Compare how poets use language to present feelings in “The Manhunt” and one other poem (Nettles)
In ‘Manhunt’, Simon Armitage uses rhyme to reflect the togetherness of a relationship. He says “After the first phase, after passionate nights and intimate days.” As the poem goes on, the reader can start to recognise that the un-rhymed cuplets show how fragmented their relationship has become. In ‘Nettles’ Vernon Scannell uses elements of nature, the nettles, to portray his keen anger towards the pain his son is going through. At the beginning of the poem, Scannell uses soft ‘s’ sounds to emphasise the soothing of his injured son who has fallen in a nettle bed. The child is presented using emotive language. “It was no place for rest. With sobs and tears the boy came seeking comfort and I saw white blisters beaded on his tender skin. We soothed him till his pain was not so raw.” These soothing sounds emphasises the love his father has for him and how he wants him to recover quickly. The ‘watery grin’ is another emotive description also serving as an opposing image. The way in which Scannell merges the child’s laughter of comfort and relief with the tears of pain from the sting of the nettles shows that the child is being helped by his father to get over the pain.
In ‘Manhunt’, there is imagery indicating how carefully she treats her husband. “And handle and hold the damaged, porcelain collar bone, and mind and attend the fractured rudder of shoulder blade.” The point she makes about her husband being injured and she wants to treat him. Use of alliteration with ‘handle’ and ‘hold’ puts a strain on how delicate his body must be at this time.
In ‘Nettles’ the poet gives us an image that even though he feels well and truly sorry for his dear son he wants him to learn from his mistakes. “We soothed him till his pain was not so raw.” The way he says, ‘not so raw’