Binsey Poplars And Nutting Comparative Poetry Essay Example For Students

Binsey Poplars And Nutting Comparative Poetry Essay These lessons resonate soundly with modern readers who, due to increased awareness and education, tend to be more concerned with conservation than the poets contemporary readership. In Binges Poplars the poet laments the loss of the poplars that grew along the banks of the Thames, from Oxford to the small village of Binges which were felled in 1879. The poem is a dirge, an elegy for a landscape that Hopkins had known intimately while studying at Oxford, and thus its loss was keenly felt. The poem opens with My aspens dear The excessive pronoun MY and the adjective dear capture from the outset the poets sense of extreme personal loss his cherished and beloved trees are now All felled, felled, are all felled. This dramatic line, with its repetition of the pronoun All and the verb felled is powerful in its sense of grief and sorrow. All is an absolute term, and the triple structure combined with the monosyllabic words creates almost an onomatopoeic effect, the accented syllabic remini scent of the devastating repeated blows of an axe. Further, the alliterative f sound in Of a fresh and following folded ann. sounds crisp and energetic alive, like the trees. In addition, the personification of the trees effectively depicts them as if they are marching in formation tall, dignified and proud which makes the following line all the more distressing as they are: Not spared, not one, likening them to an entire army of soldiers obliterated. The repetition of the absolute determiner Not intensifies Hopkins sense of complete and utter destruction and devastation at the senseless massacre of the trees. The message is clarified in: After-comers cannot guess the beauty been. /Ten r twelve, only ten or twelve/Strokes of havoc unsolved. The poet states that the loss of these trees affects not only the present but also the future. The heavy plosive alliteration of beauty been, effectively captures a sense of finality the loss is irrevocable. Furthermore, the adverb only in only ten or twelve shows how quickly and easily we, humanity, can forever destroy the beauty of nature. The metaphorical Strokes of havoc is highly reminiscent of torture as one envisages lashes of a whip, an extraordinarily painful punishment inflicted on the innocent trees. The noun havoc is suggestive of chaos and disorder, and the employment of such highly emotive diction forces the reader to see the injustice, the criminality of such wanton destruction. Additionally as some critics have noted, the verb unsolved represents the idea of selling Hopkins view that the very being of a natural object is an expression of God. To unsolved thus reflects that even a slight alteration can cause a thing to cease to be what it most essentially is; thus, the whole countryside is unsolved by the loss of the trees, ceasing to be what God intended. Through the poets personal and dramatic portrayal of his loss, the reader is able to appreciate the importance of conservation nature is more than Just trees, it is spiritual and wondrous and should be cherished and valued as an expression of God. Wordsmiths Uniting, presents a recount of an experience from the poets childhood where an innocent Uniting adventure turns into an experience which teaches the poet a valuable and lasting lesson. The day began as heavenly and this powerful adjective immediately creates a magical and otherworldly feel to the situation. The ay sets off with his uniting crook in hand and sallies forth in search of hazelnuts. The verb sallied immediately sets a very purposeful tone, as if the boy is setting out on a noble quest or mission, almost reminiscent of a fairytale hero. However, he is described as force way through the woods until he reaches a dear nook/Unvisited. The verb forced has connotations of him imposing himself on his surroundings in a way that is overbearing and unwanted. The Unvisited nook is pristine virginal perfection, where not a broken bough/Drops with its withered eaves. Rather the hazels rose/Tall and erect, with milk-white clusters hung. The verb rose and the adjectives tall and erect make the trees seem strong, noble and proud, similar to the initial presentation of the trees in Binges Poplars. The milk-white clusters are symbolic of purity and innocence, contributing to his excited exclamation: A virgin scene! The boy stands transfixed, Breathing with such suppression of the heart/ As Joy delights in. The heart is the symbolic centre of all emotion and thus his actively suppress breathing, exacerbated by the intensifier such captures his almost disturbing level of excitement with regard to the purity of this scene. He ini tially banquet with wise restraint. This metaphor presents the scene as a whole as a delicious feast, the prospect of which he is savoring, captured in the adjective wise and noun restraint, which make it sound like it is an effort for him to maintain control, like the temptation may soon overpower him at this point, however, the reader has no idea that nature as a pure and divine force has ignited his insatiable desire to control and tame it. He savors he scene for as long as possible before finally succumbing to his rapacious primal urges. Suddenly he takes action, presented though the purposeful short monosyllabic clause: Then up I rose. The line break after rose is effective in delaying the reader slightly to further heighten the horror which the boy is about to unleash on the scene. He drag to earth both branch and bough and merciless ravage the entire scene. The verb drag is similar to the earlier verb forced which in hindsight foreshadows this display of destruction, dominance and devastation. The hard alliterative b sound in both branch and bough has a similar effect as the repetition of all and felled in Hopkins Binges Poplars in the sense that the repeated plosive captures the destruction in an auditory manner, like the sound of repeated blows. The adjective merciless and the noun ravage are also reminiscent of Hopkins poem in his presentation of the trees as an