20th century poetry Essay

We have been giving to 20th century poems to examine. They are â€Å"Evans† by R. S Thomas and â€Å"Death in Leamington† by Sir John Betjeman. Both poems are about death, but in two very different situations. I will examine the poem Evans first of all. Evans was written by a man called R. S Thomas. He lived from 1913-2000. he was born in Cardiff. He became a clergyman and taught himself welsh so he could work with the people in the hills, because not many of them spoke English at this time. Evans is a 20th Century poem. The poem begins as if the writer is talking to somebody else. It looks like the other person has asked him something like, â€Å"Do you remember a man Evans? † and the writer replies, â€Å"yes, many a time. † The first verse of the poem describes Evans’ house. It talks about the â€Å"bare† stairs and the â€Å"gaunt† kitchen. We can depict from the first verse that Evans was a poor man, his house is not at all well furbished, and he doesn’t have much to his name. Everything that Evans owns has a dull, dreary adjective attached to it, like stark farm and black kettle. His kitchen must be filthy because crickets can be heard. The last line of this verse tells us that he lives on a lone farm upon a hill. From this verse we have found out that this man is poor, lonely and doesn’t really care much about what his house looks like. The 2nd verse tells us that something appals the speaker. He says that it isn’t the darkness around him, which seems to fill his mouth and that it isn’t the tree that the rain drips off. I think the tree is symbolism, because the speaker says, â€Å"of rain like blood form that one tree, weather tortured. † I think he is really describing Evans appearance. The speaker says that it’s the veins of Evans. He sees darkness in them, and that it is â€Å"silting† them. Silt is the thick sandy substance at the bottom of rivers. I think it means that the darkness is trapped in Evans’ veins and that it is slowly killing him. The writer says, â€Å"I left stranded upon the vast and lonely shore of his bleak bed. † The writer believes that he has failed is his job, which is to comfort the sick if they are going to die. The writer feels that he is inadequate and that he hasn’t done what he wanted to. Again we see another dreary adjective attached to one of Evans possessions, his bleak bed. The word lonely is used again here. The writer wants to get the point across that Evans has no one, no family or friends to comfort him, that is why the writer feels so bad that he cant do this for him. This poem is about the bad way to die, all on your own and no one to comfort you. The next poem, Death in Leamington, is about the other way to pass on. Death in Leamington was written by Sir John Betjeman. Poets of his day liked to write poems making fun of the middle class people. The first verse tells us that someone has died, and that it is a woman. It has happened in the late evening. She has died in her bedroom. The room has a plate glass window, which means this place wherever she was staying must has been pretty well off. The second verse gives us a little more insight to the woman. She owned a crochet, which means she must have been quite old. It lay beside her bed, which means she can’t have been too old because she was still able to walk. Again the writer tells us that she is dead.