy as he describes a cold winter s day when the relationship broke down.

In An Anniversary the poet says:

The sky s smeared monotone.

This means the sky was smeared with one colour, which may signify a boring colourless relationship.

Two willow leaves glide smoothly on

The water s shimmering skin;

This is an example of Enjambment . It describes the leaves floating smoothly but apart from each other. The use of enjambment here helps the rhythm of the poem carry on smoothly like the leaves gliding. It could signify the two people still going on in life smoothly but not together. When he says the water s shimmering skin it gives the impression of being murky below and shiny on top. This could show there is more to the relationship than what people see initially or that when the relationship was still happening it may have looked alright to everyone else watching but there were things going on beneath the surface that weren t alright.

Once, on a branch in the sun, they danced

And often touched each other;

They will not touch each other again,

In the relationship this signifies that they were once happy together but now they will never be together again. It could also mean that from the beginning the relationship would never last as all leaves fall off their branch so the relationship was doomed to failure.

The poet uses a lot of contrasts in this poem:

The sky s smeared monotone.

Once, on a branch in the sun, they danced

This contrasts the happiness in the relationship before the breakdown to the boring monotone they have between each other now.

The poet uses vivid imagery all the way through the poem to describe the two leaves; he also uses Personification the way that he describes the two leaves as people.

The tone of the poem changes as at the beginning when the poet is describing the relationship now it is quite morose, as the two leaves are no longer together. At the end he is describing the relationship before the breakdown and the tone is quite happy. This is an example of Pathetic Fallacy as the tone reflects and complements what the poet is talking about.

Some examples of Alliteration in the poem are:

stream slides

stares ..slithering

sky s smeared

shimmering skin

They are all S sounds, this complements the flowing, smooth, gliding rhythm of the poem.

In the poem Dismissal the poet describes the relationship breakdown very much like a story. In the whole poem he uses Enjambment and the poem has a very continuous rhythm he also doesn t use rhyme or assanance which also adds to its story-like quality.

The poet describes;

To this day I remember

that alcove: flaked coffee-coloured

paint, an ashtray spilling, two

vodkas.

This gives you a dingy, dreary mental image of a bar or pub, which complements the dark tone of the poem, which is a good use of Pathetic fallacy

Oh,

I said, as if my little finger

Had been cut

This is a simile when the poet compares the pain of the relationship breakdown to be like cutting his little finger.

Three years

it took for her words to sink in

This shows that although the pain was more than having his finger cut, his brain didn t register what had happened due to the extent of the pain it would have caused. The man was embarrassed and didn t want to publicly show his pain . It is a very poignant poem.

In A Winter s Tale the poet says:

Yesterday the fields were only grey with scattered snow,

And now the longest grass-leaves hardly emerge;

The poet uses imagery to describe the bleak weather and bleakness in the relationship. It may mean that yesterday the snow was scattered so they only had scattered problems in the relationship but now the good things in the relationship, which is the grass, hardly show through all the problems.

I cannot see her, since the mist s pale scarf

Obscures the dark wood and the dull orange sky;

But she s waiting, I know, impatient and cold, half

Sobs struggling into her frosty sigh.

This is the second stanza of the poem and it says that even though the

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