Essay__How_Do_Poets_Use_Nature_to_Express_Their_Reaction_to_Mortality_

Poetry is an effective tool for poets to express their reaction to mortality. Through reading various poems, it is clear that poets have different attitudes and reactions toward it, and these are cleverly utilised in the two examples of poems about mortality that I have chosen to describe. Firstly, The Five Students by Thomas Hardy. By this title, Hardy asks us to question what exactly the five students are studying – as it could depict any subject from a school environment to the study of life. From the first stanza, Hardy is taking us to the beginning of the student’s journey. It becomes apparent that they are not in a teacher-student atmosphere, but are students in life. The young students are reflected in the first two lines: “The sparrow dips in his wheel-rut bath/The sun grows passionate-eyed”, occurrences of early in the day. The language is warm, and the imagery evokes bright colours – a symbol of new life, where everything is in great clarity, wonderment, and heightened brightness. The students are introduced as striding on in the midst of this, and even the language here shows they are young and innocent: “As strenuously we stride –”. Everything is harder for them to grasp as they are younger, and yet they vigorously continue their journey. It is also the start of the countdown, as the students are named - in a repeated, strict rhythmical line - and the energy of these words reflects the energy in the youth. Continued throughout the poem is the sense of the journey the students are taking. It seems they do not have a choice, but are carrying on with a dogged sense of purpose nevertheless. In the second stanza, the students are in the summer of life – having passed a fresh spring. It is hot, very hot – the grasses ‘sober’ and the cattle relaxing, while “Shadowless swoons the day”. But, in contrast to this drawn-out, almost lazy, language, the students are “on our urgent way”, hastening to reach their destination, not stopping to rest. Here, Hardy could be sentimental in that these students rush through life, not pausing to rest and enjoy what we have. There are now four students, and the ominous sense of fate is growing. Nature is now mentioned as a gradual growth in time, as the season once again changes. Life reflected in the language is now harder, and more cynical. “Autumn moulds the hard fruit mellow” shows the cynical attitude, as ‘moulding’, symbolizing shaping, and that life is taking a harder shape as it progresses. The ground can be interpreted as treacherous, somewhere easy to stumble “through moors, briar-meshed plantations, clay-pits yellow” - the challenges the students face in life. But, inevitably, at the end of this stanza, it is announced that one student has fallen. Hardy is trying to tell us that he feels mortality passes us by too quickly. The poem is self-reflexive, and the comfortable companionship between the students is slowly lost. Hardy suggests that the students are simply living their seasons, and at the end of each stanza, it is natural for them to end their life. The mention of the road, or the journey, that they beat upon, is constant and regular. In the last two stanzas, the life of each of the students is drawing to a close, as is the life outside of the journey “The home-bound foot-folk wrap their snow-flaked heads”. This imbues a sense of darkness, and loneliness. But however much nature is wasting away, the last student still ‘stalks the course’ - a momentous change in the pace of the student. The pace of the journey goes from slower and more strenuous, to hasty and enthusiasm. The lone student has been abandoned by his fellow students, as they have melted away in the natural order of mortality. Hardy suggests that our outlook is bleak at this point, and it is inevitable our life will come to an end. Though the poem is elegiac, the dwindling companionship and reassurance shows us that Hardy thinks mortality is predestined, but it is important to slow down and take note of one’s surroundings, before one surrenders oneself to loneliness and a desolate future. The poem is also structured with six lines in each stanza, and five stanzas – for each of the students. Each of the lines in each stanza are also shaped the same – with the second and fourth line short, the third and fifth longest, and the last line shortest. This similarity and order, combined with the repeated punctuation of each stanza, is also repeated in each stanza, signifying a steady pattern in the students’ progression. The enjambment quickens the pace of the poem in the later stanzas. Another approach to mortality is expressed through the poem “A Blade of Grass” by Brian Patten. This title evokes images from the very subject of grass – the plant that starts it’s life out a fresh new shoot, but soon withers and dies. The word ‘blade’ is also suggestive of something symbolic – Patten maybe put the word ‘blade’ in as it could be a harsh, sharp word, reminiscent of violent end. The poem reads as not particularly poetic, with a simple layout and straight-forward language – no rhyme, no strong metric pattern, and no specific pauses. This is very symbolic of how Patten feels about death. He is illustrating it without any elaborate ornamentation: death, plain and simple. Mortality is not beautiful, but dark and plain. Patten does not write a poem with attractive language – he feels that if he does, he would take advantage of the concept of mortality. The last line of the last stanza is also particularly significant, as it underlines that, as the poem reaches its end, life will reach its end – and at this point, the simple notion of a blade of grass symbolizing something so meaningful, is a concept we cannot grasp. The sadness conveyed in this line “And about how as you grow older/A blade of grass/Becomes more difficult to accept.” is apparent, and Patten is highlighting how self-reflexive the poem is. Patten writes about the tragedy of growing older, of how simplistic things can become twisted, and that death is real, occurring time after time. The relentless repetition of the poem shows the stubbornness of the poet, wanting to force the message through reiterating it in each stanza. The nature in the poem, and the simplistic message in the blade of grass, is also constantly underlined. Though the poem is tragic in that there is a sense of masked desperation – “You ask for a poem/I offer you a blade of grass.” – and woe, there is also a quiet hope that the cycle of birth and death is everlasting, and there will be new life present just as old life draws to a close. Mortality comes across as difficult to avoid, in that Patten spent the majority of the poem talking about how he does not offer us a poem, but instead a blade of grass. It is self-contradictory, and paradoxical, in the line “I offer you a blade of grass./You say it is not good enough./You ask for a poem.” But though Patten remains stubborn that he will not write a complex poem as we, the reader (or he could even be talking to himself), want one, he has conjured up an image that is both complex and symbolic of an important subject. The poem has a sense of inevitability in that way – just as death is inevitable. The end-stopping in the poem as well as no complex punctuation further induces the words to sink in – for example: “You are indignant. You say it is too easy to offer grass.” This makes the line seem bolder, and more defiant. The shape of the poem is also simplistic, and five stanzas consist of four lines in similar length; with the exception of the last stanza, containing three lines. This could depict one of the central doctrines of the poem: stubbornness to leave the last line in; to be abrupt and blunt with the reader. The absence of the last line shows the absence of poetic perfection. In conclusion, mortality is approached in different ways through poetry, and the manipulation of nature, senses, language, and layout. These two poems are similar in many ways, both being self-reflexive, but also with a common view of mortality – it is inevitable. But they both sadly reminisce that, in old age, it is harder to accept things which aren’t complex, and the subtle reminders of their despair in the human race is apparent.