Analyzing The Poem 'Melinda'

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.

Abandoned by her mother at three-year-old, married at the age 19, three children at the age of 26, and with only a fifth-grade level education. My mom was in prison for a month after struggling to cross the Mexican border into the United States. My mom came to American seeking a better future where my siblings and I did go hungrier to be able to survive. The poet is describing the word “Migration” that takes a different method in relating what is crossing the border as well as tense perceptive effects that occur when it comes to crossing the border. Rosa Alcala’s poem has persona, metaphor, images and figures speech the author can illustrate the feeling of the poem as attentive vagueness.

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.

Patricia talks about going to a Christian Endeavours Friday nights, and having a pretty normal school life (minus symptoms of her DID; blurry memory, confusions of learning subject or meeting people.) She was a Brownie and participate in the Girls Brigade, similar things that normal girls did growing up then and now (Nobles,2006,43-44). She had friends and played with kids in her neighborhood she was sometimes a ‘normal’ girl. Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way was the part about the vacation to Jersey (Nobles, 2011, 47), the girls knew that their father wasn’t going, but when they get to the station Kim finds out she isn’t going either. I found myself saying the questions she was saying to her self, “why was she not going, what had she done?” Some one that Patricia expresses her love for her is her ‘friend’ Lillian in Chapter 8 who she attended Warlingham, she shares how much she appreciated her later for her patience. Kim was constantly questioning her about school, why she was there, why she couldn’t go home, why her dad brought her back after being sent home for just a few hours (Nobles,2011,132). Her mother had a huge drinking problem and while Patricia also though she had one, I think she was just simply trying to just justify why she was blacking out. She was always asking her self “why don’t I remember anything, why am I always feeling like time is just flying by”. Her mother heavily drank through her entire childhood and into her adult hood it was a big

“Once upon a time there was a wife and mother one too many times” (Godwin 39). This short story begins with the famous opening, once upon a time, which foreshadows that the story line will be similar to a fairy tale. It raises expectations for the story that all will be magical and end happily. A typical modern-day fairy tale is that of a distressed character who overcomes an obstacle, falls in love with prince charming, and they ride off into the sunset; living happily ever after never to be heard from again. Godwin however, puts an unexpected twist on “A Sorrowful Woman”. This short story is a tale about what can happen when everyday roles take over our identity. Ultimately, this short story challenges societal expectations of marriage

The poem “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a lengthy poem describing society and the social structure in the early 50’s from what it sounds. The short story “Girl,” deals with the experience of being young and female in a poor country. This poem describes a time when stereotypical gender roles where a huge part of society women had duties that only women could do such as clean, cook, wash clothing, watch the children and ect. And the men were head of the house hold and preserved as high and mighty, the untouchables by women and children. “This is how you iron your father 's khaki shirt so that it doesn 't have a crease; this is how you iron your father 's khaki pants so that they don 't have a crease;”(Kincaid) is an example of how the poem spells out how the women are supposed to cater to men, how to act in public settings and a variety of other things women were “meant to do” or as ordered by men.

Ladies of the Confederacy are often linked to the term “southern belle.” This label traditionally evokes images of beautiful, spoiled young ladies whose primary concerns were that of attending balls and capturing the attention of men. Attended to by numerous slaves, the stereotypical southern belle “had few tasks other than to be obedient, to ride, to sew, and perhaps to learn reading and writing.”1 By definition, a southern belle is a beautiful upper-class lady from the south.2 The southern belle stereotype is exemplified in many literary portrayals of upper-class southern women of the 19th century, such as that of Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind.”

Melinda takes abuse like getting her hair pulled and being kneed in the back at assemblies, but she doesn't do anything to prevent it or stand up for herself. I think this reflects her depression because she already feels worthless, and she lost all her friends so there is no one there to stand up for her. Furthermore, since

As we develop from children to adults, our perception of our parents can change drastically. The theme of the loss of innocence is portrayed in both poems, through the relationship with a father. Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Daddy’ is an extremely personal confession about realising her father was not the role model she had believed when she was young. The poem mentions that her father “died before I had time” and she “was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die and get back, back, back to you”. The tone of the entire poem is bitter and sharp as Plath pours all her internalized feelings towards her father into the poem. Gwen Harwood explores the same theme of losing childhood innocence, but in a distinctly different way. The poem tells a story of a small child, who is determined to lose their innocence and is instead “a horny fiend”, sneaking out with their father’s gun. Harwood’s poetry sheds light on the idea of wisdom and growth and the desire children feel to be considered mature. Plath ends her poem in a defiant tone, claiming “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through”, indicating she is done with thinking about or mourning him and has reached a point where she can move on from the grief he has caused her. On the other hand, Harwood’s poem ends grimly, after the child’s father tells them to “End what you have begun” and the child kills the owl, before “I leaned my head upon my father’s arm, and wept, owl blind in

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.

Section 1 The poem “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a sonnet with very forward thinking for its time. In most common sonnets, they are about or dedicated to one single person. Edna’s poem is particularly about the remembrance of numerous lovers. This poem is composed in measured rhyming, with a rhyme plan of abbaacdecde. The start of this poem is an octave, following with the second half to be a sestet, which takes after the customary configuration of an Italian poem.

Dove in this piece was describing her own self and her personality; Defiance is the main subject that Dove is trying to put across. Dove uses characterization in describing herself. The first four lines in this poem “I’m not the kind of person who praises openly, or for profit; I’m not the kind who will steal a scene unless I’ve designed it. I’m not a kind at all, in fact:” (1-5). The repetition of the word I’m in these first five lines is a clear indication that Dove wanted to establish the fact that she is not what people think she is. She starts the poem with open defiance to what society think she is and she wants to establish that for her audience to know so they will not get it confused. Dove takes this piece to the next level by these lines “I’m not the kind/who will steal a scene unless I’ve designed it” (2-4) trying to let the audience know that she is original and not one that will use the works of others.

Ted Kooser, the thirteenth Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner, is known for his honest and accessible writing. Kooser’s poem “A Spiral Notebook” was published in 2004, in the book Good Poems for Hard Times, depicting a spiral notebook as something that represents more than its appearance. Through the use of imagery, diction, and structure, Ted Kooser reveals the reality of a spiral notebook to be a canvas of possibilities and goes deeper to portray the increasing complexities in life as we age.

I wrote this sonnet as an assignment for my English class this year. The prompt asked us to write a sonnet for something or someone we loved and cared for, so I chose my older sister Laura as my love for her is a complex and evolving matter that I felt needed to be expressed into poetry. The sonnet describes her as I know her to be: caring, loved, genuine, warm, yet humble as well. It follows the format of a classic Shakespearean sonnet, with three quatrains and a couplet. The first two quatrains of my sonnet praise her and introduce my jealousy for her radiance. In the third quatrain, there is a turning point. I begin by developing the idea of my jealousy, but then I have a change of heart. The couplet concludes the sonnet, describing my changed perspective.

Rita Dove draws out human emotions through her lyrical precision. In her poem called “Testimonial,” Rita expresses a child's thought process and feelings. The poem starts off, “Back when the earth was new.” This quote is talking about when the child first came into the world. The third through fourth stanza says, “back when the names of things hadn't had time to stick.” This is showing the reader that the child was too young and vulnerable to figure out their surroundings. The seventh and eighth stanza says, “when all the poplars quivered sweetly in rank and file.” These stanzas mean that the child got older, so, they had to come to the realization that they had to move to the next stage of life. Rita used the word “quivered” to show