Q. Explore the strategies poets have used to create a distinctive voice or mood in two poems.

The diversity of natures beauty could only be a result of God[s] glory. Gerald Manly Hopkins explores the awesome wonder of creation in his poem Pied Beauty; passionately giving Praise to God with a joyous and thankful voice. George Merediths poem, From Modern Love, is as negative and morbid as Hopkins is joyous. Meredith explores the results of a dead romance and the pain a failed relationship brings. Opening with the words, Glory be to God, it is immediately clear what mood the voice of the poem will bring; complete thanksgiving and praise to God. Merediths opening in From Modern Love is equally clear in tone and purpose, regret and despair over a failing marriage; By this she wept with waking eye. By using a dash after for dappled things , Hopkins effectively openly states his purpose; then moving into supportive detail in the rest of the poem. From Modern Love uses a similar technique, a colon after waking eyes: to plainly reiterate and clarify the pain of destroyed love. The quell simplicity of message and clear, understandable structure, makes Pied Beauty and From Modern Love comparably similar in their portrayal of distinctly dissimilar moods. The similarities between both poems continue, as they both move into specific diction and imagery in support of their theme. Hopkinss love is for dappled things. For the variation in life which gives nature its true beauty. Many synonyms are used by Hopkins to illustrate the beauty of diversity. Dappled, brindled, stipple[d], and even Pied, all relate to the variation of nature. These specific choices in diction are used very positively by Hopkins; he is not simply observing, but rather glorifying nature. In similar form, by contradictory nature, Meredith also makes heavy use of diction to instead create a mood of darkness and despondency. Aptly chosen words like waking not only describe a restlessness or alertness; and awkward situation at night, but also can be interpreted as conveying a deep sense of fear and regret. Animal imagery of Dreadfully venomous snakes are a clich, but effective, way of creating a tense and sinister mood. Similarly, the darkness is extensively depicted by Meredith. By describing it s long, dead black and even flow[ing]... with muffled pulses, Meredith almost personifies it through its level of detail. Again, this is another clich device to heighten the morbid mood of the poem and depict loneliness and isolation. Close attention to detail is also seen in Hopkinss poem, were it instead portrays his stream of consciousness and overwhelmed wonder at the earths beauty. Landscape plotted and pierced fold, fallow, and plough is one example of Hopkins descriptive detail. In this example, Hopkinss packs as much description into one sentence as possible, describing the tilled farmland with five adjectives at once: plotted, pierced, fold, fellow, and plough. Contrary to Meredith, Hopkinss instead takes delight in his rich descriptions; finding a new joy with every additional level of complexity and wonder. Specific choices in diction and imagery are of the clearest and easiest way to depicting a specific mood, voice or attitude and are used widely by both Hopkinss and Meredith in their poems. Structure and punctuation, are the last a, and most subtle, methods used by Hopkinss and Meredith in their development of mood. Structure is immediately noticeable in Hopkinss poem Pied Beauty. The dense and complex structure of Pied Beauty pertains to Hopkinss delight in every diverse detail of nature. Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches wings is barely understandable. This example is indicative of Hopkinss style, with semi-colons and hyphens replacing the need for many auxiliary words. By severely condensing the poem in their manner, Hopkinss subtly conveys the detail and intricacy of nature. He also creates a short poem with a considerable amount of detail by eliminating all the most fundamental words. By jumping form cow[s], to trout tot eh landscape and mans creations, Hopkins effectively illustrates his erratic stream of consciousness and how

overwhelmed he is by wonder. Another predominant structural device is lists. These are again used by Hopkins as a method of conveying a lot of detail and meaning concisely and densely. The list fo sensory diction: swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim, combines pairs of antonyms together understandably these contradictions in sensory words uses synaesthesia the depiction of more than one sense to describe Hopkinss love of all extremes in life. The structure of From Modern Love is as similarly dense as Pied Beauty. However, contrastingly, Meredith uses this as a simple device to pack more negative images into the poem; creating an overwhelmingly despairing mood. Many dark images, such as: snakes, sobs, gasp[s], venom, darkness, midnight, regret, marriage-tomb and sword[s] are all packed, with detail, into a poem only four sentences long. This can portray how everlasting despair can feel; there is no escape of respite. Punctuation is not as central in From Modern Love as it is in Pied beauty, but it still plays a crucial role in development of the mood. Meredith uses auxiliary words in more cases than Hopkinss to build the effect of his images. However, commas slow the pace of From Modern Love, creating a sinister, foreboding flow, and conveying how endless and torturously slow regret can make us feel. Subtle but effective, Hopkins and Meredith both effectively use structure and punctuation in varying ways to develop their moods of joyous delight, and unending agony respectively. Natures beauty is past change; un-ending and glorious in its diversity. Relationships are a source of both joy and pain. Meredith details the torture of a dying marriage, while Gerald Manly Hopkins Glor[ifies] and Praise[s] God for the beauty of creation. Both poets make heavy use of mood in the voice of their poems, employing techniques from diction and imagery to structure and punctuation. Words: 959