Comparing the Poetry of Gary Snyder and Ruth Stone Essay

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell is a story of a teenager named Jason who writes poetry, and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke is the story of an experienced poet who gives advice to a young poet looking for some advice. In both stories, ideas of beauty are introduced and developed, and while the idea of “beauty stems from within” are the same, their developments are very different. While some differences are small, these differences create a different mood in the overall presentation of the central themes. These changes in development style showcase each author's literary prowess, but even with all these changes in style and mood, the central idea of beauty still remains the same in each story.

The excerpt from Mary Oliver’s “Building the House” serves as a way to describe what happens during the poetry writing process. Although Mary Oliver believes that writing poetry is hard work, she uses extended metaphor, juxtaposition, and point of view to describe the writing process in comparison of building a house, which shows that Oliver sees poetry as something that involves mental labor which is a different challenge than physical labor .

In this essay I am going to compare and contrast ‘When we two parted’ a poem of George Gordon, Lord Byron’s written in 1815 and Letitia Elizabeth Landon’s ‘Love’s last lesson’ written in c1838, both poets are British and of the romantic period.

Steven Herrick’s verse novel “By the River” is very successful in conveying the significant ideas about human nature. He uses key themes such as grief, environmental influence and coming of age to explore these ideas. To convey the themes Herrick uses multiple techniques such as imagery, repetition, personification and positive and negative influence throughout his text.

Before we pass on from this world it would be nice if we had left our mark, given our contribution, made our claim in the history of human civilization. Wouldn't it be wonderful to achieve such a goal? Wouldn't it be horrible to have attained that level of recognition and yet be recognized for things you deemed inferior? In the poem "The Poet", Paul Laurence Dunbar expresses his remorse at having written superior Standard English literature and yet only be known and praised for his Dialect works.

Over the years, the wars throughout history have provided magical but traumatic contributions to art forms of all types. From the writings of Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five", to the poetry of Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen, they have influenced many of the modern forms of art that we see and study today. These works have been deconstructed and analysed in many different ways, but the work of Brooke and Owen continue to be controversial due to the subject matter. Commonly, popular poets and artists stray away from the topics of death and tragedy, but Brooke and Owen confront it in a realistic, in-your-face fashion. Some of the key differences between these two unique poets is the way that they approach the subjects of war-related death

Robert Gray most definitely provokes thought and stirs emotion through an effective use of language and techniques used in his poems. One of his major messages are those connected with mans effect on the environment and our constant need to create something new and yet, forget about what we already have and where that ends up. Also the sense of our society almost becoming, un-Australian and very international.

Throughout history poetry has been written since earlier 2000 B.C. and it was not until the late sixteen centuries, that poetry for Chicanos, (Mexican-American), were getting written. During and after the Mexican-American War of 1848, is when the Mexican-American poetry became popular. However, the real popularity and the creative literature activity among Chicano authors was in the 1960 through the 70’s; l this era being called the Renaissance Era. Chicano's often shape their poetry and solidify their cultural and the struggles of their minority culture. In this paper I am going to compare and contrast two Mexican-American poets. Telling the reader about the different types of poetry each one used, along with ways that they expressed themselves.

The poem “Facing it” by Yusef Komunyakaa has a tone that will haunt a reader well after they are done reading it. The poem is about the author, a veteran visiting the Vietnam veteran’s memorial for the very first time. The author describes the emotional impact the visit has on him. The author uses lines such as “I said I wouldn’t, dammit: No tears.” (Komunyakaa, 1947, line 3-4) and “I’m stone. I’m flesh” (Komunyakaa, 1947, line 5) to drive home the emotion and deep feelings in the poem. Throughout the poem the author utilizes personification to add to the effect and tone of the poem as well. The author talks about the memorials stone as if it were alive. He uses the line “I turn this way –the stone lets me go.” (Komunyakaa, 1947, line 9). This is an example of the personification the author uses to help bring the stone to life. The author feels the stone truly has a strong hold on him.

