How does the poet use techniques to engage the reader? ‘War Without End’ and ‘Description of an Idea’
Year 10 English Studies Essay:
How does the poet use techniques to engage the reader?
‘War Without End’ and ‘Description of an Idea’
Bruce Dawe is a famous poet born in 1930. He incorporated similar techniques in his poems ‘War Without End’ and ‘Description of an Idea’. In the ‘War Without End’ the war is metaphorical and represented as the never ending car crashes and accidents on our roads every year whereas in ‘Description of an Idea’ the war is represented as a historical past event that was associated with the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square. Each poem illustrates the similarities between a metaphorical and literal war via the use of repetition, historical references and ambiguity.
The use of repetitive phrases in the poem ‘War Without End’ is used to emphase the repetition of car accidents and crashes on our roads. For example ‘the war was not like any other war’, gives the reader the feeling as if excessive car accidents are metaphorically killing as many people as Genghis Khan did in his attempt to murder every enemy. Whereas in ‘Description of an Idea’ repetition is used to emphase the reader to feel as though the cause is important and should be recognised. Dawe uses the repetition of words like ‘You can’ and ‘someone else will’ to intrigue the reader into feeling as though if they were to ‘nail it to a cross’ it would ‘rise again after 3 days’ this gives the reader the impression that what they decide to do will influence other people decisions. This technique helps to make the reader think of what they would do if they were in that situation or under those circumstances.
Whether it’s a massacre in Tiananmen Square or a mass murder throughout parts of China, Bruce Dawe uses historical references as a technique to highlight the importance of the events in each of his two poems. The use of this technique in the poem ‘War Without End’ emphasises and applies the idea in to the reader’s minds that the accidental deaths on our roads is compared
How does the poet use techniques to engage the reader?
‘War Without End’ and ‘Description of an Idea’
Bruce Dawe is a famous poet born in 1930. He incorporated similar techniques in his poems ‘War Without End’ and ‘Description of an Idea’. In the ‘War Without End’ the war is metaphorical and represented as the never ending car crashes and accidents on our roads every year whereas in ‘Description of an Idea’ the war is represented as a historical past event that was associated with the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square. Each poem illustrates the similarities between a metaphorical and literal war via the use of repetition, historical references and ambiguity.
The use of repetitive phrases in the poem ‘War Without End’ is used to emphase the repetition of car accidents and crashes on our roads. For example ‘the war was not like any other war’, gives the reader the feeling as if excessive car accidents are metaphorically killing as many people as Genghis Khan did in his attempt to murder every enemy. Whereas in ‘Description of an Idea’ repetition is used to emphase the reader to feel as though the cause is important and should be recognised. Dawe uses the repetition of words like ‘You can’ and ‘someone else will’ to intrigue the reader into feeling as though if they were to ‘nail it to a cross’ it would ‘rise again after 3 days’ this gives the reader the impression that what they decide to do will influence other people decisions. This technique helps to make the reader think of what they would do if they were in that situation or under those circumstances.
Whether it’s a massacre in Tiananmen Square or a mass murder throughout parts of China, Bruce Dawe uses historical references as a technique to highlight the importance of the events in each of his two poems. The use of this technique in the poem ‘War Without End’ emphasises and applies the idea in to the reader’s minds that the accidental deaths on our roads is compared