Genre Essays

Change is the act of differing or altering from a previous state. It can manifest as a physical transformation or a shift in character or personality within an individual. Various texts, including Gwen Harwood’s ‘In the Park’ and ‘Prize Giving’, Gil Junger’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ called ’10 Things I Hate […]

Tennyson had a rough ride with love or at least you would have thought so by reading the two poems he wrote. Both of the poems are loosely based around love. The poem also takes on widely discussed and debated issues such as the role of women. As well as taking on widely discussed and […]

Ulysses and Tithonus are narrated by two men, who are both very much unhappy. They both want different to change but want contrasting things. Inevitably though each wish they have is most likely to end up in death. Tithonus was a handsome man in his youth and this got him the love of a goddess […]

“Bruce Ismay’s Soliloquy” by Derek Mahon and “Shore Woman” by Seamus Heany are both alike in their experiences. Each poem relates a frightening experience at sea however although they contain many similarities, they each contain numerous differences. One central difference is the portrayal of the experiences and the reaction evoked by the language used. “Bruce […]

Alfred Lord Tennyson crafted the poems ‘Mariana’ and ‘The Lady of Shallot’ with inspiration drawn from Shakespeare’s play, ‘Measure for Measure,’ as well as Arthurian legend. Both poems revolve around women who find themselves secluded from the external realm; Mariana experiences depression, while the lady yearns profoundly. Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), a highly skilled and accomplished […]

Tithonus and Ulysses were written by Alfred Lord Tennyson; a poet famous for his representation of Victorianism in his poetry, recognised by the fact that Queen Victoria appointed him as the poet laureate. He wrote Tithonus in 1860 and Ulysses in 1842. Both poems display similar grammatical structure; both are dramatic monologues, that is to […]

Phillip K Dick was the author of over one hundred short stories in his lifetime focusing primarily on questions surrounding personal identity. His stories often featured references to an authoritarian government and are delivered with a definitive feeling of paranoia. 1 As a short story writer his work was true to the style, making use […]

In the nineteenth century, pomes such as ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci, written by Keats, and ‘The Lady of Shalott’ written by Lord Tennyson, were created in a golden age of manners and formality. Camelot attracted many authors, poets, and painters to a place of great romance and mystique. The theme of Camelot was to […]

As the 20th century dawned, global destruction seemed imminent. Nations were overtaken by avarice, leading to a world enveloped in turmoil and disarray. Each country was engaged in a fierce competition to strengthen their economic, military and political influence, with each striving to emerge as a major European power. This ambition permeated amongst the citizens […]

On Passing the new Menin Gate by Siegfried Sassoon and The Cenotaph by Charlotte Mew are poems both written after the First World War about their observations of memorial services for the soldiers that were taken by the war. They present differing views of remembrance but both poets show a similar passion for what they […]

War has long been a topic of discussion in poetry due to its profound emotional impact. Although certain poems romanticize the brutal realities of war and exalt soldiers, the majority of poems shed light on the enduring hardships brought by war. Both Randall Jarrell’s Eighth Air Force and Marianne Moore’s In Distrust of Merits were […]

As tension between Britain and Germany grew, Britain was generally for the idea of a war. This was mainly ignorance. For a long time Britain had gone without having to fight in a war, and therefore the public hadn’t faced any recent experiences of high casualties or the true realities that war held. Many people […]

Say how far you agree with the views that Drummer Hodge is presented in a romantic, idealised way, and that Graves’ German soldier is presented with stark-realism. Hardy wrote ‘Drummer Hodge’ as a poem depicting the way in which a young drummer boy from Dorset dies and is then buried without ceremony, on the South […]

The immediate thing that strikes me, when comparing Tennyson’s “eagle” and McCaig’s “sparrow”, is the great contrast in length between the two poems. In just two verses, Tennyson manages to convey the pure majesty of the eagle in its natural habitat, following the instinct that has driven it to hunt its prey like countless generations […]

It is quite possible that never have two poems offered such contrasting opinions on one subject as Dulce et Decorum Est and The Soldier. And the subject, war, is their only connection. Whether or not it is right to die for your country, both poets are vehement in their convictions. It is through the various […]

War poetry prior to 1914 captured the excitement of war due to the success of the British army in conquering and expanding its empire. Poetry previous to 1900 therefore, focused on the victory of fighting, such as Newbolt’s Vitai Lampada. At the start of the First World War there was a surge of recruitment poems […]

It is terribly ironic that in the current international crisis over war I may be analysing two pieces with very contrasting views on the subject. Where Shakespeare glorifies the art of war and the honour surrounding it, Owen devalues a respected Latin phrase, which tells of the honour of war. I will first interpret Owen’s […]

Both Homer and Owen, in their poems present arguments about the death of a soldier. However in Homers poem it appears he is engaging the writer with a much more emotional approach than that of Owens. He presents the soldiers as “great fighters” and “brave souls”. In contrast, we see in Owens poem, a typical […]

During the start of the First World War in 1914, numerous young men eagerly volunteered to join and travel across the channel for what they anticipated to be a grand adventure. They held the belief that it would be a thrilling experience and that they would be honored as heroes upon their victorious return before […]

Wilfred Owen is the narrator of ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, a poem aimed at the people who were not actively involved in the war, fighting on the bloody battlefields, and therefore do not have first-hand experience of the horrors. He is writing from a period of time after the war, looking back in retrospect and […]

It seems that war in society is inevitable – for long as it has been historically documented, war has always been present. Although the tactics by which wars have been fought and won have developed throughout the ages, the outcome has always remained the same – with the untimely deaths of many men. It is […]

In Wilfred Owens poetry he is trying to achieve the goal of describing the war the way it really is. As some poets glamorise the war, Owen tells it how it is. It shows how it is like going to war, when your in the middle of the actual war, and the coming home from […]