Essay

Poems of the Decade Essay Comparison of History and the Lammas Hireling

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English

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AQA

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Poems of the Decade

AQA A Level English Literature Poems of the Decade essay. I got 3 A*s at A-Level, 11A*/9/8 at GCSE, and I am currently studying History at the University of Cambridge. This essay features close detailed analytical comparison between History and The Lammas Hireling, reaching all the assessment obje...

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Uploaded on July 21, 2020
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Written in 2018/2019
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Both poets explore the theme of physical transition. The image ‘fox-trap biting his ankle’ possibly alludes to the D.H.

Lawrence novella The Fox in which an extended metaphor portrays the character Henry as sly and sexual. Duhig plays upon this

by implying that instead of a heterosexual relationship, there is a homosexual affair between the male narrator and ‘stark-naked’

hireling - a taboo in Catholic Ireland. Body imagery - an ‘ankle’- and the verb ‘biting’ have sexual connotations, the latter also

being animalistic. Duhig contrasts the sexual imagery with chremamorphism; the hireling is also compared to a ‘cow’ and ‘hare’,

which dehumanises the hireling as it transforms him from a human being to an animal. Structurally, the words are placed above

each other, which gives an almost cinematic frame by frame narrative of how the hireling may be metamorphosing. Similarly,

Burnside explores physical transition through a structural device; the irregular line lengths and indentations visually show the

Twin Towers collapsing. The sibilance in ‘snail shells: shreds of razorfish’ sounds harsh, enacting the sound of rubble or limbs

tearing apart. Animal imagery is also used to show a transitive physical state as ‘spawn’ is halfway between egg and frog, like his

son ‘Lucas’ who is a ‘toddler’, halfway between baby and child. By juxtaposing the collapse of a tower to a toddler growing up,

the latter seems more vulnerable - Burnside shows the parent’s ‘dread’ that their child will be hurt. However, Duhig uses animal

transitions to possibly show how people cannot face reality, or to perhaps criticise society for dehumanising homosexuals.

Both poems explore how the past becomes the present. The title ‘History’, associated with the past, contrasts with the first
line ‘Today’; this immediately suggests that the poem explores the passage of time. Throughout the poem, both past and present
tenses are used; colloquialisms such as ‘Sometimes’ and ‘At times’ are used which imply that the narrator repeatedly thinks about
time, showing that this is a key theme in the poem. The repetition of ‘times’ could be a hint that this poem explores the clash of
‘today’ and ‘History’; this invites comparison to T.S. Eliot, who writes that ‘all time is eternally present’ in The Four Quartets.
By perhaps using elements of an older poem in his work, Burnside cleverly shows how the past influences the present, like how
previous US aggressions against Muslims partly led to 9/11. Similarly to History, Duhig immediately explores the relationship
between past and present. The past simple tense in ‘I’d still a light heart’ creates an initial positive start that anticipates darker
emotions later on; the last stanza uses parallelism in ‘my nights’ and ‘my days’ to show how the narrator is completely consumed
by anxiety due to his past actions. The adjectives ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ give a sense of imbalance to the poem, implying that there
will be a transition between good (‘light’) and guilt (‘heavy’); Duhig perhaps makes the point that past actions cannot be escaped.

Both poets explore the concept of mental entrapment. Burnside uses marine imagery in two different ways to present how
humans are ‘anchored’ by society; the freedom of the ‘jellyfish and sea anemone’ is contrasted with ‘captive’ fish such as
‘ornamental carp’ and ‘goldfish carried home’. ‘Carp’ and ‘goldfish’ are domesticated fish, unlike ‘jellyfish’. They are also
‘transitive gold’, which could represent money in stock exchanges such as the Twin Towers - Burnside is perhaps using an open
metaphor to show how humans too are ‘captive’ fish, ‘confined’ by money . On the contrary, Duhig presents his narrator as being
trapped by fear; the use of enjambment in ‘There was no/ Splash’ is masterful as the pause creates a silence instead of sound.
This denies the satisfaction of a resolved ending and therefore enacts how the narrator is trapped by his fear of the hireling’s
return. Initially, the equal lengths of the four stanzas make the narrator seem in control, but on further reading it emphasises his
powerlessness; each stanza could represent a season in a year, perhaps presenting him as eternally trapped in this cycle of fear.
Duhig deploys the first person narrative to give an insight into the sensation of trapped fear, whereas Burnside uses it to perhaps
personally criticise society for making us feel unnecessarily trapped, like Blake’s ‘mind-forged manacles’ in London.

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Poems of the Decade Essay Comparison of History and the Lammas Hireling

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