Compare how VOICE is presented in The River God (Stevie Smith), My Last Duchess (Robert Browning) and The Hunchback in the Park (Dylan Thomas) Free Essay Example, 1000 words

In the former, the River talks about ordinary, river experiences at the beginning, but mentions how he drowned a beautiful lady to keep her with him forever. The latter poem also starts out somewhat casually with the Duke discussing a wall-painting of his Duchess and how beautiful and jolly she is. As the poem progresses, the Duke’s intense jealousy and petty arrogance are revealed to have led him to order her death as he suspected her of infidelity. The two poems hence start out normal but take a turn for the macabre. The two masculine voices consider themselves to wield godly power and control the fate of others. They both seem to not only brazenly boast of, but take pleasure in murder. The tone of The Hunchback however does the opposite, starting out sad and depressing, but ending with a ray of hope for the hunchback as he loses himself in his imaginary world with his imaginary woman. The hunchback is not even regarded as human but more of an animal, as his abode is referr ed to as a â€Å"kennel†. He endures taunts and jibes from the boys in the park, his only respite being nighttime (TES 2011). We will write a custom essay sample on Compare how VOICE is presented in The River God (Stevie Smith), My Last Duchess (Robert Browning) and The Hunchback in the Park (Dylan Thomas) or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now As is the inherent nature of poems, the implications of the words used may not seem straightforward at first, but understanding the host of allusions, imagery and metaphors brings out the real meaning of the poem. The callousness of the River God may be borrowed from the Greco-Roman tales of gods such as Neptune, God of the Sea. The gods viewed humans as chess pieces and playthings for their amusement. The river holds these delusions of grandeur, believing he is the rescuer of the woman from her fear, when in fact he is the cause of it. He further justifies himself that she is just asleep, and that everyone above has forgotten about her. He keeps her captive on his â€Å"bed†, wordplay on both a â€Å"normal† or â€Å"marital† bed and the riverbed. He also indicates that he would never let her go, indicating the use of the same force by which he drowned her to keep her his. There is a hint that he knows what he did is not right, as the attempts at justifying hi s deeds show (TES 2011). My Last Duchess contains some of these themes as well. The male voice here is as drunk on power and seemingly, just as murderous, as the voice of the River God. The same theme of obsession and sexual jealousy shows up as the Duke complains that the â€Å"spot of joy† as the Duchess blushed and smiled was not caused by him alone. The poem makes it clear that the Duchess was a pleasant and sweet person who loved the simpler, natural things, the dropping of the daylight in the west, the bough of cherries, her white mule.