Alice Walker Poem Analysis

Clint Smith is a writer, teacher, and doctoral candidate in Education at Harvard University with a concentration in Culture, Institutions, and Society. Smith Clint wrote a poem called “Something You should Know.” The poem is about an early job he had in a Petsmart. The poet allows the readers into his personal life, but before he had trouble opening up to people and his work. Moreover, Clint wrote an insight in the poem about relying in anything to feel safe and he says it is the most terrifying thing any person can do.

The poem Even as I Hold You written by Alice Walker takes the reader through a paradox of believing that this idea of wanting this person, loving this person so much. However, with more negative words we find that she is, in fact, letting this person go. Even with all the metaphors and descriptive language referring to what she loves about this person the paradox still occurs as she announces in the last line “I am letting go.” While reading this poem, it is interesting to see Walker’s use of the word hold in the title, the first line and in the second to the last line. When thinking of the word hold it is thought to be in reference to keeping close and on the contrary of what she is addressing, not letting go. Throughout reading the poem, it is found several words that go against the idea of the word hold and truly highlight the paradox the poem is presenting.

“The Flowers” by Alice Walker conveys a message of the loss of childhood innocence in a difficult situation. Myop, the main character is a little girl who is forced into adulthood because of the harsh realities of the time period: around the time when equality for African American’s was still a difficult subject. On a beautiful summer’s day, Myop discovers the decaying body of a man who has been lynch. Soon after that summer is over and so is Myop’s childhood innocence.

Lorna Dee Cervantes' poem, “Poema para los Californios Muertos” (“Poem for the Dead Californios”), is a commentary on what happened to the original inhabitants of California when California was still Mexico, and an address to the speaker's dead ancestors. Utilizing a unique dynamic, consistently alternating between Spanish and English, Cervantes accurately represents the fear, hatred, and humility experienced by the “Californios” through rhythm, arrangement, tone, and most importantly, through use of language.

Dawe in his poem ‘Drifters’ presents the inevitable nature of change, particularly change that is unwanted. Moreover, Dawe manifests the diverse responses individuals have when encountering change in their lives and the transformative impact of change. These prominent themes are manipulated through the motif of travelling, flashbacks and symbolism.

Phillis Wheatley, one of America’s best writers and contributors to American literature, helped enrich our knowledge about her life through the use of imagery in her poems. Wheatley wrote many poems throughout her life. Her poems include, “On Being Brought From Africa to America”, ”To The Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth”, “ The Thoughts of the Works of Providence”, and many more.

In this short story, Alice Walker recounts a youthful, African American young lady who, while gathering blooms, lurches actually upon the body of a dead man. The air, dialect and topic of the story propose the southern United States as a setting‐sometime in the mid‐to late‐20th century appears a proper day and age, however this is far less clear.

Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.

Poetry can be divided up into different forms, more easily expressing an author’s emotions and intent with their poetry. For analyzing purposes I chose the poems Self-Help by Michael Ryan, Ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali, Psalm 150 by Jericho Brown, and Emergency by Michael Dylan Welch.

Although this is a short poem, there are so many different meanings that can come from the piece. With different literary poetic devices such as similes, imagery, and symbolism different people take away different things from the poem. One of my classmates saw it as an extended metaphor after searching for a deeper connection with the author. After some research on the author, we came to learn that the

The song “Believer”, by Imagine Dragons, they sing about how the pain and depression, they were going through, has made him stronger than before. This song tells us that your greatest strengths come from your weaknesses. Imagine Dragons are trying too say that “Pain” and depression and sadness are only stepping stones to your strength, in this song. “Believer” is about that you don’t have to dwell on your troubles and can look on the bright side of things. This song also explains that you can become a “Believer” by embracing all of the problems going on in your life today. The theme of relationships in this song is highlighted through many various examples of similes, metaphors, and other literary devices throughout the song.

Alice Walker was born on February ninth, 1944 in Eaton, Georgia. As a child, Walker was shot in the eye with a pellet gun leaving her partially blind. Being African

Alice Walker, born February ninth of 1944, was a child of tenant farmers in Eatonton, Georgia. As she lost sight in one eye from being shot with a BB gun, she read and wrote surrounding herself with her mother and aunts. As she witnessed the independence of these women, along with the oppression of the sharecropping system and violent racist acts, her artistic view was shaped. In 1961, she got involved with the Civil Right Movement at Spelman College, and became active after moving to Mississippi. Together with her husband, Civil Rights Lawyer Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, married in March of 1967, she worked registering blacks to vote in Mississippi. They divorced after her daughter, Rebecca, was born.

Memories play a significant role in the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy, particularly her recollections of childhood places and events. The poem “Originally,” published in The Other Country (1990), draws specifically from memories of Duffy's family's move from Scotland to England when she and her siblings were very young. The first-born child, Duffy was just old enough to feel a deep sense of personal loss and fear as she traveled farther and farther away from the only place she had known as “home” and the family neared its alien destination. This sentiment is captured in “Originally,” in which it is described in the rich detail and defining language of both the child who has had the experience and the adult who recalls

Some of the poems and essays I have read during this class were relatable to me. Being away from college, I have struggled with not being at home. I have become a different person when I am at school, but when I am home, I feel like I am my normal self again. Some of these authors of the poems and essays that I have read throughout this class has struggled with being somewhere where they don’t belong and that they are someone else when they are not home. Unlike the other poems and essays we have read throughout the course. I enjoyed reading the ones about “home” because I actually understood what they are going through and that I can relate. Some of these poems and essays include “Going Home” by Maurice Kenny, Postcard from Kashmir”, by Agha Shahid Ali, “Returning” by Elias Miguel Munoz and “Hometown” by Luis Cabalquinto. All of these poems deal with duality.