Immortal in Lines The poem Beachy Head begins with a narrator who reclines “on thy [Beachy Head’s] stupendous summit” (1). After the narrator leads readers through the idyllic scene at Beachy Head and introduces a character the shepherd, curiously, this first person narrator “I” silently vanishes in the middle of the poem. The third person narrative henceforward dominates the rest of the poem. Instead of the narrator, a stranger, later in the poem referred to as the hermit, comes under the spotlight. Adding one more dimension, this binary narrative scheme thickens the texture of this poem and thus complicates it. Although the narrative revolves around the hermit once he appears, his identity remains ambiguous throughout the whole poem. While the disappearance of first person narrator and the simultaneous abrupt arrival of the anonymous hermit might tempt readers to believe that they are the same person and raise other speculations, the hermit is a breach through which we can understand other characters and the whole poem. As the other major character in this poem, the shepherd is at the same time also a smuggler who quits “for this/ Clandestine traffic his more honest toil” (182-183). Although the shepherd is engaging in this illegal trade, “he [the shepherd] is free;/ The dread that follows on illegal acts/ He never feels” (210-212). Likewise, the boy who “on the river’s margin gaily plays” (261) is oblivious to the danger lurking behind the seemingly temperate nature.
While reading both stories, they both seemed to share the same theme. The theme that both stories shared is the dedication to do work even if it isn’t necessary. In, “Clearing Paths to the Past” The person states they have an obligation to clear their sidewalk so others can use the sidewalk to get somewhere. In, “To be of use” the person telling the poem explains how they love to be dedicated to doing work even when they do not need to do the work with any effort.
The relationship between father and son changes over time, and molds along with the people in encapsulates. As in real life, the father and son who inhabit Li-Young Lee’s poem “A Story” experience sudden changes within their relationship as the time passes on. The son’s cries for a story that slowly change into adult conversations throughout the poem indicate that with maturity and age comes both understanding and hostility.
In “Conte” by Marilyn Hacker, Cinderella shows the reader a glimpse of her life after the childhood tale ends, a less happier ending than the original story implies. She feels trapped in a constant state of misery and boredom in the royal palace. Without life experience guiding her, Cinderella is in a dilemma caused by her ignorance of the potential consequences of her actions. With the use of irony, structure, and diction, “Conte” shows how innocence and naïveté result in regrettable mistakes that create life experience.
Initially, Collins demonstrates how one can weigh a dog’s weight with his method. Concrete diction in the first stanza, such as, “ small bathroom”, “ balancing”, and “shaky” suggest the uncomfortable nature of his intimate relationship with his pet. Although Collin is unappreciated for the gritty toil determination, he praise himself to applauded that “this is the way” and raising his self-esteem by comparing how easier it is than to train his dog obesity. In addition, the negative diction used to describe Collin holding his dog to be “awkward” for him and “bewildering” for his pet. This establish he rather force love rather willing show patience. When holding a pet on scale, there is less hustle because he secures the dog’s position by carrying it. Where as when he orders the dog to stay on the weighing scale with a cookie, his dog only followed him because of the expected reward.
“Ancestral lines” by John Barker is a book about the anthropologist’s experience in the Uiaku village located in Papua New Guinea. In the first chapter, Barker tells his readers briefly about him and his education, his and his wife’s experience with the Maisin community, and talks in great detail about the Maisin and their culture in the Uiaku village.
In this stylistic analysis of the lost baby poem written by Lucille Clifton I will deal mainly with two aspects of stylistic: derivation and parallelism features present in the poem. However I will first give a general interpretation of the poem to link more easily the stylistic features with the meaning of the poem itself.
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.
Hey! I'm Brooke... I guess that's how I should start this thing. As you will soon find out, I have dyslexia when it comes to topic sentences (you will laugh later because it is so true). I grew up in the small town of Fleming, Georgia. If you happen to be incredibly bored, google it. The description of my abode is "unincorporated community". So essentially, we are the unclaimed hoodlums of Liberty County. My "town"'s claim to fame is the Fleming Shortcut (aka an average convenient store that sells crickets) and a flashing light. Growing up, you would think that I would be bored as heck, because the best thing to do is drive thirty minutes to the closest Walmart and see how long it takes to get kicked out for playing with the
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.
The poem suddenly becomes much darker in the last stanza and a Billy Collins explains how teachers, students or general readers of poetry ‘torture’ a poem by being what he believes is cruelly analytical. He says, “all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it”. Here, the poem is being personified yet again and this brings about an almost human connection between the reader and the poem. This use of personification is effective as it makes the
In the poems “The Wanderer” and “The Dream of the Rood,” anonymous authors give way to the idea that an Almighty God will solve every problem a person has by doing two things: 1) drawing upon the memories of a warrior who has lost everything near and dear to him due to war, and 2) entering the dream of a man who has been exiled and isolated. Each piece takes its reader through the trials and tribulations that one may not relate to in this era, yet the reader is still there alongside the character wanting them to find peace with their world and themselves. Initially, it is believed that the characters will overcome their hardships and achieve the happiness they seek. However, as the reader delves deeper into the character’s story, there is an overwhelming sense of incompleteness. What actually happens at the end of each piece is not written in stone - telling us the story is not whole - nor has a conclusion been reached. The intrapersonal thoughts being shared with the reader reveal the obstacles that keep an overall wholeness from occurring.
Recorded on April 2, 1956, Johnny Cash’s first hit, “I Walk the Line,” features lyrics in which Cash wrote to explain his devotion to his first wife, Vivian Liberto. At least, that was the original intent. Vivian later divorced Cash due to his use of drugs and affairs he had with other women. With the separation, and the lack of faithfulness to both his wife and to the lyrics of this tune, the lyrics obviously do not hold up in Johnny’s case, however the song still serves to explain one’s unwavering love for another (Turner).
“Lycidas” is a pastoral elegy in which the speaker, a shepherd, mourns the death of his friend Lycidas, a fellow shepherd and talented poet, who had drowned at sea. However, as the poem progresses, the figure of Lycidas fades into the background as the writing of the poem becomes overwhelmed by the various crises that the speaker experiences and other poetic voices - those of Phoebus and St. Peter, for instance - interrupt. The ninth verse paragraph of “Lycidas” marks the poem’s return to its elegiac intent as the speaker experiences another crisis in which he laments Lycidas’ absent body, a recurring element which, when addressed by the speaker directly, allows the speaker to properly mourn and accept Lycidas’ death.
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” declared by an influential leader Martin Luther King Jr. As a soldier againsts unfairness, King strongly states that people should fight for freedom. Driven by human nature, humans are always chasing freedom. In “A Century Later,” the Pakistan-born British poet Imtiaz Dharker uses the poetic devices of symbolism, diction, and allusion to explore how perseverance drives freedom.
At the mere age of seventeen, Pablo Neruda wrote ’Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair’ and it has since become one of his most famous collection of poems. Once, in an interview, Neruda stated that he could not understand “why this book, a book of love-sadness, of love-pain, continues to be read by so many people, by so many young people” (Guibert, 2015). He also mentioned that “Perhaps this book represents the youthful posing of many enigmas; perhaps it represents the answers to those enigmas.” (Guibert, 2015). Neruda was one of the first poets to explore sexual imagery and eroticism in his work and become accepted for it. Many Latin-American poets had attempted the same, but failed to become popular with their critics. He merges his own experiences and memories with that of the picturesque Chilean scenery to present a beautifully poetic sense of love and sexual desire. The collection hosts quite a controversial opinion, however, amongst critics and readers alike, with the risqué themes running throughout the poems. Eroticism being one of the most evident and reoccurring themes.