Unseen Commentary: The Wasps' nest - help!

[IBvize]

I have to write a paper on the poem "The Wasps' Nest" for an unseen commentary and I m completely stuck for ideas. Can someone help me with some themes/ideas/literary analysis of the poem?

Two aerial tigers,

Striped in ebony and gold

And resonantly, savagely a-hum,

Have lately come

To my mailbox’s metal hold

And thought

With paper and with mud

Therein to build

Their insubstantial and their only home.

Neither the sore displeasure

Of the U. S. Mail

Nor all my threats and warnings

Will avail

To turn them from their hummed devotions.

And I think

They know my strength,

Can gauge

The danger of their work:

One blow could crush them

And their nest; and I am not their friend.

And yet they seem

Too deeply and too fiercely occupied

To bother to attend.

Perhaps they sense

I’ll never deal the blow,

For, thought I am not in nor of them,

Still I think I know

What it is like to live

In an alien and gigantic universe, a stranger,

Building the fragile citadels of love

On the edge of danger.

[Sandwich]

I done this one :B

My suggestions for what to look at would be nature vs man-made things, appeals to the senses in terms of description, contrast in power, the building up of power and then the undermining of power and the person the poem is written in (:

[Darko]

Always remember to first look at the structure. Take into account the rhythm it uses(the metre), the rhyme and repetition.

Similes, Metaphors(extended metaphors too), onomatopoeia, alliteration(sibilance, fricative, plosive, assonance.) Semantic fields, lexicon and narrative(personal pronouns)

Juxtapose it with other poems of its kind and see the themes it shares. Also when writing about the your personal opinion of the text, always remember to say my initial understanding was this but after i read it again i thought this. Another good technique is to show two opinions. For example, this device makes readers feel this or it can in also make them feel this.

Thats about what I can think off the top of my head. Hope it helps. Good Luck!

[Vvi]

I rea dthe examiner's report for that poem, and they made notes similar to these:

-Many students tried to connect the poem with the Cold War/Cuban Missile Crisis/Vietnam War because of it's publication date. Don't do that.

-Mnay students completely ignored the humour in "Neither the sore displeasure/Of the U. S. Mail/Nor all my threats and warnings". Comment on that.

-Do comment on the attitude of the poet towards the wasps

-Comment on onomatopoeia in the poem

-The poem is not just about wasps, but the last few lines connect it to a bigger theme. Find that theme, and

When looking at an unseen commentary, take 20 minutes or so to just annotate, highlight and make ntoes on the poem. Then write out the rough plan for your commentary. When you write your commentary, make the starting sentence of each paragraph a topic sentence. It should introduce the central idea in the pragraph (e.g. The poet's personification of the wasps as_______ creates an image of_____ and reveals his attitude towards the creatures to be one of__________"). Then give examples and explain those examples.

In your introduction, don't list the literaray devices the poet uses e.g In this poem, the poet uses alliteration, personification, tone and rhythm to create a hostile attitude towards the wasps, and juxtapositions this with his tender feelings towards their movements. A list does nothing for your essay. Instead, introduce the central idea of the poem in your introduction (and you can use one literary device to make the point) e.g. The poet conveys the theme of _____ through his use of juxtapositioning, and builds up an image of _______ throughout the poem. An overall effect of ________ is created through the harsh words and humur in the poem".

When the criteria says "show personal response", you don't automatically get marks for that just by syaing "I think that". In fact, it sounds better if you don't. You can show personal repsonse by describing the effect the literary devices and mood of the poem have on the reader, and by including sentences such as "The onomatopoeic sound of "savagely a-hum" may reflect________". The "may" there shows that you are aware that there are different interpretations of the poem.

Finally, in your conclusion you should sum up what you wrote before, but don't list literary devices. Summarise the overall impression and effect of the poem on the reader (but don't just repeat your introduction, write it in different words).

Throughout the poem, you should be analysing the effect of various literary devices and images on the reader. Don't just say "There is onomatopoeia in this line": Why is it there? What does it do for the poem? Try to come up with more original phrases than "Enjambement makes the poem flow" and never say "This creates strong imagery in the reader's head". Those are cliche. Elaborate, and say something like "The enjambement in the poem reflects the movement of the waves and creates a strong feeling of movement in the poem, bringing it to life" or "The image of a ravenous wolf reinforces the hunger the poet is feeling, and amplifies his desire for food". Be as descriptive as possible.