Pee relationships

| Summary/Themes | Born Yesterday and Nettles | | | | Born Yesterday and Nettles are both written about adults’ thoughts regarding children and how they will survive in the world. | | Born Yesterday explores the poet’s feelings about the birth of his friend’s daughter and rejects traditional, fairytale | | visions of happiness for practical, realistic advice about life skills, whereas Nettles depicts a father’s realisation that he| | cannot protect his young son from all the everyday dangers in the world and his son will inevitably experience pain as he | | grows up. | | Summary/Themes | Sonnet 116 and Manhunt | | | | Sonnet 116 and The Manhunt are both about the power of romantic love in committed relationships. Sonnet 116 is a declaration | | of love that describes true romantic love as a constant force of nature that does not change as people go through life | | changes, a passion that “ looks upon tempests and is never shaken. ” Similarly, in The Manhunt the narrator is fully aware of | | the damage done to her lover by warfare, and the changes it has caused in his emotions and appearance, but she is unwavering | | in her love and determined to find again the man she loves, to “ feel the hurt of his grazed heart” but still “ widening the | | search” for the man inside. | | Form | Brothers and Sister Maude | | | | Brothers is written in the second person and free verse, almost like a story in an autobiography, as the poet addresses his | | younger brother with regret for his past actions, as if he is trying to apologise for the “ distance” he has caused between | | them. Sister Maude, on the other hand, is also written in the second person as the narrator addresses her sister in a dramatic| | monologue in the form of a ballad, but she uses the poem as a bitter accusation and the end-stopped lines emphasise her anger | | Form | Sonnet 43 and Sonnet 116 | | | | Sonnet 43 and Sonnet 116 are both romantic poems that use the traditional sonnet form to express ideas about the nature of | | love. The declaration of love that will survive the grave in Sonnet 43 is written in the second person as a direct address to | | answer the rhetorical question “ How do I love thee? ” and uses iambic pentameter and the sonnet form to express love as a | | religious experience. While Sonnet 116 does use iambic pentameter and the sonnet form of three quatrains and a rhyming | | couplet, it is written in the first person as the poet discusses the nature of true love, rather than addressing his lover | | directly, more of a declaration of what true love should be. | | Structure | Ghazal and Quickdraw | | | | Ghazal and Quickdraw are both about romantic relationships between men and women, but the structure of Ghazal reflects the | | playful, intense nature of the beginning of a relationship, whereas the structure of Quickdraw reflects the painful, | | progressive breakdown of an existing relationship. The narrator in Ghazal attempts to woo her love by asking him to pursue | | her, using metaphors to compare their love to unrelated ideas from nature, hinting at the exciting adventure to come, whereas | | the structure of Quickdraw is more chronological and describes an escalating argument as the narrator receives an increasing | | number of angry, hurtful calls and texts that result in the end of her relationship and, as if she has actually been shot | | dead. | | Structure | Brothers and Sister Maude | | | | Although Brothers and Sister Maude are both about narrators looking back on family relationships that have turned bad because | | of a past betrayal, the structure of Brothers slowly reveals the narrator’s regret for his actions and taking responsibility | | for the consequences for misleading his young brother in a moment of childhood irresponsibility, describing the folly of his | | younger self and then acknowledging how this has caused estrangement in adulthood. The key incident in Sister Maude, and its | | consequences are revealed slowly, with an ambiguous opening stanza and reference to a death that requires the reader to infer | | what has occurred as a result of Sister Maude’s betrayal. The final stanza shows no sense of understanding or moral | | responsibility and the poem ends with the narrator condemning her sister to purgatory and sin. | | Language | In Paris With You and Sonnet 116 | | | | Both In Paris With You and Sonnet 116 use language that captures the different emotions of each poem. The narrator of In Paris| | With You has a very cynical, jaded view of love and mocks the traditional romantic view of Paris by refusing to leave the | |“ sleazy old hotel room” and mocks Paris landmarks with “ sod off to sodding Notre Dame, ” using unexpected crudity and the | | sibilance of the “ s” sounds to express contempt for the city’s sights. This is in marked opposition to the romantic images of | | the power of love found in Sonnet 116, where the power of love is personified as a force of nature that “ alters not with his | | brief hours and weeks, ” as if love is a commitment that lasts for a lifetime and is not as changeable or selfish as the | | emotions expressed by the narrator of In Paris With You. | | Language | Harmonium and Praise Song For My Mother | | | | Each poet uses the personification of objects in the poems to act as metaphors for their respective parents. In Harmonium, the| | poet expresses concern about his father’s mortality with colloquial language, discussing the instrument’s neglect and | | deterioration, with the “ yellowed fingernails” of the keys used to echo his father’s tobacco stained fingers and the exit from| | the church “ laid on its back” to foreshadow the funeral service awaiting his father in the near future. In contrast with this | | comparison, the poet in Praise Song celebrates the life of her dead mother with positive sense memories of the “ fish, crab” | | and “ plantain” of her Caribbean childhood, as if her mother has fed and nourished her beliefs and dreams that have allowed the| | poet to go to her “ wide future. ” | | Poet’s Message/Conclusion | Hour and The Farmer’s Bride | | | | The poems Hour and The Farmer’s Bride allow the poets to explore very different ideas about romantic love, though both serve | | as a warning in a way. The crucial message in Hour could be seen as the more positive of the two, with the poet using the | | personification of time as love’s enemy and reminding the reader that time is precious and we should enjoy every moment | | together, whereas The Farmer’s Bride warns that there can be no happy ending for a badly chosen marriage made for the wrong | | reasons, where unrequited love brings misery and a kind of imprisonment to both parties. | | Poet’s Message/Conclusion | To His Coy Mistress and Ghazal | | | | To His Coy Mistress and Ghazal depict romantic love in ways that are almost exact opposites. In To His Coy Mistress, the | | narrator’s impatience threatens to rob the relationship of any sense of romance as the he tries to persuade his mistress into | | his bed with emotional blackmail, but the narrator in Ghazal wants to be wooed and is more concerned that they will always be | |‘ good friends,’ willing to surrender at the right moment to the patience and determination of her lover. |