Elton John's Song 'Ticking'

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.

Next, "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" creates an illusion of a mind becoming unstable by describing the speaker's irrationality. The speaker's irrationality is represented in the third stanza and fourth stanza. It is evident that the speaker is beginning to hear voices, which is why she states "And then I heard them lift a Box" (line 9). The voices that the speaker is hearing are beginning to take over her mind as she expresses "And creak across my Soul," which gives the reader's the illusion of the speaker losing all control. All the problems that the speaker is experiencing as a result of her mental stability are beginning to take their toll, which is evident through the statement "Boots of Lead, again, Then Space - began to toll" (line 11-12). The speaker has now fallen into a state of irrationality, and her mind has suffered enough, and consequently thoughts of suicide plague the speaker. The statement "As all the Heavens were a Bell" represents the speaker's feelings that her mind has a chance of being at peace again if she ends her existing insanity, and she must therefore act upon her suicide thoughts (line 13). The speaker is trying to convince herself to follow through with her thoughts of suicide, as clearly indicated in her statement "Wrecked, solitary, here-." The speaker

Your first thought is the love between the couple is toxic and lethal yet, he cannot resist his partner. But, really it is a reference to Cocaine. Cocaine is given a female voice. He uses personification by bringing the drug to life, where it can communicate with him and become part of his life. He knows that this “girl” meaning, Cocaine is going to be the death of him. While in use of Cocaine he gets numb. “But at least we’ll both be beautiful and stay forever young/ This I know, (yeah) this I know” (3-4). You say again, that he is singing about how the love is so very satisfying. But he is actually meaning that his desire for this young and beautiful woman makes him feel good. He feels as if he is invincible when he has her. Even though he seems to be aware of the consequences that come with feeling young and beautiful; with the use of Cocaine. “She told me, ‘Don’t worry about it.’/ She told me, ‘Don’t worry no more.’/ We both knew we can’t go without it/ She told me you’ll

The speaker says, “…older than the flow of human blood in my veins” (Line 1). Blood is only developed when a fetus is being grown, in the Mother, but within the blood lies DNA of their ancestors from past generations. The speaker uses human blood to relate to the fact that our blood is old and connected to our heritage because we carry their DNA inside of us. “I’ve seen its muddy bosom” (Line 9). Muddy, implies a bleak outlook of not being able to see the end. Lose of hope. “Turns all golden in the sunset” (Line 9) the ominous of a sparse future comes to an end with the sunset signifying hope and a new beginning. The association to his ancestors’ bleak past is his what binds their experiences to him.

The last two lines represent the woman acknowledging the fact that many women before her have gone through this same experience. Time is is “rolled” or repeated in the sense that everyone was brought to this world in the same way. Line nine refers to the child having no awareness of itself or the world around it. The woman has created a life and that life has no idea that it is loved by her. The emotional connection between the mother and her child is developing on a deeper level.

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.

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

“In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o'clock, time to get up, time to

     In lines 4 – 8 when Blake writes, “There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, That curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved: so I said ‘Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.’ These lines symbolize faith in the biblical sense. Young Tom’s is like that of the sacrificial lamb of God and when the narrator tells Tom to stop crying because he

“In awhile there are voices downstairs and there is talk of tea, sherry, lemonade, buns, and isn’t that child the loveliest little fella in the world, little Alphie, foreign name but still an’ all still an’ all not a sound outta him the whole time he’s that good-natured God bless him sure he’ll live forever with the sweetness that’s in him the little dope spittin’ image of his mother his father his grandma his little brothers dead an’ gone”(182).

When I look at this saying from the book, I automatically think of the mother and what she must be feeling. Ever since Sounder came back, she hasn’t been the same. She barely says her stories about Joseph and David, and she doesn’t sing like she usually does. When she sings, it means she’s happy, but when she hums, it means she’s sad or worried. It’s more of a sad, lonesome, and depressing hum. She just feels terrible for the dog and her son. In my opinion, ever since Sounder came back, I feel like the mother and the boy have gotten a lot. I don’t think the mother likes looking at Sound, because he looks so run down, abused, and hungry. All she saw was a skeleton of the dog. Down to the bone. Sounder hasn’t eaten in months and he lost his

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

Bob Dylan uses powerful lyrics in his song The Times They Are a-Changin’ to emphasize the need to adjust to change and to try to understand that change is inevitable and timeless. This lyric poem utilizes a rhyme scheme of ABCBDEDEFG and a trochaic meter to emphasize its central meaning. Dylan uses imagery, repetition, symbolism and many other figures of speech to convey his meaning. Dylan points out that every single person needs to be informed that change is coming and that the people need to deal with it. The song has a strong meaning that people must join in this change and stop fighting it.

"Crackling day' is a story about a young black boy in South Africa that challenges three white youths and, in so doing, challenges the political system of the whole country. The very famous writer Peter Abrahams wrote it.