Amethzary Monroy
ENG213
Explication Paper Final Draft
November 18, 2015
Easter Wings George Herbert was a poet who characterized his poems by a deep religious devotion, verbal precision, musical swiftness, and clever use of vanity. In his poem Easter Wings, he manages to explain in simple and moving language some of the most complex ideas in all of Christian thought. To give even a broader idea of the poem, he purposely shaped his poem into the shape of bird wings. Thus, he uses imagery to show what he is telling through his poem, making it a visual poem. Giving the poem form, it allows Herbert to revitalization poetry into a montage experience that engages both the brain and the eyes. Revolving this poem into the theme of death and sin, the shape enhances the message. Along with visual imagery, Herbert also uses vast sum of mental imagery so new realities and senses can be found with each reading. He explains his wish to fly with Christ as a result of Jesus’ sacrifice, death and resurrection. Herbert creates a ten line, two stanza poem that exposes the misery of sin and the ability of God’s love. The argument is easily explained with the help of Herbert’s address to the “Lord” in the initial line of the first stanza in the original text. The poem is actually a work within a work with many hidden meanings and suggestions. In the second half of each stanza, Herbert asks to rise up with the resurrected Christ and celebrate Easter 's victory over death. Meanwhile, he
Nevertheless, in the poem ‘Nesting time’, Stewart interprets a personal experience in first person of the appearance of a bird that lands upon his daughter and forgets the thought of the harsh world. Stewart’s descriptive language repeatedly explains the poem as if seen in his viewpoint, beginning with an interjection, ‘oh’ communicating of his incredulity of an ‘absurd’ bird. Symbolizing the bird with strong coloured imagery its ‘mossy green, sunlit’, described to be bright and joyful, with sweetness shown with the type of bird, ‘honey-eater’, Douglas Stewart takes the time to describe its admiration juxtaposed to the dangerous world surrounding it. While visualizing the birds actions, ‘pick-pick-pick’ of alliteration and repetition of its
The Halo That Would Not Light by Lucie Brock-Broido is a simple poem about how everyone loses their childhood. In the beginning it says, “The raptor beak,” which refers to a bird carrying a baby into a “scarab-colored hollow.” So far into this poem, imagery is used to have the audience and readers imagine a large black bird carrying a baby by its beak to into a yellow colored crib. Afterwards, the poem transitions to,“in a child’s cardboard box. ”which is typically a baby playing with an empty box.
In “The Conqueror Worm,” Poe writes a compelling drama mankind’s tragic existence. Through biblical allusions and the metaphor of the worm, there is a prominent theme of death. The reference to a real play is shown as five stanzas in the poem parallel five acts in an average play.
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.
When songwriters begin to pen the lyrics of a song, I believe their ultimate goal is to transcend time in hopes of reaching listeners for generations to come. J.R. Cash, professionally known as Johnny Cash, wrote a song that did just that. “Ragged Old Flag” is a patriotic song that speaks to every generation. Written in 1974, “Ragged Old Flag” was meant to tell the story of our country. Johnny Cash recorded “Ragged Old Flag” live at the House of Cash. Cash wanted the song to be recorded live because it was raw, untouched, and unapologetically real. The basis of this analysis is to show how patriotism spans generations, but also why a song such as, “Ragged Old Flag” is an important part of patriotism in the United States of America.
In “The Great Scarf of Birds” by John Updike, he describes the power of nature to impact people by using structure, diction, figurative language, and imagery. By incorporating all of these literary devices, Updike constructs an authentic poem and a great read. The author is truly able to chronicle all the emotions that come with having a change of heart. Every literary device he uses is equally important in construction of the poem and the meaning behind it.
“The Man to Send Rain Clouds” by Leslie Marmon Silko: This story tells of the death of a tribal elder (Teofilo). Upon his death, his grandsons, Leon and Ken, secure his body and proceed to apply their cultural rituals for a burial. “Before they wrapped the Oldman, Leon took a piece of string out of his pocket and tied a small gray feather in the old man’s long white hair. Ken gave him the paint. Across the brown wrinkled forehead, he drew a streak of white and along the high cheekbones he drew a strip of blue paint.” (Silko, 439) Not knowing much about Native American beliefs I do know that feathers and face painting is a large part of their culture. This is the first clue given that the characters in this work are Native American. After gathering his body they proceed to bring him back to they have an interaction with the local Catholic priest, Father Paul. During this interaction, the family members don’t tell Father Paul that their grandfather has passed when he asks did they locate him. At once I could tell that there is a rift of some nature because the ritual they just performed on the body would be in stark contrast/opposition to a Catholic burial. The author of this novel is describing the encroachment of religion on Native American culture. This is again shown when Ken and Leon stop by the church to ask Father Paul to use holy water to the graveyard. The reasoning for the sprinkling of the holy water is so that Teofilo could send big thunderclouds from the
Edward Taylor’s Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children and Upon a Wasp Chilled with Cold are similar in their approach with the illustration of how beautiful and magnificent God’s creations are to humankind. However, each poem presents tragic misfortune, such as the death of his own children in Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children and the cold, enigmatic nature of human soul in Upon a Wasp Chilled with Cold. Taylor’s poems create an element of how cruel reality can be, as well as manifest an errant correlation between earthly life and spiritual salvation, which is how you react to the problems you face on earth determines the salvation that God has in store for you.
