Explore The Presentation Of Power And Powerlessness In Poetry

Power and powerlessness take many forms. Explore this idea, referring to three poems in detail and to at least three other poems from your wider reading.

In the poem Hide and Seek, the poet explores the power of the child’s arrogance, as he believes he is clever and therefore powerful. For instance, when he says the people searching for him must ‘think’ he is ‘very clever’, as well as describing them as ‘puzzled’. The word ‘clever’ demonstrates his self-confidence in his intelligence and he thinks he is one step ahead of them, which leads him to believe he has obtained power over them. However, this is thus contradicted later on, as he is then left alone, deserted, as an outcast. This is shown by the rhetorical question the poet poses at the

Another technique that the poet uses to emphasise the child’s powerlessness, is the personification of the landscape. The child describes the ‘darkening’ garden to be ‘watching’ him, creating a sinister tone. The word ‘watch’ builds up tension as he is meant to be alone; however he senses someone or something else’s presence. This metaphor is used to compare the garden to a predator waiting to attack him, showing his powerlessness. Another noticeable technique that the poet uses is prolonging the extended metaphor of the seaside. He first shows this by expressing that the tool-shed smells like the ‘seaside’, and follows by reassuring the dispirited child that they will never find him in this ‘salty dark’ and finally when he describes the ‘dark damp smell of sand’ to be moving in his throat. The poet uses this to define a sense of innocence; however this point

It is shown by the mother’s lack of ability to help her child, as he is described as ‘her tenderness for a son’ that she will ‘soon’ have to ‘forget’. This foreshadows the inevitability of his death and shows the difficulty of the position his mother is in, having to helplessly watch her own son perish. This also further foreshadowed later on in the poem. Such as when the poet describes the mother’s actions towards her child: he says she is ‘combing’ the ‘hair left on his skull’. The word ‘skull’ is used as a representation of death and mortality, it displays the rapidity of his hair loss and emphasises the dangers of his starvation and protein deficiency. However the word ‘combing’ is used to show the mother’s unconditional love for her child and how she will always care for him and never give up hope, this fabricates an element of power in the poem, and demonstrates the powerful effect of a mother’s love towards her child. The mother’s undying love and care for her child is also exhibited when the poet describes her as bathing her child, and ‘rubbing him down’ with her ‘bare palms’. The end of the poem contradicts this moment of hope by ending on an extremely solemn tone, with the use of the simile ‘she did it like putting flowers on a tiny grave’. The poet describes her repetition of normal everyday actions as to make it seem like nothing is wrong and