For many people a birthday marks a day of festivities: inviting family and friends over for a celebration with a meal, presents, and the popular cutting of the birthday cake. However, I believe that Paul Goodman’s “Birthday Cake” depicts a painful and upsetting scene with the celebration of a birthday. Through his choice of words, images portrayed in the poem, and symbols, Goodman reveals a dark point of view on this special day: birthdays celebrate death rather than life for the old. The first clue of the painful reminder of death is the …show more content…
Goodman describes the cake as a “fiery crown” that is going “through the darkened room advancing.” Reading this, I picture the image of a candle-lit cake being brought into a dark room to the speaker. The fire from the candles light up the room as it travels deeper into the room. Symbolically, “the darkened room advancing” represents the darkness that terminates old age—death. The birthday cake with candles fills the dark room with light, but the speaker will blow out the candles and the room will be dark again. Death is the dark room that is approaching. Like blowing out the candle fires, the life of the speaker will fade as well. The birthday cake symbolizes the old age, and ultimately death, of the speaker. The fifth and sixth stanzas confirm that the speaker has only a few years left to live, “among our savage folk / that have few festivals.” However, the speaker mentions the birthday cake “is still the most loveliest sight.” I imagine the speaker experiencing nostalgia, reflecting on past birthdays when he was happier and younger. This is the only positive connection Goodman makes with the birthday cake. Unfortunately, this tone is reserved only for the second stanza because frustration takes over in the first and third stanzas.
Furthermore, Goodman shows a nostalgic, emotional tone in the second stanza as opposed to the frustrated tone in the first. The latter consists of short, abrupt verses consisting of cacophony.
The sky was always blue holding sunshine rays in her world. Her name was Rosaline Deponte, my great-grandma. The continuous smile that she showed on her face reminded us how precious life is and to not take things for granted. Cold wood floors that could easily freeze toes, single-walled construction, shut rows of jalousie windows, and the smell of warm sweet bread on the counter 24/7, that was Rosaline’s house.
“Happy birthday dear Marley, happy birthday to you!” Of course, my dad just had to go all out and he announced as loud as he could in the house. “13 years ago the famous Marley Jackson was born on June 18th of 1781 and by god was it the best day!” The workers in the house all clapped after my dad's announcement.
In stanza six, we see the end of visiting hour, and the persona’s loss of control as he is overran with emotion. The phrase, “black figure in her white cave” creates an image of an intruder in her sanctuary. The black and white contrast suggests he is a shadow of his former self and also that he is trying to detach himself. The phrase, “clumsily rises” gives connotations of his state as he is physically affected by his feeling of loss. Furthermore, “swimming waves of a bell” is a metaphor which has connotations of water. This is used to illustrate that he is drowning in the realisation that she is dying. Finally, “fruitless fruits” is an oxymoron used to reinforce that there is no hope or going back, for her.
* Independent variable coefficient – This is the measured effect the independent variables have on the dependent variable. This is the main output of the regression analysis.
The main idea for an interpretation of a deeper meaning of the story, The Garden Party by Mansfield, is relating life, and death to be held hand-in-hand. In other words, one day I can live happy and think I can be eternal but death is always near. I don’t usually like to think about death because it can be something scary and overwhelming. Although in this story, I can see that Mrs. Sheridan is a woman from a high-class society. A family that is concerned about with what other people think and the fact of just having a blast every time they are able to. When Mrs. Sheridan heard about the death of Mr. Scott she felt pity for a moment, but continued her party arrangements. In contrast, her daughter, Laura, seemed more humane because when her mother thought about giving the party’s leftovers to her neighbors, she felt that it was rude. Therefore, I can see that she feels empathy with the death of Mr. Scott.
Firstly, the first and the second stanza set up a part of the poem characterised by the imperative form: “Stop
Throughout the short story, The Birthday, the writer, Samantha Ashenhurst uses the writing tool: Get the name of the dog. To begin with, Samantha begins the story with a descriptive introduction, which gives the reader the ability to visualize the current circumstance’s atmosphere. For instance, the author mentions the specific kind of drink and pizza, the color of the blinds, the exact number of times she pukes, and takes medicine, etc. She describes the background’s setting in details as well. In my opinion, Samantha’s very specific, which portrays how honest she is. This also leads to building the writer’s own distinct voice. Thus, this effectively initiates a connection with the reader psychologically.
