Analyse three poems

I am going to analyse three poems these being “Havisham”, “Hitcher” & “The man he killed”. The authors, which are, Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitage and pre 1914 poetry. The first poem Havisham is about a lady who is left at the alter on her wedding day and she is cursing her fiance. The woman is called Ms Havisham from the novel “great expectations”, she shows hate towards him, and (she is a feminist). The beginning of the poem starts with “beloved sweetheart bastard” the “beloved sweetheart” is a positive comment and “bastard” is a negative comment, which shows an oxymoron that love is hate and hate is love.

The line “spinster I stink and remember” she’s saying she still is wearing her wedding dress from the day of her wedding and she hasn’t taken it off. This shows she is emotionally hurt and she is not letting go of the past. The last line of the poem “don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks” the last word shows onomatopoeia. It lets the reader here the desperate sounds. This poem is overall about a lady from a book called great expectations who was held up at the Alter and can’t let go of her past.

The second poem I am going to analyse is “hitcher” it is about a man who goes to work and feels isolated and alone as well as depressed. On his way to work he picks up a “hitch-hiker” and feels envious towards him, because the hitch hiker is free and doesn’t need to go to work and so on. “one more sick note, mister and you’re finished, fired” that line shows that he has taken a few days off and if he doesn’t return to work he is fired, and the hitcher doesn’t have to go anywhere at a certain time, that’s why the man feels envious of the hitcher.

I let him have it, on the top road out of Harrogate-once with the head ……. I dropped it into third” he is talking about the car and what speed or gear it is in. The words in the poem such as “ansaphone” is not a standard English but it gives the writer gives it a touch of sound an the inner person to the poem, its very similar to the way Carol Ann Duffy wrote her poem havisham and she used “b-b-b-breaks” to let you here the desperate sounds. Now I am going to analyse “The man he killed” this poem was probably made around World War 2 because of some of the words.

E. g. they use “a nipper kin” and nowadays we use a pint, they also use “foe” which we say as Enemy. I also know this poem is about war because of the atmosphere they say, “and starring face to face I shot him as he at me” because in war they use to face each other and so on. If link everything up you would know it was about war. This poem is very different compared to “Havisham” & “Hitcher” because they are about, people who want to be free and letting go of their past but yet “The man he killed” is about war.

Havisham” & “Hitcher” are similar because Carol Ann Duffy & Simon Armitage put in language which is Standard English and they use onomatopoeia to let the reader feel the atmosphere of the poem. Also in these two poems their characters were upset, depressed and won’t let go of their past, and both characters from Havisham and Hitcher wanted to be free. For conclusion, Havisham and Hitcher are similar but the man he killed is different.