Literary Analysis of Herrick's 'Friday Evening” Verse Novel
During all of Herrick's Narrative verse novels, we can see similar themes represented in the story. Some might be connecting with family, with nature or more. But what Herrick does best is he describes the themes well, this is because he uses the form narrative verse. It unlocks an insight that you wouldn't get in a normal narrative, it provides more emotive language uses more descriptive language and most of all I makes you feel connected to the characters. Herrick's “Friday Evening” essay is a leading example of Family culture in the 1960s. It describes the Hodbys waiting for their dad to come home from a long day at work. From the start of 'Friday nights' Herrick manages to catapult his readers. Herrick uses many figurative languages to help show out the family culture in the narrative verse. For example, Herrick uses an anaphora to reinforce the idea of a family connection. This is shown when Harry and Keith say 'no hands, dad, No Hands.'.
The poet uses juxtaposition and imagery effectively in many points and themes to show a contrast between one subject and the other. Other figurative languages that are shown on Friday evenings are alliteration. Herrick uses this technique to help the readers like you and me catch on the words and, to articulate the sounds of the words such as 'cane chair or black belt' which were mention in Friday evenings. Steven Herrick creates a soothing feeling with the family since it describes the music as 'soft and low.' This will make the reader feel calm after the things that have happened before. The use of words can change the mood from someone being angry to being calm.
As the poem goes on it tells us more and more about the family culture using different techniques to tell different bits. What Steven Herrick did well was that he ensured an uncertainty with the readers, changing the mood from happy to being angry.
Family now is different, different in many ways. From Herrick's writing, we can tell that the Hodbys family culture is really strong unbreakable. We can see this when the poet writes 'Keith and me jump from the couch,' this is strong emotive language since you can see that they are waiting for him. Another example might be 'waiting for my dad' this is also emotive language because dad means a lot to us, it sort of clicks the mind on. This enables the readers to understand the family culture better due to the fact that it is a Narrative verse.
The reader is allowed to journey through the family while picking up key terms and language by the way. Harry's dad seems like to be the 'idol' in the story when Harry and Keith look up to him and his mum always loving him. This is the strong family culture meant to be in every family.
In conclusion Friday Evening” is a very intriguing narrative verse and it effectively draws out images, experiences and characters. The reader, therefore, is allowed to see all the different kinds of perspective about family culture and they can reflect on themselves. The vivid use of language such as alliteration, emotive language, anaphora can help us readers visualise better with the use of fine language. Therefore narrative verse helps us ensure that these figurative languages can be used to describe the poem. That is why narrative verse can help us unlock insight into family culture and more.
