Robert gray
Robert grayPoetry essay, Robert Gray.
Question: Poetry can help us think and feel in new ways about every day experiences. Show how four of Gray's poems offer a new prospective on everyday experiences.
One of the major effects of poetry is to take the reader to another place. To have one look at an everyday situation, and see another face to it. This is done by the imagist, Robert Gray. Through his poem, he gives the reader another view of everyday experiences such as Travel or Journeys, Work and the interactions with family to name a few. These everyday experiences are effected in a way, which changes the perspective of the reader if not for a second, then forever.
The first such example of travel is shown through out many of Gray's poems. Though it is most evident in North Coast Town and Journey: The North Coast. In the first poem, North Coast Town, Gray details the experiences of a hitchhiker travelling around the coast. As Gray is an imagist, the poem brings to life the travels of this hitchhiker, who by describing the area gives personal views on the changes seen. Though the important part comes from this, that when travelling in an area that is not known, people become more perceptive. Although the hitchhiker is a native of the area, the issue of change is raised as he himself, does not know the town any more, after the change. Gray uses the travels of this person, who has no identity except for that of a hitchhiker, to show how some people travel.
Though in North Coast Town, the travel is the main pillar of which the poem is supported. This is the crucial point of the poem, as this travel is shown in a new way, Gray is using his poetry to show a new side of everyday experiences. From the smallest journey, as the hitchhiker travels to the changing sheds, and is "stepping about on mud", although a familiar image, to begin to wash after is not. Some people's lives are based on this travel. The travel of the cars as they pass the Hitchhiker, "like a boxer warming up…spitting air", this simile again shows a new face to travel, from a new prospective. To the more final image of travel, as the hitchhiker has received a ride, and is "smoking past" the shops in the town, gives the perspective of a new type. All of these add together to show a new perspective of everyday travel.
Though North Coast Town is not the only poem of Grays, which involves travel being shown in a new light. It is also shown in Journey: The North Coast. This poem directly is based on a train. A vehicle which travels. This poem details the morning of a person who seems to be going back home, on a train. Gray shows the vivid details of how the passenger, looks out his window, and describes the scenery....
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