An appreciation of Gillian Clarke's poems

An appreciation of the poems
'Miracle on St David's Day'
And 'The Vet' by Gillian Clarke

'Miracle on St David's Day' by Gillian Clarke is a first person
narrative poem. The poet is describing her own experience, of reading
poetry in a mental institution. This is a poem that seems more personal
as it is an autobiographical poem as she is describing something that
has happened to her in the past. The title of this poem links up with
happenings further on in the poem. Also each quote that is mentioned in
the different lines of the St David's Day poem has a direct link with
further lines that she describes later on in the poem. The content is
quite serious, but by the end, it has you smiling as the themes that
are mentioned are brought out. This poem makes a sad story happy and
makes you think about the sort of things that we take for granted, such
as our senses and abilities.
In this poem the poet is descrying her own experience of reading
poetry in a mental home. She starts the poem by saying about the home
in which she was reading the poem. She gives us a false impression
about where she is.
'' The sun treads the path among cedars and enormous oaks. It might be
a country house. Guests strolling, the rumps of gardeners between
nursery shrubs.''
This quote could be describing a nursing home or a country cottage. But
in the next verse we hit reality.
''I am reading poetry to the insane''. This line is deliberately
brutal. It is meant to sock us after giving us a picture of a beautiful
country scene. At the start of the poem there is a quote from the poem
''The Daffodils'' by Wordsworth. It refers to the memory as an ''inward
eye''. This is quite clever as he doesn't use the words, he only
suggests that's what it means.
There are many themes conveyed in this poem. Some of the strongest
are; the haling power of speech, this means, that some of the most
advanced technology cannot cure some people, such as the autistic.
Whilst speech can sometimes make everything better. Also how different
things look, and how they really are. For example the autistic man
appeared not to be able to speak, but after the healing power of speech
stepped in, we saw how he really was. New beginnings, spring and cure
are also brought out in this poem. Fate also play's a very important
part in this poem, the old man might never have never been able to
speak if Gillian Clarke had not been reading that poem in the mental
institution at that time.
There is a definite contrast between sound and silence. In the
beginning there is no sound but by the ending there is no silence but
an old man remembering back to his schoolboy day's when he learnt the
poem. Fear of the unknown is also very obvious in this poem. Gillian
Clarke is very afraid of this because she is not used to it. It is not
the sort of environment that she is comfterable.
The use of language in this poem has a very special effect on the
content and the way the poem is set out. For example in line 4 ''It
might be a country house''. This lures us into feeling that this poem
is going to be about the country side, describing nature, but in
reality she is talking about something much more brutal, a mental
institution, which is quite the opposite to nature. We hear of this in
line 6: '' I am reading poetry to the insane.'' In lines 12 + 13 '' In
a cage of first march sun a woman sits, not listening, not seeing, not
feeling.'' In this line the poet is trying to get across to the reader
that the people who are in this mental home don't do anything, they
have lost their senses. It makes us realize not to take life for
granted. ''He has never spoken'' is another example of this. It is
deliberately harsh, brutal, and to the point. ''I read to their
presences, absences.'' Here the poet is trying to convey that she is
reading poetry to these people, but she's not quite sure who is
listening and who is not, who is listening and who is not.
''Like slow movement of spring water or the first bird of the year in
the breaking darkness the laborers voice recites 'The Daffodils'. In
the previous verse, the poet was speaking about the old man who could
not speak. In the above lines, he does. I think that this makes us feel
better, as we have already heard how ill everyone else was, and now the
power of speech has cured the old man. This is the 'miracle' of the
title. After many years of silence, the man speaks. In line 26 '' The
nurses are frozen alert ''. This line shows the shock in everyone's
faces. Everyone is frozen, still, but at the same time still listening
to what the old man is saying. This is where the theme of New
beginnings, steps in.
There are many metaphors in this poem. For example, line 12+ 38. ''And
the daffodils are flame'. It is a positive image; the poet is not
saying that the daffodils are really caught on fire. She is saying that
St David's Day, and the image of the daffodils has cured the old man.
It is a new beginning for him. The poet uses colors quite a lot in this
poem to ensure that the positive image continues throughout the poem.
There is also a lot of repetition, in line 13 for example. '' Not
listening, not seeing, not feeling.'' This outlines the dumbness and
the silence that has been with these the people for many years. Lines
22-25 are similes. The poet is trying to compare early nature with the
old man's hoarse voice. Finally in the last verse, when everyone
applauds this reflects the healing of the man.
The mood of this poem at the beginning is calm and peaceful. It is
tranquil. In line 6 it changes. ''I am reading poetry to the insane''.
This is put there to be deliberately shocking. The poem changes from
describing nature to the harsh reality of life. The atmosphere changes
again in line 21. There is a sudden build up of tension that extends to
line 27, when the old man finally speaks.
There is no definite rhyming pattern in this poem. The first seven
verses are one of equal length. The last verse is deliberately shorter.
It was meant to be as brief as possible. The image says everything. It
is also short to get the message across clearly. In some verses the
lines run in to each other, this shows the confusion in the home, this
technique is called enjambment, it reflects the patient's thoughts and
feelings. It shows insanity and it reflects mental confusion. The
speech in the poem is natural and realistic, this means that we can
easily sympathize with the people within the home.
