Fully fledged essay plan on the presentation of Animals in Gillian Clarke's poetry perfect for revision and essay practice. All the ideas, content and evidence needed to answer this question.
In what ways, with what effects does Gillian Clarke present animals in two of her poems
Introduction:
Gillian Clarke makes a lot of reference to animals in her poetry – maybe due to
Romantic influence
Ram and Hare in July both are mainly centred around animals both dead and living.
Animals both presented in similar and contrasting light and used to symbolise the
frailty of life, the shocking yet natural process of death and the complexity and
strangeness of the animal kingdom
Point 1: Animals used to present the frailty of life:
The lamb’s transition from being as a ‘young moon’ symbolism of immortality to a
dead ram ‘spilt on the marsh’ with ‘mortality gaping in the craters of his face’
The hares ‘musk of speed’ and being hunted and getting away to ‘light fading from
its fur’ and ‘rib as fine as a needle’ – delicateness of Hare represents delicateness of
its life
Point 2: Animals are symbols of death as a natural phenomenon
Death is presented in the Ram as a natural process and a cycle of nature – grass
grows among stems of ribs, ligaments unpicked – suggested ram was put together
and created hinting at a creator (God). Spilled himself seeping into reservoirs.
Tangibility of death and decay ‘catches my throat’.
This is done through the representation of the dog and the Hare in different seasons
by the end of the poem the Dog is enjoying summer as he is thrilled and leaps whilst
the Hare passes on into the winter chill of death ‘in its eyes a sudden fall of snow’.
Emphasising death as a natural cycle.
Point 3: The animal kingdom and contrasts between human and animal :
The animals mentioned in the poem react to the death of the Ram in different ways.
Birds ‘dismantled him’. Buzzards ‘cry in the cave of his skull’. Lambs ‘bleating down
the fan of his horns’. Buzzard ‘whitens his forehead’. Animals come together and
play an integral part in the process of decay. The food chain and all animals are
linked and connected in some way. Human decides not to disturb this process of the
natural world and order – ‘helmet would do, were it not filled already with its own
blacks night in the socket of his eye
The animal kingdom and food chain – as we see both vicious and innocent creatures
and the roles they play as predator and prey and also how the speaker as a human
views this and the unfairness through their use of negative lexis to describe the dog
and positive to describe the lamb e.g. ‘bitch’ and ‘golden body’
Conclusion:
Animals are not only used by Clarke as symbols of life and death but also reflect the
idea of community as they work together as a complex system to build and grow the
animal Kingdom and create balance in the natural world.
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