If He Began With A/Smear Of Blue Analysis

Although this is a short poem, there are so many different meanings that can come from the piece. With different literary poetic devices such as similes, imagery, and symbolism different people take away different things from the poem. One of my classmates saw it as an extended metaphor after searching for a deeper connection with the author. After some research on the author, we came to learn that the

Li-Young Lee in this poem concentrated on memories that provide both joy and sadness as they allow us to recall the happy or sad moments with our loved ones as we prepare ourselves for future. Lee examine his emotional relationship to his father in the past with hoping that remembering all those moments will help him integrate those memories with his father into his own life. “Windblown, a rain-soaked bough shakes, showering the man and the boy. They shiver in delight, and the father lifts from his son’s cheek one green leaf fallen like a kiss.” Lee uses images in this poem to show the readers his idea about the memory rather than telling all at once because he thought this way has more emotional impact because

A major tone that is present throughout most of the poem is a reminiscent tone. The speaker begins the poem by stating “The first time I walked with a girl, I was twelve…” It is easy to notice that the speaker is indulging in past events. The speaker also tells his story in past tense. The speaker describes the little details that bring him joy while reminiscing. He states that the girl’s face was “...bright with rouge.” and there was “...Light in her eyes, a smile starting at the corners of her mouth.” The speaker is reminiscing and mentions the details so he can indulge in past events wholly. There is shift in tone present when it becomes a conflicted tone. This occurs when the girl choses a chocolate that costs a dime, but the boy only carries a dime and two oranges. When the speaker realizes the fact that he will not be able to play for the chocolate he states that he “...didn’t say anything.” He took the nickel and an orange and “...and set them quietly on the counter.” He then looks up at the sales lady “...knowing very well what it was about.” The speaker is so uncomfortable at this point he does not even talk. He is conflicted because if he can not buy his girl the chocolate, he will not be able to make her happy, and making her happy is his ultimate

What is unusual about Pastan?s poem is the way she effectively conveys these sentiments by the

The poet uses many metaphors, repetition and morbid diction to illicit the response I had to this poem. Firstly, Butson compared the emotions and internal struggles of a

The poem begins with using “melodies” as an image. In the first phrase, “Like melodies draw it to me softly through the mind,” the word “melodies” seems to be symbolic of thoughts or memories. These melodies are like a tune that you cannot get out of your head, a memory that he is unable to forget.

Christina Rossetti and Henry Longfellow utilized symbolism to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that guides the reader to understand the poem as a whole. In “Remember”, the poet incorporated the volta-the shift. Before line 9, the speaker insisted the beloved remember ought to remember her. Afterward, she changes her mind and says

The author uses imagery in the poem to enable the reader to see what the speaker sees. For example, in lines 4-11 the speaker describes to us the

Over all, the poem helps imagine a possible student siting in a desk, reading a poem, and pulling his/ her hair out. Also the poem’s sound seems to be rushed. Together with the tone, it makes the poem sound like an angry student speaking very fast as to why he/she hates poetry. The rhythm seems to be regular. It shows to have a regular beat of unstress and distress. Each line follows a beat, but the lines don’t rhyme. The poem seems to show a few figures of speech. “Has difficulty retaining such things as addition and subtraction facts, or multiplication tables” meaning has a hard time understanding the poem more than math (Collins). “May recognize a word one day and not the next” means the reader would have a hard time remembering the overall meaning od a poem and its means (Collins). Also it would mean that the reader was very annoyed that he/she forgot everything about the

Remembering memories is preferred, rather than living in reality. In the poem, we witness a woman remembering her high school idol, and she decides in the end to not go and talk to him. It is evident that the woman in the poem prefers her memory rather than the view that reality is showing her, this is shown when the woman refuses to go and meet the “hero she had as a girl”, despite giving herself a realistic reason why she should go and greet him, “you think how easy it would be to walk right over and tap him on the shoulder[, and] say hello” but she doesn’t. She doesn’t go and greet him because her memory remembers him as someone amazing, and admirable, “taller than the boys in your own class[,] taller even than your brothers”; where height is a reflection of her admiration. But her hero is now “fat and balding”, and to go greet him now would warp her perspective of her hero, from someone to idolise, to someone pathetic. In the end, she chooses to just remember him just the way she wants to, rather than remembering him the way reality does, showing that memories are preferred over reality. The woman also chooses not to talk to him because of her personal desire to retain her views and opinions of not only how she sees her hero, but also how

Each sentence builds an idea of the last one allowing one another to intertwine with each other. There is a use of figurative language through Forgetfulness. Along with the use of cliché.. “long ago you kissed the names of nice Muses goodbye.” Another example of figurative language used in this poem is the use of hyperbole. The hyperbole can be found when Collin states, “Whatever it is you are struggling to remember, it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

Stephen Dunn 's poems makes sure to let the reader stop and think, and as a creative writing teacher he knows how to do just that. Winner of awards such as the “Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, “The James Wright Prize”,and the “Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement”, his work “The Sacred”, published back in 1989, shows off his literary genius in normal experiences and captures the vehement thought in his writing that has captured many hearts of the readers.

And voices soft and sweet,” referring to his three nearby children. (Line 8) The love is expressed more and more throughout the poem by theme, tone, and the author’s diction. The first stanza begins with a professional tone when he tells about “..a pause in the day’s occupations.” (Line 3)

“Remember,” literal writing meaning, she used her own words without using a metaphor. “For if the darkness and corruption leave…”, the phrase, “darkness and corruption,” compares to the sadness and death leaving the beloved, only a little piece of her. The line is showing the part after death, the darkness that's seen and the shuffle that will happen after she passes. In the line, “Gone far away into the silent land;” She is talking about the silence after she passes and the land she will go to. For this poem she wrote, the message she put in this writing was after her death it will be too late to pray for her. The previous situations in her life with her brother Dante’s breakdown, her father's illness, her depression, resulted in her writing about her own death and this emotional

This piece has several “mini” themes given to almost each stanza, emphasizing reminiscing, grief, and isolation. Appearing to be from the point of view of a man (apparently the writer himself) profoundly grieving the departure of a lover who has passed on. He starts by calling for quiet from the ordinary objects of life; the phones, the clocks, the pianos, drums, and creatures close-by. He doesn't simply need calm, but be that as it may; he needs his misfortune well known and projected. Its tone is significantly more dismal than earlier versions, and the themes more all inclusive, despite the fact that it talks about a person. There is almost an entire stanza demonstrating a  bunch of analogies that express what the speaker intended to his lover. The style in the piece readers typically perceive it as a dirge, or a mourning for the dead. It has four stanzas of four lines each with lines in