Ballad of Pearl May Lee in Gwendolyn Brook's Street in Bronzeville

The atmospheric conditions may represent the hardships that the couple had to go through in their relationship, and may also be used contrast the unpredictability of the outside world compared to the steady relationship that the couple have. ‘A Youth Mowing’ is also a poem about relationships, this time it is between a younger couple. The river ‘Isar’ is a symbol of freedom, it represents the way that the men’s lives are. However, this sense of liberty is broken by the ‘swish of the scythe-strokes’ as the girl takes ‘four sharp breaths.’ Sibilance is used to show that there is a sinister undertone to the freedom that the boy has which will be broken by the news that his girlfriend is bringing. She feels guilty for ‘what’s in store,’ as now the boy will have to be committed to spending the rest of his life with her, and paying the price for the fun that they had.

In her poem “One Perfect Rose,” Dorothy Parker misleads the reader throughout the first and second stanzas into believing this poem is a romantic tribute to a tender moment from her past through her word choice and style of writing. However, the tone of the entire poem dramatically changes upon reading the third and final stanza when Parker allows the reader to understand her true intention of the poem, which is a cynical and perhaps bewildered view of the memory. And, with this shift in the tone in the third stanza, there is a shift in the meaning of the entire poem, leading the reader to believe that the first two stanzas were not, in fact, sweet but instead a sarcastic and bitter account of this past moment. In the first stanza, Dorothy

The poem then transitions to the post-marriage life of the couple in stanza two. In lines eight through ten, the speaker states that she is too shy around her husband. Not only does she not smile, but also she does not answer her husband when he calls her. This shows that the speaker's life took a great emotional transition, as she is overly shy and feels uncomfortable around him. However, around the middle of the second stanza, the speaker transitions into another stage of

In On Turning Ten by Billy Collins the literary devices that are used to express the theme of aging are word choice, figurative language and symbolism. The word choices that has been put together shows that the narrator is maturing. An example of this was when the narrator says “but now if I fall upon the sidewalks of life, I skin my knees. And bleed.” (Collins 31) . The word choice that is used to describe how the character falls is an advanced way for a child to explain how reality is hitting her at this age. Billy Collins used symbolism by comparing herself falling on the ground to the real world. In the quote mentioned above the author is explaining that when she gets older failing in life is not what is used to be, but now she bleeds and is experiencing real life. In this quote it is showing the theme of aging because it is a point of realization in this character's life that she is no longer a child. Lastly another literary device that was used is figurative language, Colins used similes to enhance the theme of again. The narrator explains how she is feeling upset and she is saying this to herself “as she walk[s] through the universe in [her] sneakers” (Collins 21). The usage of similes in this context is having the character compare sadness to walking through the universe which is lonely and sad. All three of these literary devices show that throughput the short poem the character is having a reflective moment on her life where

To begin with, the author’s implementation of short sentence fragments throughout the poem illustrates the exasperation and frustration bottled up in women in response to

The famous African American poet, Gwendolyn Brooks, grew up on the south-side of Chicago. She paved the way for many female African American woman today. In the The African American Experience textbook there is two amazing poems written by her. One is titled “The Sonnet-Ballad” and the other is titled “We Real Cool”. On the surface these two poems seem to have simple means, but if you dig under the surface there is more than meets the eye. Each poem has the three component that make a poem according to Stephen Henderson. Each poem has a theme, structure, and saturation. Each component is presented in a different way. Its presented in a way that makes the poem more affective in its message, and that is the reason why these poems are so

Dunbar and Randall both use interesting imagery in their poems to display how the character truly feels. In the “Ballad of Birmingham,” stanzas

Throughout the poem, the author creates different tones using different types of figurative language and diction. The poet starts off the poem with the metaphor, “Although she feeds me

The jealous tone disappears at the end, however, and the poem ends wistfully and resigned stating that, “It’s an old/story—the oldest we have on our planet--/the story of replacement” (16-18). The speaker realizes that aging is part of the continuous life process, which starts at birth and ends at death. She understands that each phase of life has a specific purpose for maintaining the species. Her daughter must mature so she can create new life, just as the speaker did ten years ago. She knows that eventually her daughter will replace her and that the life process will continue to repeat itself for generations to come.

The works of Gwendolyn Brooks has gone through several changes throughout her career. When she first published in 1945, she was eager to be understood by strangers. In her last two poetical collections, however, she has dumped that attitude and gone ?black?. Her change then led her from a major publishing house to smaller black ones. While some critics found an angrier tone in her work, elements of protest had always been present in her writing. Her poetry moves from traditional forms including sonnets, ballads, variations of the Chaucerian and Spenserian stanzas, and the rhythm of the blues to the most unrestricted free verse. To sum up, the popular forms of English poetry appear in her work, but there is some testing as she puts together lyric, narrative, and dramatic poetic forms. In her narrative poetry, the stories are simple but usually go beyond the restrictions of place. In her dramatic poetry, the characters are often memorable because they are everyday survivors not heroes. Her characters are drawn from the underclass of the nation's black slums. Like many urban writers, Brooks has recorded the impact of city life. However, aside from most committed naturalists, she does not entirely blame the city for what happens to people. The city is simply an existing force with which people must deal with. The most dominant theme in Brooks?s work is the

The overt and easy emotional character of men and women is possibly one of the reasons many find this poem so enduringly human. Whatever our weaknesses and failings as humans men and women both are deeply moved by thoughts of home; memories of old love; lost friends; lost youth; and death. Men weep -- Odysseus prodigiously throughout the poem -- the poem is drenched in tears (squeeze text)-- and laughter too. The emotional overtones here are easy and free -- it's an attractive and I think healthy world in that regard.  there are contemporary understandings of human nature that view the capacity for easy emotional discharge as a key to thinking well, thinking rationally. Our intellectual capacities can be stopped up, occluded by, unfinished emotional work. A good cry, a good laugh, a good scream, is just what the doctor ordered. Retentive individuals, cultures, genders, tend to act differently -- irrationally in some areas.

Now this story talks about the feeling’s blacks or colored and how they still remember slavery. In both poems they use some form of

and Femininity. The poem is mainly about motherhood in a way as previously discussed. She

Though given tone, the author also implements mood into the poem. Mood is the emotional feeling created in the reader throughout the poem. One of the many ways that mood is created is through the tone of the author. Creating mood through tone is when “The attitude of the writer, speaker, or narrator evokes feelings and emotions

The person shows a good spirit through laugh at all ironic that happens in his or her life. In another word, it shows the spirit of people to survive against all good and bad things that happens in their life. The second and third line of the first stanza can indicate as the attitude of the person.