Welsh Poetry Essay - Compare and contrast White Roses with Stop all the

Welsh Poetry Essay - Compare and contrast White Roses with Stop all the Clocks. -Compare and contrast "White Roses" with "Stop all the Clocks." "White Roses" is about a young boy who dies. It was written by Gillian Clarke, a modern Welsh poet. The title of the poem is ironic, because "White Roses" suggests youth, beauty and innocence. The poem starts with, "Outside the green velvet sitting room" This suggests luxury and wealth. The use of the colour green is also very indicative, because the colour green suggests spring and fertility and overall life. This is in contrast with the theme of the poem, which is suppoused to be one of death, but in actuality, it is as much about life as it is of death. The next two verses fit in with the theme of green, fertility and springtime. "White roses bloom after rain" "They hold water and sunlight" This is a simile. Water and sunlight are essential to life, which interlock with the theme of life. The newly-bloomed white roses are only still alive because of the water and sunlight they hold. The reader is then taken inside , to a scene of sickness and disease. "Within the boy who sleeps in my care, In the big chair" "Big chair" suggests that this boy is a very small boy. The boy awakens to pain. "The cold bloom Opens at a terrible speed And the splinter of ice moves" The second and the third stanza are linked together, through enjambment. "In his blood as he stirs in the chair" From the next line we can assume that the boy and carer are not family. The narrator is merely a nurse or a carer for this boy. The boy is obviously in a lot of pain. A sympton of some unknown disease. He grits in teeth in effort to subdue of forget the... ...ve, where-as "Stop all the Clocks" is written in first person narrative. "Stop all the Clocks" is also a more personal poem where as "White Roses" is more vauge and abstract. More objective . "White Roses" is about a child, who was not close to the poet, dying. "Stop all the Clocks" is a poem all about grieving and mourning for a lover, a partner. It is about the complete and utter outpouring of grief. "White Roses" is simply a reflection of death. The poem I prefer is "Stop all the Clocks", because I feel it is a more significant poem than "White Roses" simply because it is a more personal poem. A poem full of heartache, grief and despair that someone the poet truly loved has gone forever. I feel it is a more realistic poem. Although "White Roses" is a sad poem, "Stop all the Clocks" is a sadder poem. Full of an overwhelming sense of grief and of loss.