Author: Josh

In the poem Out of the Blue, certain language techniques and structure is used to show pathos, which is a strong emotion. The pathos in this poem is desperation. In stanza three, lines one to 4, the person in this scenario, which is written in first person they say “And when will you come? Do you think you are watching, watching a man shaking crumbs or pegging out washing”. There are a few reasons why i have picked out this stanza. one of these reasons is the use of enjambment between line 2 and 3, “Do you think you are watching, watching a man shaking crumbs”.

The poem centres around the hawk. The hawk has been portrayed as not even a hawk, but almost as mankind. The hawk and humanity have many similarities in this poem as I think Ted Hughes has tried to show the power of humanity and the hierarchy of our society today. We can see this in the last stanza when the hawk says “I am going to keep things like this”. This shows that the hawk is dominant on his home turf, his territory. I think this also shows the prerogative the hawk has. This is similar to something like a dictator, in somewhere like Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe was in control of his country, but in the hawks case its about territory. Also, Mugabe killed many of the people around him, just like the hawk, killing living creatures that are trying to obstruct his path.

The use of enjambment has been used twice in the poem i believe. stanza 2, line two and three

The poems ‘Belfast Confetti’ and ‘At the Border,1979’ are poems that are both based on conflict and what feelings they bring up about a location. Ciaran Carson is a poet who has shown conflict in Belfast, Ireland. Choman Hardi however, has chosen the border of Kurdistan and Iraq. This partly autobiographical poem focuses on the Iraq conflict not only within the country, but the individuals conflict also.

In ‘At the Border 1979’ there is a conflict which is focused on civil conflict. This is clear to see as in the poem Hardi speaks a lot about family and citizens, and how the families have gone through very tough times. Analysing the poem, i can also see that there is a clash of cultures between Kurdistan and Iran, which was where the war was located. In the seventh stanza of the poem, “A man bent down and kissed his muddy homeland.” This suggests the fact that the war has ended and that there is finally peace between both countries. The second text though, in this case Belfast confetti, looks at conflict related to political and religious beliefs. These two beliefs had clashed families, siblings and friends to fight against each other.

The poems ‘At the border’ and ‘Belfast confetti’ are both written in first person but this does not mean that they are the same. In belfast confetti, the style of first person is used to make the reader feel like they are in the conflict and they are experiencing the same thing as the person in the poem themselves. However, in At the border, the poem is still in first person and referring to the conflict but is presenting the conflict in a past tense as if to say that the conflict is over. I can see that the conflict is over from the lines in the seventh stanza “We waited while our papers were checked, our faces thoroughly inspected. Then the chain was removed to let us through.” This demonstrates the importance of the homeland to the citizens and them being able to return home. This is also interpreted “A man bent down and kissed his muddy homeland”.

Belfast confetti has seemed to be written to show what the impact of a civil war can have on a country and how everything has been shut down in a madness however at the border defines the importance of homeland to the civilians instead of being refugees and facing many troubles along the way, such as language borders and cultural clashes which were mentioned earlier. So when the people being effected during the war finally get peace and happiness and are able to finally go home they feel an array of emotions such as obvious happiness but also excitement to reunite with their family members and friends. On the other hand, I believe that Belfast confetti has very different emotions. There is a feeling of confusion and also a feeling of helplessness within the people of Belfast that have chosen not to be involved within the conflict.

1. The death of Vaudevue has been set in the first of the eight stanzas, and there is an atmosphere of loneliness. We can see this as the author uses the word alone, and also the fourth sentence used is “Her fingers tap the ground, she is alone”. This does not just only represent the emptiness of the area, but also that there must be nothing to do, as tapping the ground with your fingers is often a sign of boredom.

2. There are certain features in this poem that suggest a futuristic feel. An example of this is the second stanza, where the words ****and this is when i was kicked out of the class for something that wasent my fault****

The Right Word is a poem which I believe  looks at mainly conflict and violence. I also think that this poem is in relation to the 911 terrorist attacks as it mainly looks at the wrong descriptions and interpretations of people. An example of this is when a terrorist lurking in the shadows is the way that this person is perceived just because of their appearance. The predominant mood of the poem changes in every stanza. We can see this in the first stanza, where Dharker uses the word terrorist as the describing word for the person. In the second stanza we see a freedom fighter. This pattern continues within all eight stanzas with the fourth to last being described as “a child who looks like mine”.

Overall, my opinion on this poem is that the way that people are perceived will influence and make an impact on what they do in their life and what they bring to the table of society, if a person is branded the name of the terrorist, hostile militant or even a guerrilla warrior why should you be surprised if these people commit such crimes and terrorist activities?

The Death Penalty should be Reintroduced as a Punishment for Certain Crimes.

