Compare and Contrast From the Motorway and The Pylons :: English Literature

Compare and Contrast From the Motorway and The Pylons The poems From the Motorway and The Pylons both share the same similarities between their subject matter, themes and tone, however the writes use different literary techniques to convey their message. The two poems warn the reader about the spreading of modern urban life. From the Motorway states how man has made Britain uniformly dull and removed her beauty. 'asleep in the promise of being nowhere anyone would like to get to' This quote shows places that have not been touched by the growth of the motorways and how quaint and tranquil they are. 'this dwarfs our emerald country by its trek' This quote fromThe Pylons tells the reader how the pylons are travelling across the country, not realising the damage they cause. However From the Motorway has amore jovial tone and uses a lot of irony to include humour: 'Britain is mending her desert' This is ironic because Britain is actually making herself into a desert and destroying rather than mending. The Pylons has a more serious tone 'Now over these hills they have built the concrete That trails black wire; Pylons' This quote explains how the hills were peaceful until the pylons had taken over and that the land had been desecrated by concrete, which was not of the natural ground. The structure of The Pylons is of five stanzas, each of four lines, each stanza with a change in mood. 'That turned on sudden hidden villages. Now over these small hills, they have built the concrete' The last line of the first stanza is describing a peaceful village , part of the countryside and the first line of the second stanza tells the reader of the desecration of the stone, the tone completely shifting. From the Motorway has a structure that is all in one sentence so that it sounds like the ongoing motorway 'among rich and ragged, sprinter and staggerer' This quote simulates traffic using unpronounceable alliteration. In the beginning of The Pylons, the fist stanza is an almost dream location in the middle of the country, before they were destroyed 'The secret of these hills was stone, and cottages Of that stone made' These first two lines sound biblical. The hills are as if they had been in this way forever and the cottages had been made in equilibrium with them, of the local natural stone. 'And crumbling roads That turned on sudden hidden villages' The villages and roads had been made without changing the landscape in any way; the villages so in tune with nature that they were part of the landscape, and could suddenly appear round a corner on a windy country road. The beginning of From the Motorway is more upbeat.