I like this poem. It makes a sad story happy. Everything links up to
the end, which I liked too. The comparison between sound and silence
and the people sitting inside the room and outside, in the natural
world was very interesting. I liked the way that Gillian Clarke has
managed to achieve this by making everything so natural. The poem made
me more aware about certain issues. It also made me think about the
things that I take for granted, such as our senses and abilities. It
made me think of what I'd do if they were suddenly taken away from me.
We should be grateful for these gifts. It also made me think of a quote
that is widely used. 'Don't judge a book by its cover'. This is quite
true here, not to judge people by there appearances alone. It's what's
inside that count's. This poem made me feel sympathetic towards the
people who are trapped inside themselves, but it also made me feel
happy, because, by the end of the poem, the old man was cured. It
brings hope in to the poem.
'The Vet' by Gillian Clarke is also a first person narrative and an
autobiographical poem. The poet is describing one of her own
experiences of watching a calf being born as a child. Unlike ' Miracle
on St David's Day, 'The Vet' has a simple and straightforward content.
Both poems are quite similar, the content is not the same, but the way
it is written, and the hidden meanings that constantly appear
throughout the poems.
The poem beginnings with the vet saying to the poet's mother that the
birth of the calf will not be pleasant, she also asks if the child
would like to leave. We do not hear it, but we know that the child
remains to watch the calf's birth. The word brazening is deliberately
put there to show that the poet did not want to stay but put on a brave
face anyway. She felt awkward being there, as she did not know what to
expect. She wanted to leave but could not find the courage to say that
she wanted to leave. The poet then describes the cow giving birth, how
she was expecting to see the vet cutting its belly open. She was
relived to find that what she was expecting was not what she saw. The
last verse is less harsh than the rest of the poem, it compares the
newborn calf as a 'salmon furled in a waterfall' the language is
clearly smoother and gentler here, this creates a calmer atmosphere.
Words such as 'gleaming, silver, and sweet' are much more calmer than
other words like 'severing, butchery, knife and cut'.
The mood changes at certain points in this poem, at the beginning there
is definite uncertainty as the poet is 'brazening out the cowshed' She
does not know quite what to expect. As the poem progresses there is a
build up of tension until the moment the calf is born. By the end there
is relief as the poet realizes that there was nothing to fear. She was
expecting to see the vet cutting the calf free, but was relived to see
that that was not the case with this birth 'no knife, no severing, no
inter-uterine butchery'.
A great number of themes appear in this poem that also appear in
'Miracle of St David's Day', such as: nature, birth, spring, new life,
new beginnings, cure, childhood, insecurity, uncertainty and fate. Both
poems are medically based, one talks about an old man regaining his
speech, the other about a new life beginning. Nature takes it's course
in each case, this is a good thing as both poems turn out with a good
ending. Re-birth is a big issue in this poem as it is in' Miracle on St
David's Day'. In 'The Vet' a calf is being born whilst in 'Miracle on
St David's Day' an old man is regaining his speech. Insecurity is
raised in both poems. In 'The Vet' the poet is insecure about seeing a
calf being born, she does not know what to expect. She does not want to
see the vet cutting the calf free from it's mother, and is relieved to
find out that that was not going to happen. Whilst in 'Miracle on St
David's Day' the poet is also insecure, but about going to the mental
institution, and being in the midst of people who were different.
The language used in this poem is very much different from that on
Miracle on St David's Day'. In 'The Vet' harsh words such as brazening,
horror, blood, ranched, long bellowing howl, butchery, knife and cut
are used to create a tense atmosphere. The brutal language in this
builds up to a climax until the end when the calf is born, the language
here is much more relaxed and calm. It makes us feel at ease right at
the end of the poem, which I think is a very good way of showing that
everything is as it should be, nothing is wrong.
In 'The Vet' there are very many special techniques used to make the
poem more interesting. The poet uses repetition; this is to make us
realize that she is trying to make a point. 'No' is used a lot, when
she is telling us that there was no cutting or butchery on the cow
whilst the calf was being born. There is contrast between the language
used at the end of the poem to that used at the start. Brutal language
is used at the start, but at the end it id much more peaceful. There
are some metaphors used in this poem, ' rope of water' is an example of
this 'swam in its pool' and 'deep cathedral of her belly'. These do not
mean exactly what it says but e.g. her extremely large stomach, because
she was carrying her child. This sentence actually means more than one
thing. Cathedral can mean big but can also mean holly, as birth is
considered holy with some religions this word has a double meaning.
There is also some alliteration 'silver, sweet, silence' the s makes a
whispering sound, it gives more feeling to the poem.
There is no definite structure to 'The Vet'. There are four verses,
but not of equal length. There is a quote at the beginning of both
poems. There is no definite rhyming pattern, but the lines run into
each other to show the little girls confusion to what's happening in
the cowshed, it also reflects uncertain the nature of events, this is
called enjambment. Everything is natural, there are no hidden meanings
to the poem, and this makes it easier to understand. Both poems have
this in common, no rhyming, and no control.
There are a lot of similarities and differences between the two poems.
Both poems start with quotes, this gives us a picture of what's
happening in the poem before we actually start to read it. The both
also start off calm, and then build up to a climax by the end; this
creates a tenser atmosphere, which gives the poem more depth and
meaning. The two poems also make you see life in a different light,
they both make us appreciate the things that we take for granted. The
only real difference is the layout, location.
I preferred the first poem to 'The Vet' it's content was much easier
to appreciate than that of 'The Vet'. I did not enjoy the second one;
it did not interest me at all, the first poem made me appreciate every
thing that I have in life.