Analysis Of The Poem ' Alzheimer '

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.

He is terrified of being alone in the chamber he is in when the poem takes place. The "sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before"

The Poem “Introduction to Poetry” is by Billy Collins, an English poet, and it is about how teachers often force students to over-analyze poetry and to try decipher every possible meaning portrayed throughout the poem rather than allowing the students to form their own interpretation of the poem based on their own experiences.

“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

Out in the yard of an old married couple, there grew a peach tree that flourished with fruit every year, and every year the routine was the same. When summer arrived, each day the old couple would walk outside to pick the ripest peaches on their tree. Some days, they would walk home proudly with a basket full of ripe peaches, giddy with excitement for what they might bake with their prized fruit. But every once in a while, they would come home with very few peaches, allowing them to solemnly eat their fresh fruit instead of a concocted sweet treat.

In the poem, “35/10” by Sharon Olds, the speaker uses wistful and jealous tones to convey her feeling about her daughter’s coming of age. The speaker, a thirty-five year old woman, realizes that as the door to womanhood is opening for her ten year old daughter, it is starting to close for her. A wistful tone is used when the speaker calls herself, “the silver-haired servant” (4) behind her daughter, indicating that she wishes she was not the servant, but the served. Referring to herself as her daughter’s servant indicates a sense of self-awareness in the speaker. She senses her power is weakening and her daughter’s power is strengthening. It also shows wistfulness for her diminishing youth, and sadness for her advancing years. This

The author uses a style of stream-of-consciousness which renders the thoughts, memories, and associations of Granny’s mind. This technique is especially well-suited to the story because it reveals Grannys alternating confused and clear thoughts during her final moments as she moves from lucid

There are many forms to write a poem, and two distinct ways are as a sonnet or a villanelle. These two style of poetry have their own way in expressing the author’s message to the reader. In fact, sonnets, according to the text, are “defined as . . . lyric[s] (reference to moods and feelings) poem of fourteen lines. The sonnet will follow one or another of several set rhyme schemes. . . . [T]he sonnet came to life as a vehicle to convey love messages and passions.” By this definition, I can say that sonnets provides the poet with a tool, which they use to share a strong, emotionally based, statement.

In the poem “Alzheimer’s”, Kelly Cherry has written about her father. It begins with an old man trying to make sense of the things around him. He is obviously confused, but tries to hide it. She writes that he carries with him, “A book he sometimes pretends to read” (Line 5). The man seems to identify with the struggle of the flowers as they fight for space on the brick wall, just as he is struggling with reconciling this house with the one he remembers (Lines 6-7) (15). Alzheimer’s

A certain image, scent or sound can bring back moments that may have been forgotten. The speaker is astonished by the dreams she has of her mother. Her mother died very ill, the person who she was when she died was merely a shell of who she truly was. She describes her as “so much better than I remembered.” (Monro, 151). At the end of her mother’s life she could not hear her voice. She remembers her “mother’s liveliness of face and voice before her throat muscles stiffened [as] a woeful, impersonal mask fastened itself over her features.” (Monro, 151) In her dreams she was able to hear her mother’s voice again, opposed to the reality before her death. A mother’s voice is beautiful, and there is no other sound that compare to something as unique. Elliot writes “The unconscious sifts through memory, and then offers up details either strangely distorted or implausibly combined. As in art, as in story, dreams too, render experience metonymically.” (Elliot, 79). With time memories inevitably fade, but the dreams bring a sense of comfort and replenish the image of her mother. “How could I have forgotten this?” (Monro, 151). Heller writes that this scene “serves as a springboard from which the narrator launches into a story being told by her mother.” (Heller, 1). This scene leads us to the central conflict in the story of her mother’s life, and assists in understanding the conflict

Analyzing and interpreting poetry takes time and effort due to the variety of elements each poem may possess as well as understanding those elements chosen and used in the piece of work. In addition, one’s life experiences may influence how one perceives the poem. However, in the poem “Alzheimer’s” by Kelly Cherry, published in 1997 and written during a time of personal struggle for Cherry and her dad, a couple of poetic elements appear more prominent than any others. These are the tone and imagery. Cherry begins the poem with a feeling of insensitivity but by the end transforms the feeling in to one of pity or sadness. Through her careful choice of words and use of similes and metaphors Cherry establishes the tone and imagery throughout the poem in a realistic way regarding this disease and its tug on the emotions one feels when caring for someone with this illness.

A comparison of Sharon Olds’ “Still Life in Landscape” with Linda Pastan’s “I Am Learning to Abandon the World.”

This weariness with life is a symbol of schizoid suicide, which leads into withdrawal into death, into a ghostly world. In the unconscious, the narrator believes that the corruption of relationships through sexual contact brings nothingness. This again indicates the presence of a schizoid element in his mind. A person with a schizoid mind seeks isolation. Union with a woman will not take him into the path of separateness, so he buries the woman. Now he can be free. He is alone but alive. In the process, he is denouncing the "inferior" half of himself, the woman in him, the part that he fears may corrupt and make him diseased. He expresses the intolerable perplexity of woman as a focus of appearance and reality.

Poetry is a reduced dialect that communicates complex emotions. To comprehend the numerous implications of a ballad, perusers must analyze its words and expressing from the points of view of beat, sound, pictures, clear importance, and suggested meaning. Perusers then need to sort out reactions to the verse into a consistent, point-by-point clarification. Poetry utilizes structures and traditions to propose differential translation to words, or to summon emotive reactions. Gadgets, for example, sound similarity, similar sounding word usage, likeness in sound and cadence are at times used to accomplish musical or incantatory impacts.

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.