Ignorance In Suburban Poetry

Structures the essay exceptionally well, has a compelling introduction and conclusion, and uses transitions to enhance the organization of ideas

It talks about staying optimistic and to “never lose sight of the tiny lights”. On the long road to maturity, an adolescent may lose assurance on their loved ones, and people close to them. This may be because of all the recent circumstances, and the associated adversities that follow. Courage is one of the most important attributes a teenager needs while growing up, so they can overcome hardships and achieve their dreams, “to face the threatening storm….to reach the stars.” The poem also expresses about how teenagers need to have courage to overcome being tempted by things, which can seem okay at first, but turn out to be ‘poison’ which is used as a metaphor in the poem. I believe this represents peer pressure, such as the pressure to smoke or drink, “tempted by roadside whispers”, and this poem highlights that although they can be seen as “sweet fantasies”, it is much better to confront this pressure to become a better

Thesis: Cheever uses symbolism, imagery, and tone to convey the theme of narcissism and suburban emptiness during the 1960’s.

Individuals are subjected to change in their spontaneous lives. Immediately the title ‘drifters’ foreshadows the spontaneous lifestyle of the personas that will stimulate change. The sarcastic tone ‘Truly?’ reinforces the unwanted change of the ‘kids’ who ‘get wildly excited for no reason’. Here, irony is used to emphasise the multiple times the family has moved houses, that the kids are used to

“The Swimmer,” a short fiction by John Cheever, presents a theme to the reader about the unavoidable changes of life. The story focuses on the round character by the name of Neddy Merrill who is in extreme denial about the reality of his life. He has lost his youth, wealth, and family yet only at the end of the story does he develop the most by experiencing a glimpse of realization on all that he has indeed lost. In the short story “The Swimmer,” John Cheever uses point of view, setting and symbolism to show the value of true relationships and the moments of life that are taken for granted.

The experience of darkness is both individual and universal. Within Emily Dickinson’s “We grow accustomed to the Dark” and Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night,” the speakers engage in an understanding of darkness and night as much greater than themselves. Every individual has an experience of the isolation of the night, as chronicled in Frost’s poem, yet it is a global experience that everyone must face, on which Dickinson’s poem elaborates. Through the use of rhythm, point of view, imagery, and mood, each poet makes clear the fact that there is no single darkness that is too difficult to overcome.

In the short story “ The Swimmer,” John Cheever expresses the idea that Neddy Merrill can lose everything if he denies reality. Cheever achieves this by employing various symbols during Merrill's cross county journey. The main symbols are the weather and seasons. Cheever uses the changing of seasons to distort the character’s sense of time and show the progression of Merrill’s life. In the beginning of the story the setting is described as a midsummer day and by the end of the story, Merrill is able to see the constellations of late autumn, meaning winter is near. The illusion of time allows the reader to understand the extent of Merrill’s state of denial, as his beliefs begin to contradict the reality around him. While Cheever uses the weather to describe how Merrill feels. When it is warm Merrill feels happy and youthful. However, when it becomes colder Merrill begins to feel weak and sad. To emphasize Merrill’s state of denial, Cheever employs the motif of alcohol in “The Swimmer;” the reader notices that when Merrill is presented with a reality that he deems unpleasant, he uses alcohol to enhance his state of denial. Through the critical lens of New Historicism, the reader can infer the author’s purpose for writing “The Swimmer” is to criticize the lifestyles of affluent people in the 1950s and early 1960s. Cheever focuses on the party lifestyle of affluent communities and how the use of alcohol allows them to deny the reality around their current misfortunes.

In Emily Dickenson's "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark," and in Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night," the poets use imagery of darkness. The two poems share much in common in terms of structure, theme, imagery, and motif. Both poems are five stanzas long: brief and poignant. The central concepts of being "accustomed" to something, and being "acquainted" with something convey a sense of familiarity. However, there are core differences in the ways Dickenson and Frost craft their poems. Although both Dickenson and Frost write about darkness, they do so with different points of view, imagery, and structure.

