Analysis Of The Of A Fragile Wavering Candle Light

Sebastian Hurd Candidate no.:4250 IGCSE Reading Coursework SEC Compare and contrast the ways in which ‘Disabled’ and ‘Out,Out-‘ focus on youth and death. ‘Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more’. This image in Shakespeare’s Macbeth of a fragile wavering candle light is a metaphor for how fragile and brief the free spirit of life is. ‘Out, Out-‘ is a poem by Robert Frost that describes the accumulation of events that leads to the death of a young boy that has lost his life under unfortunate circumstances. Additionally, ‘Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen describes a wounded soldier’s life that had drastically changed as of a result of the†¦show more content†¦Brevity and fragility is shown through how this form reflects that the boy’s life ends after a short read for the reader and how it ended very bluntly. This shows us that the boy’s life is short whereas death is unexpected for him as it is sudden and quickly over. The use of setting emphasises this idea. The ‘sunset far into Vermont’ where the poem is set is timeless unlike the short and blunt life of the boy. The reader may see the scenery as a sign of the prospect of life but this idea is quickly diminished. Furthermore, the repetition of conjunctions at the beginning of the eighth to tenth line such as ‘and’ and ‘as’ shows the routine of the boy’s life and that he knows what is expected of him. It is as if there he has memorised his list of chores and he is reading them off in his head. Fragility is shown through how his death is unsuspected and how abruptly it came on him despite it seeming he had experience and is accustomed to his job. ‘Disabled’, however, uses stanzas which are very similar in size that switch from his experiences before and after the war. This use of this regular form reflects brevity and fragility as it shows the contrast of his former happy life to his ‘dark’, ‘grey’ new life. This allows the reader to compare and contrast his life before and after the war which in the course of the soldier’s life is very brief. After the war, the soldier looks