Aqa English Literature Questions

Sonnet 116 and Manhunt

The two poems that I am going to compare about the exploring the ideas of love are ‘Sonnet 116’ and ‘The Manhunt’.

‘Sonnet 116’ and ‘The Manhunt’ are both about the power of romantic love in committed relationships like husband and wife. 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”. Like in The Manhunt the narrator (wife) is fully aware of the damage done to her husband by warfare, and the changes it has caused in his emotions and appearance, but she is unwavering in her and love and is 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.

It appears in the first instant Armitage disagrees with Shakespeare’s idea, but it soon becomes clear that he believes that whatever comes after the enjoyment of the couple’s first physical encounter since Eddie’s return that is most important. Armitage then goes onto discuss Laura and Eddie’s relationship in terms of emotional rather than a physical relationship just like Shakespeare does in ‘Sonnet 116’.

Armitage begins with “After passionate nights and intimate days”. The part after is important as it indicates the part after their passionate nights is more important.
In Shakespeare poem it goes onto express the idea that love lasts even when some aspects of the relationship have changed. “Which alters not when it alteration finds”.
So both poems are corresponding to each other because Eddie has returned with life-changing injuries but Laura is still trying to love and understand her husband despite this.

Shakespeare reinforces the idea by writing that true love cannot be blown off course or removed by a third party/other person. Which in Laura’s case is true because she will not stop loving him because someone else has tried to change him “Bend with the remover to remove”. Basically the person who has tried to alter Eddie and Laura’s relationship is the solider who fired the bullet at Eddie which tried to destroy him and his relationship.

Later on Shakespeare begins to tell the reader what love is “It is an ever fixed mark”, which means love in a relationship is a permanent arrangement. The work MARK is like a physical mark could it mean the wedding ring? Eddie’s scars are his permanent mark and they will only fade with the love and support of Laura.

A further idea about love is that in sonnet 116 where the idea is put forward that love will survive any storm that life throws at it. “Tempest” to describe the storm, something violent, unexpected and difficult to survive. Eddie’s tempest is his injuries, but Laura’s love will survive the tempest.

BORN YESTERDAY AND NETTLES

The two poems that I am going to compare of how the poets present hopes and wishes are ‘Born Yesterday’ and ‘Nettles.

Both poems are written about adult’s thoughts regarding children and how they will survive in the world. Born Yesterday explores the poet’s wishes and hopes towards the birth of his friend’s daughter, he rejects the traditional visions of happiness for practical, realistic advice about life. In Nettles he is wishing he could protect his son from all the dangers in the world but he knows this is not the case and he will experience pain as he grows up.

In Born yesterday the narrator is showing his hopes and feeling through tenderness as he expresses genuine good feeling for his friend’s new-born baby. “I have wished you something none of the others would”. He is not wishing her the normal fairy-tale wishes but “Should be prove possible; well you’re a lucky girl. He is giving her a taste of realism a don’t to earth view of how you can achieve happiness in life. “May you be ordinary”.
Showing that he doesn’t want her to be blinded by naive good fortune and talents, instead he wants her to be careful with her actions which will make her a level headed mature women when she grows up. He is showing his hopes and feelings by being truthful and by showing that pure happiness is more important than made up things. He wants her to have a good happy life where she will be loved.

In Nettles, he is giving the nettles almost human characteristics - not only by being called a 'regiment' or a 'parade', but by giving them that persistency which is so typical of humans. So he is referring to humans when he describes the nettles.
Especially around the middle of the poem: it talks about how the father 'slashed in fury' until none of the nettles remained standing, yet a few weeks later, they were back. Also, by ending with "My son would often feel sharp wounds again" it shows that he is aware that the boy would inevitably fall into the nettles again.

Their hopes and wishes for the children of course is happiness and they hope that this is possible but they know deep down there will be obstacles in the way that will cause them pain.

The message in the poem is that of parents trying to protect their children from the ugliness and unfairness of the world, even though it is a hopeless battle as even if they succeed once, they can't save their children from everything Parents know that they can only watch and provide comfort for their children - "We soothed him till his pain was not so raw" - while they go through the pain the world can dish out for them.

HOUR AND SONNET 116

The two poems that I am going to compare that explore time is ‘Hour’ and ‘Sonnet 116’.
Both of these poems explore the characteristics of love and time, and they both explore that love and time do not match. In ‘Sonnet 116’ love is the dominant figure from time and in ‘Hour’ time is the dominant figure from love.

