Thursday, June 6, 2019

Gillian Clarke Essay Example for Free

Gillian Clarke EssayBefore even reading Miracle on St Davids Day, I knew that something very special was going to happen from the word in the title Miracle. Clarkes use of this word suggests that an amazing event is going to occur and that the poem is therefore going to be emotional and poignant. Gillian Clarke uses the first meter of the poem to create a pastoral idyll collectible to the use of personification-An afternoon yellow and open mouthed with daffodils. This conjures a apt and warm image of daffodils with their yellow trumpet open wide, laughing in the sunlight, and it successfully personifies the flowers.Clarke also places people in the description to make it seem even more vivid in our minds-the rumps of gardeners in the midst of nursery shrubs. The line, country house, guests strolling pulls together a vivid image of a beautiful, opening scene in the readers mind. Clarke also introduces the importance of reputation right at the beginning of the poem in this fi rst verse. lAt the start of the second verse, Clarke dramatically dispels the pastoral idyllic that she created in the first verse. I am reading poetry to the insane is a blunt line, completely in contrast to the last verse as it is so insensitive.As readers, we instanter realise the harsh reality of the situation that she is in fact in a mental institution. Clarkes dispelling of the original image is effective because it catches the readers economic aid immediately as it is a completely unexpected twist. It also makes the poem poignant because it makes the readers realise that there is never a perfect place and that there is always suffering around. Clarke goes on in this verse to describe some of the patients around her and the length of their mental disorders-An old cleaning wo mankind interrupting offers as many buckets of coal as I need. Clarke describes the poignant image of a schizophrenic, beautiful boy absorbed in her poetry making us realise that her poetry may be power ful for these people.After verse cardinal, Clarke introduces verse three by stating on a good day, they tell me afterward to channelize how the split between a verse is a like the dramatic split personality of a schizophrenic. In verse three, Clarke goes into more concomitant about her moving surroundings to build up a vivid idea of the situation in the readers mind. She describes ow the sun causes shadows of window veto into the room and how a woman is sitting in these shadows as if she is in a cage. In a cage of first March sun a woman sits. Clarke repeats the word not, not listening, not seeing, not feeling to result in the woman appearing to be trapped inside herself and entirely vacant. at last in this verse, Clarke writes, a big, big mild, man is tenderly led to his chair. The use of the adverb tenderly makes us understand just how much care and attention these people need.Clarke continues with the poems tone of compassion in verse four, by the slow reading caused by sev eral instances of pauses in the line due to commas such as hands on his knees, he rocks . I read to the big, dumb, labouring man as he rocks also brings about the sad guts that although this man seems self-sufficient and big on the exterior he is mild and insecure on the inside and in the mind. Finally Clarke uses an oxymoron, I read to their presences, absences to show how although they are physically in the room, some of their minds arent really there at all.In verse five, Clarkes writing makes everything suddenly change. The slow and serious-minded pace of the poem ends dramatically in a similar way that Clarke destroyed the pastoral idyllic after the first verse. Gillian Clarkes use of beginning rhyme also strongly suggests that something special is about to happen, He is suddenly standing silently, huge and mild but I feel afraid. Clarke then cleverly uses two similes to portray the moment before the man speaks, Like slow movement of spring water or the first bird of the y ear in the prisonbreak darkness.These similes are closely linked to new life spring which is convenient because the poem is set on the first day of spring. We also range from Clarkes use of similes that the man is going to do something new. This is a significant and poignant moment in the poem because the man is so well-built and huge yet what he is about to do is something really big and special for everybody in the room and the reader, the labourers voice recites The Daffodils The reaction to this mans talk is shock and no one is able to speak. The nurses are speechless and prepared for violence from the man but even they freeze.The patients, some of which are seriously mentally ill also suddenly listen, the patients seem to listen. It is effective and poignant, how Gillian Clarke then personifies the daffodils to match the characters and mood of the room. She expresses that even nature outside can react at this incredible moment. The hyperbole that she uses, a thousand, ten t housand is an excerpt from the Wordsworth poem that the man is reciting. Clarke successfully employs this hyperbole to exaggerate the number of daffodils who stop to observe to the man breaking free of speech and his life.I think that the seventh stanza is the most heart-breaking stanza, especially Since the dumbness of misery fell because that implies that the man was once a happy child and only stopped talking and became miserable when something tore his life apart. This is poignant because it makes us imagine tragic events that could have stopped this man from speech and that it really shows the power and impact that poetry can have. I think the daffodils are flame is a very effective and clever way of Clarke to arrest the poem because it is ending with the daffodils where it first started.The way that nature outside corresponds to the event in the room is truly miraculous. In verse six Clarke personifies the daffodils as restrained as wax whilst the man is reciting and the da ffodils are then flame in the last verse during the mans applaud (we can see a fiery theme). The poem is so poignant because of the way Clarke creates successful images and personification so that we can feel we are in the room at the period of the miracle. The pathetic fallacy at the end leaves readers reflective and astounded by the description in poetry of such an amazing account.

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