Environmental poetry expresses emotions and Ideas about the surroundings and conditions to the readers and listeners. Three different landscapes are Illustrated. By poets of different eras, with the use of sensual imagery, sound techniques and allusions. Robert Gray presents a post apocalyptic future of the impact of cities, through the didactic poem “Flames and Dangling Wire”. A subjective view of the within. In contrast to both poems, Henry Kendall “Bell-Birds” demonstrates the beauty and comfort of nature and how powerful it is to people.
Thus, the environment and surroundings of a person can be viewed differently and have been invoked In poems for centuries. “Flames and Dangling Wire” is an edifying poem that warns humanity of the destruction of their disposable society and the impact of city life. Robert Gray conveys a post-apocalyptic landscape that Is the future by using strong sensory Images. Visual lamasery Is on sense used through all the poem. In the second stanza, “driven like stakes into the earth,” is a line that makes readers question the impact of the city life.
Additionally, “like fingers spread and dragged through smudge,” is a line that exemplifies the desperation In the need of help. Gray also uses olfactory Imagery to portray the landscape. The alarm Is personified In the line, “The smell Is huge,” In stanza nine. This animates the sense of smell and emphasizes the thick polluted air; along with the metaphor, “A sour smoke. ” Robert Gray has illustrated the ugliness of city life through the use of sensual Imagery. Another way Gray illustrates the consequence of change is through the use of allusions.
In his poem, he continues to compare hell and the city wreckage; in particular “As in hell the devils might pick about through our souls, for vestiges. ” As ell as the line, “for a moment he seems that demon with the long barge pole,” Gray refers to Sharon, a mythological boatman of the river Styx, which links the city and hell together. Gray also alludes to the painting by Curricular The Raft of the Medusa’ which depicts dying, distressed survivors of a shipwreck who have resorted to cannibalism.
This relates to the city and the desperation of the survivors of the human race. Through irony, Gray uses allusions to illustrate that humanity is creating the one place they are afraid of, hell. “William Street” by Kenneth Sellers reveals a subjective view of beauty through the SE of sound techniques and sensual Imagery. Through all the poem except the last line of each stanza, Sellers emphasizes the ugliness of William Street. The line from the third stanza exemplifies this; “Smells rich and rasping, smoke and fat and fish. The line “Ghosts’ trousers like the dangle of hung men,” Is a simile that suggests that the people of William Street are so desperate for money that they are selling their loved ones clothes in pawn shops. Sellers repeats the line “You find it ugly, I find it lovely,” which stands out at the end of each stanza to exaggerate the fact that beauty In contrast to both poems, Henry Sandal’s poem “Bell-birds” displays that nature has a majestic beauty and magical essence that brings comfort to a person with the use of visual imagery and sound techniques.
The first line of the poem “By channels of coolness the echoes are calling,” uses alliteration and rhythm that portrays an echo like sound every ‘c’ sound. This illustrates the quietness and calmness of the bush. Gray also personified the echoes which gives the bush a mystical nature. As well as the line “They start up like fairies that follow fair weather. This simile compares the rain and sunbeams to fairies which portrays nature as magic. In the last stanza of “Bell-birds” Kendall differs from the rest of the poem.
The poem changes from third person to first. In the first four stanzas were about the bush, changing from season to season. Though in the last stanza, a man is conversing about his memories of childhood. He says “So I might keep in the city and alleys. The beauty and strength of the deep mountain valleys: Charming to slumber the pain of my losses. ” The man still lives in the city but his memories of the bush are powerful enough to dull his pain and bring him happiness.
Sandal’s use of visual imagery through sound techniques illustrate the natures beauty and comfort. All the poems analyses are an environmental poem. They all illustrate a different time. “Flames and Dangling Wire” brings the readers to the future; “William Street” is the period of the Great Depression; “Bells-birds” is in the man’s past and memories. Both “Flames and Dangling Wire” and “William Street” are city poems though one criticizing the city life; the other loves it. “Bell-birds” contrasts the city setting and orators the love of going back to nature.
The environment was portrayed and illustrated differently through each poem by the use of strong visual imagery and igniting different senses. “Flames and Dangling Wire” used irony to make humanity question their lifestyle and their choices, in hope they will change the future Gray sees. A personal view of beauty was fabricated by Kenneth Sellers through contrasting his words. In contrast, Henry Kendall demonstrates the power and serenity of nature. Therefore, these poems represent how people view the environment differently.
