Idle No More Poem Analysis

Amongst the judgmental stares of the audience that has bestowed an image of pathetic vulnerability upon the dancer, the poem’s speaker emerges to provide a portrait of the dancer that is much less lascivious, acknowledging that “Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes / Blown by black players upon a picnic day” (3-4). The sudden juxtaposition of a “picnic day” vis-a-vis a crowded night-club highlights the speakers attempt to remove the sexualized image of the dancer with the intent of identifying her noble power as a member of the black community. The elegance of the dancer, recognized by her soft voice, is affirmed by the speaker’s specific mention of “black players,” displaying black heritage as containing multi-faceted artistic potential. While the poem begins with a dehumanizing portrayal of the dancer, the speaker successfully reformulates the identity of the dancer into a component of a larger black tradition.

In class we read 3 Cinderella stories and one poem. Ashenputtle is German, Yeh Shen is Chinese, The Algonquin is Native America, and the Interview is a poem. There are over 900 different Cinderella stories in every cultures. I am going to compare and contrast the ones we read in class.

Have you ever wonder how people survive and thrive in Antarctica? In the excerpt from the story Alone by Richard E. Byrd the narrator explains how a man lives in Antarctica for 5 months during the winter alone in -83°F weather. Being alone changes a person’s attitude and state of mind. When you are alone people tend to start to become more negative and have a gloomy mindset.

In the poem "To the Men of England" Percy Bysshe Shelley calls upon the people of England to come out and do something regarding their oppression state. The poet addresses the issue that affected the working class of England following the Napoleonic Wars. She uses a series of appropriate analogy and though-inducing questions to invite the 'Men of England' who were affected by the economic depression to think about the current conditions that they live under the rule of unappreciative lords and take actions against this injustice. In the poem "Go Slow" Langston Hughes talks to himself as he ponders on how long he will continue suffering from the injustices of the masters. They prohibit him from living, eating and working in that place, yet they ask to wait and go slow on taking any action against the injustice that he is experiencing. He wonders how he will survive without eating, living or working there yet he is human and not a supreme being hence needs all this for his survival. Though written in two different historical periods, the two poems address the issue of exploitation and oppression of low-class people by their masters. The two poems use poetic devices such as word and end-rhyme repetitions and figurative language though Shelly uses a more imperative and harsher tone while Hughes uses a sarcastic tone to support the meaning and importance of the poems.

The Vacuum by Howard Nemerov talks about a widower and his late wife, and how he uses the vacuum as a symbol for her death. The poem expresses deep sorrow and sadness that derive from the loneliness of the speaker, after his other half’s passing away. Nemerov attempts to take his readers on a grief-stricken journey, by strategically employing figurative language (mainly personification, metaphor, simile, and alliteration), fractured rhyme schemes and turns in stanza breaks in the poem.

Genocide. Rape. Murder. Domestic violence. Massacre. Kidnapping. These are all acts of horrendous violence that we hope to never encounter. Yet, it happens everyday around world. And the victims are forced to say forgive and forget, but is it really that simple? I believe that in some situations forgiveness is not an option. According to an online poll, only 38 out of 68 people believe victims who suffered from childhood abuse should not forgive their abuser. Although, what does forgiveness really mean?

Bet that clerk doesn’t think there ain’t nothing wrong with us holding up his shop.

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.

To expand on the intricacy of the speaker’s life, symbolism is applied to showcase the oppression her ancestors etched on her quilt were facing for their “burnt umber pride” and “ochre gentleness” (39-40). Once again, the theme of absence is introduced as there is a sense of separation among the Native American culture as their innocent souls are forced onto reservations and taken away from their families. This prolonged cruelty and unjust treatment can be advocated when the speaker explains how her Meema “must have dreamed about Mama when the dancing was over: a lanky girl trailing after her father through his Oklahoma

Are you good at cooking? If you are good at cooking than you probably know that it is very important to follow the recipe you are using. Well, there is a children’s show in Iceland called, “Lazy Town”, with an episode called “Swiped Sweets” and in that episode a character named Stephanie sings a song called “Cooking By The Book”, in that song it talks about how you have to follow a recipe, and making food is a science, and how she loves cake. Although the song is about making a cake how the recipe says, it can be interpreted in different ways that relate to things in my life and maybe your life too.

The speaker then moves to a restaurant where he picks up a chicken noodle soup and gets his want across to the staff by simply pointing at it. The stanza ends with the line “I am adjusting well to the new way”(10), showing that according to the speaker the new law is working fine for him and he is able to live a normal life. However, with the entrance into the third stanza we begin to question whether the speaker naturally only acted this way towards the phone call and the staff in the restaurant, without using any words or he was actually saving them for his lover. The second reason is more likely to be true, due to his statement in the next verse “I call my long distance lover, proudly say I only used fifty-nine today. I saved the rest for you”(11/13). Here, the second character is introduced in the poem – the long distance lover. It becomes obvious that the speaker, who is most probably a man, is in a long distance relationship with a woman and the way communicate is via phone call. The speaker tells his lover proudly he has only used fifty-nine words today and has saved the rest for her. This shows the speaker’s devotion towards his lover because he has chosen to use most of his words on her.

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.

Reading a story is like viewing a picture, the mind goes beyond imagining what occurs in the story. A poem is like the music and the picture combined, creating a movie for the audience. Authors create imagery in their work in order to allow readers to be able to conjure up their messages in their stories. After reading a poem one can quickly imagine the scene in their head, though the reader may have to reread the poem in order to understand the message from the author, each image playing a key role in tying the message together. In the short poem “Tired Sex” author Chana Bloch uses imagery to deliver her message about how passion ceases to exist between two people with the comparison of common day activities

Are drugs really the answer to anyone’s problems? “Comfortably Numb,” a song, written by Roger Waters of the band Pink Floyd is about depression, mental health and drug use in the music culture. They write about a person who focuses on escaping his own mind because he can’t bear what is going on in the outside world. The band mate retreats to his inner self and is having conflict with the physical world. “Comfortably Numb” is a song (in it’s generation) that most people, who were having problems, could relate to by taking drugs to dull the pain.

the poem “ Crushing” is a narrative with a central theme of the youthful years of under-privileged juveniles with vivid images of theft, racing, intoxication, and calming ending of a beach vision. The poem is a wholesome picture that goes from being wild in the beginning to a calming image of a beach and stars at the end, which is also a technique of the poem that is taking readers on a journey. It spectacularly builds up images of fancy and elegant partying, to a calming end of evening beach scene. This could be represented by the core question of the poem that, the youthfulness of someone is intoxicating when someone gets lost in translation and becomes dazed and confused.