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Critical Appreciation

‘The Call’ by Chatlotte mew

Charlotte Mew is a Victorian british poet. Affraid of madness and s, she fell into a very deep depression after her sister’s death in 1927 and commited suicide in 1928. Her poem ‘The Call’ takes place during a cold evening. The author and someone whom we don’t about hear a strange noise, while watching the fire, which they interpret as a call and they decide to move. This poem is quite a mysterious one as we can ask ourself a lot of question which will stay unanswered but it’s also brilliant in its writting. This critical appreciation will first look at how can sudden changes of rhythm and mentality are illustrated in this poem, and then how this poem may portray the conflict between the call of ambition and the comfort and security of inactivity.

First of all, we can observe sudden changes in the rhythm, the mentality and movement of the poet. Indeed, the poem is king of separated in three parts, before the call, during the call, and after the call. These breaks are emphasized by the lack of ponctuation, the only points we find are where something changes : line 6, their is a point before the call ‘Than this same quiet red or burned-out fire./To-night we heard a call’ ; line 12 this signals the end of the call ‘Something swift and tall/

Swept in and out and that was all.’ ; line 18 is the end of questionment and maybe realisation of what the author and someone else have to do‘And so we cannot sit here any more.’, which then leads to action. So the lack of points in this poems emphasizes the break which is created when one is used and shows how this call has troubled the author. As we said, the different breaks signal a radical change in the way of being of the « protagonists ». So we can divide this poem in three parts, first of all the passivity : ‘From our low seat beside the fire[…] dreamed and watched the glow’ The two person are just resting before the fire, watching it, they are inactive. This passivity is emphasized by the alliteration on [d] on the second line : ‘dozed and dreamed and watched the glow’. This alliteration gives an impression of slowness. Furthermore, the unusual length of this line strengthen the idea of time passing slowly, of passivity of the author. Then, their is the call, ‘ To-night we heard a call’, a strange phenomen which the poet perceived as a call. A call to what and by whom, we don’t know, the author makes the hypothesis that it is from an angel, but we don’t have any more informations about it. In the next part, the poet and whoever is with her are realising that something strange happened and they question who ‘launched’ this call. Something even stranger happens right after, ‘ But suddenly it snapped the chain/Unbarred, flung wide the door/Which will not shut again’, and this is what provokes the change of rhythm, the change in movement, from passive to active, as the door will not shut again, they have, they must go. This break is emphasized by the use of the run on sentence, from the line 15 to 18 which creates a visual and hearing break in the poem, which corresponds to the break in the author’s mentality. The fact that the ‘door will not shut again’ gives them the opportunity to go and to answer that call, they won’t stay passive. Indeed, if the door will not shut, that

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