On a beautiful day in November it started off like any other day in our life. We had such a special occasion to attend that evening at the local park to come together and celebrate our nephew Andy’s birthday. We all arrive and set up the event and get all the balloons and decorations up and ready for Andy to arrive. We all sat around and waited in suspense for him to arrive.
Since night as another meaning in this poem, it makes it a metaphor. Night stands of darkness, which can be interpreted as sadness, depression, suffering, or despair. The speaker is acquainted with the feelings of melancholy because loneliness is expressed throughout the poem. Symbolism creates the feel of distance. The speaker has “outwalked the furthest city lights” and heard a cry “ far away”. The luminary clock is“ further still at an unearthly height”. By the narrator saying this tells use the the luminary clock is the moon, which still is a great distance for one's reach. The watchman is the symbol of judgement. The speaker feels some sort of guilt upon passing the watchman, and the speaker “dropped his eyes unwilling to explain”. All of the symbols within the poem is example of alienation. The speaker is using personification to reflect the speaker's feelings. For example the speaker looked down the “ saddest city lanes” and the moon “proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right”. A moon can not proclaim
In the revised essay, the overall intent of the Katherine Brush was changed from “conveying the theme of selfishness” to a more concise “showcasing the detrimental effects of unhealthy relationships”. This change helped make the essay more solid as the text supports this new idea better and
The faster pace and constant beats provide for a significant change from the broken up stand still qualities of the first stanza. The mood portrayed here is that of eventfulness, even usefulness, it is apparent that the speaker feels more fulfilled or somehow more whole.
In the first stanza Goodman drags the reader through the ritual of putting candles on the cake and he is questioning why? The repetition of the phrase, “too many” indicates that Goodman dislikes birthdays. Goodman goes on to describe in great detail how the many candles form a “fiery crown” and how this ritual is for “savage folks” in a dark room. When he describes the dark room, for which the lights are turned off to showcase the candles, he alludes to death. The third stanza indicates a passing of time when the candles fill the entire cake, and this leads to a fire or more explicitly—death. He wants to go back to his youth where he can enjoy the cake and not what the cake now
Carol Ann Duffy and William Blake both explore aspects of betrayal, but from different perspectives. While Duffy explores the betrayal of a single person, Blake explores the type of betrayal that corrupts and oppresses a society as a whole from the point of view of an outsider. Carol Ann Duffy presents the sense of betrayal in her poem Havisham in many ways. She successfully presents this theme in the first line of stanza one: “Beloved sweetheart bastard.
Perhaps it's the day a child is born, coming into the world with the rise of the sun. This baby is hurtling irrevocably towards his destiny and mortal existence. He is branded with this day’s date, wearing it as a symbol of his age for all his years to come. This day is the most important of his life, marking his beginning. Perhaps it's a woman’s wedding day, the happiest day of her life. She's been waiting weeks, months, even years, for this day, planning out every second of her precious twenty four hours. She stuffs the hours full of activity, from dawn to dusk, savoring every moment she can, knowing the clock will soon strike twelve and she’ll have to leave the ball and her beautiful gown behind and return to reality. However, she will remember this day forever, and celebrate it annually. This is the first day of the rest of her life. Or perhaps it's the last day for someone’s grandfather. As the sun sets, he holds his wife’s hand for the last time and draws his final breath. This is the anticipated conclusion to his life story. In years to come, his son will lay white carnations on his grave on this day, maybe shed a few private tears. Some days are like this, milestones that we impose great meaning on. And they are important, they are the few shining memories we will cling to during our dark times. These pivotal times are pieces of our identity that roots themselves deep in the
A light tapping on my door dissolves the image. I wipe my eyes before resting myself on my elbows and call out, “Come in.”