Changing World

Mind map centering on one of Clare's main themes the 'changing world' or the loss and politics of nature. Some of the poems with their quotations and analysis relating to the theme.

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  • Created by: R_S_E
  • Created on: 30-03-14 15:10
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  • Changing World
    • SONNET: 'I DREADED WALKING WHERE THERE WAS NO PATH'
      • ‘And always…’ 
        • Parallel phrasing conveys the sense that he has an impulse to trespass but is always wary = cautious/anxious but can’t stop himself from doing it
      • ‘And when I  gained the road where all are free’ 
        • Paradoxical statement/ironic as he is the only truly free one as he wonders wherever he wants to
      • ‘And every kinder look appeared to say / You’ve been on trespass in your walk today’
        • Irony of being accused by kind looks - shows how the communal society broke down with enclosure
      • ‘How beautiful if such a place were mine’ & ‘But having nought I never feel alone / And cannot use another’s as my own’
        • Envy of the land being taken from him
        • However not having any land unites him with the community - final couplet resolves his desire to own
    • THE COTTAGER
      • "O'er steam's almighty tales he wondering looks / As witchcraft gleaned from old black letter books."
        • Simile shows that he sees change as a crime/sin
        • 'wondering' reflects his ignorance of new processes
        • Personifies steam showing his ignorance at the world
        • Antithesis of God connotations and 'witchcraft' - new technology takes the place of God / battle of change
        • Sibilance: lasting time and building fear
      • "To talk of 'Lunun' as a foreign land"
        • Country dialect separating him from development - sees progress as 'foreign'
      • "He views knowledge with suspicious eyes / And thinks it blasphemy to be so wise"
        • Looks on science as if it is a sin or sacrilege (sibilance)
    • FROM 'THE PARISH'
      • ‘That good old fame the farmers earned of yore, / That made as equals, not as slaves, the poor,’ 
        • Nostalgia for pre-enclosure, conflicting similes of 'equals' vs. 'slaves'
      • ‘vanished like a dream of good’ 
        • Simile to demonstrate that the old way of life is gone for good
      • "oak table" - "without distinction"
        • Symbolic of the traditional way of life where everyone was equal - now it has been replaced by an obsession with wealth and status
      • ‘the parish queens and kings / Pride’s lowest classes of pretending things’ 
        • paradox: the self-appointed kings/queens of the parish belong to the lowest classes of false pride
    • REMEMBRANCES
      • "Where silence sitteth now on the wild heath as her own"
        • Personifies silence turning the concept of enclosure into a being who reigns the 'ruin' of the enclosed heath
      • "With heart just like a feather- now as heavy as a stone"
        • Two contrasting similes to show the effect enclosure has had on Clare
      • “Enclosure like a Bonaparte let not a thing remain, / it levelled every bush and tree and levelled every hill”
        • War imagery: simile likens it to Napoleon who led the way to destruction & conveys conflict between man and nature
        • Parallel phrasing = nothing safe from enclosure
      • "hung the moles for traitors"
        • Repetition of 'little' to emphasise their vulnerability + personification = portrays nature as cruel and inhumane
        • Ironic metaphor: really they're just innocent victims of enclosure who had their freedom taken from them
    • DECAY: A BALLAD
      • "O Poesy is on the wane / I hardly know her face again"
        • Direct relationship established, with the loss of nature poetic inspiration is also lost
          • "The sky hangs o'er a broken dream"
        • Interjection of 'O' demonstrates that Clare is almost overcome with emotion to the point that language becomes inadequate for describing his feelings = use of refrain? 
        • Use of refrain: reinforces the melancholy tone & the loss of inspiration (repetition of 'wane')
      • "Till fields did more than Edens seem"
        • Hyperbolic metaphor to describe the purity of nature before it was enclosed making it unrecognisable
        • Biblical metaphor: mankind was rejected from Eden emphasising the loss of beauty and glory in nature
      • "The sun a homeless ranger"
        • Metaphor / personification = sun has lost its place
      • ‘These heavens are gone, the mountains turned mist’
        • Contrast between past and present, metaphor conveys how the loss of nature results in the loss of spiritual connection
    • THE FALLEN ELM
      • "We felt thy protection like a friend"
        • Personification as an equal to humanity = anger at its destruction
        • Irony as the tree is meant to protect the villagers but cannot protect itself - antithesis with 'injured'
      • "A language by which hearts are stirred"
        • Metaphor - nature and man should be in harmony because they both have a language
        • Nature is a source of inspiration
        • Language is a metaphor for nature's ability to communicate important spiritual truths to mankind
      • "Self-interest saw thee stand in freedom's ways"
        • Personification of how man destroys nature's rights (greed)
        • Antithesis between greed of the landowners and romantic ideals about liberty and freedom
      • "And workhouse prisons raised on sight"
        • Entrapment imagery / metaphor = farmers no longer free
      • "To cheat plain honesty by force of might"
        • Antithesis between 'cheat' and 'honesty'
        • Personifies enclosure as a cheat and nature as honesty - conflict which enclosure wins because of brute force
          • Enclosure is presented as a crime against ordinary people
    • LAMENT OF SWORDY WELL
      • "Where profit gets his clutches in / There's little he will leave"
        • Personification of 'profit' or 'gain' to portray it as an overwhelming force (greed desperation connotations of 'clutches'
          • "Gain takes my freedom all away"
            • LAMENT OF SWORDY WELL
              • "Where profit gets his clutches in / There's little he will leave"
                • Personification of 'profit' or 'gain' to portray it as an overwhelming force (greed desperation connotations of 'clutches'
                  • "Gain takes my freedom all away"
                    • Land personified and the speaker is the land
                    • 'takes' emphasises the passivity of the land = more vulnerable
              • "But in oppression's iron strife / Dead tussocks bow"
                • Metaphor of the unforgiving nature of the landowners and enclosure
                • Enjambment emphasises the destruction of the wild life
                • Personification of grass as 'dead' - has no fight any more, portraying the sadness of the wild
                • 'bow' submissive
              • "And picked my very bones"
                • Connotations of death and weakness
                • No respect, violating Swordy Well, scavenge = metaphor
            • Land personified and the speaker is the land
            • 'takes' emphasises the passivity of the land = more vulnerable
      • "But in oppression's iron strife / Dead tussocks bow"
        • Metaphor of the unforgiving nature of the landowners and enclosure
        • Enjambment emphasises the destruction of the wild life
        • Personification of grass as 'dead' - has no fight any more, portraying the sadness of the wild
        • 'bow' submissive
      • "And picked my very bones"
        • Connotations of death and weakness
        • No respect, violating Swordy Well, scavenge = metaphor
    • THE MOORS
      • "Enclosure came and trampled on the grave / Of labour's rights and left the poor a slave"
        • About the social politics of nature - enclosure leaves the poor with nothing
        • Metaphor for their rights: people who own land don't care about the rights of others = enslaved
      • "Each little tyrant with his little sign"
        • Men who enclose are dictators
        • 'Little' repeated to stress the small minded tyrants
      • "All sighed when lawless law's enclosure came"
        • Mourning, oxymoron = bad law
      • "The rage of the blundering plough"
        • Personification - division of the landscape is done thoughtlessly without care
  • "And workhouse prisons raised on sight"
    • Entrapment imagery / metaphor = farmers no longer free

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