Poetry Essay
Holly Richter
Essay Topic 1: To what extent does the poetry you studied present a predominantly hopeful or
despairing view of the world?
Chosen ten poems:
 Seamus Heaney, ‘Death of a Naturalist’ (B.L.C.A.)
 Sylvia Plath, ‘Mushrooms’ (B.L.C.A.)
 Sylvia Plath, ‘You’re’ (B.L.C.A.)
 Sylvia Plath, ‘Blackberrying’
 William Blake, ‘Infant Joy’ and ‘Infant Sorrow’
 William Blake, THE Chimney Sweeper’
 William Blake, ‘LONDON’
 Maureen Watson, ‘Stepping Out’ (B.L.C.A.)
 Bobbi Sykes, ‘One Day’ (B.L.C.A.)
The work of poets such as Sylvia Plath and William Blake present a predominantly despairing
view of the world. It is evident that hope and despair, however, go hand in hand and Blake in
particular explores the contrasts between the two. Similarly, poets such as Seamus Heaney,
Maureen Watson and Bobbi Sykes discuss the role of hope and despair in relation to each other,
specifically anticipation leading to disappointment and hope following on. Blake’s and Plath’s
works comment on the joys and sorrows of new life. While Heaney mirrors Plath in his
exploration of anticipation leading to disappointment and the poems of Watson and Sykes’ detail
how faith can spring from the grips of degradation, these poets all confirm that although hope is
possible, despair is constant.
New life brings both joy and terror; the topic of childbirth containing an equal measure of hope
and despair for those involved. Sylvia Plath’s “You’re” explores the lighter side of this, speaking
about her ‘little loaf’, her unborn child and its magical innocence: ‘a clean slate, with (her) own
face on.’ There are few negative connotations in her diction, with each metaphor or simile
playfully carrying joyful undertones. “Infant Joy” from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence has
similar hopeful imagery. ‘Sweet joy but two days old’ is Blake’s infant, ‘happy’ to be brought
into this picturesque world. It is only when we consider Blake’s Songs of Experience that we see
the opposite of this hope, where “Infant Sorrow” details the despair and agony of childbirth. The
first stanza indeed tells us how his ‘mother groand! (his) father wept’, as the speaker is pulled
‘into the dangerous world’. Where “You’re” and “Infant Joy” discuss ideas of hope and
innocence, “Infant Sorrow” comments on the overwhelming terrors of childbirth and the horrors
of the world into which the speaker is brought. While both poets present a predominantly hopeful
view of the world when writing about childbirth, Blake’s vision of experience eventually leads
him to comment on the despair brought about by new life.
Following infancy is childhood, a topic which Seamus Heaney writes about with flair. His
nostalgic poems reflect on the past, the innocence of youth, and the unexpected disappointment
that springs from naive anticipation. In Heaney’s “Death of a Naturalist” the first stanza builds a
passionate expectation, describing an awed appreciation for nature from his childlike
perspective. The ‘flax-dam’ where ‘every spring/(he) would fill jampotfuls’ of frogspawn is a
place of wonder for Heaney, his understanding of nature limited to what ‘Miss Walls’ would tell
him. This skewed understanding is mirrored in Sylvia Plath’s “Blackberrying”, where she walks
through blackberry allies in anticipation of the sea ‘somewhere at the end of it.’ As the poem
progresses her anticipation increases, even when trying to convince herself ‘I do not think the sea
will appear at all.’ She holds onto this belief, this concept of the sea being a beautiful revelation
at the end of her journey, despite the signs pointing to the contrary. Circumstance later turns
these speakers’ anticipation into disappointment.
In terms of narrative structure, both “Death of a Naturalist” and “Blackberrying” set out to
achieve the same thing. Heaney and Plath introduce their poems with an expectant tone, their
first stanzas clear examples of this. Imagery becomes a key factor as the narratives develop, the
reader sharing and experiencing the speaker’s anticipation. These poems are highly similar in
their discussions on hope and anticipation leading to despair and disappointment, where
Heaney’s final stanza is a confused account of the ‘obscene threats’ from an angry chorus of
frogs ‘that (he) had not heard/Before.’ Heaney’s naive perception of nature has been torn to
pieces when he finally views it in its true light, just as Plath’s reluctant anticipation is shattered
when ‘a sudden wind funnels at (her),/Slapping its phantom laundry in her face’ and the sea
reveals itself as ‘nothing but a great space/of white and pewter lights’, a harsh image unlike what
she expected. The imagery of ‘mud grenades’ and frogs ‘gathered there for vengeance’ in “Death
of a Naturalist” is paralleled in “Blackberrying”, where, metaphorically, Plath’s sea is ‘an
intractable metal’. The harsh finality of this mechanical ocean brings to a close Plath’s account
of her disappointment. In both poems the speaker has high hopes for nature, is overwhelmed by
its possibilities, and is then let down at the last minute. Plath and Heaney use this disappointment
as a metaphor for how, more often than not, hope inevitably leads to despair in our own lives.
