Carry's Contradiction

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.

The strongest usage of metaphor in this poem is in the first stanza in the line “write their knees with necessary scratches”. While scratches cannot be written, words can, so this insinuates that children learn with nature, and that despite its fading presence in today’s urban structures, it is a necessary learning tool for children. The poet has used this metaphor to remind the reader of their childhood, and how important it is to not just learn from the confines of a classroom, but in the world outside. This leads to create a sense of guilt in the reader for allowing such significant part of a child’s growing up to disintegrate into its concrete surroundings. Although a positive statement within itself, this metaphor brings upon a negative

In Father and Child, as the persona moves on from childhood, her father becomes elderly and is entertained by simple things in nature, “birds, flowers, shivery-grass.” These symbols of nature remind the persona of the inconsistency of life and the certainty of death, “sunset exalts its known symbols of transience,” where sunset represents time. Both poems are indicative of the impermanence of life and that the persona has managed to mature and grow beyond the initial fearlessness of childhood moving onto a sophisticated understanding of death.

The tone of the poem changes as the poem progresses. The poem begins with energetic language like “full of heroic tales” and “by a mere swing to his shoulder”. The composer also uses hyperboles like “My father began as a god” and “lifted me to heaven”. The use of this positive language indicates to the responder that the composer is longing for those days – he is nostalgic. It also highlights the perspective of a typical child. The language used in the middle of the poem is highly critical of his father: “A foolish small old man”. This highlights the perspective of a typical teenager and signifies that they have generally conflicting views. The language used in the last section of the poem is more loving and emotional than the rest: “...revealing virtues such as honesty, generosity, integrity”. This draws attention to a mature adult’s perspective.

This simile is a representation of the egocentric attitude of the poet, as the birth of her child is simply a reminder of her disintegrating life. While Wright and Plath both convey views on the beginning life, Wright focuses on how it is natural and beautiful, while Plath considers birth to be a burden. After birth follows life, as expressed by Dickenson and Wright.

The appreciation of nature is illustrated through imagery ‘and now the country bursts open on the sea-across a calico beach unfurling’. The use of personification in the phrase ‘and the water sways’ is symbolic for life and nature, giving that water has human qualities. In contrast, ‘silver basin’ is a representation of a material creation and blends in with natural world. The poem is dominated by light and pure images of ‘sunlight rotating’ which emphasizes the emotional concept of this journey. The use of first person ‘I see from where I’m bent one of those bright crockery days that belong to so much I remember’ shapes the diverse range of imagery and mood within the poem. The poet appears to be emotional about his past considering his thoughts are stimulated by different landscapes through physical journey.

The use of simile in the last stanza ‘matchstick hands as pale as the violet stems they lived among’ is used to compare a frog to violet flowers, which are very delicate and easily broken. The innocence of childhood is painted through this visual technique as the narrator only sees the frogs being very delicate, but to the readers the simile also creates a vivid image of the condition of the ‘Frogs’/ the French. The use of first person helps to create a reminiscent tone about the narrator’s experiences, and further helps to stress the ideas of childhood innocence and the influence of war on children because the poem is written from a child’s perspective. The use of enjambment generates a conversational and personal tone, emphasizing to the readers the reality of the themes discussed throughout the poem. The use of symbolism of frogs as pets and also representing the French highlights the idea that adults saw ‘Frogs’ as insignificant or unworthy to speak about, whereas the children could not understand this adult thought, and they placed exemplary regard to the wellbeing of the

The further the poem is read, the more consuming the impacts of separation becomes to the narrator until they now desire to recede from their past. The title of the poem confirms this desire through insinuating that the path of separation that they are on is perpetual and therefore, shows no clear destination. This ending consequently leaves a feeling of hopelessness for the reader that is meant to mimic the hopelessness that the narrator feels over their situation. However, in the conclusion of my personal response, I recognize the impacts of separation and the need to correct them. Whilst not wanting to vanish from society, I admit to the difficulty of returning to society due to now being accustomed to the feeling of separation and the nothingness that it creates within me.

There are clues throughout the poem that express the man’s past experiences, leading him to have a hostile tone. The speaker represents his past as “parched years” that he has lived through (7-8) and represents his daughter’s potential future as

The imagery in the poem “35/10” also conveys the speaker’s wistfulness and jealousy for her daughter’s youth. The speaker describes her daughter as, “a moist/ precise flower on the tip of a cactus” (9-10) while she says, “my skin shows/ its dry pitting” (8-9). These phrases paint an image of the daughter as blooming and new, whereas the speaker is wilting and used. The word moist is associated with youthfulness and the word dry is associated with old age. The speaker’s use of the contrasting words moist and dry also allows the reader to use visual and tactile senses to picture the physical differences between the

In the poem ‘ Ordinary Life ’ and the adapted excerpt from ‘Lives of Girls and Women’, Barbara Crooker and Alice Munroboth respectively display an ordinary family life of two families living in different life styles. Both families live in harmony. However in terms of reality, Garnet’s family living style in the excerpt is more likely to take place in the real life than the family in ‘Ordinary Life’ .

The acclaimed poet and writer, Meena Alexander, in an excerpt from her autobiography, “Fault Lines”, describes her scrambled upbringing and the effects it had on her. Meena Alexander’s purpose is to inform the audience of the effect of lack of absolute identity on her life. Meena Alexander manipulates syntax, simile, and metaphor to depict her convoluted identity and her confusion regarding her identity.

(7-9) represent the maturity of the daughter and her intelligence. The references show how the daughter analyzes and observes her surroundings, making her appear much too wise for her age. Also, there are descriptions of the boys, in comparison to the daughter, "... They tower and/ bristle, she stands there smooth and sleek" (2-3) symbolizes the distinct differences between the genders around the age of puberty. Each element of symbolism, whether directed at the daughter or not, contributes adequate support to the poem's

The realization of difference often marks a significant moment of turning in childhood, moving from a blissful but naïve ignorance to a newfound sense of reality’s burden. Countee Cullen and Cecilia Woloch chronicle the moment when a child grasps a sense of difference from other children and the surrounding world. Hinged by their elegiac tones, the contemporary poets explore how wounding words cause loss. Cullen’s “Incident” and Woloch’s “Blink” both implement imagery of size to examine the volta that is the realization of difference. This manifests in Cullen's specific diction, and Woloch’s integration of visceral and religious imagery. Each poem has a volta, a turning point of realization that reveals, in retrospect, the impact of the poem's events on the narrator's life. The contrasting placement of the volta causes the poems themselves to differ in their sense of closure, leaving the reader grasping the remnants of childhood innocence. Cullen's word choice leading to a sudden volta show how a tiny event can leave an imprint on a lifetime, while Woloch's rising volta gives hope in the last line of the poem.

This is accentuated through the speaker’s symbolism of the bridge, “I took the road, and at the bridge” highlighting the persona’s thoughts in the representation of the two paths available to him, hindering his self-discovery of family love. Additionally, Dobson demonstrates the juxtaposition between the house and the town, “Between the lit house and the town” emphasising the town’s invigorating experiences in contrast to his ordinary lifestyle. This is seen within the impersonal language of “house” than “home”, exemplifying the speaker’s assertion of individual thought in leading to new worlds which can vary according to our ideals and future possibilities. Thus, Dobson thoroughly elucidates the negative, emotional implications of discovery by examining the impact arising from the embracing of one’s individuality to shift thoughts and social-perceptions to catalyse an individual’s future