Compare how persona's voices are used by poets to make a significant comment on society

Poets such as Duffy and Pugh often use their poetry as a medium to make a significant comment on society. Significant comments on society are explored through the three poems: The Dolphins – through the perspective of dolphins, Shooting Stars – in character of a dead Jewish woman (Duffy), and Camera Man – from literally a camera man(Pugh) – comment from a differing persona's, be it through dramatic monologue or second person, on the thematic issue of the unjustified withdrawal of someone/thing's liberty in society.

Throughout Duffy's 'The Dolphins' – Duffy presents through a perhaps unconventional, dramatic monologue of a dolphin, the loss of a dolphins freedom after being captivated by humans for their entertainment. The opening stanza of the poem presents us with this idea immediately 'World is what you swim in, or dance, it is simple. /We are in our element but we are not free' – the two lines offer a contradicting view of the life these dolphins have: one one hand, the first line implies that the dolphins are free. The lexical choices 'dance' and 'swim' both imply connotations of freedom; for humans, dancing is often seen as a method to freely express yourself without limitation, and regarded as a means of pursuing or expressing happiness. For dolphins on the other hand, incapable of 'dancing' as such would use swimming as a means of receiving the same feelings; with dolphins who live in their natural habitat being able to swim without boundaries as they wish. Some critics point out the ironic similarity between the two actions: humans are perfectly able to swim if they wish, and dolphins who are reared in captivity by humans are often taught to 'dance', hence this draws the comparison between humans and dolphins and their intellectual potentiality, with the irony being found in the way that humans can dance 'freely' without intervention, whereas dolphins capability to swim is limited by humans, and instead replaced by dancing. Conversely, line two suggests an alternate reading; that the dolphins are not free, by simply stating: 'we are not free'. The use of 'we are in our element' implies that the dolphins, as they are water, have the potential to be free and happy, but due to human intervention they cannot be. One interpretation critics of the poem offer in order to understand the differentiation between the two juxtaposing lines is that the first line is not the dolphins speaking, but instead the voice of 'the man' which is referred to throughout the poem – the use of second person 'you' compared to the latter use of third person 'we', 'our' in the poem supports this idea. Hence, the differing in poetic voices implying that the dolphins loss of freedom is dictated by humans.

On the other hand, Duffy's poem Shooting Stars uses the poetic voice of a Jewish women in order to comment on the Jewish loss of freedom to worship/religion, as seen throughout anti-Semitic Germany. Although in the voice of a women, Shooting Stars can be regarded as unconventional, as does The Dolphins, as the Jewish woman is dead, thus Duffy writes the monologue from an out of body experience, having the persona speaking to us from beyond the dead. As in Dolphins, Shooting Stars uses ironic, if not ambiguous terms in order to communicate the loss of freedom: “stars on all our brows, beneath the gaze of men with guns' – the symbol of the 'star' has multiple connotations. When used in the title 'shooting stars' the colloquial term may imply the hope of using a mystical shooting star as convention of hope, placing your faith that the star will provide you with something you wish for, hence inferring that the star will provide you will the freedom to pursue happiness. The overall implications of a star, similarly have positions connotations, with a 'star' being someone who is great and worthy of praise. Pugh's poem, Cameraman however, uses symbolism to show loss of freedom, 'you keep the lens in front of your mind' the use of lens implies a block in front of the cameraman's mind, implying that there is a metaphorical block stopping him to have the liberty of helping the situation he faces daily. On the hand, in the context of the poem 'stars on our brows' the star can also mply very opposing connotations – firstly, stars may be interpreted as speckles of sweat, the sweat being created from the threat of death of they stare death in the eyes. Secondly, the star may be interpreted as symbolic of the star of David, the symbol of the Jewish religion – in light of this, we can interpret the once hopeful title of 'shooting stars' as much darker title, implying the mass killing of Jews, the ultimate loss of freedom.