William Blake was an expert at commenting on the contrasts between hope and despair.
His anthology Songs of Experience in particular details his conclusive disappointment at
the world he lives in. “London” and “THE Chimney Sweeper” describe this
disappointment hauntingly. “London” has Blake walking through his home town,
‘mark(ing) in every face (he meets)/Marks of weakness, marks of woe.’ The desperate
poverty he describes provides an entirely despairing view of London, hearing ‘every cry
of every Man,’ ‘every Infants cry of fear’ with an overwhelmed sense of remorse.
Synaesthetically, the speaker is so overcome by despair and sadness that each sound he
hears overpowers his visual senses, a forgotten ‘soldier’s sigh’ literally becoming ‘blood
down palace walls’. Not only is there no hope left, but there is now no clear distinction
between sight, sound and smell. Blake’s final stanza details, with harsh finality, how the
noise he hears above all else is ‘the youthful Harlots’ yelling, which ‘blights with plagues
the Marriage hearse.’ The degradation in London ruins family life and curses all
innocence, a highly potent theme taken further in “THE Chimney Sweeper”. The horrors
of a child’s life as a chimney sweeper are frequent in Blake’s poetry, where innocent
children are exploited and ‘clothed… in the clothes of death,/… taught… to sing the
notes of woe.’ “THE Chimney Sweeper” is a morbid and despairing account of the
exploitation of these young children:
because I am happy, & dance & sing,
They think they have done me no injury:
And are gone up to praise God & his Priest & King
Who make up a heaven of our misery.
(my emphasis.)
This final stanza expands on “London’s” smaller, two-line image of religious hypocrisy,
transforming childhood innocence into a mask for cruelty and despair. Blake’s entirely
despairing view of London reflects a more universal theme, a predominantly despairing
view of the world.
A fitting demonstration of the extent to which poets such as Sylvia Plath, Maureen
Watson and Bobbi Sykes present a predominantly despairing view of the world is where
they comment on hope as an outgrowth of despair. Plath’s “Mushrooms” is a wonderful
example of repression breeding retaliation, despair and degradation leading to uprising.
The pain and suffering of the ‘meek’, the ‘edible’, the ‘earless and eyeless//Perfectly
voiceless’ feeds into their motivation for liberation, the sibilant and assonant sounds
softly growing to a crescendo throughout the poem. This is paralleled beautifully in
“Stepping Out”, where Maureen Watson comments on her own liberation after being
‘wedded, enslaved, white washed, and saved,’ ‘patted, and moulded, and shaped, and
scolded’. Watson comments on the struggles she encountered, being ‘treated like I
wasn’t human,’ and how she managed to fight back because ‘black woman’s got spirit
that’s never going to be broken.’ Watson highlights the despair and suffering she endured
by demonstrating her resilience. The upbeat rhythm is fast-paced, bringing with the
alliterative sounds a spirit and passion to the confronting topic.
A final example of the torment and affliction of black people is in Bobbi Sykes “One
Day”, where a black man walking along the street ‘head down’ describes his humiliation
in the public arena. He feels trapped, shamed, ‘lost/bobbing on a sea I didn’t know’,
walking shame-facedly and avoiding any confrontation with ‘all them white
faces/staring’. This misery, this oppression, becomes liberating when the speaker
encounters an ‘unknown brother/across the street’. Suddenly a ‘salute’, a ‘clenched
fist/smile…’ encourages our downtrodden speaker to stand up, for simply having a
companion provides not only comfort but empowerment. Our speaker is liberated by this
man’s presence and is ‘no longer moving along/But/Brother/Moving up!’ Like the
resurgent imagery of “Mushrooms” and “Stepping Out”, the speaker’s hope grows out of
his initial oppression. These poets provide examples of the ways in which hope can
spring only from the grips of despair; one cannot exist without the other.
Where William Blake writes about the contrasts between hope and despair, Sylvia Plath
and Seamus Heaney discuss how despair springs from anticipation. Maureen Watson and
Bobbi Sykes use their despair, their suffering, as a means for hope and liberation. These
poets all present a predominantly despairing view of the world; whilst the contrasts are
noted, and the presence of hope is never ignored, overall these poems speak of suffering,
disappointment and degradation. It is evident that in the world of these poems, hope and
despair may be linked inextricably, still despair will be too much of a presence to
overcome.
1496 words.