On the Train by Gillian Clarke, Patrolling Barnegat by...

I’m going to compare the use of the poetic devices to portray fear and confusion in 3 different types of poems, they are; On the Train by Gillian Clarke, Patrolling Barnegat by Walt Whitman, and the poem Storm on the Island by the one and only Seamus Heaney. These poems all portray the feeling of confusion, often it is linked within a theme of some war. Walt Whitman uses some repetition to enhance the power of the storm he is trying to describe. Wild, Wild the storm, and the sea high running The repetition of the word wild in this line helps to enforce the power of the deadly storm and nature. Whitman also uses personification in the line where he compares the movement of the sea to someone running, as if he is saying the sea will move†¦show more content†¦The wolves howl into silent telephones Here Gillian Clarke is talking about the people that have lost someone in the crash. She uses a metaphor of a wolf to describe the people trying to contact their loved ones, only to get silence, or an answer to voice mail. The use of the word howl is vividly describing the people crying into the phones, desperate to find out how their friends and family are doing. Gillian Clarkes use of language helps a lot of people who may not have been in the situation themselves to understand the emotional distress involved. Also, the one thing people think of when they think of wolves is their distinctive way of howling, which makes this line even more effective. Walt Whitman uses Personification numerous amount of times in his poem; his clever use of the technique helps the reader understand his descriptions more easily. Shouts of demoniac laughter fitfully piercing and pealing In this Whitman compares a storm to one of the most fear provoking things possible, the words demoniac laughter instantly make you think of some sort of an evil being, laughing at some destruction that he has caused. This then ties in with the theme of the storm being uncontrollable. Walt Whitman also uses personification; he says that the storm is laughing. Obviously a storm cannot laugh, so Whitman is portraying an assumption that the way the storm seems to enjoy being totally omnipotent. Also Whitman also uses two