“I Am” is a poem that was written by John Clare during the 1840s. Clare’s rustic poetry had brought him considerable fame and wealth, which enabled him to escape the meagre life he had experienced up until that time. After some years, his rural style of poetry was no longer in fashion, and his poetry met with little success. Psychological pressures resulting from the need to make money to feed his family, the struggles to adapt his poetry to the changing times and his inability to reconcile his rural neighbourhood with urban London which his fame had acquainted him with, took its toll on his sanity, and led to spells in two different asylums. The poem revolves around circumstances surrounding Clare at the time, and his entire life.
The
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He tells the readers that he has been left behind, forgotten and abandoned to the point where he feels like he must announce his presence to the world and wishes others would acknowledge him. The friends Clare did have most likely didn’t care much for him being institutionalized, therefore causing him to speak of his friends in such a pessimistic manner. He then states that there was no one to help to ease his pain in the third and fourth lines of the first stanza: “I am the self-consumer of my woes, they rise and vanish in oblivious host,” he makes reference to his insanity in the phrase “oblivious host” which hints that he is usually unaware of the happenings occurring about him because of his mental health.
The use of the phrase “I am” acts as a reinforcement of his identity, as though he is addressing doubts to his existence, he continuously uses rhetorical questions to ask himself about the world and everything that is happening outside his confinement. Clare speaks as though he has been left behind by those who once knew him as a full and complete person and as a man of fame and fortune. He feels disappointed to be left out and forgotten about, he suspects that something is wrong with him and wants someone to tell him the problem. He has given up on himself and feels despaired: “And yet I am, and live-like vapours tossed.” The
The speaker is the voice of the poem, since “I” is used alot in this poem, it is in first person. I imagined the speaker’s
Reflections Within is a non-traditional stanzaic poem made up of five stanzas containing thirty-four lines that do not form a specific metrical pattern. Rather it is supported by its thematic structure. Each of the five stanzas vary in the amount of lines that each contain. The first stanza is a sestet containing six lines. The same can be observed of the second stanza. The third stanza contains eight lines or an octave. Stanzas four and five are oddly in that their number of lines which are five and nine.
Lorna Dee Cervantes' poem, “Poema para los Californios Muertos” (“Poem for the Dead Californios”), is a commentary on what happened to the original inhabitants of California when California was still Mexico, and an address to the speaker's dead ancestors. Utilizing a unique dynamic, consistently alternating between Spanish and English, Cervantes accurately represents the fear, hatred, and humility experienced by the “Californios” through rhythm, arrangement, tone, and most importantly, through use of language.
By adding this phrase in the poem, the persona implies that whatever he is saying in the poem is not his own. However, the lack of quotation marks and the repeated use of the pronoun “I” in the poem implies that the persona “owns” whatever he is saying. Therefore, the persona attempts to own and disown the experiences narrated in the poem at the same time, a paradox. Yes, the persona is the boy. However, as he recalls the time when he first learned English, he tries to separate himself from his experiences during the war. The girl being shot in the last stanza, although the boy wasn’t physically present, is indicative of a turning point in the boy’s life—it ruined the innocence of the boy. And in the poem, this turning point is symbolized by way of the persona’s detachment to what he is narrating; to his former
Frost further points out that the stretch of woods being viewed is very rural. This is made possible by the reference to the location between the woods and frozen lake. In closing the final sentence of the second stanza Frost reiterates the fact that this occurs on “the darkest evening of the year” stating the darkness of the mood.
Being punished as a young child, life seemed harsh and uneasy. The way parents would yell at you, tell you what to do, what not to do, and they always seemed to have gotten in the way of doing what us children wanted to do. It was all done for a reason however. The "cruelty" our parents showed us was out of love. They just want to use their experience to help guide our lives to success. With their guidance we are given opportunities to change some of the things we do for the better. Parents were raised a generation before us, therefore making them not as "chat-friendly" as someone whose our age. Mom and dad have helped in so many ways that we would not be able to name them all. From teaching us about nutrition to what words not to
Clare does a fair job in capturing how it is to be a lonely, melancholic soul, grieving the loss of friendship in love, all while making it clear that the speaker has a vast knowledge of self awareness. The simplistic seeming set up of the stanzas lends to a much deeper understanding of the human condition. “I Am” is written with precise punctuation, purposeful repetition, as well as a distinct rhyme scheme which helps to create the morose but understanding atmosphere that exists in the speaker 's head.
Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.
The main reason Clare is an outsider is because she is “passing” as a Caucasian. The act of “passing” is a very interesting concept that can be quite troubling. “What is troubling about the concept of racial “passing” is that it necessitates placing people of mixed ancestry in one racial category over another” (Nisetich 2013). This is exactly what Clare is doing with her life, she is saying she’s part of a race that she really isn’t. She has even taken it as far as fooling her husband, John Bellew. They became a couple because he is a wealthy, white business man. On the other hand, John is an extremely racist man. This is shown from his comments when he had lunch with: Clare, Irene, and Gertrude. On this day, is when Clare realized she’s going to be in a lot of trouble when John finds out the
The song “Believer”, by Imagine Dragons, they sing about how the pain and depression, they were going through, has made him stronger than before. This song tells us that your greatest strengths come from your weaknesses. Imagine Dragons are trying too say that “Pain” and depression and sadness are only stepping stones to your strength, in this song. “Believer” is about that you don’t have to dwell on your troubles and can look on the bright side of things. This song also explains that you can become a “Believer” by embracing all of the problems going on in your life today. The theme of relationships in this song is highlighted through many various examples of similes, metaphors, and other literary devices throughout the song.
Poetry is a reduced dialect that communicates complex emotions. To comprehend the numerous implications of a ballad, perusers must analyze its words and expressing from the points of view of beat, sound, pictures, clear importance, and suggested meaning. Perusers then need to sort out reactions to the verse into a consistent, point-by-point clarification. Poetry utilizes structures and traditions to propose differential translation to words, or to summon emotive reactions. Gadgets, for example, sound similarity, similar sounding word usage, likeness in sound and cadence are at times used to accomplish musical or incantatory impacts.
These two seemingly opposite tones and moods existing in one poem simultaneously resemble the ambiguity in the speaker that he reveals when he describes his condition very ambiguously. For instance, in the first line, he portrays himself as a “dead man”(1), but in the line immediately after, the dead man is moaning, which is biologically impossible. The unclear subject raises the issue of who the speaker is, if he should not be able to comment on himself because he is already dead. When the speaker uses the same pronouns, “he” and “him” from both the first person and the third person perspectives to refer to himself, this becomes even more puzzling; the readers are no longer sure of who the speaker is and who the subject of the poem is. One possible cause of these uncertainties is the discrepancy between the speaker’s real self and his public self; one that resembles who he
The beginning of the poem, “I do my utmost to attain emptiness; I hold firmly to stillness ,” illustrates the commitment that Lao Tzu has towards the retention of the emptiness and stillness. The reference to emptiness means being at the center of the circle while Yin and Yang circle him. One does not have to necessarily ascribe to the polar ends for him or her to attain any level of Dao. Being still calls for an understanding of the main issues predicating the yin and yang aspects. The Retaining the emptiness ensures that one has an objective outlook towards the world. Holding on to the stillness ensures that there is no temptation towards aligning with the opposites. Although the polar sides of life are also important, for one to effectively pursue one, he or she has to ensure that he or she is willing to understand the opposite. Daoism states that all things in the world exist in complement with the opposites. The constant is being oneself and impartial to all the things that may be pushed towards the individual.
Title- The song of myself sounds like a poem of self expression, and a gospel of Walt Whitman's’ self beliefs. When his optimistic outlook on life is brought into perspective, one could also conclude that the poem was about his positive and radical outlook on life, because it is a song of himself, his personal expression.
I am a tall girl with chestnut hair, forest green eyes and sun-tanned skin. My physique sets me apart from the 7.4 billion other people on our planet. If, however, I were an identical twin, physical characteristics alone would not suffice to distinguish between my sister and me. Even though we would look the same, we would clearly be two different people. Therefore, we can conclude that a mere description of our physique cannot be considered a universal and comprehensive response to the question at hand, as it neglects other aspects of our identity.