Typical Ib A1 Hl English Exam Question - 2270 Words

With specific reference to two or three works you have read compare the effects of an identified or unidentified narrative voice. The use of both identified and unidentified narrative voices has been an essential feature in most of the poetry I have studied, as it determines the manner in which the content of the poem is presented. Poets will often use an identified persona to express views which they themselves might disagree with in a negative light, such as in My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. Unidentified personas are often used by poets as well; perhaps to give a more universal application to their poems. Conversely identified personas may understandably be used for the opposite effect of giving the poem a personal and intimate†¦show more content†¦The mother of these sons is also mentioned when the bishop reminisces about â€Å"how fair she was†. He even instructs his sons to paint or engrave a Pan â€Å"[r]eady to twitch [a] Nymph’s last garment off† on his frieze. All the aforementioned characteristics of the bishop’s personality together divulge how materialistic and vain the bishop is, as he does not concern himself much with the spiritual and devotional sides of life during his last dying days but instead tries frenetically to secure his earthly, material riches before ultimately relaxing at the thought that even if he does not attain his decorative tomb, Gandolf will still envy him as his mistress was so fair. The use of the narrative voice of the persona in Self’s the Man by Philip Larkin is quite different from the two previous poems as the persona is not explicitly identified, however there are many features of the poem which suggest that the persona is an imitation of a brash lower middle-class man who is untrained in verse, yet shares many of