Analysis Of The Poem ' The Solomon '

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.

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.

Clint Smith is a writer, teacher, and doctoral candidate in Education at Harvard University with a concentration in Culture, Institutions, and Society. Smith Clint wrote a poem called “Something You should Know.” The poem is about an early job he had in a Petsmart. The poet allows the readers into his personal life, but before he had trouble opening up to people and his work. Moreover, Clint wrote an insight in the poem about relying in anything to feel safe and he says it is the most terrifying thing any person can do.

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.

Peter Tanner who is the brother-in-law of Ford tried to give the impression to Solomon of being a harsh slave owner, however Solomon sees the humorous side of Tanner. Just like Ford “Tanner was in the habit of reading the Bible to his slaves on the Sabbath, but in a somewhat different spirit.” (Page 127) Unlike the sermons of Ford, Tanner used the bible to justify the whipping of his slaves:

Audit is a poem written by editor, translator, fiction writer, and poet Tony Barnstone. He has written a collection of varied and unique poems, from topics of the Second World War to a poetry book based on material in classic pulp fiction and B-movies. Barnstone has won numerous awards and literary competitions for his diverse work, including the Pushcart Prize in Poetry and the John Ciardi Prize in Poetry. This poem offers an interesting take on relationships and love and its relation to the world of business. The poem utilizes a variety of poetic devices, some being obvious and others more obscure, which will be explored throughout this paper.

Dwight Okita wrote the poem "Responce to Executive 9066", while Sandra Cisneros wrote "Mericans", both are about American identity. Okita talks more about culture with your family and Cisneros wrote about cultural heritage and physical appearance. Those three things do not determine if you are fit to be an American or not.

In the slave pen, a potential buyer asked him, “Well boy, where did you come from?”(36). He then replied, “From New York” (36). Solomon knew that there would be consequences for suggesting that he was from a free state. The risks of doing any of this were oblivious to him because he was not afraid to rebel against his master. Buyers in the slave pen most likely would not care about the feelings of the slaves, because they are supporters of slavery and do care about human rights or the injustices of slavery There was a slim chance that he would be saved, but there was a very high chance that he would be punished.

The Song of Solomon is a novel published in 1977 and written by author, Toni Morrison. The story follows a young African American boy living in Michigan and all the struggles that come of it. The novel starts with the main character, Macon Dead III, as a young boy who is still breast feeding from his mother. He breastfeeds long through his toddler years and thus is given the nickname, “Milk Man”. The fact that Macon was breastfed until an older age is important information, because it helps to define his relationship with his mother.

The Poem "Response to Executive Order 9066," by Dwight Okita and the shorty story "Mericans" by Sandra Cisneros's both interpret the meaning or theme that even though you may not be FULLY American or have all the American roots that one does, you can still have a stronger attachment to the American identity more than you would have on your own culture/race's identity. This poem and short story both give examples by stating things that either character from the story likes about the American identity and how strongly connected they are to it. In the Poem "Response to Executive 9066" by Dwight Okita, gives a straight forward statement in the beginning of the story stated by a little Japanese girl saying that all though her race and roots are Japanese, she thinks chop sticks are weird and hard to use which is seen very confusing due to the fact that she is Japanese and chop sticks are a highly used utensil in Japan and China. She also then stated that hotdogs are her favorite food which is known for an American food, giving a connection to the theme that all though you may not be American or originate from here, you can however be attachment to America and its roots can be strong.

In Stephen Dunn’s poem The Sacred, students mention what places are sacred to them, specifically, the car. On a deeper level, the poem depicts what teenagers value as an escape and what they try to escape from.

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.

“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.

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.

Fairy tales are full of tropes and stereotypes that exist from story to story, one of the main ones being the “happily ever after” ending. Most fairy tales, especially the traditional Perrault or Grimm versions, fall prey to this trope where the main goal is for the princess to find her prince, get married, and live happily ever after. Many critics, particularly feminist critics, find this trope to be problematic because of the extreme emphasis placed on marriage as women’s main, if not only, objective in life. Karen Rowe, for example, states in her essay “Feminism and Fairy Tales”, that “fairy tales perpetuate the patriarchal status quo by making female subordination seem a romantically desirable, indeed an inescapable fate” (342). In other words, Rowe relates the “romanticizations of marriage” portrayed in fairy tales with promotions of “passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice” expected of women in their everyday lives (342). However, it can be dangerous to assume that every fairy tale conforms to the singular promotion of marriage as women’s only option. While early fairy tales such as “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty” tend to glorify the romantic ideal of marriage, and in turn female subordination, contemporary tales and adaptations such as Brave and Frozen, are working to give women a more powerful position.