The death penalty is a punishment that is very controversial and is a punishment that was previously used in the UK but was abolished completely. I believe that it should be brought back as it can be a powerful deterrent to a range of extreme and dangerous crimes.

In addition, the death penalty can give closure to the victims’ families who have severely suffered for many years. It is apparent that the death penalty provokes many strong anti opinions but these must be challenged. Amnesty International is an organisation which believes that executions should be abolished, no matter what the circumstances. They are working to remove the death penalty altogether, claiming that they will work relentlessly to abolish the punishment in all countries around the world. Amnesty have also expressed their opinion about the effects of the death penalty and how they believe this does not deter crime. However, facts and statistics show that this is clearly not the case. We can look at Japan and see that the only two crimes that are punishable by the death penalty are in fact murder and treason. An amazing and a real eye opening fact about Japan is that there is only 1 execution per 18,067,952 people of their population. This fact really does underline my point about the death penalty deterring crime.

It is clear to see the death penalty is definitely a deterrent to someone who is planning murder. Without this put in place, murderers may not be punished as they deserve. We can also see in news reports that when murders are committed, the majority of views always seem to believe that the amount of time the murderer was given in jail as a punishment was either not enough or that there should be an alternative punishment, the obvious one of course being the death penalty. There are many reasons why I agree with this particular opinion, the main one being the amount of money that will still be spent on those prisoners who’ve deliberately planned to take away the life of another human being. A truly shocking fact that I found was that when court costs, police and other steps are taken into account, £65,000 is spent on the prisoner. An even more eye-watering fact is that an average of £40,000 is spent yearly on the inmate. So on average, a 25 year sentence in jail in the UK will cost £1,000,000 to cover. And guess who pays for that? The taxpayer. These murderers have killed a person and are given a place to live and given food, all for free. To me that just doesn’t seem fair, and that’s a big reason why I think these monsters should be punished via the death penalty.

Currently 1 in nearly 100 American adult citizens are in prison. As of 2014, the United States of America has an estimated population of 318.9 million, so you can only just start to imagine how many prisoners are in the USA’s system. A 2011 study has been revealed by the U.S Bureau of Justice Statistics stating that 2,266,800 adults were incarcerated in US federal and state prisons. Having the death penalty put in place for all premeditated murder cases would definitely cut down the amount of prisoners and also save the costs of services for the taxpayers.

When a murderer takes a life, there is an inequality of justice when the convicted killer is incarcerated. Why, you may ask, is there an inequality of justice? Robert Macy, a district attorney of Oklahoma expressed his opinion on the death penalty and its purpose. “In 1991, a young mother was rendered helpless and made to watch as her baby was executed. The mother was then mutilated and killed. The killer should not lie in some prison with three meals a day, clean sheets, cable TV, family visits and endless appeals. For justice to prevail, some killers just need to die.” The amount of pain, grieving and depression that the victims’ families go through just to find out this is extraordinary, and this is why I believe that the death penalty gives not only retribution but also a sense of equality and balance in justice.

I understand that there are people who believe the death penalty is morally wrong as there have been cases of wrongful execution. An example of where the death penalty has had a miscarriage of justice is the case of George Stinney, where this 14 year old boy was wrongly convicted of murdering 2 girls, both under the age of 12. He was given the death penalty and was killed using the electric chair. Although this may seem like a disadvantage for the death penalty, I believe that these mistakes happen very rarely and there will always be mistakes in a system containing criminals. Moreover, for the greater good of society, even though mistakes have been made, this system is justified in order to protect citizens.

To conclude, I believe that if a person deliberately kills another person, they should be sentenced to death. This gives consolation to families who will have to find a way to live their lives without those who were so close to them, and they will never be able to see those lost loved ones ever again. Another reason is the fact that it frees up space and saves money in the prison systems around the world, and most importantly it cuts down on the amount of deliberate murders in the short term and long term future, and cutting down on the grief for those families.

It was an unusually hushed evening outside Stockwell station as the clouds enveloped the city. The typically busy fruit and flower stand, which was always open, lay empty and was being pummeled by the elements. This time the fierce rain was teeming down on the stand and the street was completely abandoned. I looked around desperate for somebody to share a word…or even a feeling with. Whoever thought a Londoner would say that! The sky looked as if a ragged grey blanket had been smothered across it as I surveyed the station around me.

