George Barker: Poems Literary Elements

The poem entitled "To Any Member Of My Generation’’ is told from the perspective of a third person objective point of view.

The poem entitled "True Confession’’ is written in a heroic couplet and has the general structure of a narrative poem.

In the poem entitled "To My Mother’’, the narrator compares his mother with a mountain after describing her strengths and her courage. The comparison was used in the poem to further highlight the strength and courage of the mother while also transmitting the idea that the narrator felt in some way or another dependent on her and on her strength.

We find an alliteration in the line "This autobiography that ends a/ Half a life I’m glad I’m through’’ in the poem "True Confession’’.

In most of the poems, the narrator presents women in a rather negative image, as people who have the power to drag men into sin and thus condemn them forever. Also, women are more than often described as being less than capable people when it comes to performing various tasks. Because of this, it is ironic to see how in the poem entitled "On A Friend's Escape From Drowning Off The Norfolk Coast’’, the narrator presents a woman as being heroic and the man as needing to be saved from a sure death.

The poem entitled "Turn On Your Side And Bear The Day To Me’’ is a meditative poem through which the narrator thinks about the nature of his relationship with his partner.

The action of the poem entitled "Summer Song’’ takes place in the middle of the desert during summer.

The tone used in the poem "To My Mother’’ is one filled with reverence and a tone which transmits the deep respect the narrator had for his mother.

The protagonists in the poem "To Any Member of My Generation’’ are the young men and women who are the same age as the narrator while the antagonist is the past, or rather the older generation.

The major conflict in the poem "On A Friend's Escape From Drowning Off The Norfolk Coast’’ is between life and death.

The poem entitled "Turn On Your Side And Bear The Day To Me’’ reaches its climax when the narrator’s partner wakes up and looks at the narrator.

The bad attitude the narrator has towards women and the way women will be described in the poem "True Confession’’ is foreshadowed in the first stanza where the narrator calls the women he slept with in the past "bitches’’.

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In the poem entitled "Turn On Your Side And Bear The Day To Me’’, the narrator describes the moment when he wakes up and sees his partner beside him. From that point on, the narrator makes numerous allusions to the demonic nature of the woman beside him, mentioning her green eyes and also her power over serpents. Through this, the narrator alludes to the idea that women are dangerous creatures who can be compared with the devil and who have power over men in general.

The term ‘’we’’ is used in the poem entitled ‘’To Any Member of My Generation’’ as a general term to make reference to every man and woman who is roughly the same age as the narrator.

We find a personification in the poem ‘’To Any Member Of My Generation’’ in the line ‘’History guffawed in a rosebush’’.

We find a hyperbole in the lines "Great summer sun, great summer sun,/All loss burns in trophies’’ in the poem entitled ‘’Summer Song’’.

We find an onomatopoeia in the poem ‘’To My Mother’’ in the line ‘’seismic with laughter’’.