• Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Essay to compare and contrast He Loved Light, Freedom and Animals and Pneuomconiosis

Extracts from this document...


Compare and Contrast two poems - "He loved light, freedom and animals" and "Pneumoconiosis" Both poems are about death and the acceptance of death although are written from different perspectives and are different for the fact that in "He loved light, freedom and animals" by Mike Jenkins the young boy's death was quite a shock, but it could have been prevented whereas in "Pneumoconiosis" written by Duncan Bush the man's death is inevitable, there is nothing he can do to change it. Both poems also have connection with coalmines. Pneumoconiosis is a disease caught from working down in the mines, and the background of "He loved light, freedom and animals" is about a mining disaster that happened in Aberfan where a slag heap on the side of a mountain collapsed and engulfed parts of the small town. The first poem I studied was Pneumoconiosis, and as the title suggests, the poem is about the killing lung disease that many coalminers suffered and died from. "Pneumoconiosis" was renames "The Dust" by the sufferers because it was mainly caused by inhalation of a lot of dust. The dust would get trapped in the lungs and made breathing difficult, and eventually killed after many years of effecting collier's lives. ...read more.


This shows that the illness has effected him so much, he is different to a lot people when he used to be as healthy as the rest. After reading the poem, I admire the character in the poem because he can handle and accept his death, rather than complain and give up all hope. He is trying to lead his life as normal as possible and trying not to make the last of his life a misery which I respect. Another poem I studied was "He loved light, freedom and animals". Mike Jenkins writes as if he is the father and he reminisces and remembers happy memories he shared with his son. He doesn't believe that his son is dead and in his mind the boy is still as lively as ever. The disaster of Aberfan happened on the 21st of October in 1966. The slagheap was balancing on a mountain overlooking the small village. The flood of waste had slipped and rushed down the mountain shattering homes, farms and the village school, which killed 116 young villagers. Critics say that the disaster should never had happened and young, innocent people's lives such as the character in the poems son shouldn't have been lost. ...read more.


It was very emotional and made me sympathize for the mother and father. It was unfair for the innocent, fragile boy to die in such a horrific accident and it made me angry that people had not thought of the consequences they were facing by putting the slagheap on top of the mountain. Both poems are very successful in creating sad emotions, and also anger and frustration. In He loved Light, Freedom and Animals, anger is created because the boy and his classmates were so young when they died, and they didn't deserve to have their lives taken away. In Pneumoconiosis, anger is created because the old man had been affected by the dust silently, and is expecting his death. This is very frustrating, as there is nothing we as the reader can do to change what has happened and what is going to happen. In my opinion, He love Light, Freedom, and Animals made the biggest impact to my emotions. As the child was only young, it is easy to relate to, and it makes the reader realize that life can be cut so short, although Pneumoconiosis is also very emotional, as the reader acknowledges the long term effects miners suffer. He has been, and is still fighting bravely but he knows he can't hold on forever. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text


Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related GCSE Comparing poems essays


    The soothing atmosphere has an extreme contrast to the real atmosphere on the battlefield which would definitely be thunderous, destructive and aggressive. The gas attack is first introduced into the poem in the second stanza with the following lines; "Gas!

  2. The Charge Of The Light Brigade And Disabled

    Tennyson uses metaphors in the poem "... Into The Jaws Of Death..." to emphasise danger. In this case, the metaphor is also a form of personification. The difference between both poem's use of metaphors is that Wilfred Owen uses them to show pain and loss whilst Alfred Lord Tennason uses them to exaggerate danger.


    It has a negative tone. I know this because it says, "The bugles calling for them from sad shires", this shows its negative because it's like the bugles are ordering the soldiers home but they are dead and cannot here them.


    Surely this one scene would have driven home to him how he must stay strong for his family as they needed him to. The use of such a miserable revelation as a parent crying over there lost son also shows the reader the effect it had on everyone & how

  1. Creative Writing (Story beginnings)

    I also tried to show her personality was sweet and kind. Her clothes and shoes are "powder-pink" and "dainty". I also mentioned that she "seemed like the happy-go-lucky type". I did this so the reader would like her and be affected by anything that may happen to her.

  2. poems - compare and contrast

    'the curtain I have drawn for you,' this is saying that he keeps her behind a curtain and to himself, but could also be saying from the use of language that the drawing of a curtain is the curtain over a life which could suggest he killed as it comes from first person, the Duke himself.

  1. Culture Shock

    Almost everybody who stays in abroad experiences the problem of Culture Shock when facing with a foreign culture. But the severance of Culture Shock varies significantly to individuals. 3 Symptoms of Expatriate Culture Shock It is a well accepted that almost everyone who is on an overseas assignment experiences some form of culture shock.


    inside her that discrimination has caused is something that will stay their forever inside her, and unfortunately she can not rise above that pain. I thought that this made the stanza very emotional because this was something that Maya Angelou could not rise above.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work