I glanced at the departure boards for any form of covered transport home but they stared morosely back at me, all saying the same thing. No way home here. Dressed in only my shirt and shorts, I was frozen to the bone and shaking from the chilling weather – my knees felt non-existent at this point. They were so numb due to the brutal weather, it felt like I was slithering my way along an ice skating rink. This was clear to see, unlike the sky above with the pitch black clouds smearing it like paint. The dark tones above were making what few people were left out on the street run for cover and I knew I’d soon be on my own…

I was dreading the thought of the trek back home, about a 15 minute walk, when suddenly the idea crossed my mind to take a much quicker and more direct route. As I walked past the usually jam-packed local pub, The Rose And Crown, it was for some odd reason near to deserted, uninhabited; it was quite strange but I thought nothing of it. Maybe it was the numbing raw coldness – too intense to be outside for some people. Once I’d made my way past the pub, I found myself in a dilemma. There were three roads, one of which was a much quicker way than my usual route, maybe taking around 5 minutes to get home. It’s important to mention that I’d only been down this crooked path maybe once or twice before. It was a very narrow and winding road, with the tough rooted trees overcrowding it, like the tentacles of a city-living octopus. Even the dull grey paving stones were ruptured, making it almost impossible to walk along – they were notorious for being dangerously slippery when the rain was as bad as this.

Then there was another road, taking maybe 10 minutes, but I knew this road was by far the quickest one. However, this one was even more neglected than the first road, even the branches of the trees had cracked off from the violent wind. There was always tons of old rubbish which is never taken away. It looked like a dystopian world in contrast to the one we are living on now. Most, if not all, of the homes seemed isolated from the “real world” – they didn’t even look homed, in fact they seemed almost disowned. Then there was my usual route, which happened to also be the only one lit up by lampposts.

The other routes were close to pitch black, but by this point I just wanted to get home.

I had just made my way past the first couple of ruined, brownstone houses, which looked like they’d had old coffee spilt on them and never been restored. It was at this moment when I decided to look at the time on my phone. I glanced down to see in shock that the time read 11:11PM. I was astounded, to say the least, to see it was this late. I began to wonder if my phone was broken, because it simply did not feel like I had been walking for over 4 hours. I rang my mother – just as I went to call her, my phone cut out.

I was all alone, on this pitch black, unwelcoming street, with no source of light. I was absolutely frantic with fearfulness on this bitterly frigid night. I decided I was going to walk a bit faster at this point;  well, that was an understatement. I heard the slow drops of the rain, tapping from roof to roof, like pencils on a table.

Suddenly, I thought I saw a shadow, the shadow of an animal I think, around the back of one of the houses. As soon as I looked again through the rain it was gone. My pace quickened along with my heart. Did I just see that or was it in my head? The rain continued to pound down as I hurried down the alleyway towards home.

Out of the corner of my eye, a shadow of something, something big, eased out behind me…

I loved her so much, she was my end and my beginning. The way that I used to admire her was simply inexplicable, and I got the impression that she felt the same way about me, that’s how I perceived it anyway. Clearly I was mistaken. From then everything went wrong, and I was left situated on my bed, clueless as to what had just happened, reminicing, registering into my brain, a piece of my heart felt like it was snatched away from me, from what seemed like one of the best things that had ever happened to me, had bitterly turned to something so sinister.

Looking back at the great moments we had, the memories were magical, especially when I met her for the first time, she gave me goosebumps at first sight. I had a breathtaking dream about her a night after the heartbreak, thinking she was there with me, but it turned out she was never there, and it was just me.

She was never just an ordinary girl, with an ordinary background, she was special, breathtaking, extraordinary, to say the least and now I know I will never find someone like her again, unfortunately. To be honest I don’t even know what I did wrong, or even why we were split apart. She said she “didnt have feelings for me anymore” eventhough about a week ago she was saying how affectionate she was for me, but I just cant get my head around how someone can be so sour, and betray you like you never meant one single thing to them. Well, I should’ve seen it coming anyway, she was acting particularily strange in the last few weeks of ‘us’, as in her making excuses for not going places with me and generally not caring for what I had to say, I obviously didnt pick up the hints until she told me that she would be going to stay with family in another country. Now this really did aggrevate me because not only did it show that she clearly had no respect for me by not telling me she was leaving but also that she didnt even have the decency to give me a heads up in advance.

So now knowing that she was leaving, potentially for a few months, maybe even forever, I really didnt have a clue. I really went through a tough time and had so many strong and mixed emotions, anger really was the prime one, but also disbelief that she, ever so quickly had done this to me. And I wont lie, I did still miss her and i still think about her to this day so you can probably imagine i was heartbroken aswell. But I promised myself and I have stuck to this promise all this time that I would go and see the plane take her away, mostly because indefinately, this was the last time I was ever going to see her again. Although she didn’t realise I was coming to see her I thought she would never know, and even if she did I could simply tell her it was supposed to be a suprise.

Josh Ali

What I think I could improve:

Less commas

Less ‘ands’

Use more descriptive words in the later stages of my writing

Work on a descriptive ending