‘One Flesh’ by Elizabeth Jennings and ‘I wanna be yours’ by John Cooper Clarke Essay

‘One flesh’ by Elizabeth Jennings has the overall impression after reading the poem that it is about 2 old people who have grown apart from being with each other for so long. It is written in 1st person, by one of their children, who is observing them ‘lying apart’ It is visible that one of the descendants is telling the poem from lines such as ‘whose fire from which I came’ and ‘these two who are my father and mother’. Their child will now be an adult as references that refer to the couple as being ‘old’ suggest this. ‘Do they know they’re old’. This person is telling the poem in 1st person and is visible from words such as ‘my’ and ‘I’. But however in ‘One Flesh’ the emotions of the child are not about them, it is about a 3rd person, but still it is written in 1st person. ‘I wanna be yours’ by John Cooper Clarke is a poem regarding a person expressing their love for someone. The poem consists of a great number of metaphors and similars to express the way he feels. He uses these literary devices to show that he ‘wanna be yours’ even if he is just an everyday item such as a ‘ford cortina’ or a simple ‘raincoat’. From words such as ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’ it is apparent that the poem ‘I wanna be yours’ is written in 1st person. This allows the author to express his thoughts and emotions directly from him and not through another person e.g. 3rd person. Individually both poems are about expressing an opinion about relationships. The relationship in ‘One Flesh’ may be coming to an end, but the relationship in ‘I wanna be yours’ is coming together. As both poems regard relationship, it is obvious that love associates with them. Both the poems refer to love, passion and emotion indirectly. ‘One flesh’ uses the comparison of fire to love in the line ‘whose fire from which I came’. This line also explains that the person revealing the situation within the poem, is a child of the two lovers. Within ‘I wanna be yours’ a line such as ‘that’s how deep is my emotion’ reveals how much the author cares for the person the poem is directed towards. The attitudes of the writers are hugely different. As the writer of ‘I wanna be yours; wants someone for their self, the writer of ‘one flesh’ is concerned about the relationship and well being of their parents. The attitude, which expresses itself in the title ‘I wanna be yours’, is a selfish attitude, as the author wants that person whatever the consequences. This is visible in ‘take me with you anywhere’. However, at the same time, a loving and thoughtful attitude is presence from lines such as ‘you get cold without’ and ‘with deep devotion’. The poem ‘I wanna be yours’ utilises many metaphors and similars in the poem to signify that he wants to be hers even if he is just an ‘electric heater’. ‘One flesh’ includes half rhyme, which is inconsistent. This inconsistency deliberately relates to the inconsistency in the sex within their relationship. ‘Strangely apart, yet strangely close together’ is a metaphors in ‘One Flesh’ which shows how they are emotionally apart, but they are physically close together within the house. ‘Whose fire from which I came, has now grown cold’. The fire expresses that once they were passionate lovers and produced a child, but ‘grown cold’ expresses that they are no longer passionate. The author uses metaphors in ‘I wanna be yours’ to express his feelings such as ‘deep as the deep atlantic ocean that’s how deep is my emotion’ By using the depth of the atlantic ocean to compare to his devotion, he express love. Repetition is used to create a beat to the poem ‘deep deep deep deep de deep deep’. It is also re informing how deep his devotion is. Overall ‘One flesh’ is about a relationship that has already occurred, and ‘I wanna be yours’ is about a relationship that is at the beginning where there is a lot of passion.