Literal: Poems are notoriously impossible to take literally as most of the meaning lies deeper within the words, however, as Dante says, one first needs to understand the literal if one is to understand the allegorical. Therefore, what is my poem trying to say literally? First of all we have “they”, who seems to be a shepherd who tend to sheep, “They say to their sheep, a simple front. Lead them down the surely green path.” They seem to take good care of their flock, however, something seems wrong, especially if they are leading their sheep into oblivion. Suddenly we are in a land of everlasting dawn, a seeming paradise, but we soon learn that these shepherds are being tormented by fallen angels and will be tormented forever. Of course the …show more content…
The poem seems to follow the traditional “retribution principle” argument, that if you do evil then evil will be done unto you. However, as the Book of Job explains, this notion is not correct, that there will be, and has been, false shepherds who abuse their flock without retribution. On the contrary though, this is also a poem and does include the author’s feelings and emotions and can simply be their outlook and message that one should not be false shepherds in the first place. Nevertheless, at this level we can separate the amateur writing from the great writing. If the moral messages of the writing are strong then that means all the metaphors, symbols and imagery in the writing works in tandem with each other to paint the larger picture. However, if the morals messages writing are weak then that means the literary devices of the writing are also confusing and bewildering, leading to an unmoving and ineffective piece of writing. This poem is not at the moral level yet, because the moral of the poem is not very strong, as it is mostly
“’ But this is merely a negative definition of the value of education’” (23-24). Mark Halliday wrote “The Value of Education” from a first person standpoint. The introduction and the use of “I” demonstrates the poem is about the speaker. Likewise, the speaker uses imagery, self-recognition, and his own personal thoughts throughout the poem. He goes on throughout the poem stating external confrontations he is not doing because he is in the library receiving an education and reading books. With this in mind, the speaker goes on to convey images in your head to show a realization of things he could be doing if he were not in the library getting an education.
“Once upon a time there was a wife and mother one too many times” (Godwin 39). This short story begins with the famous opening, once upon a time, which foreshadows that the story line will be similar to a fairy tale. It raises expectations for the story that all will be magical and end happily. A typical modern-day fairy tale is that of a distressed character who overcomes an obstacle, falls in love with prince charming, and they ride off into the sunset; living happily ever after never to be heard from again. Godwin however, puts an unexpected twist on “A Sorrowful Woman”. This short story is a tale about what can happen when everyday roles take over our identity. Ultimately, this short story challenges societal expectations of marriage
In the poem, “Backwards,” by Warsan Shire the poem dramatizes the conflict between the long for the past and the hatred of the present. This poem highlights the rough situation that the speaker is in as well as a need for what life was like before. One can easily see that the speaker in this poem is a child in the family, because of the context of line 3, “that’s how we bring Dad back.” This is referring to the longing for their dad before they were in the situation they currently are in. Although, there is not line to line rhyme scheme the poem is written backwards at the beginning of the second stanza. This is likely showing the reader the need for the past and emphasizing the importance of the current situation. The overall theme of this poem is showing what life was once like and what it is now.
Take a minute to imagine “Men looking like they had been/attacked repeatedly by a succession /of wild animals,” “never/ ending blasted field of corpses,” and “throats half gone, /eyes bleeding, raw meat heaped/ in piles.” These are the vividly, grotesque images Edward Mayes describes to readers in his poem, “University of Iowa Hospital, 1976.” Before even reading the poem, the title gave me a preconceived idea of what the poem might be about. “University of Iowa Hospital, 1976” describes what an extreme version of what I expected the poem to be about. The images I
This poem kind of reminds me of Hitler and the Germans in World War II. The Germans was inspired by Hitler motivational speeches and believed in his vision just as the fallen angels believed in Satan’s vision. I made this comparison because a lot of people believe in order to be a hero you have to be fighting for the greater good. That’s not necessarily true. Just because one may not agree with you doesn’t mean you’re not a hero in others eyes. No matter what’s your goal if you have any followers you can be considered a hero because someone admires you and look up to you. The falling angels admired Satan rebelliousness and they looked up to him because they all had a common goal, but he took charge and was the aggressor to lead the
After reading the Literal translation one might be fairly in touch with the poem and
Finally the poem has an emotional appeal. The poems tone is positive in a negative way it is sort of uplifting even though there is nothing encouraging about the situation. This is shown tough the use of words such as " I am the thousand winds that blow/ I am the diamond glints on the snow" these phrases have positive connotation saying that he will always be with us
Finally in the third stanza there is the semantic field of nature: ‘mountain’, ‘rivers’, ‘seas’. Nature has the role of judge. It decides whether she has to be punished or not. Nature is represented as a sort of divine entity deciding of her fate because she has decided of someone else’s right to live. Again the water is represented several times with ‘rivers’ (line 17) and ‘seas’ (line 18 and 19) it gives the impression that she thinks
“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!” Jack Nicholson made these words famous over a hundred years after Emily Dickinson explored the very same idea in her poem, Tell All the Truth, But Tell It Slant. The truth—for better or worse—is a powerful thing. Telling the truth is the right thing to do, morally, but considering how to deliver that truth is just as important as the truth itself. In this poem, Dickinson’s message to her readers is clear - to tell all the truth, but tell it slant - as it is the title of the poem, as well as its first line. She explores this theme through her unique choice of diction and tone, comparative language, and structure in Tell All the Truth, But Tell It Slant, making her message even more evident.
Ted Kooser, the thirteenth Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner, is known for his honest and accessible writing. Kooser’s poem “A Spiral Notebook” was published in 2004, in the book Good Poems for Hard Times, depicting a spiral notebook as something that represents more than its appearance. Through the use of imagery, diction, and structure, Ted Kooser reveals the reality of a spiral notebook to be a canvas of possibilities and goes deeper to portray the increasing complexities in life as we age.
Because the poem is long, it won’t be quoted extensively here, but it is attached at the end of the paper for ease of reference. Instead, the paper will analyze the poetic elements in the work, stanza by stanza. First, because the poem is being read on-line, it’s not possible to say for certain that each stanza is a particular number of lines long. Each of several versions looks different on the screen; that is, there is no pattern to the number of lines in each stanza. However, the stanzas are more like paragraphs in a letter than
A comparison of Sharon Olds’ “Still Life in Landscape” with Linda Pastan’s “I Am Learning to Abandon the World.”
The rhyme scheme that is portrayed in the poem is ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH and so on. The meaning of this rhyme scheme is every other line rhyme with one another. For example, line one and three rhyme with each other because line 1 ends with brother and line three ends with mothers and that rhyme with each other. Also, line 2 ends with years and line four end with tears and those two rhyme with one another. This poem is literal because it is straightforward with what is going on the poem from the title and throughout the poetry. The poem is literal with explaining that there are children who are going through a depressed time because they are forced to do hard work and believe that death is the best way out. Child labor is causing the children to not live their life as a kid instead as adult with all the hard work they have to do.
There is a rhythm throughout the poem with strong rhyme, this pattern is like heavy breathing you have when you try to go to sleep it could also represent the rhythmical counting of sheep.
The poem has many different hidden meanings but they are all based around a common theme of faith.