Poets convey their thoughts and emotions throughout their poems in a wide range off of ways, with the use of many different techniques. These emotions and thoughts could be hidden deeply or so simply written. Robert Frost quotes – “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words” which is basically stating that what is written in poems is thought that is already in your mind. You just have to find the words to describe it. This is exactly what the poet has done in the 2 poems I have studied both by John Foulcher ‘For The Fire’ and ‘Loch Ard Gorge’.
In ‘For The Fire’ John Foulcher conveys the emotion to be somewhat mysterious and horrifying. The mysterious nature is shown by the quote ‘It’s singular, human thud’ which is giving the impression of a person walking, but in reality it’s actually the sound of a Kookaburra beating a lizard to death. Whilst the horrifying nature is shown by the use of many harsh words to show the violence including: ‘hacks’, ‘axe-blade’, ‘stunned open’, ‘legs arched’, ‘pouting blood’, ‘clutching’, and ‘cold air congealing’ also giving a sense of harshness.
Not only does John Foulcher convey those emotions but he also has a deeper meaning hidden in his poem. It seems that the thoughts, ideas and issues he was thinking of whilst writing this poem all relate back to his view on society, nature and mistreatment. Society is shown as nature in a somewhat survival of the fittest aspect and it also portrays peoples mistreatment in many ways. Examples of these ways are shown in the poem by the way the man reacts with all this violence going on around him… He just ignores it all, takes what he came for and leaves.
In ‘Loch Ard Gorge’ John Foulcher conveys the emotion to be somewhat sad and harsh. The sadness in the poem is shown easily in the parts talking about the shipwreck, with the negative tones he uses and the way it talks about the bodies as if there nothing and meaningless, shown in the quote ‘being lugged from the sea and dumped in the soil’. Also in the quote ‘Its gravestones hump the grass a hundred yards away – you can just make out their names.’
It makes it out to be as if all these people were just forgotten adding to the sad emotion shown throughout the poem. The harshness is related to the nature. The way John Foulcher emphasizes and describes the words relating to nature shows how strong and powerful nature can really be. He uses the emotion of harshness because the are Loch Ard Gorge was named after a ship called Loch Ard that was shipwrecked due to the harsh waves as current.
With all the harsh and sad emotions put aside there is also a deeper meaning hidden in this poem. His thoughts, ideas and issues on this subject all lead to him showing that like nature, people can also have two sides. One of those sides being calm, beautiful and friendly but the other side is evil and cruel. John Foulcher is basically trying to describe life to be cruel. The reason this relates so well to this poem is because on the ship that ended up being taken down by the rough seas there were people who were travelling to start a new life, with only two of them surviving. Some of these emotions the poet deals with aren’t so easily spoken about, so instead he expresses his thoughts and feelings through writing. Finding the exact words to express them. Leading back to the quote by Robert Frost -“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” The quote that defines almost all poetry.