Furthermore, the comment on society that freedom is being taken away with no justification is also shown in Dolphins via the use of the dolphin's anaphora, which also incorporates a further issue in today's society... the patriarchal society. Throughout The Dolphins, we see the repetition of the 'the man' multiple times. 'Man' can be interpreted in various ways: firstly, the most apparent interpretation of the word would be it's literal meaning, a male. In this sense, we associate through the repetition, in it's negative context, that it is the male sex in The Dolphins who is taking away their freedom, suggesting that men would be the 'drivers' of the movement to take dolphins away from their original habitat. Feminist critics suggest that, in light of the patriarchal take on the poem, that the poem is actually 'a metaphor for human corruption, showing the loss of freedom that women are surrendering themselves to due to the power of men', this can indeed be argued to be true by simply looking at the inequality between men and women today, the inequality of male/women wages being just one example of this. However, the man may also have religious implications too, the man in the poem is shown to be a figure of high authority; to the extent that the man is the unatural replacement of the moon: 'The man has disappeared. /The moon has disappeared.', hence likening the amount of power that the man has to that of a higher being, such as God; this is not only suggested thematically through the nature of the quote but also stylistically via the similarity in lexical choices. Further understanding on the comment of male dominated society being made by Duffy can be seen in the structural placing of 'the man' – it appears in all verses at the end, with the exception of the first verse; this may show the progression of the male dominance, implying that contrary to statistics and popular belief, gender equality is not becoming more equal, but is in fact becoming less equal, but only in less explicit ways. Another interpretation of the placing of 'the man' is that because it appears at the end of each stanza (mostly), Duffy is suggesting that men, by literally being the last line, will always ultimately have the last word when it comes to women's freedom, and more broadly, the freedom of all those who live in our society, including dolphins.

The idea of a patriarchal society is also used in Shooting Stars for Duffy to make a comment about the loss of freedom we are observing in society. Again, this male dominance is emphasised by anaphora with the repetition of references to men, although in this case not always 'men' specifically: 'young men with guns', 'his belt' and 'young men at graves'. In particular, the loss of freedom via men that is expressed in Shooting Stars is the loss of sexual freedom – the liberty to be able to say no to sex, this is evident through the rape that the Jewish woman implicitly tells us of: 'He loosens his belt... ragged gape' the spoonerism of 'ragged gape' implies that she was raped whilst gagged, this therefore communicates not only loss of sexual freedom, but also freedom of speech, through her physically being gagged. However, this loss of the freedom of speech would apply to all areas of German Jew's life, not just during a rape. Furthermore, the implicit nature of the spoonerism may connote that the woman is too ashamed to be able to come to terms with her loss of freedom, hence chooses to express herself in an alternative manor. Similarly, the persona in Cameraman is also a man, however in this case it is the man who is arguing for freedom, not the women; this can either be the freedom of the people he captures with his camera to a better life, or the freedom for him to be able to intervene to make their life better for them. However, the man in cameraman is under no physical force to not pursue his liberties, unlike the woman in Shooting Stars. Due to this, we may not regard the man as a victim of loss of freedom, as the poem might suggest, but instead we might perceive him as the limiter of freedom, and condemn him just as much as we condemn the Nazi Germans. When contrasting this to Shooting Stars, it effectively makes the reader feel yet more sadness for the Jewish woman’s loss of freedom, as she has no means of rebelling against the force that the male Nazi’s have upon her, the force being at the greatest level, the force of taking her life.

In conclusion, it would appear that both poets, Duffy and Pugh are attempting to draw society's attention to the significant issue that our freedom is constantly being taken away from us, and perhaps through their poetry they are encouraging us to become more aware of this infringement society places upon us through corrupt higher power, before it gets to late – as it has for the defenceless dolphins and Jewish Woman. Additionally, the issue of male dominance also seems to shine through each poem, despite the general theme being of another issue. This however could be due a bias poet (women commenting on men), or could suggest as discussed, that is is men that we have to blame for being the drivers of the loss of our liberty.