Diana Der-Hovanessian's Personal Influences on her Works

The Translator is about how Daoud made a difference throughout the world and a first person report of one of the biggest stories of our time: the inhuman massacre initiated in Darfur. The book was set in Darfur, Sudan in the summer of 2003. Daoud refers to this book as his “poor limping, a modest account that cannot tell every story that deserves telling.” Daoud Hari helped spread Darfur’s story all over the world.

Among the various structural and thematic elements, Debora Greger’s “West of Myself” provides a sense of nostalgia and reminiscence of the past. The poem illustrates how life and memory are not so easily remembered or taken. The speaker of the poem is dramatizing her inner conflict and chastising herself for the direction her life has taken and where she believes it will befall. The compelling force for the creation of the work might have been to express memories of living a life and reflection, looking at life from hindsight. The poem reveals where she once thought the right way in life was to go and where she now thinks the right way would have been.

In Natasha Trethewey’s poetry collection Native Guard, the reader is exposed to the story of Trethewey’s growing up in the southern United States and the tragedy which she encountered during her younger years, in addition to her experiences with prejudice and to issues surrounding prejudice within the society she is living in. Throughout this work, Trethewey often refers to graves and provides compelling imagery regarding the burial of the dead. Within Trethewey’s work, the recurring imagery surrounding graves evolves from the graves simply serving as a personal reminder of the past, to a statement on the collective memory of society and comments on how Trethewey is troubled with what society has forgotten as it signifies a willingness to overlook the dehumanization of a large group of people.

One of the things that is so fascinating about poetry is that it allows readers to discover and sometimes challenge and channel their emotions as well as their understanding. A poem’s words as well as its structure can reveal many things to its intended audience. In “Myth” by Natasha Trethewey, the poems form is just as important as the words she writes, becoming a map for the journey Trethewey takes, using transitions to take us from one place to another. The nature of the poem therefor becomes multifaceted, as it encourages the reader to think about the speaker’s words and use of form and structure she uses to craft this epic story. Using form as a tool, Trethewey is able to use structure as a way to guide us as readers and the speaker across the conscious and unconscious thoughts and dreams the speaker faces in this story.

The country of origin for Anglo-Americans is considered Western Europe. Also, Anglo-Americans are considered an ethnic group with European descendants. (Rosdahl & Kowalski, 2017)

Americans from the very beginning have never originated from the U.S., the first americans immigrated from England. Americans now aren’t the stereotypical blue eyes, and blonde hair. Americans are now like a rainbow sherbert ice cream, many colors and flavors.

When isolated from society, loneliness becomes a part of you. In the poems, The Wife’s Lament translated by Ann Stanford and The Seafarer translated by Burton Raffel, are two similar and different poems. The characters in these poems handle their exiles in different ways. The way the two characters reflect from their exile is based off Anglo-Saxon values and beliefs. These poems compare and contrast the exile between men and women.

Natasha Trethewey’s purposeful limited view on her mother’s death in Native Guard reveals her difficult journey through coping mechanisms. Trethewey’s collection of poems revolve around ideas such as grief, her mother’s death and racism. In “Graveyard Blues”, Trethewey

Unlike other forms of literature, poetry can be so complex that everyone who reads it may see something different. Two poets who are world renowned for their ability to transform reader’s perceptions with the mere use of words, are TS Eliot and Walt Whitman. “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” by TS Eliot, tells the story of a man who is in love and contemplating confessing his emotions, but his debilitating fear of rejection stops him from going through with it. This poem skews the reader’s expectations of a love song and takes a critical perspective of love while showing all the damaging emotions that come with it. “Song of myself”, by Walt Whitman provokes a different emotion, one of joy and self-discovery. This poem focuses more on the soul and how it relates to the body. “Song of myself” and “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” both explore the common theme of how the different perceptions of the soul and body can affect the way the speaker views themselves, others, and the world around them.

The poem Suicide Note, written by Janice Mirikitani (1987), talks about a young lady, who has studied in an Asian-American female college. The lady, unfortunately, committed suicide by jumping through her dormitory’s window. She left behind a note, citing reasons that led to her actions. After a critical analysis of the note, her parents were held responsible for her actions; they were pressurizing her to perform better in her exams. The poem, thus, describes the real feelings and the emotions of this young lady, who believes that committing suicide is the only option left to please her parents and to escape the enormous pressure placed on her. The persona uses voice in the poem to bring our attention to the sufferings she was going through, and that led to the devastating event. Voice in poetry is the strong words of a line, stanza or a page that creates a relationship between the audience and the persona. Voice can, therefore, be categorized as imagery, patterns of sounds created, rhythm, tone, and diction (Gahern 166). The following is a description of how the voice in Mirikitani’s suicide note helps the reader understand the persona’s reasoning.

Discuss the poem It Feels a Shame to be Alive, by Emily Dickonson in conjuction with Jay Parini's statement “poetry gives voice to what is not usually said”

The irritation and despair of Esther Belin’s Night Travel flows with the fearless attitude of Laura Da’s Vantage. Both poems are different, but yet similar. They both come from similar backgrounds, however they have different style and topics they focus on. Night Travel relates to real life because people are being influenced by society one way or another. The message is important to be proud of who you are, and to not let western society change you. Laura Da’s Vantage relates to women who are pregnant and are eager to meet their child. Both poems are alike in content, but differ in

Poetry can be divided up into different forms, more easily expressing an author’s emotions and intent with their poetry. For analyzing purposes I chose the poems Self-Help by Michael Ryan, Ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali, Psalm 150 by Jericho Brown, and Emergency by Michael Dylan Welch.

For 3,000 years the Armenians lived in peace on their homeland. They became the first nation in the

The Turkish Embassy Letters are remarkable in many ways: they exemplify the witty rapport of familiar letters, the keen observations of an Enlightenment intellectual, and the romantic musings of a young woman. Standing on the edges of vast empires, she writes philosophy in prose both searching and sarcastic.