LUCY 2

The poet ‘A satirical Elegy on the death of a late famous general’ who is written by the poet and author Johnathan Swift who is known for ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ which was in the 18th Century. ‘Satirical’ is written about a late general who passes due to old age; Swift then creates a poem out of mockery and Iron about the general because of the war many soldiers and families suffered due to the tragic deaths, with this the General died of old age which Swift implies in the poem when saying ‘so inglorious, after all?’ which is stating that the general was supposed to be brave but instead he died in his bed after making all his glory. The second text is an internet article about the late Margaret Thatcher; the writer creates Irony in the text, mocking the first lady when saying ‘We’ll be putting disco lights in’ because when Margaret Thatcher became prime minister she closed many coal mines making many families struggling due to many fathers losing their jobs.
The poem is 32 lines with an iambic tetrameter, with rhyming couplets throughout the poem. Swift says ‘might warrior fall,’ using caesura at the end so that it fits in with the rhyming scheme whereas the 2nd text is an internet article also using caesuras when saying ‘However, Scouse comedian’ to help the article flow fluently. The poem is written in possessive 3rd singular person as Swift says ‘His Grace!’, the narrative also changes when Swift says ‘Threescore, I think’ which then tells us he is giving his views on the general likewise the article is written in possessive 3rd singular person when saying ‘According to her will’ which is addressing Margaret Thatcher. The article addresses many people such as David Cameron who is the current prime minister, comedian Alexei Sayle to give a sense of Irony as Margaret was a very serious, professional.
In the poem we see exclamatory mood when saying ‘His Grace, Impossible! What dead!’ to emphasise the sarcasm what swift is implying because of the generals comfortable death of old age; interrogative mood is also seen when saying ‘so inglorious, after all?’ to also create a sense of sarcasm throughout the poem because Swift thinks his death is ‘inglorious’. Swift also says ‘How very mean a thing’s a duke;’ which is syntactical inversion to fit in with the rhyming scheme in the poem; antithetical imagery and juxtaposition is used in the poem when saying ‘From all his Ill-got honours flung, Turn’d to that dirt from whence he sprung’ which is to say that after all he has done all his pride and honours will be forgotten. Swift says ‘Come hither’ which is an archaic imperative to tell of the general will leave no glory behind and leave all the destruction what he’s caused behind. Parallelism and Syndetic listing is also in the poem when saying ‘And could that mighty warrior fall, And so inglorious, after all?’ to fit with the rhyming scheme. Similarly the article also uses syndetic listing when saying ‘…day period of mourning, and could not be contacted’ but is used to tell the give the reader extra information. The article says ‘Now…let’s party!’ which uses ellipsis to emphasise how they don’t care about the death of Thatcher and the exclamative to also emphasise how glad they are of how she died.
The poem uses prefix ‘Ill-got’ to fit in with the rhyming scheme whereas the article uses the prefix ‘re-open’ to tell the reader how because of Thatcher’s death ehy are now able to re-open several mines because she was the one who closed them in the first place. Swift says in the poem ‘Ye Bubbles rais’d by breath of kings!’ which is metaphor to imply that all his ‘Honour’ can be gone like pop of a bubble and that they won’t last long because he will be forgotten, ‘he burnt his candle to the snuff’ is a metaphor to imply about the general being left when he died that people only found him because of the ‘stink’ he has created he was stiff like the candle wax; the abstract noun ‘Pride’ is used when saying ‘True to his profit and pride.’ To imply that he was in it for his status, the money and the pride instead of the soldiers and their families. Swift then says ‘He made them weep before he died.’ This is collocation to the self-interest what Swift believed. The articles uses superlative ‘most successful British Olympics ever’ when comparing the two celebrations what Britain have to offer. The article also uses a colloquial when saying ‘In mourning? No chance.’ To portray the hatred what people had towards Thatcher. The articles states ‘Also unhappy at the news is Beelzebub. ‘’She’ll be after my bloody Job’’ said the Devil incarnate’ which is giving the reader an allusion to the fact they are saying she is worse than the devil and the irony of how she took away miners jobs.
Swift then says ‘and, trust me, as the noise grows stronger, he’s wish to sleep a little longer’ which uses sibilants such as ‘Stronger and ‘Sleep’, consonance ‘Stronger...Longer’, alliteration when saying ‘Little Longer’ all to emphasise the fact of him going straight to hell. Alliteration is also used when saying ‘The last loud trump must wake him now’ to judge the general on his actions, saying ‘Trump’ instead of ‘trumpet’ is so it fits in with the meter whereas the article also says ‘Billy Bragg’ which is a alliteration bilabial plosive pronoun which is used because he was known for singing political songs, criticizing politics such as Thatcher. Aspirants such as ‘Happy’ are used in the article to give a sense of happiness towards the death of Thatcher as if it is a celebration. The article says ‘Thatchers ashes to be scatted just off the coast of the Falkland isles’, ‘scatted’ is sibilants, ‘Thatchers’ and ‘Falkland’ is fricatives to give fluency to the ending, also to create controversy because of Thatcher causing issues to create war with Falkland.