Poetry is forms of writing that can help numerous people write their views and feelings in a modest way. Gabriel Okara, Louis MacNeice and Rudyard Kipling all convey their worries and memories through their poems, ‘Once Upon a Time, ‘Prayer Before Birth and ‘If’. All of these three poems have a common theme, which is childhood.
“Once Upon a Time” by Gabriel Okara is a free verse poem. The poem is written in a first person point of view and contains irregular stanzas. The speaker could be a father addressing the poem to his ‘son’. It also lacks rhyme to convey the writer’s struggles. “Once Upon a Time” expresses the wickedness of society and discovers the feelings of people, it also illustrates how people change over the years and become false …show more content…
In “Once Upon a Time” the writer uses metaphor to make readers sympathize with him as he recognizes how he changed to the worst and wants to return to his child innocence, as follows: “they used to laugh with their hearts”, “but now they only laugh with their teeth” (lines 2,4). This example also confirms how closed-off people have become due to the influence of the Western society. “I have learned to wear many faces like dresses” (line 20,21) this example of simile makes emotions seem like they’re disposable and it displays society’s obsession with appearances. Okara uses compound words to make the poem more interesting, “homeface, officeface, stressface, hostface, cocktailface” (lines 21-23). There is a use of alliteration in the following line; “hands without hearts” (line 8). Repetition of ‘shake’ and ‘laugh’ demonstrates how actions remain the same but emotions …show more content…
Assonance is added in the poem to create interest; “black racks rack me” (line 7). The poem ends with a strong request “otherwise kill me” (line 39), which illustrates how the child would rather die than be born into a world of such horrors. Nature is personified in the poem; “trees to talk to me” (line 9), “sky to sing to me” (line 10). The writer uses metaphor to describe the child’s fear that mankind will manipulate his actions “make me a cog in a machine” (line 31). Language in “Prayer Before Birth” is short to support the evidence that the speaker is a child. Alliteration is used in the following examples; “bloodsucking bat” (line 2), “trees to talk” (line 9) and “parts I must play” (line 19). In the poem no words more than two syllables are used, which indicated the language of
“Once Upon a Time” by Gabriel Okara is a free verse poem. The poem is written in a first person point of view and contains irregular stanzas. The speaker could be a father addressing the poem to his ‘son’. It also lacks rhyme to convey the writer’s struggles. “Once Upon a Time” expresses the wickedness of society and discovers the feelings of people, it also illustrates how people change over the years and become false …show more content…
In “Once Upon a Time” the writer uses metaphor to make readers sympathize with him as he recognizes how he changed to the worst and wants to return to his child innocence, as follows: “they used to laugh with their hearts”, “but now they only laugh with their teeth” (lines 2,4). This example also confirms how closed-off people have become due to the influence of the Western society. “I have learned to wear many faces like dresses” (line 20,21) this example of simile makes emotions seem like they’re disposable and it displays society’s obsession with appearances. Okara uses compound words to make the poem more interesting, “homeface, officeface, stressface, hostface, cocktailface” (lines 21-23). There is a use of alliteration in the following line; “hands without hearts” (line 8). Repetition of ‘shake’ and ‘laugh’ demonstrates how actions remain the same but emotions …show more content…
Assonance is added in the poem to create interest; “black racks rack me” (line 7). The poem ends with a strong request “otherwise kill me” (line 39), which illustrates how the child would rather die than be born into a world of such horrors. Nature is personified in the poem; “trees to talk to me” (line 9), “sky to sing to me” (line 10). The writer uses metaphor to describe the child’s fear that mankind will manipulate his actions “make me a cog in a machine” (line 31). Language in “Prayer Before Birth” is short to support the evidence that the speaker is a child. Alliteration is used in the following examples; “bloodsucking bat” (line 2), “trees to talk” (line 9) and “parts I must play” (line 19). In the poem no words more than two syllables are used, which indicated the language of