He uses specific choice of words like "Dark", "Sorcerer" and "Visions" to provide a sense of wonder and mystery as if it was an adventure. Which portrays the anticipation that Douglas feels towards all of the adventures that summer will bring. The passage also consists of a simile in lines 48 through 50. The sentence reads "The street lights, like candles on a black cake, went out." This particular lines connect to the first paragraph of the whole passage which mentioned the sun hasn't rised. The simile is a comparing lit street lights to that of candles which at first are lit but once you blow them out it's light is gone. The lines are explaining that the street lights are off, now that they are not needed since the sun is out. Personification is found in lines 49 through 50. Which say the following " As house lights winked slowly on." This sentence,personifies house lights as winking which represents house lights slowly turning on. Therefore, people are starting to wake up and the day is about to commence. Towards the end of the passage Douglas Spaulding is preparing to leave his home and enjoy his summer. A metaphor is illustrated in line 74 through 75. For example "The town trolley would sail the rivering black streets." In the sentence, the streets are being compared to an ocean. Which portrays Douglas imagination and desire for his summer adventures to begin. Visual

Peter Kirkpatrick’s poem ‘Suburban Moment, 2 a.m.’ is a poem told in first person by the narrator or persona which Kirkpatrick has created. It is structured as a 14-line sonnet with eight lines in the first stanza and six lines in the second stanza. In the poem, Kirkpatrick presents a persona/narrator, suggestively himself, who, during the middle of the night (at 2 a.m. as the title suggests) has an extensive case of ‘writer’s block’ and is determined not to let sleep tempt him until his poem is complete. The language used, along with the sentence structure of the poem, suggests a stuck and frustrated tone and situation.

He begins by reminiscing about his childhood spent at a lake, nostalgically speaking of the scenes he saw in the sky. Later, he says “Even the northern lake where I was lucky enough to spend my summers as seen its darkness diminish”. Bogard uses his own past as a means of accessing the reader’s past, forcing him or her to think about how much they value their childhood. By stating how even his childhood memories are being blown away by artificial lighting, Bogard instills fear that their memories will face the same fate in the reader. As a result of this fear, the reader is left only to agree with Bogard. He then goes on to state “night’s darkness can provide solitude, quiet and stillness. . . In a world awash with electric light . . . how would Van Gogh have given the world his ‘Starry Night’?” As humans, peace and solitude is an inherent part of who we are; no matter how mush of a “social butterfly” we are, quiet is something we all crave. Within this peacefulness, we can get away from the bustle of life and even find inspiration in darkness much like Van Gogh did. To lose this independence and quiet would be a shocking blow to everyone, and the reader is convinced by Bogard. Through his or her own emotions and experiences, the reader is compelled to agree with

The speaker refers to the night as his acquaintance. This implies that the speaker has a lot of experience with the night, but has not become friends with it. Thus, because even the night, which has been alongside the speaker in comparison to anything or anyone else, is not a companion to the speaker, the idea of loneliness is enhanced. In addition, “rain” (2) is used to symbolize the speaker’s feelings of gloom and grief, because there is continuous pouring of the rain, which is unlikely to stop. In line 3, “city light” is used to convey the emotional distance between the speaker and society. Although the speaker has walked extensively, he has not yet interacted with anyone – thus distancing himself even further from society. Moreover, the moon, in lines 11 to 12, is used as a metaphor of the speaker’s feelings. The speaker feels extremely distant from society that he feels “unearthly.” The idea of isolation and loneliness in this poem is used as the theme of the poem; and the use of the setting and metaphors underscores the idea that the speaker feels abandoned from society.

In the first poem , “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark,” the speaker is saying, concerning darkness, that you should always find our way through hard situations. For example, the wanderer compares brave people to

In his poem “Acquainted with the Night,” Robert Frost describes a character who spends his nights wandering the city streets. The reader can infer from both Frost’s tone, and the time of day in which the speaker chooses to walk, that the character is in a world of isolation. This is especially evident in the lines, “When far away an interrupted cry/ Came over houses from another street,/ But not to call me back or say good-by” (Frost 898). From this line, the reader understands that the poem’s speaker feels as if he is completely isolated in the world. In a similar way, E. E. Cummings poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town” expresses the loneliness felt by people of this era. Cummings creative use of pronouns gives the poem a double entendre. The characters, anyone and noone, can represent their literal meanings, or a single man and woman. Therefore, when Cummings writes that “noone loves him more by more,” he could mean that anyone is being loved greatly, or not at all. This loneliness is expressed yet again when Cummings informs the reader, “Women and men (both little and small)/ cared for anyone not at all” (Cummings 922). The works of both Frost and Cummings both portray the hardship that accompanied the feeling of loneliness during the modern

"The Swimmer," by John Cheever, illustrates one man's journey from a typical suburban life to loneliness and isolation. This short story is characteristic of John Cheever's typical characterizations of suburbia, with all it's finery and entrapments. Cheever has been noted for his "skill as a realist depicter of suburban manners and morals" (Norton, p. 1861). Yet this story presents a deeper look into Neddy Merril's downfall from the contentment of a summer's day to the realization of darker times.