In the poems ‘Lament’ by Gillian Clarke and ‘Report to Wordsworth’ by Boey Kim Cheng, both poets highlight the death and destruction of nature through human selfishness. ‘Lament’ is set in the Gulf War in 1991, when Iraq invaded Kuwait and shows the destruction the war has created. It is also based on media reports that were collected during the conflict. In addition, ‘Report to Wordsworth’ is addressed to William Wordsworth, an English Romantic poet who respected and loved nature. Cheng explains that nature is dying due to the pollution caused by human greediness.
The poems ‘Report to Wordsworth’ by Boey Kim Cheng and ‘Lament’ by Gillian Clarke use the theme of the destruction of nature to portray different ideas. Although they share the topic of nature and devastation, ‘Report to Wordsworth’ focuses on nature itself while ‘Lament’ shows the dangers of a war that are brought onto nature as well as people involved in it. Both poems use a wide range of literary techniques to deliver the poets’ ideas of destruction resulting a menacing situation, which is emphasized by powerful literary values. ‘Report to Wordsworth’ and ‘Lament’ share the subject of the destruction of nature. ‘Report to Wordsworth’ depicts the polluted oceans throughout the poem.
“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.
And on Cheng’s perspective of lying still is that ‘Nature’ is beginning to destroy humanity. “O see the widening in the sky” creates a visual imagery of the ozone layer from the laid waste we live in. In the final line of the poem, Cheng finishes off with a powerful quote “God is laboring to utter his last cry”. The cry could go two different ways: one, the cry could symbolize the sense of the world’s suffering and sorrow. Two, the cry could foreshadow disasters such as floods and tsunami due to the wasted land that humanity has created.
The poems ‘Report to Wordsworth’ by Boey Kim Cheng and ‘Lament’ by Gillian Clarke use the theme of the destruction of nature to portray different ideas. Although these two poems share the main themes of nature and destruction, ‘Report to Wordsworth’ focuses on nature itself while ‘Lament’ shows the dangers of a war that are brought onto nature as well as people involved in it. The poems ‘Report to Wordsworth’ and ‘Lament’ share the theme of the destruction of nature. ‘Report to Wordsworth’ depicts the polluted oceans throughout the poem. The catastrophic situation is portrayed in the expression ‘smothered by smog’, emphasized by the use of sibilance.
Pathos is the literary device that authors use which is meant to appeal to the readers emotions. Considering Lopezs overall theme of writing is guilt, he has to appeal to his readers emotion. For example, “As much sorrow as the man 's hand conveyed in Nebraska, it meant gratitude too for burying the dead,”(About This Life Lopez 116). By implementing simile and pathos into this paragraph, Lopez appeals to the readers emotions as well as their experiences in which they have had with nature. In this paragraph, he discusses how people experiences: hitting animals would affect their emotions: the man 's hand-if they really knew the basis of nature.
Multiple times throughout the poem, Kim Cheng references the negative effects the planners’ oppression of nature is having on the environment. The poet uses personification in the first stanza to give nature human qualities, and therefore evoke empathy from the reader. Nothing can stop the planners: “even the sea draws back and the skies
The horrors of the war are reflected throughout the novel, but Ninh uses the landscape of the Central Highlands to reflect on Kien, and how the war affects him. There are sharp and horrific descriptions of the Jungle of Screaming Souls, where effective language conveys images of Kien’s suffering and the overwhelming power that it has on Kien’s mental state. Ninh also uses strong images and juxtaposition to reflect on his image of his hometown, and how that image has changed after the war, where the reader interprets people’s horrible suffering in poverty. The relationship between the violence and the natural landscape also conveys the traumatic environment that soldiers had to cope with, to the reader, using grim language to describe both the landscape and the violence. The descriptions of The Jungle of Screaming Souls not only reflects on the horrors of the war, which has a strong presence on the novel, but it is also parallel to the journey that both the war and Kien goes through.
Finally, there is an admirable sense of contrast in this poem going from anger to vengeance. One of the most noticeable and interesting language features that are used in this poem is the narrative point of view. The poem is written in second-person, so Papatuanuku (god of the land) explains her perspective on NZ colonisation to the reader and blames them for the damage done to the land because of development
Owen through his poetry was able to captivate his reader and create visual imagery to heighten the messages he wanted to convey, allowing us comprehend and understand the true horrors occurring on the front. Wilfred Owens ‘Anthem for Doomed youth’, and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, are both anti-war poems, conveying similar messages about how ridiculous and meaningless war is, only bringing suffering and anguish to those involved. With direct experiences in the war himself, and first-hand contact with the traumas and horrific violence, Owen felt a sense of duty to inform people of the bloodshed and terrible conditions hidden by propaganda and lies. This is why he states, “Above all, I am not concerned with poetry”, because he believes the truths of war are more important than art, whilst he still is using his poetry to express his feelings, it is not the art of poetry which is his concern but the effectiveness of