Poems which can be compared to the novella ‘Of Mice and Men’ is ‘The Farmers Bride’ written by Charlotte Mew. This once again explores the relationship between husband and wife without an element of honest affection towards each other leading to failed marriages. The poem begins ‘Three summers since I chose a maid’. Like Curleys wife the farmer’s bride also has no distinct identity and is merely a possession. This emphasizes the meagre status of a woman in a male dominated society. The way the poem is put is presented one could possibly suggest the farmer ‘chose’ a bride in a state of compulsion. This does resemble the scenario of Curley and his wife presented by Steinbeck in ‘Of Mice and men’ to a certain extent. The only difference is that Curley’s wife consented for marriage due to possible obstinacy as she always dreamed to be an actress but when that didn’t work she married Curley with a slight hope of things working out later. Despite being bonded together there is an element of separation and echoes of loneliness. Both Curley’s wife and the farmer’s bride are victims of loneliness and are kept apart from other as they are believed to not follow the norms of society. The farmer’s bride tried running away from the unknown imprisonment she was facing but they ‘caught her and turned the key upon her’. On the other hand Curley’s wife is also assumed to be contented with limited interaction with other as they believe ‘she don’t like to talk to anyone’. Despite these

In lines 1-2, “my black face fades, hiding inside the black granite” he is speaking about how his face is literally black from the granite wall. He is also speaking how the kind of person we show to the world. We do not always show who we truly are, people only show the side of their personality that they want people to see. From these two lines, the narrator brings up the main theme of this poem. In lines 3-5, the writer is expressing his feelings or he is at least trying not to, he tries to hold back his emotions from the war. He wants to remain strong because he says, “I’m stone and flesh” He is not literally saying that he is stone but he is a person that has been through a lot and even after everything he is still alive. In lines 6-9, imagery is the only thing being used because he is only speaking about his reflection and how it relates to the granite stone. In lines 10-13, he says, “I am inside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial”. From this line, part of the narrator is still stuck at the war. He brings up light and how he wants it to make a difference. Light is symbolized for how we represent ourselves to others and the kind of person we truly are. It also plays a big part in the poem

The usage of similes and alliteration in the lyrics “Like a Rolling Stone,” helps reflect the poetry in his work. The first and most vivid poetic device used throughout one of Bob Dylan’s top ten hits “Like a Rolling Stone” are similes. The best example of a simile in his lyrics appears in line sixteen through eighteen. “With no direction home / A complete unknown / Just like a rolling stone?” (Dylan 16-18). With Bob Dylan stating this negative comparison of a hopeless woman to a stone rolling down a hill, going out of control, supports his listeners with the thought of a lonely woman with no direction home. “So this phrase, “a rolling stone,” that meant a lack of material possessions, a lack of home, a lack of belonging for those who first sang it, became a symbol of liberation for the rock generation” (Bowie). These material ties weakened our vision and the ability to be able to see around us. Singing this phrase and ending it with a question allowed Bob Dylan to create the sense of freedom and the achievement of clearing his listeners visions to help them see through the illusions around them. The other poetic device that contributed to the admirable background of the lyrics in “Like a Rolling Stone” is the usage of alliteration. The first example of the occurrence with the same sound and letters is in lines one to three, “Once upon a time you dressed so fine / You threw the bums a dime in your prime, / Didn’t you?” (Dylan 1-3). With the repetition of -ime and -ine it presents us with a childlike feel towards the song. In addition to the childish feeling, it seems as if the woman approaches life in a much more simplistic way. “The short line length, the fairy-tale opening, the simple words and images, the straightforward aaaa repeating rhyme — all these elements work together to create the feeling of a children’s song, of a child’s world” (Bowie). The woman described in Bob Dylan’s lyrics assumes that

In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by

The writing of Letters to a Young Poet and the story of Black Swan Green are similar in their message. Letters to a Young Poet mainly “Letter One” is a writing that the poet Rainer Maria Rilke is giving advice and opinion to a young poet. Rilke give various advice to the poet on what he should and should not do. Rilke does not directly give criticism to the poet but say that he needs to improve. The story of Black Swan Green or more specifically the chapters of “Hangman” and “Solarium” written by David Mitchell is the interaction between Madame Crommelynck and Jason Tayler.

William Carlos Williams and Robert Frost are known as two of the greatest poets of their time and still highly regarded as two of the best poets of all time. Robert Frost was born in 1874 in San Francisco, California according to The Associated Press. William Carlos Williams was born in 1883 in Rutherford, New Jersey, according to the poetryfoundation.org. Both men died just two months apart in 1963. Williams is the author of the poem “Spring and All” and Frost is the author of “Dust of Snow”. These two poems