In the poem ‘Hour’ the poet is talking about how one ‘Hour’ of their day can be spent as if they have all the time in the world. Using the tales of Rumpelstiltskin and King Midas, the poet has managed to compare time and love in very different ways.

‘Sonnet 116’ describes love as enduring, unchanged until the “edge of doom”. As well as being “unshaken by storms”, “love alters not” – it is a constant, and “ever fixed mark”, just as a “star” is reliably found in the night sky. Basically he is saying no matter what you face or for how long love will not change with time.
In the poem ‘Hour’ time is compressed, and yet the poem suggests love is forever resourceful, able to find riches in a short amount of time. The pleasure and the riches that the couple gather in an hour allows them to feel as if they are frozen in time:
“Time slow, for here/we are millionaires, backhanding the night”. The hour spent together in the golden light gives them a sense of power making them feel they can bride the darkness to hold back giving the lovers more time.

In ‘Hour’ “loves time beggar” she is implying that love wants and needs more time and she does this by saying “beggar”. In “Sonnet 116” he is trying to imply throughout love does not depend on time, but in “Hour” she is explaining how time is love’s enemy and that you have to make every moment matter. She does this in lines 5, 6 and 7
“For a thousand seconds we kiss, your hair like treasure on the ground”, this is an example of imagery describing the way that there partner looks. In this quote she is trying to make a small amount of time sound like a lot “thousand seconds” when really it only a short amount of time but she would like it to seem longer.

THE FARMERS BRIDE AND TO HIS COY MISTRESS

The two poems that I have chosen to show difficult relationships are ‘The Farmer’s Bride and ‘To his Coy Mistress.

In the first part of ‘The Farmers Bride’ the farmer says “I chose a maid”, “At harvest-time than bide and woo”. It’s like the farmer is viewing his bride as a tool, he just wants to use her, rather than have a relationship with her. And later on he says “When us was wed she turned afraid”, “she runned away” she has become afraid of love so she has tried to escape. There is no real love in this relationship, she is only slave like. “We chase her”, “We caught her”, “And turned the key upon her fast”. The relationship is damaged as the farmer just wants to control her.

In the third stanza the farmer says “Happy enough to chat and play, with birds and rabbits and such as they, so long as men folk keep away”, she never speaks to him, he can’t touch her and he feels angry. Even though he has locked her up he cannot get her trust, her heart or her love. You cannot have a relationship without any of these.

At the end of the poem he is back to referring his wife as a maid/a slave, so how could this ever be a relationship. There is no relationship in The Farmer’s Bride as there can be no happy ending for a badly chosen marriage; it just brings misery and imprisonment for both parties.

In ‘To His Coy Mistress’ the man is talking to his lover, he does not want a relationship with her, he just wants sex with her. As “time’s winged chariot hurrying near”. He is saying time is limited and they must act now.

The poem is structured into three sections. The first is about “if” with the man explaining the way he would do things if “had we but world enough, and time”. The second section is about “but” where the man says that although this is what he wants to do, they don’t have the time. The third section is about “therefore” in which the man says that because of this they have to be quick about things and, seize the day.

He talks about all the romantic things he would like to do, if only they had time and flatters her with lines like “A hundred years should go to praise thine eyes”. By seducing her with words he is setting her up to more likely to agree with him. He seems to accept her point of view, but then argues against it and then dismisses it.

Both poems are about males trying to impose their will on a female. In each, the female is resistant to the relationship, and in each the resistant is challenged by the male.

QUICKDRAW and IN PARIS WITH YOU

The two poems that I am comparing about strong feelings for another person are ‘Quick draw’ and ‘In Paris with you’.

Duffy uses an extended metaphor to demonstrate her feelings in Quickdraw. The speaker describes waiting for her partner to contact her as some kind of gun-fighting standoff. She has two phones on her, which suggests that she wants to be contacted, maybe because she is worried or desperate, or even as extra weapons. Duffy starts the metaphor with ‘slung from the pockets on my hips’ which sounds like the way a gunslinger in the Wild West would wear their guns. This idea is repeated throughout the poem as if the whole argument is being compared to a Western gunfight. Duffy is maybe suggesting that in an argument, lovers use words as weapons and defence from their partner.
She seems to need to be armed against the person ringing her as well as desperate to hear from them, suggesting the idea that love is desperate as well as painful. She appears to need to have her weapons ready, as implied with the second, very short phrase: ‘I’m all alone’, that makes her seem extremely vulnerable and insecure. She answers the phone straight away: ‘Quickdraw’ – which adds to the idea that she is desperate to hear from this person, as if she has been waiting for this phone call. The voice is described as a ‘pellet’ which makes her ‘groan’, highlighting the overall theme which is that words can be very powerful, damaging weapons which leave ‘wounds’. She sounds as if she is trying to be light-hearted when she says: ‘I twirl the phone’ and then squeezes ‘the trigger of my tongue’ as if she is fighting back.

