The River's Story by Brian Patten Poem Analysis

Brian Patten, the author uses many language features to give his poem ‘ the river’s story’ a boom. The story is about a river going through time, describing how it was a clean river and then polluted and forgotten, Quite like when your grandparents, for example; tell you their story of their youth. This poem changed my life in a way to open my eyes about what is happening to the world today, and what may come in the future.

The author, Brian Patten uses the language feature ‘ First person narrative’. In the line ‘ To an open sewer I’ve shrunk, I have flowed through history’ the author explains how the river is now like a sewer, all dirty and muddy, filled with junk and trash. Because lots of rubbish goes to the sewers. The author then states ‘ I have flowed through history’ to show that the river has been there a long time, it’s watched villages become towns, towns become cities and so on. The author explains how the river has seen everything and looked over the past, but in the end was abandoned by humans. The river talks about how it was a beautiful river, but now a dump.

The author uses the language feature ‘ personification’ to show that the river was lively. In the line ‘ Kingfishers, disguised as rainbows, were my secret agents,’ The author explains how the kingfishers were rainbow because of the sunlight reflecting off their scales, similarly how when it rains when it’s bright outside, the sunlight reflects off the water on the kingfishers scales. When the author says ‘ were my secret agents’ he is saying how they didn’t look like kingfishers because of their rainbow scales, like how secret agent stereotypes say that secret agents wear disguises. This helps the reader understand that the river was once  beautiful before it was polluted.

In conclusion, this is a beautiful and saddening poem that talks about what the world is like today compared to how it was in the past. This poem impacted my life in a way to open my eyes about what is happening to the world today, and what may come in the future.