In the poems “Jac Codi Baw” and “East Moors” Gillian Clarke is able to create a strong sense of place and change. Write about the each poem and explore the effect the events have on individuals and the community. During this essay I will be comparing two poems written by Gillian Clarke “Jac Codi Baw” and “East Moors”. Gillian Clarke is one of the most famous Welsh poets of the 21st Century. She was born and brought up in Cardiff in 1937, she was a very talented student, she was educated In University Collage, Cardiff later working for the BBC for two years.
Clarke mostly writes about Wales, especially the wonderful landscapes and rural life, her poems consist of rhythm of seasons and her life in the city bringing up three children in the suburbs of Cardiff. The first poem I will be discussing is “East Moors”. “East Moors” is about the change of time and lifestyle dealt within Cardiff. The main theme displayed in the poem is about the destruction of the steelworks and culture of Cardiff went with it “erase skylines whose hieroglyphs” this means that the steelworks were a trademark of Cardiff’s culture.
The emotions displayed are angry and harsh for example “At the end of bitter April” this statement displays the anger of the ex-workers of the steelworks. An array of negativeness is also shown within the area “Demolition gangs” this gives no hope for the workers to return of the steelworks. The structure of the poem has 30 lines sub-divided into 6 versus; the poem hasn’t got a certain rhyming scheme. During the poem there’s a lot of poetic devices used like Personification and Pathetic Fallacy an example of this is “First day of May an icy rain blowing through the town” this might have been used to show the emotions of the residence.
The tone of the poem varies from every verse, there is a sense of sadness due to the steelworks being demolished and a sense of happiness of the clean fresh air. The imagery which I mostly enjoyed from “East Moors” was the contrast of the Pollution after the Steelworks, “The flash of sea with two blue islands” this gives a sense of cleanness within the poem, another striking imagery used was Transience “where the steel works used to smoke” this tells the reader how long ago the steelworks were abolished. The second poem I will be analysing is called “Jac Codi Baw”.
The main theme of “Jac Codi Baw” is about the demolition of a building in a city. The emotions within the poem are the lack of caringness by the demolition gang and the loss of History within the building. “Jac Codi Baw” has a structure of 22 lines and 2 verses; there isn’t a specific Rhyming scheme. The main Poetic devices used are Pathetic Fallacy and semantic field of flowers an example of this in the text is “grown over with Ragwort, Toadflax and Buddleia” this is introduced to the poem to give a sagacity of nature.