In Paris With You presents a very different attitude to love. ‘Paris’ is used as a replacement for the word ‘love’ in the poem, as if the speaker is not only rejecting the word love and all the clichéd behaviour that goes with it, but actually the whole idea itself, dismissing it with ‘I’ve had an earful’. This is contrasted straight away with ‘I get tearful’ which suggests that he is not as confident as he seems. He seems to be trying to sound as if he doesn’t care about love but the fact that he says in his first words ‘Don’t talk to me of love’ sets up his argument in the first line, as if he is ready with his defence, sounding very much like he has a need to protect himself.

Both poems contain references to emotional pain. Fenton suggests that he is avoiding the word ‘love’ because he has been ‘bamboozled’ in the past and therefore is going to be deliberately light-hearted. He plays with words, creating language like ‘marooned’ to deliberately rhyme with ‘wounded’ as if to suggest that revealing the strength and depth of his insecurity with ‘wounded’ needs to be covered up straight away with a light-hearted comment to take attention away from the serious point of his message. Duffy uses a similar technique, demonstrating a light-hearted attitude to love, comparing it to some kind of childish game of cowboys that would be played in a school playground. However, there is clearly a much deeper sub-text to both poems. Both poets are using humour and a light-hearted tone to hide their real feelings.
The structure of both poems helps to show the real feelings. In Quickdraw, Duffy uses a sonnet structure although it is broken in two places. This causes two phrases to really stand out: ‘you’ve wounded me’ and ‘through the heart’. These two phrases are made to stand out by the break in rhythm which causes them to stick together and stand out as the most important message of the poem. Also, at the end of the poem the structure breaks down and the speaker seems to lose words. This could be suggesting that she has been beaten by her partner, or that she is simply returning the ‘kiss’ with ‘and this’ repeated several times as if there is nothing left to say.
In the same way Fenton draws attention to his main message with the repetition of ‘in Paris with you’ at the end of the poem. This repetition makes it clear that ‘Paris’ is not what he means and in fact he is declaring his love for his partner.

PRAISE SONG FOR MY MOTHER and HARMONIUM

The two poems that I am going to compare to show the way poets use language to present relationships are ‘Praise Song for My Mother’ and ‘Harmonium’.

Both poets try to capture the main characteristics and features of the relationship they had with their parents. The themes in ‘Harmonium’ are reflection and regret as Armitage recognises his lack of ability to confront the prospect of death in the same way his father can when he says ‘the next box I’ll shoulder through this nave will bear the freight of his own dead weight’, and Armitage responds with a phrase ‘too starved of breath to make itself heard’. The poet’s obvious clash in humour with his father could be an indication of their differences in other areas and his longing for an amicable relationship demonstrated as he mentions ‘where father and son, each in their time’ had sung together, implying he had not. Alternatively, the themes in ‘Praise song for my Mother’ start with her dependency on her mother and then progresses to a more accusatory tone. The ambiguous use of past tense ‘You were’ implies she is not essential in her life anymore, although it is not clear whether her mother is dead or simply no longer reliable to depend upon.
Both poets use extended metaphors and imagery to explore ideas and descriptions about their parents. As the harmonium is described it becomes clear that it is merely an object Armitage personifies in order to compare it to his father. The ‘yellowed fingernails of its keys’ compare to the ‘smoker’s fingers and dottled thumbs’ of the father. The idea that the harmonium has been neglected slightly, and has suffered as a result of the natural progression of time (‘one of its notes had lost its tongue, and holes were worn in both the treadles’) could reflect Armitage’s feeling of regret that he has also neglected his relationship with his father. Similarly the title of ‘Praise song for My mother’ is an extended metaphor in itself; a ‘Praise song’ traditionally used to celebrate the life of the person it is about. However Nichols also uses imagery to reflect the influence her mother had on her life – ‘the flame tree’s spread to me, the crab’s leg/the fried plantain smell’. Although at first it seems she is grateful for the skills and traditions her mother passed on it also has some underlying negative connotations. A ‘flame’ usually associated with anger or danger and the ‘crab’ with its restricted movement could suggest she had both a stifling and frustrating childhood.
In ‘Harmonium’ while expressing his father’s vulnerability, he is also reminded of the strength of his past and rather than ‘bundling him off to a skip’ he wants him to remain a part of his life. And in ‘Praise Song for My Mother’ the poem ends with a statement from the mother ‘ Go to your wide futures ‘which suggests the continuing influence she still has on her daughter and the relationship will carry on despite death or separation.

