Figurative Language In Yusef Komunyakaa's Poems

Cruel and terrible events forever leave a mark on our memory. Especially, when these events are directly related to person, the memory reproduces every second of what happened. Unfortunately, humanity fully cognized the term of "war". "Facing it" by Yusef Komunyakaa reveals another several sides of the war. Poem tells the reader about which consequences, the war left and how changed people's lives. The hero identifies itself with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, mourns all those killed and who did not return. That is why the poem is dramatic. War has become a part of the hero's life, even after the ending.

In “My Papa’s Waltz” by Roethke and “Those Winter Sundays” by Hayden, the two narrators speak about their fathers in a way that shows there were two different sides to their fathers. One side was abusive and strict, while the other side was loving and caring. Each narrator has a different attitude toward their feelings for their fathers. Roethke has a more fun and understanding view of his father, while Hayden has a more cold and uncaring attitude toward his father. Both Hayden and Roethke talk about their father’s character flaws in their poems. Even though there are flaws in their fathers, both the narrators learn to over see

Yusef Komunyakaa did not always go by that name. His real name before he legally changed it was James William Brown. It was his father’s name, but Yusef found out that his grandfather lost his family name when he was brought to the United States from Trinidad in the Caribbean. Once Yusef learned of this, he wanted to reclaim his family name that was taken away by slavery. Today he is known by that name, and not only has he written about the issues of racism but other moral issues that infected the nation. Yusef Komunyakaa opens the eyes of his audience about his complex experiences as an African American and Vietnam War veteran through poetry.

Literary works provide one of the avenues through which people express their concern about matters of interest in the society. For example, “Facing It” by Yusef Kommunyakaa is a poetic response to the Vietnam War Memorial. The author uses the poem to highlight his feelings about the memorial that also shows his personal attachment to it. The title of the poem indicates his deep reflection on the event, and an attempt to express and confront the deep feelings he has about the Vietnam War. A close reading of the poem shows that the poet uses certain literary styles to achieve his aim. I will now give a brief introduction about the author.

In Gordon Korman’s, Schooled, Capricorn Anderson and his hippie grandma, Rain, live in the town of Garland in seclusion as the only residents. When Rain ends up in the hospital, Cap has to attend public school in a completely new lifestyle where he becomes loved by all. The author uses figurative language, symbolism, and flashback to demonstrate the theme of facing reality.

In the poem “Facing It”, by the poet Yusef Komunyakaa, he himself is the one who is speaking, the poem is about his own life experience at the Vietnam Memorial. The way a person can tell if the own poet of the poem is the speaker is by the use of “I”, or first person throughout the poem. In this case, the poet uses words like “I” and “I’m” that support the fact that he is the speaker. The Vietnam War was a Historical event taken place in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Which was one of the first war that African Americans were integrated with White people, and the majority of the soldiers were African Americans. Komunyakaa, being an African American soldier in the Vietnam War and surviving, is an honor, as not much African American’s survived. For Komunyakaa all his bad and painful experience is coming back to him to hurt him, as he is visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He is expecting to see his very own name engraved on the black granite wall, as he feels like part of him is gone and left behind in the War. In “Facing It” Komunyakaa memories from the War are coming to him and the memories are affecting his life style in the sense of haunting him/ hurting him with the use of imagery, metaphors, similes and personifications throughout the poem.

Concisely, child abuse in the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is clear through the provided context clues such as setting, emotions and word choice. By the end of the poem, readers get a family portrait with a drunken father, angry mother, and abused child (Janssen 43). The construction of the poem allows the reader to get a better understanding of the poem by the end. The poem also permits the readers to get an insight at child abuse and how it

As human beings, we have the capacity for understanding. Poetry allows a writer to express the most personal experiences, thus allowing corresponding reliability among individuals. Through the captivating focus of each poem, themes of guilt, loss, and acceptance allows for an overarching sense of cultural cognizance. The poem, To my father, written by Frank Bidart exhibits the passing of a father (319). Wanda Coleman’s poem, Dear Mama, depicts a loss of a loved one (354). Theresa Hak Kyung Cha depicts depression in, Dead Words (430). Poems that are personal and emotional have been modified and persistent. There is a higher focus on experiences through subtlety. This allows the poems to speak to the heart of man. These relatable incidents provide a systematized congruency between delicate situations. Furthermore dismissing divisions placed by society in regards to income, social class, and race.