Kate Bagley and Kathleen McIntosh wrote a thought-provoking book that compiles the experiences and struggles of dozens of women within differing religious traditions. Each women’s account is unique in how they choose to deal with their personal realities and how their religions are able or failed to help them cope with those realities. Each woman had to make the choice to either accept their religion exactly the way it is, to reform their religious tradition, or to reject institutionalized religions completely and find their own path to experience the divine. The women I am highlighting demonstrate each response and show that there are multiple ways to encounter the sacred. The women’s story that I am looking at first is Inéz Hernández-Ávila and her struggle to reclaim her Native American and Aztec heritage.
Subject Matter: ‘The Wholly Innocent’ describes the emotions a foetus would have, from its point of view about the mother’s plan to get it aborted. The poem explains thoroughly how the foetus feels with detail that makes us feel empathic towards it. The summary of the poem in the last stanza is concluding the life the foetus had, before it was aborted, ending it in a tragic way. The poem does not mention anything about the mother’s point of view, mainly because the mother would only make excuses, which makes no difference to the foetus.
I personally have read theses six poems a few times each now. Starting with “Introduction to Poetry,” “How I Discovered Poetry,” “Poetry Should Ride the Bus,” “How Poetry comes to me,” “Making It in Poetry” and “Poem.” I for one will be explicating each poem and discussing how they are similar and different in their own ways. As well as explaining my own thoughts on the poems themselves and summarizing what I believe them to be.
Using the carnival as a background is appropriate because it is a time of celebration when everything is in chaos and people have lost their self-control. The carnival may be a symbol of Montresor’s own madness and the crazy thoughts in his head. The carnival usually indicates joyful social interaction but it is distorted by Montresor. Montresor’s reference to the bones and vaults of his family foreshadow the story’s descent into the underworld. The underground travels of the two men are a metaphor for their trip to hell. The carnival is essentially for the living but Montresor takes it into the vaults underground, to the realm of the dead and the satanic. The setting Poe chose for the story adds to the terror. Most of the events of the story runs in dark, damp tunnels piled with the bones of dead people. By taking Fortunato into the vaults, Montresor cuts him off from help. The two characters are underground and isolated.
During the Victorian Era in 1837 the period that was ruled by Queen Victoria I, women endured many social disadvantages by living in a world entirely dominated by men. Around that time most women had to be innocent, virtuous, dutiful and be ignorant of intellectual opinion. It was also a time associated with prudishness and repression. Their sole window on the world would, of course, be her husband. During this important era, the idea of the “Angel in the House” was developed by Coventry Patmore and used to describe the ideal women who men longed. Throughout this period, women were treated inferior to men and were destined to be the husbands “Angel in the House”.
An example of this is Herbert’s looking towards the Bible for stylistic inspiration rather than to alien imagery and ideas of Donne. Another very important and distinctive characteristic of the poetry is Herbert’s introduction of two quiet final lines, resolving the previously mentioned argument within the poem, without answering any specific points mentioned. The doubts in faith and religion are expressed in intellectual terms by Donne, and the argument is answered in this intellectual style too. Herbert, although occasionally exploring the doubts in an intellectual manner, answers his doubts with emotion. In this specific way, Herbert conveys an explicit insight that one is unable to argue or reason with God; one is aware of God’s presence or one lacks this awareness and guidance.
The Caterpillar is a poem which focuses on the previously overlooked actions some of us may partake in, that may not be thought much of, but have short and long lasting effects on a scale we might not be very familiar with. Do we feel remorse for living organisms on a small macroscopic level, or is it just an insignificant part of our complex lives? Is the appreciation of life developed through experiences? Do we feel more pity for a single being that has been through trauma than we do for thousands that have not? In this poem, the conflict between caterpillars and humans is discussed in a such a way that brings up questions about how valuable we perceive other life to be, and how different