SONNET 43 and SONNET 116

The two poems that I am going to compare where poets use structure to develop ideas about relationships are ‘Sonnet 43’ and ‘Sonnet 116’.

‘Sonnet 43’ is a 14 line poem that is based on love it follows the Iambic pentameter 10 beats per line and is broken down into 4 sections. (Quatrains containing a rhyme scheme). ‘Sonnet is a poem in the form of a sonnet which presents Shakespeare feelings about what love is. He says “marriage of true minds” which shows love is in your mind and not in your body.

‘Sonnet 43’ is a direct address “How do I love thee?” which makes the poem personal. The rest of the poem is dedicated to answering her own question and expressing the ways in which love is her partner. Whereby ‘Sonnet 116’ is where Shakespeare is presenting his strong feelings about the lasting power of romantic love. “It is an ever forced mark”, this shows how the sonnet is not a love poem directed towards another person. It has a very optimistic tone about the endurance of love.

The words “I love thee” is repeatedly shown in ‘Sonnet 43’ this is to show her love by using it over and over again, it shows her infatuation with her partner. There are some negative tones in ‘Sonnet 116’ it presents love with words like “cool” and “cold”.

On the 2nd line of ‘Sonnet 43’ the poet uses dimensions “depth”, “breath” and “height” to show how far her love goes. In this part enjambment is used to give us the feeling that this love really does reach far and wide. The line “By sun and candlelight” links into this idea of the love reaching far and wide. Whereby ‘Sonnet 116’ Shakespeare shows the stability of love by using lots of metaphors that connect love to natural forces. He states that love “looks on tempests and is never shaken” and also that “it’s a star”. It is connecting stars with love as they both seem to last forever. Stars are used by people to find their way “wandering bark” and by making this connection Shakespeare is saying that love can also help people to find their way through life. Also that “Love is not love when it alteration finds”. This implies that regardless of outside changes, love stays the same. This line also includes pours of words “love”, “alter/alteration”. This is also shown in “The remover to remove”. The pair words give the impression of a pair of people, like a couple in love and the balance between them. The rhyming in ‘Sonnet 116’ also creates a sense of a couple.

Both poems are written to validate love in ‘Sonnet 116’ the speaker is an observer of love and in ‘Sonnet 43’ the speaker is in 1st person and is part of the love.

HARMONIUM and PRAISE SONG FOR MY MOTHER

The two poems that I am going to compare how the poets present a speaker’s attitude towards another person are ‘Harmonium’ and ‘Praise Song for My Mother’.

Both poems show their attitude towards another family member in ‘Harmonium’ it is the speakers father and in ‘Praise Dong for My Mother” is her mother.

The speaker’s attitude towards his father in ‘Harmonium’ is honest and realistic. The speaker names the brand of organ “Ferrand Chapelette” and he names places such as “Marsden” in Yorkshire possibly having a connection of where he and his father grew up. This makes the poem a lot more personal and therefore the poet manages to gain sympathy from the reader. The use of honesty makes the poem a lot more sentimental. Grace Nichols poem Praise Song for My Mother also focuses on her past but describes her mother in a much more positive way.

The speaker in ‘Harmonium’ uses colloquial language to create a friendly, warm and conversational tone with language like “bundled off to the skip” to try and say that the Harmonium is broken. Uses a lot of imagery to convey their feelings to their loved ones through images. The speaker’s father is portrayed as a broken “Harmonium” which helps the reader visualise the physical and mental state of the child’s father. In Praise Song for My Mother, Grace Nichols describes her mother as being like “water to me” this tells us that she was essential to her and wouldn’t be able to live without her. Nichols also describes her as being “deep and bold” this suggests that her mother would go to all depths for her and that she was extremely strong.

In ‘Harmonium’ verbal constructions are used to add intensity to the relationship between father and son, he does this by repeating “and he”, being him and “I” being me, this shows how the son will take the place of his father as time goes on. Harmonium takes an honest and realistic approach with a colloquial tone. ‘

The poem ‘Harmonium’ has four stanzas of different lengths. The first stanza describes the harmonium is ready to be thrown away. The next is a closer investigation of the instrument with a detailed description of its parts. The third stanza considers the history of the instrument. The final stanza describes carrying the harmonium from the church, is concerned with the relationship between the speaker and his father. Praise Song for My Mother’ which is a poem about closeness the speaker has with their mum. “Go to your wide future, you said” this last line as its own stanza is the only part of the poem which she relates to what her mother said to her. When she says “wide futures” her mother might of known how well she would of done in the future. Also when she uses the repetition of “Were you” could suggest that her mother isn’t here anymore and that she is dead and she was describing what she was.

