At Sea - Poem Analysis

Imagine someone dying from a sickness. They know that they are on their last leg. They can either fight to stay alive, or they can give up hope and pass away. People control their own fate. Controlling their own fate means that they decide when it is time for them to die, and don’t just lay down and accept death. This idea can be seen in in many pieces of text including the following poems. “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley and “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas. Both authors express the theme of people control their own fate.

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.

The migrant experience varies for each person, some will have endured traumatic episodes in their life and these experiences are explored in Skrzynecki’s poetry. Through thorough interpretations of Peter Skrzynecki poems, ‘Crossing the Red Sea’, ‘Migrant Hostel’ and ‘Immigrants at Central Station’ the responder gains insight into the emigration experience which encompasses the physical and emotionally draining journey which is a result of the grave uncertainty and doubt lingering around the migrants future. Despite this, through each of his poems the composer also alludes to a future filled with hope and a sense of belonging.

Throughout history, authors have used poetry as a way to express themselves and how they think or feel in an artistic way. There have been poems written about almost every feeling a person has ever had which is why poetry is so popular, because it describes feelings in a way many people cannot. In present day, people from all around the world look back at old poetry and try to define the true meanings behind poems using literally elements and context clues to aid them, this is known as explication. The writing named “Boat of Cypress” is a famous poem written long ago by an unknown author, and composed about a woman full of misery and despair from her personal point of view. Throughout this poem, the readers

Would you ever think an indigenous poem about nature would have any similarities with a short story that is set later on in the future, where everybody is dependent on technology? “The Song My Paddle Sings” is by an early 1900s indigenous poet, Pauline Johnson, and “The Pedestrian” is written by early 2000s writer, Ray Bradbury. The short story and the poem both establish a very determined, lonely,anxious and gloomy mood. “The Song My Paddle Sings” is an indigenous poem that exemplifies to stay determined in every journey in life. The poem is about a man who goes sailing but there is no wind, so then he has to take down the sail and start canoeing but then the water gets faster and he accepts that he has to change for nature. Consequently

The poem titled Sea Rose by Hilda Doolittle tells about a rose, but not just a rose like any other. The poem instantly begins by going against the common connotation of a rose, the reader is given this passage “Rose, harsh rose,” (line 1). When the thought of a rose comes to mind the last word used to describe the soft petals and beautiful color would be harsh. H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) wants us to think about this rose as not an ordinary or normal rose but to see it as something more or something less. She goes on to say, “marred and with stint of petals” (line 2). To mar something is to disfigure or impair the quality/appearance of something, in this case a rose. Stint means to have an ungenerous amount; by this line we can understand that H.D. has begun to take a rose something commonly associated with beauty and love and twist into a disfigured and battered depiction of what it once was. The rest of the stanza goes on to say, “meagre flower, thin, sparse of leaf,”. A rose is meant to be a strong symbol of love and beauty, yet the depiction of the rose H.D. is giving the reader goes against the preconceived notions of what a rose should be. H.D.’s language and perception of the rose challenges to the reader to think of the rose as something more.

The title itself alludes to “The Unknown Soldier,” almost parodying it. According to Georgia Virtual School, an unknown soldier died in battle, however, the body is unrecognizable. It is also known that soldiers are tagged. The fact that the title is the way it is and the subtitle mimics a tag implies that the lives of common folk is so insignificant and uneventful that they might just as well be unknown since they are just another face in the vast crowd of people. This relays a metaphor in the eyes of the reader.

Travellers in order to arrive at their desired destination may encounter hardships as a result of trying to proceed forwards or overcoming obstacles. Journeys challenge travellers with obstacles and without being able to overcome them, may result in life changing consequences preventing the traveller from reaching their destination. The poems by Peter Skrzynecki and Missing Her are two texts in which an exploration of how failure to overcome obstacles within journeys may have resulted in different destinations for the traveller.

In the first stanza, "Hope is the Thing with Feathers," Dickinson has made use of metaphorical bird image to explain the conceptual idea of hope (Dickinson & McNeil 2002). Hope is not a conscious thing, it is lifeless, but by offering hope feathers, the poet creates an image in people's minds. The feathers imagery invokes hope they represent hope as feathers enable a person to fly and give the picture of flying away to another new hope and a new dawn. In disparity, broken feathers and wrecked wing grounds an individual and symbolizes the image of a poor person who has gone through difficult life challenges. The experiences results to their wings being broken making them loose the power to have hope for the future.

The journey,not the arrival is what matters in human experience. It can be said that when one takes the first steps of a journey, that person will be forever changed as they will no longer be the way they were. As on travels, through physical or inner journeys the experiences one has, the decisions one makes and the affects of those decisions enables one to grow and develop in new and unexpected ways. These ideas are explored in Roberts frosts poem the “road not taken” and Peter Skrzynecki's poem “crossing the red sea” in both poems, journey is represented as both a physical and inner state of journeying that all people experience Journeys last forever. Decisions that lead to another can continue throughout one’s life. Proof of this is embedded in “way leads on to way”,a form of repetition shows the continuous nature of the process of journeying. “Ages and ages hence” also represents the similar idea, future tense is used show how the future is undeniably full of new and exciting journeys. Both quotes allow us to understand that the persona understands that journey is continuous/that a journey never ends. Frost shows us that there are a number of possibilities that can all be assessed once a decision is made.

The Fish is a narrative monologue composed for 76 free-verse lines. The poem is constructed as one long stanza. The author is the speaker narrating this poem. She narrates a fishing experience. The author is out in a rented boat on a body of water, presumably a lake. She tries to describe the fish to the fullest, which appears to be the purpose of the poem, without saying either the specie or an approximate age. The narration gives the impression that the fish is slightly old. There are a number of reasons as to why that fish got caught by the author, including time of day, the weeds weighing it down, fish’s age, and the fact that it has been previously caught five times.

When I was looking through 17th-18th century European artwork in the Norton Simon Museum, there was one piece of art that really stood out to me. That beautiful art piece was the Bay of Naples by Claude-Joseph Vernet. This piece stood out to me because of the beautiful scenery that is displayed and the deep serenity the piece gives me when I look at it. The Bay of Naples is a painting of a landscape that captures the daily life of the bay. The materials used for this painting was oil on canvas.

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.

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.