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I'd write something myself but I couldn't find the poem and I don't have much time - exam weeks start in Monday and will last for 19 days so I'm dead =P
But I found this in a website:
Killing a whale - Poetry analysis
Poetry Assignment
From the poems we have studied, which two or three do you feel have made their points most effectively?
Although the poems I have studied have been written in different ways about very different subjects, they all have one thing in common – each poet has a ‘burning issue’ they wish to convey to an audience. The poem I have chosen is David Gill’s ‘Killing a Whale’, this poem describes in detail the horrific and prolonged death of a Whale for the sole purpose of the recovery of oil. It conveys to the reader the pointless death of such a magnificent creature.
The title of this poem is both simple and effective; it bluntly reveals the alarming issue Gill feels so strongly about. The structure of the poem is written in three irregular verses, the first describing the method of attacking a Whale, the second deals with the incredible death of the Whale and the third gives us the feeble and pathetic reason that it is murdered.
The opening line is written in a detached manner in the same format as that of a recipe as if the act of killing a Whale is nothing more extraordinary than that of baking a cake. The poets’ true feelings of the procedure become clearer in the second and third lines with the vocabulary he has chosen, as words such as ‘shell’, ‘dynamite’ and ‘harpoons’ are often associated with war and destruction. In the next two lines the poet continues to write in a dispassionate style as if this stage in the poem was but the next step of the recipe. The short sentence ‘Take aim’ marks a significant change of style and emphasises the importance of the task as an end stop is used.
The remainder of the verse describes in horrific detail the harsh reality of the attack on a defenceless whale. Gill uses poetic features to focus on particular stages of the assault with the use of alliteration ‘fluke…flank’ and ‘bang…blubber’ which emphasises the pain and suffering of the Whale. ‘Bang’ is also an example of onomatopoeia, which centres the readers’ attention on aural aspects of the heinous violation of the Whale. The poet uses enjambment to highlight the relentlessness of the attack further creating empathy for the tortured Whale. The sentence ‘hooks fly open like an umbrella’ is a simile that produces imagery that is both modern and graphic in its description of the attack on the Whale.
The second verse begins with the death scene of the Whale. The poet adopts an ironic stance with the use of the word ‘panache’ suggesting that the death of the Whale is a beautiful sight full of flair and style, Gill aims to draw attention to the unjust killing of such a stupendous mammal. The following lines tell how the ‘capstan’ spins like a ‘wooden top’ as the Whale threshes wildly until the ‘machine’ holds its anger and the Whale is trapped. Once again the poet uses enjambment to convey his point to the readers. With the use of the phrase ‘The ravished sea’ the poet shows that he feels that the hunters are raping the sea by taking such a magnificent creature from its depths. The Whale hunters then ‘pump’ the Whale with air as the ‘corpse’ sinks. Gills choice of language of this inhumane act conveys that he feels the Whale is being humiliated and the hunters are unjustly taking its death as well as its life. When ‘one of those flags that men kill mountains with is stuck’ into the Whale, it is once again shown that this important death is being made smaller and the hunters are violating the Whale with their childish triumph all at the same time.
The final verse ‘Dead whales are rendered down, Give oil’ acts as a punch line indicates that this horrendous murder of a whale is just for oil. This is reinforced by the use of an end stop.
In conclusion I think that David Gill has successfully demonstrated with good use of vocabulary and poetic features the terrible nature of mankind. Man hunts and destroys one of the most magnificent and majestic animals purely for profit.
Posted by: Tamara Moore
God bless Tamara. ^^
Hope it'll help you a bit=)
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03-08-2008, 07:30 PM
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