Elton John's Song 'Ticking'

To establish this point, in the poem Roethke declares “ My mother's countenance Could not unfrown itself” (lines 7 & 8). This illuminates how angry tones are present in the poem when the author expresses through his writing the anger the mother possesses while her child and husband waltz and make a huge mess. Another point that suggests this is when the poet adds “The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle” (lines 9 & 10). This also helps construct the angry and afraid tones throughout the poem because it hints that the poet is fearful of his father’s aggression. On the other hand a sample that expresses a contrasting tone, loving, is when the poet says “ Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt ” (line 15 & 16). This clearly reflects the positive tones in this poem because the father is dancing and loving on his son by waltzing him off to

This shows the love that her mother had and how she was always caring for her child. The coffin and the number “82” symbolises the age that mother was upon her death, shown in lines 21 and 22 which state “You left the world so, having lived nearly thirty thousand days”, the daughter wanted her mother to live a longer life, which is why she says “I prayed you would live to see Halley’s comment a second time.” on lines 17 and 18. The last image of the hands clasped together symbolises the strength of their relationship and strong bond between mother and daughter.The two photos of the women crying and the quote “After all this time… I still miss you every day” show that although the mother has died the strong bond that exists between a mother and her daughter will never die and that she still remains very much alive in her daughters memory. Lines 25, 26 and 27 “At our last meeting I closed the ward door of heavy glass between us…”, symbolises the end of their time together on earth and this was the last time she saw her mother

The only difference between the mom and dad and the child is that they grew up in different generations. Mom and dad's generation wore older style clothing because they were in an earlier generation than us. "Who half the time were soppy-stern (ll.7), and half at one another's throats." (ll.8) the parents of our parents were much stricter in punishments. They would get straight to the point and beat their kids if it was needed. Instead of talking to their children they would physically try to change them because that is how discipline was taught in generations before us. The parents would yell and scream at their children hoping that they change for the better when half the time screaming did not help the situation at all. "Man hands on misery to man (ll.9), it deepens like a coastal shelf" (ll.10) these lines are saying how a dad passes down his experience to his son. As the son gets older and older the dad teaches the son more and more about life and what to expect out of it and what can be done to make you a better person. It is similar to the ocean floor because the father keeps teaching the son more and more and it is like an endless cycle. "Get out as early as you can (ll.11), and don't have any kids yourself" (ll.12) Larkin is definitely trying to warn us not to have kids if we can't manage them. Larkin is saying that the only way to have children is

As in the beginning of the fourth stanza, the first word of the stanza brings the reader back to a different part of the boy's life and a different event. This new event shows the character as no longer a boy, representing innocence, but in the company of "godless money-hungry back-stabbing miserable so-and-sos". We can tell from this that Dawe is trying to show that the boy has now grown up and has been introduced to the "real world" and is now already a middle-aged man. The phrase "goodbye stars" relates back to the fourth stanza. He must also farewell the "soft cry in the corner"; a farewell to any emotions. It is at this point that Dawe includes the adult voice of the boy. The character speaks the need to care for yourself first and foremost, no need to think about the effect it may have on others, shown in the statement "hit wherever you see a head and kick whoever's down". This harsh change from innocent boy to selfish man is how Dawe is creating the character. The adult man is shaped by his dialogue in the poem. The character has grown up and no longer discusses his family, yet no mention of a wife or children is present until the next stanza, and then only to criticize. This fifth stanza is the first one to portray him as an adult, and Dawe has managed to make the character seem harsh and unkind.

The song writer uses Hyperboles, Metaphors, Personification, and especially imagery. Within the first section, it states that “she’s buying a stairway to heaven”, this being a hyperbole, since you cannot literally buy a stairway to heaven. For the next few sections, the writer uses lines like, “In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings”, “And my spirit is crying for leaving”, and “in my thoughts I have seen the rings of smoke through the trees, and the voices of those who stand looking.” These use Imagery, and personification, to let you see what is happening within the story of the lady. More examples of personification are, “And the forests will echo with laughter”, “Our shadows taller than our soul”. Some examples of hyperboles are the lines, “Your head is humming, and it won’t go”, “All that glitters is gold”, “Our shadows taller than our soul”, and, “everything turns to gold.” The song uses an outstanding amount of literary elements.

