This makes you automatically judge what the poem will be like. In Duffy’s poem she uses alliteration to describe nicer things, ‘sweet shop’ When you hear this you feel happier and think of nicer things. In Heaney’s poem he describes things that aren’t really a nice image, ‘jampotfuls’ and ‘jellied’ These don’t sound as nice or give you as nice of an image as ‘sweet shop’ does. In the third stanza of Duffy’s poem it makes you feel sort of relieved, ‘freed’ and ‘followed’.
This reminds you more of being a child. The word ‘freed’ makes u feel a lot less trapped and feel more comfortable. In stanza 2 of Heaney’s poem he uses, ‘coarse croaking’. This seems more threatening as it gives you the image of being surrounded by frogs. Both these poems mention ‘croaking’ in them. At the end of Duffy’s poem it starts to get more negative, ‘tasted’ and ‘tangible’. The word tangible makes you feels uncomfortable. The last piece of alliteration is, ‘sky’ and ‘split’.
This isn’t a positive thought therefore both poems end negatively. Both poems use a range of similes. In Duffy’s poem she uses a simile in a more positive way, ‘The classroom glowed like a sweet shop.’ This is a nice colourful image; also as well as being a simile this quote also has alliteration which has worked well. However in Heaney’s poem the use of simile in negative, ‘their loose necks pulsed like sails.’ This isn’t a nice image and is more a threatening thought. It makes us understand more clearly the thoughts of each writer and how their childhood affected their poems. Another simile used in Heaney’s poem is just as negative, ‘poised like mud grenades’ .
This makes it sound more dangerous as grenades are life threatening. There is also a negative simile used in Duffy’s poem, ‘Brady and Hindley faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of mistake.’ This quote begins to even out the negativeness used in the poems. Although there are more similes used in Heaney’s poem, ‘frogspawn that grew like clotted water.’ The word ‘clotted’ makes it sound more dangerous. Heaney also uses metaphor in his poem, again in a more negative way, ‘Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun’.
This makes you think of pain and sort of feel sympathy for the person because it’s like he’s being punished. Duffy’s poem uses metaphor in a negative way at the end of her poem, ‘The air tasted of electricity’ In a way this sort of reminds me of pain as well, like an electric shock. Heaney makes you feel uncomfortable, ‘The air was thick’ This is more a feeling of being claustrophobic which is very intimidating and makes you feel a bit sick. He also mentions ‘angry frogs’ which makes you feel worried as the frogs could attack at any moment. Heaney uses metaphor throughout his poem and Duffy only uses it at the end of her poem.
I found the personification in each poem very interesting, especially in Duffy’s poem, ‘The laugh of a bell.’ I found this an amazing way to describe something and it makes me feel full of joy. Surprisingly I found that at the start of Heaney’s poem he uses some positive personification, ‘heart of the townland’ This sounds happy and makes it out to be a nice place so you don’t really expect the rest of the poem to sound so negative. I found the personification in Duffy’s poem better as it used more throughout her poem, ‘A xylophones nonsense heard from another form.’ This reminds me a lot of my childhood especially the way she mentioned ‘nonsense’.
I found one piece of personification shocking coming from a child but it shows she is getting older, ‘Heavy sexy sky.’ I wouldn’t expect a younger person to use the term ‘sexy’ to describe something. Neither poems rhymed which I found disappointing. I think they would be more enjoyable to read if there was rhythm. In Duffy’s poem where she used the word ‘chanted’ I think she could have made it better by making the countries rhyme. Heaney’s poem has used Onomatopoeia in a funny but disturbing way, ‘The slap and plop.’
Duffy uses onomatopoeia in a completely different way which makes you feel calm and relaxed, ‘Mrs Tilcher chanted the scenery.’ There is not really any repetition of words in either of the poems which I think makes them less threatening. After reading both poems I can feel empathy for both poets’. In Heaney’s poem it made me remember when I went out and collected frogspawn, but I never found it scary or threatening like his poem makes it sound. Therefore I would prefer Duffy’s poem. In her poem everything said in it happened to me during my childhood in school. Reading Duffy’s poem made me think back to me sitting in class in a brightly coloured classroom. Although I was disappointed that it didn’t rhyme at all because it would have made me enjoy it even more.