Famous poetry concerning family matters is seldom joyful or enthusiastic; take, for instance, the works of Sylvia Plath and Theodore Roethke, who use different literary devices to describe their abnormal relationship with their fathers in their respective poems, “Daddy” and “My Papa’s Waltz.” Plath relies on metaphors, conceit, diction, and tone to convey her thoughts, whilst Roethke makes use of similes, diction, and poem structure. Both authors use different literary devices to describe their unusual relationships with their fathers; however, the ambiguity in Roethke’s poem makes it hard to say for certain what kind of relationship is being portrayed, whereas Plath’s poem describes her feelings towards her father in a clear-cut manner.

He seems to not realize how much effort the dad uses for him, and he speaks coldly to his father’s warmth. The speaker, however, questions his thinking here. At this moment, he says, “What did I know, what did I know/of love’s austere and lonely offices?” The words lonely and austere give a tone that is sad and placid. They are lonely, but love’s austere shows a presence of love and not hate. Offices, is one’s duty in this way. The father and speaker’s “duty” is to love one another and not cause “cracked hands”. The son seems to finally understand his father’s nourishment towards him. Back in stanza one, the line “No one ever thanked him,” shows that the son is now regretful of his cold words toward his dad. The son and father now can see each other’s love toward one another

I personally had chosen Yusef Komunyakaa because I wanted to read poetry that was written by a war veteran. I was pleasantly surprised that he wrote more than the Vietnam war, but also about race, jazz, and human life itself. His poetry was easy to understand and refreshingly straight to the point. My favorite poem he has written was “Facing It” which is why I spent a portion of it analyzing its themes. It lived up to my expectations and more. Yusef had a difficult life as a young African

Additionally, Kawabata presents, in his novel, a fictitious account of a real event. Even though Yumiko is not a real person her story is an important part of understanding how people deal with a natural disaster. If anything, Kawabata provides an intricate description of a story many would be unwilling to share with the rest of the world as an extremely personal example. One of the clearest aspects of Kawabata’s description of Asakusa is how he portrays the culture of the city. Throughout the novel, the Twelve Story Tower is a focal point of Asakusa. Not only does it hold prominence in both Yumiko’s and Akagi’s recollections of the earthquake, but the Twelve Story Tower continues to appear for the duration of the novel. As the novel occurs seven years after the earthquake, the reader is not aware of whether the Twelve Story Tower played such an intricate part of the lives of the

Poems and songs use figurative language to paint a vivid picture for the reader or listener. Poems and songs, though, are very different from each other. Songs take a poem that is written by the artist and bring it to life thus intriguing listeners more than if they had to read a boring poem. Two poems that are very similar yet very different are the song “All We Have” by Machine Gun Kelly and the poem “Tomorrow Is Not Promised”. Between the song “ All We Have”, and the poem “Tomorrow is not promised”, the song is better developed because it uses more literary devices which translate to a more fluid song that listeners will love which is why song lyrics are a higher art form than poetry.

Poetry creates an image of nice thoughts and beautiful words encasing various feelings and concepts leading one through pathway of life. Many times it is skill of the poets and skillfulness of their styles of presentation that attract us towards their poetry. They are very simple, honest and straight forward in their approach and presentation. Dr J Bhagyalakshmi is a predominantly talented and scholastic poet with many collections of short stories and

Introduction: S.T Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan’ is a visionary poem of 54 lines, about the magical, mystical place, Xanadu where the heavenly paradise is overshadowed by a hint of evil. The poem has three types of poetic elements which will be discussed along with relevant examples. First, the poem is replete with powerful visual imagery which explains the theme and brings to life the vivid imagination of the poet. Second, sound has been used to convey not just motion and energy but also a musical effect due to the use of alliteration, assonance and anaphora. Third, the rhythm or the unusual rhyme scheme increases the creative impact of the poem.