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Example of Poetry Essay

The document compares how four poems from different time periods explore characters of an unpleasant or unconventional nature through dramatic monologue. It discusses Browning's "The Laboratory" and "My Last Duchess", which present disturbed women and a duke planning and recalling murders. Simon Armitage's "Hitcher" also recounts a brutal murder with no remorse. Carol Anne Duffy's "Education for Leisure" similarly depicts disturbed minds planning violence without guilt. All examine the reasons for characters' disturbing actions through their own words.

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Evie B Staron
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520 views2 pages

Example of Poetry Essay

The document compares how four poems from different time periods explore characters of an unpleasant or unconventional nature through dramatic monologue. It discusses Browning's "The Laboratory" and "My Last Duchess", which present disturbed women and a duke planning and recalling murders. Simon Armitage's "Hitcher" also recounts a brutal murder with no remorse. Carol Anne Duffy's "Education for Leisure" similarly depicts disturbed minds planning violence without guilt. All examine the reasons for characters' disturbing actions through their own words.

Uploaded by

Evie B Staron
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Explore how Robert Browning explores the idea of character in his poem The Laboratory.

In your answer you should include one other poem in the pre1914 cluster and one by Simon Armitage and one by Carol Anne Duffy. Robert Browning is known for his dramatic monologues that produce characters of an unpleasant or unconventional nature. In The Laboratory, we are presented with a woman who has been thwarted by her lover and is planning to poison her rival. It is written from her point of view and we are given a vivid description of the poisons and the chemicals that surround her in the apothecary she is visiting, such gold oozings come!, is a sensual description displaying the passionate and sensual nature of the womans disposition and of the hateful behaviour she is about to engage in. The womans disturbed nature can be compared to Brownings other poem, My Last Duchess. In this dramatic monologue, we again are party to a disturbed mind who recounts with an unabashed arrogance the murder and power games he played with his wife. Whilst showing his visitor his works of art, of which he includes his wife, he recounts how his paranoid jealousy drove him to, gave commands, to ensure, all smiles stopped together. These two Victorian poems can be in turn compared to the modern poems by Duffy and Armitage. In Duffys Education for Leisure, we see another dramatic monologue (this time divided up into stanzas) where we see a disturbed and thwarted mind plan a murder, again blaming others for his own shortcomings. This is similar to The Laboratory because we see the planning but not the execution and we are left with the chilling line at the
Subtle use of comparison, the similarities are drawn with subtle differences noticed. The poems are put into historic context, a good way of comparing them. Embedded quotations are the best where possible, they are short and follow the flow of the sentence. An example of the PEE structure, a point is made, a short quotation is used and is then explained. There is only a brief mention of what the poem is about, dont be tempted to explain what the poem is about to the examiner.

The essay immediately identifies the poems style and the method the character is presented.

end when Duffy says, I touch your arm. This second person statement is directed straight at the reader as we are made to feel as the intended victim. Finally, Armitages Hitcher recounts the brutal murder committed to an innocent man. Much like My Last Duchess, we have an insight into a killing as he, Let him have it. The character here is again both unabashed and shows no sign of any remorse after the deed and the tone is that of humour as the killers says, Hed said he like the breeze. With all of these characters that have been created by the poets, none of them show any guilt in their actions. We see the reasons for their actions, jealousy, love and even boredom but each of the poets has given us insight into the serial killer, the psychopath or sociopath by the use of direct speech and the dramatic monologue.
Candidate has a wide vocabulary.

Conclusions can be quite tricky. Here the candidate has kept it short and found the main link that draws the essay back to the title and Key Words, Character.

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