In the third stanza, the narrator is remembering some details like the broken knuckle of his father (line 10), and that his ear was scraping on his father's belt buckle (line 12). As well in the fourth stanza, the narrator mentions the dirt caked on his father's hand (line 14). These images of the son imply a hard working father who had just come home from the plant and was spending time with his little son before putting him to bed. These images also support my point of view that the author still has pleasant memories of the event, which would not be the case if there was abuse,

Early in the poem, Jarman points out the “sermon’s trenchant commentary on the world’s ills” (2-3), illustrating a mutilation of the connectedness of the congregation focusing instead on the very real but nonetheless generic ills of the world. Furthermore, the phrase “hand-wringing” (4) seems to describe the shaking of hands as the congregation members greet each other with the peace of Christ, again listing the routine of the congregation. Although, it appears to be more inclined towards a description of a helpless, passive anxiety that corresponds well with a sermon designed to impose guilt without inspiring action. Jarman goes on to compare the persistent nature of sin even in moments of peace with “motes of dust ride, clinging” (8). In this line, Jarman suggests that the congregation is sinful even after all the doctrinal procedure done to become clean from sin. Even the structure of the octave suggests a conventional and never changing sonnet form with 14 lines, a perfect Italian rhyming scheme, and a fascinating iambic pentameter alone, that inspires nothing more than an

The first stanza, which contains the son’s childish speech, is short, only three lines. However, by the stanza which contains the son’s angry talkback, the stanza is double in length, having four lines. Each line represents a literal level of maturity and growth that the son has gained. As time moves on, he is able to gain more and more experience in life. As his experience accumulates over time, so does his hostility. His terse, childish begging for his father to simply read another story turns to an angry speech about how he no longer beleievs in his father as an authority figure. Despite this, the son’s psyche changes back, as all this maturation is played out in the father’s head, and when he returns, he is back to his childish self, bu this stanza is the longest in the poem. This suggests that when someone is able to mature enough, they are able to comprehend more of the world than they did before, and are able to act

In the first paragraph the ambiguousness comes to light as he states "Creole began to tell us what the blues were all about." It could have a literal meaning in the sense that Creole could be singing of the blues, actually speaking the words and the definition. It could also mean that the music itself tells the story of the blues. The notes and the melody intertwine to hit a chord as no words ever could. To convey a meaning as no tale ever could. To truly bind the narrator to his brother as no conversation ever could. It is with this paragraph that the narrator really begins to understand his brother and perhaps begins to understand a little more about himself. Baldwin uses this paragraph to describe the affect of music on a human in terms of finding the good in the bad and embracing life as it is. He chooses words in his description commonly associated with music, such as "beat" with"He hit something in all of them, he hit something in me, myself, and the music tightened and deepened apprehension began to beat the air.' In fact the sentence itself seems to move in "beat." He uses colloquial language that you would expect to hear from someone in a jazz joint with phrases such as "he and his boys" and "keeping it new." The last few sentences intricately weave together the ideas of the music and its parallel in life.

think he was trying to communicate what a family was going through at one point in life. They are in a sad

The quilt that the speaker discovers contains earth tone squares. Each of these colors symbolizes a different family member. A single square that is “the yellowbrown of Mama’s cheeks”. The fact that there is a single square of this color shows that the speaker’s mother is unparalleled. The speaker’s father is described as having “burnt umber pride”. The father was a war veteran as revealed in the first stanza when the speaker talks about the “army green” blanket that was given to the speaker’s father by “Supply”. The reason that the father’s color is brown is because he passed away. The brown symbolizes his burial plot. When the speaker talks about having a brown father and yellow mother this also tells of their skin tones. The

In the first two stanzas, she is talking directly to her parents. The speaker is apologizing to her parents for the work that she placed out and saying she is sorry for not doing better than what she had just done. “I apologize/ for disappointing you.” is her saying she is sorry. She also said three lines over and over again, which were “not good enough”, “not pretty enough”, and “not smart enough”. Those three things made her not feel she was good enough and it psyched her bad enough to not continue with life. At the end of the second stanza, she says “in my father’s dream” which automatically shows that she is doing it for her family. She was given an opportunity to bring more honor to her family by going to college and graduating it, but sadly she was not able to get that far. She thinks that she brought dishonor to her family by not being able to keep her perfect four point grade average. It is not easy at all to keep it there so she must have done a great job to get that far, but not even that was able to please her parents and making

The last two lines of the poem are the key to understanding the tone and meaning behind the poem: “Then waltzed me off to bed / Still clinging to your shirt” (15-16). A perfect image of a son caught up in a moment with his father. Like all children he does not tire of the playtime. He doesn’t want to stop dancing; he doesn’t want to let go, and he doesn’t want to go to bed.

In order to occupy her child, the mother dresses her daughter up to go sing in the children’s choir at church in the fifth stanza. She brushes her hair, bathes her, and puts on her gloves and shoes. Randall appeals to the senses in this stanza; he uses a metaphor here to inform the reader a visual that the family is African American. She has “night-dark” hair and small brown hands. She is dressed in white and smells of sweet rose petals. The mother takes the girls mind off of the Freedom March and fixes it on the children’s choir. The tone is one of content. The sixth stanza is a

The first verse of the song shares the troubled relationship between the father and son, when it said, “he came to the world in the usual way, but there were planes to catch and bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away.” This verse explained that he was away on some type of career to make money for the family, and provide for the son financially. However, he wasn’t able to spend quality time with him, and missed important milestones in his life, such as taking his first steps. His career obviously came before his son and family, and he made excuses for that. Then it finishes with the chorus, which says, “when you