"The Bystander" - Rosemary Dobson
"The Bystander" describes the significance of the insignificant characters in paintings. The speaker in the poem is that figure painted behind/beside the subjects of artworks, where he/it speaks out of its existence to us: in the form of a wing, a squire, a distant figure or part of a crowd.
This insignificant character reflects upon several scenes he/it has stood in, such as the two slaughter of Innocents (i.e. the murder of infants from both Old and New Testament Bibles), and settings such as 'the Garden ' (of Eden). The ignorant speaker who recalls the voice, which said "Eat", in 'the Garden ', gives these certain clues to the learned reader.
Dobson has placed remote rhyming in this poem, as the
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Leda was a beautiful maid who attracted Zeus; the mighty God transformed himself into the form of a swan with his divine powers and raped Leda. The outcome of this was the birth of Helen of Troy. The four stanzas reflect upon the actual scene of the rape, where Zeus (as a swan) attacks Leda.
Yeats uses rhetorical questions to let the reader enter into Leda 's consciousness. Her fingers are "terrified" but "vague", physically they are blurred because they are buried in the feathers of the swan, and emotionally, "vague" may perhaps indicate she does not know what to do or that she does not take any definite action.
Zeus ' magic and mystery are reflected by word use such as "dark webs" than "black feet" as the colour suggests something sinister and mysterious, and "strange heart" has suggestion of enchantment.
The third stanza recalls the tragedies of the Trojan War in the future history: "the broken wall" (Greek forces breaking through Trojan defences), "burning roof and tower" (the visually dramatic image, where both Leda and Troy have their security violated), "Agamemnon dead" (an emphasis on the cataclysmic chain of events engendered by the rape of Leda and the birth of Helen).
"Keeping Things Whole" - Mark Strand
"Keeping Things Whole" describes one 's own place in the physical world. It is a unique way at looking at one 's existence as matter in space. In the three stanzas, Strand repetitively tells the reader of the role he plays to taking
The tale of Achilles is one that is full of bravery and heroics. He is a hero who fights for and is ruled over by no one but himself. All he knows of is war and this is his normal world. Achilles fights so that his name will be remembered and last throughout all the ages. A realization is made that he will eventually die, but his name does not have to. This is Achilles’ call to go and fight against the Trojans, so that his name shall carry on and be remembered. This great war that Achilles fights in was caused by an unfaithful wife by the name of Helen. Achilles transforms from a ruthless, merciless, unloving warrior driven by the notion of having his name remembered to a compassionate warrior who is driven by the love of a woman.
Perhaps this is what the Greek cavalry looked like riding off to war. This could be considered the glorification of the warrior or the athlete of the times, which is also shown in vase paintings and sculptor works. Also note that Sappho gives a historical aspect to the poem with mention of Helen, who was considered to be the most beautiful woman ever according to myth. Her beauty is being compared to the beauty of the army in Fragment 16. These are believes that Greeks hold in moral and ideals of their society.
Reflections Within is a non-traditional stanzaic poem made up of five stanzas containing thirty-four lines that do not form a specific metrical pattern. Rather it is supported by its thematic structure. Each of the five stanzas vary in the amount of lines that each contain. The first stanza is a sestet containing six lines. The same can be observed of the second stanza. The third stanza contains eight lines or an octave. Stanzas four and five are oddly in that their number of lines which are five and nine.
He maintains his focus on Greek myths not only because of the sheer number of myths around the world, making it impossible to interpret and clarify them all, but also because European men, who would have been familiar with the myths from Greece, write most of the classics we analyze. He explains that these myths are not only a part of them but also “so much a part of the fabric of our consciousness, of our unconscious really, that we scarcely notice” (Foster, 51). Which suggests that, we can recognize Greek myths even if we do not realize it. With this simple fact presented to us, we no longer wonder why allusions to Greek myths have been used since they emerged and are still employed today. Myths are often exercised as “overt subject matter for poems and paintings and operas and novels” but more often “writers have…borrowed from and emulated” these myths (Foster, 52, 53). Instead of explaining every detail about every character, place or moment authors rely on other stories, such as myths, to expand and develop their tale. The writer will subtly hint at myths and hope you recognize their allusions to these old legends. Since we established that, we know these myths, whether consciously or not, we can take these allusions and decipher any hidden meanings the author has for us, giving each story a new level.
