Analysis Of The Poem ' Elizabeth '

Throughout the poem, the author chooses simple diction. This makes the tone straightforward and blunt, like a black America who simply expresses himself instead of sermonizing about discrimination. Thereby, readers can accept the poem’s argument more easily. Furthermore, the author writes the poem mostly in long sentences to emphasize on short yet important sentences such as “That’s America.”, “Be we are. That’s true!”

The structure of this poem is 3 stanzas with all the lines in the poem except Lines 9 and 15 in iambic tetrameter. In this metric pattern, a line has four pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, for a total eight syllables. The internal structure of the poem is the narrator talking about the mask the African American people wear and the oppression that hurts them. Then the second stanza is sarcastic and negative towards the idea that it will ever change. Then the last stanza shows that they cling to Christ and the journey will be long.

Secondly, the speaker of the poem can be described as underprivileged, and this is shown throughout the entire poem. For example, line 1 of the poem it states "some are teethed on a silver spoon” and line 5 it states "some are swaddled in silk and down”. This shows that the speaker is not the same as the person who is teethed on a silver spoon or cared for very carefully. This inclusion also shows that the speaker was not born into a wealthy family and so the speaker must fight for what they need pertaining to themselves and the family.

Alliteration and metaphors are two major elements of this poem. The repetition of consonant sounds and alliteration occurs throughout the poem. All of the lines strongly use the repetition of consonants and alliteration except for lines two and seven. In addition to that, the controlling figure of speech in this poem is a metaphor. It is strongly articulated in the first line, and as the one continues to read, it is amplified and extended throughout the rest of the poem. The metaphor compares mask of Line 1 to the fabricated emotive facades that African-Americans had made use of in order to avert provoking their oppressors.

The beginning of the poem starts off with African Americans going to the North and seeing faces that resemble theirs in Harlem. They are remembered of the hardships in the South but their aim is to get to the North where there is a better life. The key words “cotton and green pastures” show us the escape route that those of color are leaving to get a better life. The poem cites that “Cotton still stuck in their shoes, Zotts ! waiting to be shipped back to green pastures. The idea of escaping and moving away is in the determination to move on even though you are tired and dirty from the cotton stuck in the shoes waiting for many different opportunities.

In conclusion, the poem was used as a key to unlock some of the thoughts the negro had concerning Africa. The negro in this poem was a representative of all negroes during this time; their thoughts and the their feelings toward Africa. Cullen’s usage of the literary devices allow for an effective expression of the meaning of this poem. Poems are intensified language of experience, so the devices assured the connection of the reader to the poem and the experience. This applies to many issues in society today because as beautiful as our country is there are still dark clouds that cover the very essence of what the states once stood

Poems are built with tradition, but in his case, the speaker wants to end tradition just as he wants to end racism. In line two and three, they both end with the same word which is called symploce. Symploce is a combination of anaphora and epistrophe which implies that these two lines are an important point of the figure of speech. The poem was written by stating a cause and effect. The line beginng with by is the cause and I being the effect. Its an explination of how he will fight social injustice. It also helps readers to use and understand the most effective way to fight social

The story set place during the Civil Right movement in a black household of a little girl and her mother. The poem signal that African Americans are not gifted with their freedom when the girl asked her mother to join the Freedom March “to make our country free” (Randall). Getting their freedom taken away, many African American children march the street of Birmingham to regain their natural rights. Taking a stand to fight for one’s right is the responsibilities of everyone. Another example is the mother’s reason for refusing to let her daughter go march because of her fear of the danger behold there. The mother then direct her daughter to “go to church instead” (Randall). Ironically, the girl meet her fate at the place thought to be the most sacred place. This ironic situation revealed that ignoring the violation of the rules upon civil rights is as dangerous as challenging it.

All three of the poems discussed in this essay relate to the struggles suffered by African Americans in the late 18th century to the early 19th century in many different ways. They had to live under harsh

A Sherpa boy was born into a life adventure. He saw the natural beauty that surrounded him, felt the blasts of breeze which invigorated him and heard the peaceful sounds of tranquillity. How simple it is to imagine a life of adventure in a distant land. But if we allow it life can be an exhilarating adventure. Each exciting moment in life can be a new page in our autobiography. Our aspirations are simply the parameters on our life path some simple, some beyond the bounds of possibility. Our aspirations are equally important as life itself; aspirations are the breath of life, chalice of salvation. Unless we aspire we will expire. They define our life path, they tell us where to go, what we want to become and where our lives are headed.

The angry and aggressive tone displays the attitudes and aggression towards the tenant for being African American. The tenant begs for repairs and his denied by his cruel landlord. The hostility of the poem can be seen in “You ain’t gonna be able to say a word / If I land my fist on you” as the tenant threatens the landlord for not repairing the home(19-20). The landlord is aggressive as well; for instance when he calls the police he says “He’s [the tenant] trying to ruin the government / And overturn the land,” which shows the landlord’s distaste for the tenant (23-14). The excerpt displays the landlord’s thinking that African Americans are ruining the United States and shouldn’t even be part of the

When delving into the song and trying to grasp the meaning, it can be understood that the author really desires to be free and go back home to where he belongs and desires. The author or writer of the song does not like the idea of slavery, nor does he like being a slave himself, his perspective on the topic shows that he is not happy about the current situation and no one should because of how cruel slavery is. The author also uses certain rhetorical strategies, one of them being metaphors. They can be used to explain his sadness and other feelings he has about the topic of slavery. An example of this is,

The poet uses different techniques to bring the out the impacts of slavery on the affected individuals (the slaves). The “grave/slave(s)” rhymed couplet recurs at

Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “One Art” is a lyrical poem, as opposed to one that is narrative and story-like, where the speaker is emotionally performing a kind of self-therapy in writing about her struggles in dealing with the many losses in her life, from the simplest of losses such as a set of keys, to the most painful loss, that of a loved one, most likely the person in her life to whom she was the closest. On a surface level reading, Ms. Bishop is suggesting that dealing with loss is an art form, and because there are so many opportunities in life where these situations present themselves, that with enough practice this “art” should be easy to master. But through the poem’s stanza development, it becomes painfully obvious that this poet is using irony and sarcasm to express what the speaker really feels, which is there is never enough time in life to master the art of losing. One never actually learns to master this art. Mishaps and catastrophes, which she terms disasters, just keep showing up.