obliterated army, Not spared, not one. The boy attacks and wreaks havoc on the trees without mercy. The scene is now deformed and sullied beyond recognition, and has patiently succumbed its quiet being to his attack. The adjective sullied has connotations of defilement he has damaged the purity of the scene. The adverb patiently and adjective quiet are poignant in that they capture the inherent tranquility of this scene, abused and tainted by the boys rapacious desire to destroy the innocence of mother nature has been defiled. Edward VI - Young, Gifted and King EssayButler, these lines seem more like an invitation, an invitation for the dearest maiden whom he addresses to partake of the woods, to enjoy them, but not to disturb them. The imperative verb move is encouraging in tone. The respective noun and adjective gentleness and gentle are the poets guiding words he has learnt a valuable lesson which he wishes to share with her. The symbolic reference to heart is indicative of our feelings towards nature, in the sense that we should value nature in an emotional and spiritual sense, as an entity which should be treated with respect, similar to the sentiments presented by Hopkins. Gentle hand is a reference to how we interact with nature; how we must take care not to negatively assert our dominance over it in a way that is undesirable. The final line begins with another imperative verb: Touch, which is followed by both a comma and a dash, which creates an extended pause which allows the reader to let th e word, with its soft t, indicative of lightness, gentleness, caresses, sink in returning us to the initial reverence and wise restraint that had been practiced without understanding. Now the poet fully understands the respect and moderation required of them in their dealings with nature. The final clause, for there is a Spirit in the woods, again presents nature as a spiritual entity, which is further pronounced due to the capitalization of Spirit which makes nature seem alive, mystical and enigmatic. Similar to the ideas presented by Hopkins, the structure and form of Uniting is successful in teaching us to see nature as a pure and divine force which should be treated with great care and consideration. Further effective features employed by Hopkins in Binges Poplars are his use of forceful verbs, rhyme and punctuation. A fine example is exemplified in the lines O if we but knew what we do/When we delve or hew Hack and rack the growing green! The harsh monosyllabic verbs delve, hew, hack and rack are indicative of not only mans destructive influence, but also carry torturous connotations, emphasized further by the internal rhyme of Hack and rack. Furthermore, the poets placement of Hack at the beginning of the line places more emphasis on this violent and vehement verb which has connotations of a frenzied and bloody attack which he applies to the fate of the Binges Poplars, thus effectively condemning their obliteration. The use of the dash following hew before the line break is effective in creating an extended pause, which also contributes to the additional emphasis placed on the violent verb Hack. The exclamation mark following the alliterative growing green! Is effective in u pturning the poets indignation with regard to the loss of the trees. The verb growing, presented in the continuous tense reminds the reader of the fact that nature is not inanimate it is alive and thus it is sinful to destroy it. Additionally, the adjective green is symbolic of health, life, growth and vitality. Clearly this is a poem that examines nature from an ecological point of view. The often heartless industrialization of the nineteenth century prompted Hopkins and others to contemplate what was being lost to cutting and clearing. Hopkins notes how quickly ND unexpectedly such destruction in the name of progress can take place and sees the irony in the finality of such hasty, heedless action. In Uniting, in contrast to Binges Poplars, Wordsmith employs language and techniques to create not only a feeling of intimacy between the boy and his surroundings but also to further develop the virginity of the scene before its untimely destruction. The boy sits beneath the tree and plays with the flowers. Flowers symbolize beauty and vibrancy, life and love. The verb playa sounds harmless, innocent, youthful at this point the boy is imply interacting with the scene. However, critic Adam L. Forsyth has suggested that the flowers symbolize virginity and that the boy play with them, in the active voice is forewarning of the figurative rape of the scene which follows. Also, the boy feels blessed/With sudden happiness beyond all hope. The adjective blessed and the noun happiness presented in the hyperbole are indicative of a complete state of blissful contentment. The narrative then moves into fantasy as the boy imagines fairy water-breaks which murmur on/For ever. This move into the mystical, which s supported by the soft onomatopoeic murmur and the tranquil hyperbole For ever, makes it seem like the scene is some sort of mythical utopia. The boy feels like he sees the sparkling foam, with the adjective sparkling creating a magical and glittering twinkle which gives the scene a sense of brilliance. He places his cheek on green stone fleece d with moss, beneath the shady trees that L round scattered like a flock of sheep. At this point the boy seems at one with the scene as his cheek lies on a green stone, which reflects his apparent closeness with nature. The metaphor fleeced with moss makes the stone seem soft, peaceful, comforting. Furthermore the simile, which compares the trees to a flock of sheep is effective in that this is a pastoral image which has connotations of peace and calm. The boy hears the murmur and the murmuring sounds, and this repetition creates a sort o lulling, lullaby effect which creates an effective contrast with the imminence of the boys sudden compulsion to destroy. Wordsmiths use of this plethora of technique is effective in terms of Juxtaposing the boys deep appreciation of the scene with his seduction of it, which shocks the reader in its intense violence.