Dawn revisited is a poem about the new ideas one could have in life and how it is easy to start again if things don’t go too well, as the poem starts with ‘imagine you wake up with a second chance’ which automatically introduces the topic to the reader. The poem is laid-out in a way that – especially ‘hawks his pretty wares’ – gives us an unimaginable image of the beauty of dawn, a description that would want people to manage their time in order to see it.
The poet states ‘if you don’t look back the future never happens’ which shows us that one could only learn by making mistakes and that she perhaps learnt from experience and does not want people to miss out on the beauty of nature just like she might have done previously. She suggests that she enjoys waking up to the smell of biscuits, and by using ‘prodigal’, meaning using a large amount, she is also suggesting that she makes large amounts of them, in order for their to be a strong smell there has to be many of it.
The joy of waking up for breakfast is stated as ‘eggs and sausages on the grill’ which shows us that breakfast is a highly valued meal in the poet’s family. ‘The whole sky is yours’ shows us that the poet strongly believes in the opportunities that one could have in life as the sky is vast and for it to belong to one person then they must accept the new opportunities they get. Come on, shake a leg’ is a way of encouraging people to wake up and start a new day, and the reference of ‘eggs’ at the end of the novel reiterates the excitement that some people get to having breakfast as it is a meal that would provide fuel and energy for most of the morning. Carpe Diem is a poem about love and how it could distract one’s life if it is very deep. The use of the phrase ‘a hand here pruning’ shows us an action of cutting plants so they would grow in a better way.
However, there could be another meaning, possibly that the hand is pruning away possible hardships in their relationship. The phrase ‘or leaning across to snip a wayward shoot’ shows us that he enjoys watching her doing the gardening. In the second verse, the phrase ‘a daub of powder-blue in a profusion of green’ shows us a perfect image. Similarly, the phrase ‘the next moment, you are no longer there’ is perhaps suggesting that he was shocked at seeing her go so suddenly.
However, the fact that when she next reappears she is ‘perfectly framed shows us that the joy of seeing her after thinking she has gone for good is a surprise to him. ‘Fragrant survivors of last night’s frost’ shows us that the flowers are strong, which is a suggestion that their love is strong. In the fourth verse the phrase ‘my heart misses a beat at love for you’ shows us that the love was so intense that time seemed to stop too. ‘Knowing a time will come when you are no longer there’ shows us that he is not looking forward to that time and that he knows it is inevitable. Meanwhile let us make sure we clasp each shared moment’ shows us that he wants to make sure they use their time together wisely, and ‘in cupped hands, like water we dare not spill’ shows us they know that their time together is precious. The poems are similar in the sense that they both talk about love, but they are different in their contexts of love, Dawn Revisited being about the feelings towards her loved ones and at the sight of dawn and Carpe Diem being about the love felt towards another person.
