Rejection and Years Ago: Poems about Relationships Gone Wrong
In both poems people reflect on relationships that have gone wrong. Write about both poems and their effect on you. Show how they are similar and how they are different.
Both ‘Rejection’ and ‘Years Ago’ are about relationships gone wrong. In ‘Rejection’, there is a bitter and dismal mood in which the poet feels publically humiliated as a result of being rejected. However, in ‘Years Ago’, the poet reminisces over a past relationship where she was regretful of the time they has carelessly wasted.
‘Rejection’ by Jenny Sullivan is about the poet’s paranoia of public humiliation and shame after a rejection as well as the emotional pain that she had endured. It makes us think about the aftermath of a rejection because the poet is very distressed and has a feeling of self-reproach.
Sullivan’s paranoia is portrayed when she describes it as “the vivid orange of a council worker’s jacket” and “whisper of voices behind my back”. This could show that the poet felt embarrassed because she believed that everybody around her knew that she had been rejected. This is enforced by the use of the council worker’s “vivid orange” jacket as it is bright and therefore, very visible. Sullivan also portrays rejection to be ubiquitous as she likens it to many aspects of life, such as the “council worker’s jacket” and the “last, curled sandwich”. This could also reflect her paranoia and unrest due to being rejected.
Additionally, throughout the poem, Sullivan uses similes to liken rejection to pain, such as “like the scraping of fingernails on a blackboard” and “like having a layer of skin missing”. This could emphasis how exposed and vulnerable she felt, as well as the unbearable pain that she was feeling. Her description of it being like “having a layer of skin missing” and “not ache or stab of pain” express her prolonged and raw pain that she believes was obvious externally. Sullivan also uses sensory imagery to depict rejection as painful and uncomfortable. For example, it says that it
Both ‘Rejection’ and ‘Years Ago’ are about relationships gone wrong. In ‘Rejection’, there is a bitter and dismal mood in which the poet feels publically humiliated as a result of being rejected. However, in ‘Years Ago’, the poet reminisces over a past relationship where she was regretful of the time they has carelessly wasted.
‘Rejection’ by Jenny Sullivan is about the poet’s paranoia of public humiliation and shame after a rejection as well as the emotional pain that she had endured. It makes us think about the aftermath of a rejection because the poet is very distressed and has a feeling of self-reproach.
Sullivan’s paranoia is portrayed when she describes it as “the vivid orange of a council worker’s jacket” and “whisper of voices behind my back”. This could show that the poet felt embarrassed because she believed that everybody around her knew that she had been rejected. This is enforced by the use of the council worker’s “vivid orange” jacket as it is bright and therefore, very visible. Sullivan also portrays rejection to be ubiquitous as she likens it to many aspects of life, such as the “council worker’s jacket” and the “last, curled sandwich”. This could also reflect her paranoia and unrest due to being rejected.
Additionally, throughout the poem, Sullivan uses similes to liken rejection to pain, such as “like the scraping of fingernails on a blackboard” and “like having a layer of skin missing”. This could emphasis how exposed and vulnerable she felt, as well as the unbearable pain that she was feeling. Her description of it being like “having a layer of skin missing” and “not ache or stab of pain” express her prolonged and raw pain that she believes was obvious externally. Sullivan also uses sensory imagery to depict rejection as painful and uncomfortable. For example, it says that it