Sunday, 27 November 2016

Poetry- Practise Paragraphs (GCSE) (Hide and Seek and Telephone Conversation)

Explain the mood in ‘Hide and Seek.’

The writer uses caesura to create a tense mood in the poem ‘Hide and Seek.’ This can be seen in the line ‘Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Stay dumb.’ This line creates tension as it is a contrast against the longer, more light-hearted lines in the first part of the poem. The short sentences give the impression that the boy is scared, and his thoughts are quick as he is under pressure. The writer has done this to make the reader slow down their reading from the flowing lines before, adding to the increasing feeling of dread that is felt by both the reader and the boy in the poem. The writer also creates a sinister mood in the poem. He does this by changing the structure of the poem from line 21 onwards. The first 20 lines of the poem have a regular rhyme scheme of ABCDD which gives the poem a closed form structure for the majority of the poem. However, at line 21 the rhyme scheme is lost and the poem goes into free verse. The writer has done this to reflect the way that the child is free from his hiding place, and also to create a sense on unknown. Whilst the boy was hiding from his friends, he knew that they were out looking for him in the garden. However, just as we cannot predict the rest of the poem’s structure due to the change, once the boy is out into the open he can’t see any of his friends. This creates a sense of unease and gives the poem an almost sinister end.

Explain the mood in ‘Telephone conversation.’


The writer uses caesura to create an incredulous mood in the poem ‘Telephone conversation.’ This can be seen clearly in line six when it says ‘silence.’ This line makes the reader feel incredulous as we, along with the man in the poem, are forced to stop and think about what the woman has asked him. The use of caesura means that we are forced to pause suddenly, which takes us by surprise, reflecting the comment of the woman. This adds to the overall mood of the poem, as it provides a contrast against the first few lines of the poem, which were much more light-hearted. The writer also uses ambiguity to create a humorous and light-hearted mood towards the end of the poem. This can be seen in the line ‘“wouldn’t you rather see for yourself?”’ This line is ambiguous as it could be the man asking the woman to see him before she judged him, or it could mean that the man is mocking the woman and telling her to look at his behind, which he has referenced earlier in the poem. This ambiguity creates a light-hearted contrast to the otherwise fairly serious poem, as the reader feels joy at the fact that the man is finally managing to get his own back on the landlady who has been so rude to him. 

No comments:

Post a Comment