An Analysis Of Jane Kenyon's Poetry

Kita Shantiris’s poetry filled the darkness with tales of her abusive father and gratitude for the life she carved out for herself in the face of his torment. Her last poem, a tribute to her sister that has just left this earth was heart breaking. She used beautiful imagery to describe her sister and articulated feelings that are near impossible to identify. Kita also works as a therapist and it may be her background in psychology that sharpened her lexicon to that fine point that it

Poems are centerpieces for human emotions. They can feature an array of passions ranging from bright and peaceful to angry and sad. Somberness is not very alluring to most people, but to those who have been through a traumatic event such as a school shooting, poems that begin in sorrow and conclude with hope are most fitting. These poems are sometimes used inside obituaries to help restore peace to a broken family. One poet whose poem heals people is Nikki Giovanni. In her, “We are Virginia Tech,” she addresses a crowd who has fallen victim to a tragedy. The facts that poetry is therapeutic in times of stress, its cadence affect emotions, and that it is inspirational during times of loss, proves “the healing effect” that Giovanni believes is prevalent in poetry.

Most poems, new and old, almost always have an important message to teach to all those who take the time to read it. Authors use poetic devices to get their message across in creative, yet effective ways. For example, Mary Oliver carefully uses several poetic devices to teach her own personal message to her readers. Oliver’s use of the poem’s organization, diction, figurative language, and title aids in conveying the message of how small, yet vital oxygen is to all living and nonliving things in her poem, “Oxygen.”

In the poem, "Elegy for Jane", by Theodore Roethke, the speaker articulates his attitude and feelings towards his former student in a well-written, well-articulated elegy. The speaker clearly states these emotions through the use of personification, similes, as well as other literary techniques. With these techniques, the speaker articulates his attitude towads Jane that I interpreted as both intimate and lyrical.

Kenyon’s criticism of burial and the mourning process and the manner in which it fails to provide a sense of closure for those who have lost a loved one is the main underlying theme in The Blue Bowl. Through her vivid description of both the natural setting and the grief-stricken emotional overtone surrounding the burial of a family’s house pet and the events that follow in the time after the cat is put to rest, Kenyon is able to invoke an emotional response from the reader that mirrors that of the poem’s actual characters. Her careful use of diction and the poem’s presentation through a first-person perspective, enables Kenyon to place the reader in the context of the poem, thus making the reader a participant rather than a mere

If I were asked who the most precious people in my life are, I would undoubtedly answer: my family. They were the people whom I could lean on to matter what happens. Nonetheless, after overhearing my mother demanded a divorce, I could not love her as much as how I loved her once because she had crushed my belief on how perfect life was when I had a family. I felt as if she did not love me anymore. Poets like Philip Levine and Robert Hayden understand this feeling and depict it in their poems “What Work Is” and “Those Winter Sundays.” These poems convey how it feels like to not feel love from the family that should have loved us more than anything in the world. Yet, they also convey the reconciliation that these family members finally reach

In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.

Published in 1997, Marie Howe’s anthology of poems, What the Living Do was written as an elegy to her brother, John, who passed away due to AIDS. Howe’s anthology is written without metaphor to document the loss she felt after her brother’s death. Although What the Living Do is written as an anthology, this collection allows for individual poems to stand alone but also to work together to tell an overarching story. Using the poetic devices of alliteration, enjambment, repetition and couplets, Howe furthers her themes of gender and loss throughout her poems in her anthology.

The ones at the bottom want for the top, And the ones at the top kick their lessers; But those who stayed away, they laugh and scoff. For they alone can see the true message.

Dorothy Livesay’s work expresses her identity as both woman and poet. In integrating female experience into her work, Livesay challenges patriarchal views of “the poet” as an archetype and the connection between male and female and nature and culture. Livesay states “I have always been fascinated by the role of woman as writer” (Livesay 2), in examining Livesay’s poetry from 1926-1944 the role of “woman as writer” speaks on women’s issues through connecting the identity of woman to nature and the patriarchy to culture. Livesay’s work holds radical feminist thought, through examination of her nature imagery and the conflicts presented between nature and culture her poetry can be viewed through a radical feminist lens as “ecofeminism”. Ecofeminism links feminist ideology with ecology and suggests that paternal-capitalistic society has “lead to a harmful split between nature and culture”(Cirksena and Cuklanz 29), linking “the treatment of women to the treatment of the environment.(Cirksena and Cuklanz 30). Although Livesay identifies with nature, she still holds a place in culture as a citizen and a writer and through "identifying herself with both nature and poetry she creates for herself a unique female poetic role: that of mediator between culture and nature" (Relke 219). Livesay challenges the patriarchal views of "the poet", the treatment of women in society and the connection between culture and nature. Taking on the role of "poet mediator" between culture and nature,

I decided to pick this poem for a couple reasons. First, I read it though once, and understood the big picture, but I didn’t understand certain lines. Second, I relate to this poem because when I cook, I always make sure that the amount of food that goes into the trash is minimum. If I don’t, I feel guilty for the rest of the day. Third, I love potatoes and some people call me a potato so it was cool finding a poem with my name in the title.

A great poem shocks us into another order of perception. It points beyond language to something still more essential. It ushers us into an experience so moving and true that we feel at ease. In bad or indifferent poetry, words are all there is. Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” is a great poem, not because it is popular or it is classic, but because of its underlining message. “Annabel Lee” is a poem of death, love, and beauty. It captures the narrator’s interpretation of these three ideas through his feelings and thoughts for one woman. The narrator, Edgar Allan Poe, becomes infatuated at a young age with the character in the poem, Annabel Lee. Even after she passes away, his love for her only increases and only becomes

Beth Ann Fennelly and Tom Franklin read a few of their pieces at a public reading. Beth Fennelly writes poetry and short stories while her husband Tom read sections of longer fiction pieces. The two even combined to write a novel that they shared a bit of!

In “Having it Out with Melancholy” by Jane Kenyon, she uses imagery to show that depression is hard to overcome and it can take over your life. The first example of imagery in the poem is when the author is describing what it's like to have depression. “On top of me, pressing, The bile of desolation into every pore.” I believe this line shows depression because it is metaphorically describing the pressure someone with depression has to deal with on a daily basis. The next example is when the author is describing what her life was like after getting depression.

Millay’s 3 quatrain poem “The Courage that My Mother Had” deals with devastating loss and the courage necessary to cope with it. The speaker’s characterization of her mother as “granite”(4) indicates the depth of her loss. She has figuratively lost her “rock”(11) in this life and desperately wishes to be more like her mother, “granite” in the face of adversity. Her mother’s courage is the trait the speaker most admired, and now envies. The speaker must overcome the loss and transform herself into the “rock” of the family. One cannot be “like rock” without courage. The speaker’ wish for courage instead of the mother’s heirloom (8-9) demonstrates this wish for transformation. The living have need of courage, the dead “have no more need