Thom+Gunn

Thom Gunn (1929-2004) Thom Gunn was born in 1929 in Gravesend, Kent, England. His parents divorced when he was ten years old, and his mother committed suicide when he was a teenager. He spent two years in the national service before enrolling in Trinity College in 1950. He graduated in 1954 and published his first poetry collection within the same year. In the 70s and 80s, his poems were about his experiences with his homosexuality and drug use. Gunn died on April 25, 2004 in his home in San Francisco. I compared Thom Gunn's poetry to the song Aroused by Tom Vek due to the heavy metaphors and the theme of sex. Aroused An example of the metaphor in this song is "You are the light turned on."

//The Man With Night Sweats media type="youtube" key="CRKjd6-yj-4" width="560" height="315" align="right"// I wake up cold, I who Prospered through dreams of heat Wake to their residue, Sweat, and a clinging sheet.

My flesh was its own shield: Where it was gashed, it healed.

I grew as I explored The body I could trust Even while I adored The risk that made robust,

A world of wonders in Each challenge to the skin.

I cannot but be sorry The given shield was cracked, My mind reduced to hurry, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">My flesh reduced and wrecked.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">I have to change the bed, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">But catch myself instead

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Stopped upright where I am <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Hugging my body to me <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">As if to shield it from <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">The pains that will go through me,

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">As if hands were enough <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">To hold an avalanche off.

Techniques in //The Man With Night Sweats://
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">//Cat Island// <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Cats met us at the landing-place reclining in the sun to check us in with a momentary glance, concierges of a grassy island. (Attila's Throne, the Devil's Bridge, and "the best Byzantine church in the world", long saints admonitory on kiln-like inner walls.) And lunch in a shady court where cats now systematically worked the restaurant, table by table, gazing into eyes pleading "I'm hungry and I'm cute", reaching front paws up to knees and always getting before zeroing in on the next table, same routine, same result.
 * Imagery - an author's use of vivid and descriptive language to add depth to their work ("I wake up cold, I who prospered through dreams of heat...")
 * Metaphor - describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object. (He compares hugging his body to shielding and then he compares it to hands holding off an avalanche)
 * Rhyme - gives poems flow and rhythm, helping the lyricist tell a story and convey a mood. ("who" with "residue", "heat" with "sheet", etc.)
 * === Effect in poem: The imagery adds depth to the poem. The metaphor in this poem adds to the immense pain the narrator is trying to explain to the reader. The rhyme gives the poem flow. ===

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Sensible bourgeois wild-cats working with the furred impudence of those who don't pretend to be other than whores, they give you not the semblance of love but simply a look at their beauty in return for food. Models, not escorts. They lack, too, the prostitute's self-pity, being beyond shame. And we lack what they have <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">.

Techniques in //Cat Island://
//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Jamesian // <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 1.5;">Their relationship consisted  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">In discussing if it existed <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">. media type="custom" key="23043640" align="right" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">Works Cited <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">"Thom Gunn." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.
 * Imagery - an author's use of vivid and descriptive language to add depth to their work ("Reclining in the sun...")
 * Personification - t<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #212121; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">he attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman (the whole poem describes cats like humans)
 * Metaphor - describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object. (the whole poem is a metaphor)
 * === Effect in poem: The imagery provides the reader with a clear picture of "Cat Island". The personification amplifies the metaphor. The metaphor is used to compare cats with humans. ===