Comparing poems about identity Essay

In this essay I will be compare two poems about identity-Presents from my aunts in Pakistan by Moniza Alvi and welsh Landscape by R.S. Thomas. rip off Landscape was written in approximately 1963. Its a poem of dismay Thomas is despairing about what is happening to his uncouth. Although he has an obvious love for his country, in Welsh Landscape this is almost enigmatical by Thomass facial expressionings of bitterness and frustration at whats happened to the once infamous landscape, history and language of Wales. Thomas wishes that Wales would besides decease forward and embrace its heroic onetime(prenominal), but in his eyes this just isnt happening.Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan was written in the late 20th century. Its also a poem of despair-but in a different way. Thirteen-year-old Moniza Alvi isnt angry, but shes uncomfortable where she is and wishes that she could fit in. Shed give anything for that. She wishes urgently that she could feel more at home and ordinary i n Britain, where shes constituted practically all her life, but she posteriort. She cigarettet put forward her two nicetys-Pakistani and English-and shes confused and upset about this. Moniza Alvi wonders why she cigarett fit in and feels utterly detain. This is like Thomass poem he feels that his country is trapped between two burnishs-English and Welsh-too. both Alvi and Thomas feel that theyve completely lost their identities.Both poets explore their culture in these poems. Theyre both proud of many aspects of their cultures, but feel that a lot needs to be done to enable them to live in their idea world.RS Thomas supposems angry. He dialogue about how in Wales you cannot live in the position and how theres only the past. Hes angry that that over the years, the Wales he k instanters and loved has crumbled away. It could lease been avoided.Thomas directly addresses his reader when he comments that You cannot live in the present. Here, hes saying that this is the same f or everybody in Wales its unavoidable.Although you can tell that Thomas is proud of his culture (he talks about the spotless rivers and the soft consonants) he believes that a more negative atmosphere has now taken over his country. He believes that Wales should remain purely Welsh, and anybody who defies that is inbreeding.Overall, I conceptualise that RS Thomas is trying to say that we should appreciate Wales but be sensible of its violent past and try to move on from that-instead of being trapped between the past and present. At the moment, people just arent pitiable on.Moniza Alvi, on the another(prenominal) hand, feels lost. Shes confused. She longs to be able to wear her glisten, satin-silken, embossed clothing, but cant fee comfortable in them. My costume clung to me and I was aflame, she says. Aflame implies that when she wears these habit, she feels embarrassed and angry that she doesnt consecrate a bun in the oven right. Costume suggests that these dont feel like her ordinary clothes its like shes trying to be something that shes not.However, although she longs for blue jean and corduroy (ordinary, plain British clothes) she doesnt describe them with anywhere full as much enthusiasm. Theyre plain, even if they are comfortable, and here we see that Moniza Alvi is again torn between her two cultures. Shes envious of her Aunt Jamila, who can Rise up out of its fire, half English. She feels that she cant do this at all. She simply wants to be accepted for who she is. She loves her Pakistani clothing-it looks radiant in her wardrobe-but on her, it just doesnt look right. She talks about her mothers cherished jewellery which was stolen from her car. The jewellery, like her, was stolen from its roots-now itll neer be cherished in the same way again.She then goes on to discuss the camel-skin lamp. Just like her, the camel-skin lamp has been taken out of its own culture and put someplace else. She says that she considers its cruelty-we see here t hat the lamp is a illustration for herself. She feels that she has been treated cruelly when she was taken out of her culture and put somewhere else-and shes having difficult dealing with it.Ever since she left Pakistan, shes mat out of place. On the journey to England, Moniza Alvi says that prickly heat had me screaming on the way-her trek to England even started off on the wrong foot. She cease up in a cot-this implies that as soon as she arrived in England she was completely trapped. She then immediately found myself alone, playing with a tin boat. Shes already lost, and the tin boat insinuates that she already wants to sale back home. She just wants to feel right where she is she doesnt have an identity. Here, we see a contrast between the two poems that Im studying-brittle as it is, at least RS Thomas has an identity.The mood throughout Welsh landscape is that of frustration. RS Thomas is irritated because he sees the potential in Wales-the incessant noisy tractor and the h um of the machine which implies that work in Wales is indeed touching forward. He sees the beauty of Wales in the immaculate rivers and the wild sky, but is angry that people arent willing to maintain this beauty in other aspects of Wales-the wind bitten towers and castles and, mouldering quarries and mines.Hes frustrated that people arent maintaining the areas that his country has always been famous for. He feels that hes been affected unnecessarily-if the Welsh people did what in his eyes are their duties, he wouldnt be in this situation. Hes extremely aggravated that this has been allowed to happen and that Wales genius and condition is continuing to deteriorate. Hes worried that eventually, Wales wont even have its soft consonants and, wind-bitten towers and castles to its name-theyll be allowed to die out.