Each poet uses objects in the poems to act as metaphors for their parents. In ‘Harmonium’, the poet expresses concern about his father’s mortality with 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 show the funeral service awaiting his father in the near future. In contrast with this comparison, the post 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”.

THE MANHUNT and NETTLES

The two poems I am comparing to show how poets present feeling through language are ‘The Manhunt’ and ‘Nettles’

In ‘Manhunt’, Simon Armitage uses rhyme to reflect the togetherness of a relationship. He says “After the first phase, after passionate nights and intimate days.” As the poem goes on, the reader can start to recognise that the un-rhymed couplets show how fragmented their relationship has become. In ‘Manhunt’, there is imagery indicating how carefully she treats her husband. “And handle and hold the damaged, porcelain collar bone, and mind and attend the fractured rudder of shoulder blade.” The point she makes about her husband being injured and she wants to treat him. Use of alliteration with ‘handle’ and ‘hold’ puts a strain on how delicate his body must be at this time.

In ‘Nettles’ Vernon Scannell uses elements of nature, the nettles, to portray his keen anger towards the pain his son is going through. At the beginning of the poem, Scannell uses soft ‘s’ sounds to emphasise the soothing of his injured son who has fallen in a nettle bed. The child is presented using emotive language. “It was no place for rest. With sobs and tears the boy came seeking comfort and I saw white blisters beaded on his tender skin. We soothed him till his pain was not so raw.” These soothing sounds emphasises the love his father has for him and how he wants him to recover quickly. The ‘watery grin’ is another emotive description also serving as an opposing image. The way in which Scannell merges the child’s laughter of comfort and relief with the tears of pain from the sting of the nettles shows that the child is being helped by his father to get over the pain.

In ‘Nettles’ the poet gives us an image that even though he feels well and truly sorry for his dear son he wants him to learn from his mistakes. “We soothed him till his pain was not so raw.” The way he says, ‘not so raw’ indicates how the father wants most of the sting from the nettles to leave the body but for a little bit of it to stay in because he will not be able to protect his son forever, and that he will experience pain and suffering in his life, despite his father's protective love. The nettles are a metaphor for the threats that lurk in the outside world.

NETTLES and HARMONIUM

The two poems I am comparing to show how poets portray emotions is ‘Nettles’ and ‘Harmonium’.

Both poems highlight the theme of memory and emotions. They are both looking back over past memories that are painful; the poems feature the feelings of being helpless in stopping the hurt that was caused. The write in ‘Harmonium’ feels remorse for the things he hasn’t said to his father as you can see from the following phase “Then mouth in reply some shallow sorry phrase or word too starved of breath to make itself heard”. The writer in ‘Nettles is protective of the recurring threat to his son, he wants to destroy it but he can’t. “Rain had called up tall recruits behind the shed”, this quote shows that the father cannot destroy them as they keep growing back.
In both poems the narrators are feeling powerless but from different things. In ‘Nettles’ he is feeling powerless and he cannot destroy the nettles so they stopping him from protecting his son. And in ‘Harmonium it is an emotional threat he is scared his father is going to die with unspoken feelings not being heard.

Both poems show the reality of family life and the language used makes them realistic, especially in ‘Nettles’ because you have both love and misery of a family relationship. The love side is the protective instincts of the parent towards his son and the misery side is that he can’t protect him against the nettles because they have hurt him and will hurt him in the future. The realistic side of the relationship in ‘Harmonium’ is the family resentment and frustration from a son to his father. We can tell that the narrator is frustrated with his father by the following quote “And he being him can’t help but say… and I being me”, this shows the son is frustrated in the relationship.

Also in ‘Harmonium’ the narrator writes about his own memory ‘where father and son,
Each in their time had opened their throats’. He is reminding the reader that generation after generation has sung in the church accompanied by the harmonium; especially that he used to sing in the church choir with his father. The removal of the harmonium triggers lots of emotions about the end of an era and everything that it symbolises.

‘Nettles’ shows the strength of a father’s love and the deep desire to protect his son from harm. There is anger, determination and rage shown in the poem, but he is also saying his son will be hurt again in the future. In ‘Harmonium’ the poem and the language used is showing love, honesty and vulnerability but also some regret.

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