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.
In the poem “Passed On” by Carole Satymurti, the speaker tells a story almost as in a novel of their mother and how she left them a box of index cards with advice on life when she died. The speaker’s gender seems to be female. In the poem, the poet presents the theme of growing up and becoming one’s own person through the maturation and acceptance process. She personifies the index cards themselves, comparing them to her mother. They also characterize the speaker and her mother and create a mood of sadness and longing, implying that perhaps the mother has been dead for some time, but the speaker has never truly accepted this.
She is the mother of famous twin star, Pollux and Castor. Also, she bore Helen, the most beautiful mortal on Earth causing the great Trojan War. Leda appeared in one of Zeus’s affair, which the story is named “Leda and the swan”.
While reading the poem “Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins sends a message to the readers that they should be patient and impartial when it comes to analyzing a poem in order to see the true meaning behind the without being over analytical. There is a revieting situation that takes place because Billy Collins is delivering his message to all readers about the way that one should be able to read a poem. This poems educates the reader on how to be able to read and plunge into a poem, through using many techniques like mood, tone, and literary devices to do so. In the first two lines Collins demands that we tackle a poem with a invigorating eye. There should be an exploration of what the poem means to us. How does this poem apply to our
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 speaker then moves to a restaurant where he picks up a chicken noodle soup and gets his want across to the staff by simply pointing at it. The stanza ends with the line “I am adjusting well to the new way”(10), showing that according to the speaker the new law is working fine for him and he is able to live a normal life. However, with the entrance into the third stanza we begin to question whether the speaker naturally only acted this way towards the phone call and the staff in the restaurant, without using any words or he was actually saving them for his lover. The second reason is more likely to be true, due to his statement in the next verse “I call my long distance lover, proudly say I only used fifty-nine today. I saved the rest for you”(11/13). Here, the second character is introduced in the poem – the long distance lover. It becomes obvious that the speaker, who is most probably a man, is in a long distance relationship with a woman and the way communicate is via phone call. The speaker tells his lover proudly he has only used fifty-nine words today and has saved the rest for her. This shows the speaker’s devotion towards his lover because he has chosen to use most of his words on her.
The varying structures in the third stanzas emphasize the differentiating views of Helen. The style and structure of “To Helen” contribute to the persona’s romantic notion of Helen of Troy. The stanza is set up like the rest with five lines that illustrate her beauty. She is an “agate lamp” (Poe, line 13) which shines light on Greece and she is “Psyche, from the regions”, “which Are Holy Land!” (Poe, lines 9 and 10). However the unmoved speaker uses just a simple sentence as the last stanza and lacks the exclamation points and a rhyme scheme which portrays the cold disapproval she were laid,
The text of the poem is also important for the reader to understand. In lines 1-4 of the poem, the reader can see that Leda is being attacked. It goes in to detail about her thighs being caressed. At this point the reader is starting to understand that there is some sexual images in the poem. Yeats’ captures the image with “wings beating still above the swaggering girl” and “her nape caught in his bill”. Yeats contrasts those images with the soft images of “her helpless breast upon his breast”. In lines 5-8, Yeats shows the image of rape by the force that “her fingers” can’t push the “feathered glory from her loosening thighs”. In lines 9-14, again Yeats is giving the reader a graphic image of the rape, but also alluding to the fall of the Greeks and expressing the power of Gods over humanity.
without warning”. Then in the third stanza, where he illuminates the allure of letting go of
The final stanza of the poem represents the woman going into labor and the delivery of her child into the world. “I wither and you break from me;” (16). This line represents the moment the
In this poem the poet and speaker are two totally people. The poet is Dudley Randall and the speaker is a spectator. I can tell that the speaker is a speaker because he/she is telling a story for example, "She clawed trough bits of glass and brick." This shows us that the speaker is a spectator since he/she is telling us what is happening as if he/she were there.