Analysis of 6 poems on the topic, 'Hidden messages'. contains poems by hughes, mcauley, strand, dobson, yeats, williams.

“We didn’t all come over on the same ship, but we’re all in the same boat.” –Bernard M. Baruch. America is considered a melting pot, where all races and cultures ideally co-exist as equals. Even though Individual’s emerge from different backgrounds, they are all brought together under one identity, as American. African-Americans, however, had to fight to be an assimilated part of American society, and claim for themselves the bonds that unite Americans one to another. In “Theme for English B”, Hughes depicts the similarities between himself, the black student, and his Professor, In order to assert that Individuals can emerge from different backgrounds, however, they share similarities, and they are still able to assimilate with one another.

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.

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,

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 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.

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.

In the first stanza Yeats expresses his conflicting loathing and admiration for modernity through the juxtaposition of “vivid faces” and “grey houses”. This represents the possibilities that modernity can bring; the revitalising of the community or the destruction of tradition and age old energy already lost by the modifications in the city. The repetition of the phrase “A terrible beauty is born” in the first and fourth stanzas articulate this inner turmoil revolving around modernity. This oxymoronic declaration is emphasised throughout the text by Yeats’ confusion towards the rebellion and its necessity. The fourth stanza embodies this conflict, removing the previously represented idea that life in pre-rebellion Ireland was a “casual comedy”, alluding to an Elizabethan play where the characters were content. By asking the rhetoric questions “was it needless death” and “O when may [British rule] suffice?” Yeats parallels the unresolved contradiction of “terrible beauty”. However, this sensitive treatment of conflict allows the retainment of ambiguity and can be related to any change within life, hence allowing audiences to superimpose their own beliefs and ideas into the poem. Yeats continues to explore his aversion towards modernism in The Second Coming with the appointment of a new “gyre” standing as the symbol for a new age. The fear of

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.

Frost further points out that the stretch of woods being viewed is very rural. This is made possible by the reference to the location between the woods and frozen lake. In closing the final sentence of the second stanza Frost reiterates the fact that this occurs on “the darkest evening of the year” stating the darkness of the mood.

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.

• The chorus talks about the inevitability of crime and punishment by the gods. Zeus will punish Paris because he is the god of hospitality and it is his laws of hospitality that have been broken; they also suggest that there is no way to “enchant away the rigid fury”.

The first book of the Iliad begins with the beginning of Achilles’ rage, the rage that will eventually cause his own people so much grief and is also the force for Homer’s version of the story of the Trojan War. Whereas the taking of Helen is the focus of the larger, traditional story, the feud between Agamemnon and the hero Achilles over a kidnapped girl defines the Iliad. Both feature a conflict over a woman, Helen and Chryses’ daughter, and a need for resolution as well as a breach of social contract: Paris steals the wife of Agamemnon, ruining the bonds of the guest relationship, while Agamemnon denies Chryse his right to ransom and invokes the wrath of the gods in the form of a plague. In both cases, however, it becomes clear that the conflict will not be resolved quickly, but will continue through the very heart of the story. By “singing of Achilles’ rage” from the first line, the narrator is clearly showing the audience that this Trojan war is not the war of Hector or Paris or Helen, but of the proud Achilles and his hero-sized enemy.

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”.

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

The title of the poem is important, because it is the only indication of the characters who are the subject of the poem. In the poem, Yeats assumes that the reader is familiar with the myth referred to in the title. Throughout the fourteen lines, he never uses the names of either of the characters. Zeus’s name in fact appears neither in the title nor the text of the poem; the reader is expected to understand that the swan is an incarnation of the all-powerful god.