Fiction Adaption: Female Narration Progress

For my adaptation, I will be using my female character as the narrator, mainly so that it looks like the poet in my film is also narrating the poem, helping to add extra emotion and allowing the audience to familiarise themselves with her.

How Is My Female Narrator Going to Narrate?

Instead of just asking her to read the poem for me so that I can then use her voice as the narration, I've decided to break down the poem into sections to show how I would like each part to be narrated. For example, some parts of the poem will have a much sadder tone, whilst others may be more angry and vulnerable.

Below is the poem broken down into sections as to how I would like it to be narrated, as well as explaining why I would like it to be like this:

On London fell a clearer light;

Caressing pencils of the sun

Defined the distances, the white

The opening should begin with the part of the poem with as little emotion. This is so that the audience can simply be introduced into the poem without causing a disruption already, as it may make the beginning of the poem quite unsettling. Nonetheless, the narrator should sound vulnerable and weak to an extent that the audience will be able to notice that something is wrong immediately in the poem, which however once again shouldn't be exaggerated so that it seems unsettling.

Houses transfigured one by one,

The 'long, unlovely street' impearled.

O what a sky has walked the world!

At this part of the poem, the narrator should begin to show her emotions. This is where she should seem patronising and sarcastic, as she is angry as to what the first world war has done to people i.e. the loss of her husband and generally all other problems its caused. There should be an exaggeration in voice on the words 'one by one', to highlight how the war has effected everyone singularly (this is mentioned in my shooting script, where it will become parallel with the archive war footage).

After "one by one", this patronising tone should be slightly more exaggerated, especially from where it says "long, unlovely street" as this is to reinforce how the war has destroyed love and peace. Which will then lead into "O what a sky has walked the world", where she is now angry (as well as patronising) and reasonably annoyed. Therefore, a harsh tone should be used for this line.

Most happy year! And out of town

The hay was prosperous, and the wheat;

The silken harvest climbed the down:

Moon after moon was heavenly-sweet,

Stroking the bread within the sheaves,

Looking 'twixt apples and their leaves.

This part of the poem is where she begins to show her vulnerability and loneliness. Her anger carries on up to 'most happy year', until after that she begins to narrate with a softer and more fragile tone. This is because for this part she becomes weak as she begins to reminisces on the past (which is evident in my poem), which of course will lead her to become upset as she misses what she once had. This also links to the poem as it quotes "moon after moon was heavenly-sweet", which in a way you can say talks about the past due to the past tense. Nonetheless, this should be evident for this part of the section.

And while this rose made round her cup,

The armies died convulsed. And when

This chaste young silver sun went up

Softly, a thousand shattered men,

One wet corruption, heaped the plain,

After a league-long throb of pain.

This weak voice should begin to come slightly more upset, however once again not to a large extent as it may disrupt the actual narration of the poem. This should be evident throughout the poem - we should be able to understand how she is feeling however it shouldn't be exaggerated as this is only a narration - you'll be able to see her actual emotions just from the film itself. However, there should be a slight emphasis on "the armies died convulsed" and "a thousand shattered men" as they are both quite hard-hitting in terms of vocabulary itself, so the narration should emphasise this.

Flower following tender flower; and birds,

And berries; and benignant skies

Made thrive the serried flocks and herds. --

For this part of the poem, the narrator should start to sound a bit desperate and as if she is starting to panic. This can be shown by her starting to speak a bit faster as if she is rushing what she is saying as she has so much she needs to say. Which of course, is reinforced by her vulnerability, leading her to panic about her loss once again (which relates to her breakdown which you'll see in the film)

Yonder are men shot through the eyes.

Love, hide thy face

From man's unpardonable race.

Who said 'No man hath greater love than this,

To die to serve his friend'?

So these have loved us all unto the end.

Chide thou no more, O thou unsacrificed!

Where she sounds like she is begin to panic, her anger once again comes back in to action. This should be narrated similarly as the "most happy year" part of the poem. This is the climax part of the poem - the part where she has a break down in the film as she can't handle the loss of her husband no more. Therefore, this should consist of her sounding very fragile and more upset than angry, however once again not to a large extent that it may attract the audience more to the narration than the film.

The soldier dying dies upon a kiss,

The very kiss of Christ

As this concludes the poem, this part should be very similar to the beginning of the poem. It should have a very soft tone, show little emotions apart from that she is getting to grips with the loss of her husband, meaning that she is still reasonably weak and fragile - just not as much as earlier on in the poem.  This enables me to end the poem on a lighter note, however should still end with emotions
flying everywhere and hopefully making the audience feel very sympathetic for my female character.