Tuesday, 8 May 2012

The Call - W.N. Hodgson

Form:
-7 stanzas of 4 lines each with rhyming couplets which adds a romanticised tone.
-fragmented, each stanza is a season . Regularity suggests a life cycle


Language:
- Georgian
- Etherial language , wading through seasons - a metaphor for the life cycle
- Paradox : "beauty and sorrow" -wasted youth and innocence
- Metaphors for angels

Structure:
- Alliteration and sibilance : romanticised, slows pace .
- full stop symbolises the end of a season of life
- "ah!" - excitement of war
- Ceasura - see and do, while blood runs high - foreshadows death

Tone:
- mythical and etherial , jingoistic
-undertones of bitterness and resent towards leaving childhood , however he may be suggesting it brings them into a new era.

Reader response:

The poem is about the youth leaving childhood and being pulled into manhood too quickly - "reluctant wings" climatic ending of going over the top to convey an anti-patriotic message .

Links :
- Anthem for a doomed youth -wasted
- This Generation - sacrificed youth
- Recruiting - cynical

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