I am going to compare three different poems: "My Box" by Gillian Clarke, "Valentine" by Carol Ann Duffy and "Shall I compare Thee...?" (Sonnet 18) by William Shakespeare. In my essay I will discuss the language, images, style, rhythm and many other aspects used to construct each of the poems.
The modern poem "My Box" written by Gillian Clarke, in essence, is about a gift of a box from a man to a woman. The first line 'my box is made of golden oak, my lover's gift to meô. Clarke introduces characters, the lover and the narrator. 'He fitted hinges and a lock of brass and a bright key. ô This line has a sort of naivety about it because it is made up of monosyllables, also, when read it seems as if a word is missing between 'brightô and 'keyô. This may be deliberate to emphasise the youthfulness of the writer at this point in the poem.
English: onion
English: A growing onion Allium cepa in a neutral ...
English: Carol Ann Duffy (cropped)'He made it out of winter nights, sanded and oiled and planed, engraved inside a heavy lid in brass, a golden tree.' Due to the emphasis of 'and' by its repetition four times within the first stanza, this shows that the man had obviously spent a lot of time on the box.
In the second stanza, the poet goes on to describe what the woman has done with the box. 'In my box are twelve black books where I have written down how we have sanded, oiled and planed, planted a garden, built a wall, seen jays and gold crests, rare red kites, found the wild heartsease, drilled a well, harvested apples and words and days and planted a golden treeô.
This whole stanza is written as a list informing the reader of what they did as a couple. 'In...