In The Waiting Room Elizabeth Bishop

She says that the "child" had been by her side until "snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true" (line 3). Basically she is saying a trusted person “snatched” her work from her without permission to take them to England to be printed. Had it not been for her brother-in-law taking her work back to England and getting them printed they may have never been known. The intimacy and feeling she shares with her work is like that of a mother and child and that bond was infringed upon when her work was "exposed to public view" (line 4). The intrusion of her brother-in-law getting her work printed is the cause of feeling that follow. Ironically the next thing she talks is the shame she has been thrust upon her by not being able to perfect the work before it was published. This is illustrated in line five where she writes, “Made thee in rags,” as to say her work is like a child dressed in rags.

Through both poems, Duffy establishes the cause of both the women's suffering and how it's the foundation for both of their lives. In the 'Map women' Duffy uses an extended metaphor that the "women's skin was a map of the town", the skin is the

The short story, "My Last Duchess," by critically acclaimed, Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, is an intriguing and thought-provoking work of prose. Though it ties considerably to the famous work by the same name, written by Robert Browning, it also brings its own ideas, and symbols to the table. The most prominent symbolic link within this story is the representation between the characterization of Miss Bessie--the high school english teacher--and the narrator 's ideas, thoughts, and fears about life. The term life -- for the purposes of this essay -- is defined as the existence of an individual person and their course through the world. In “My Last Duchess,” the narrator 's life is symbolically represented through Miss Bessie by the character traits of a positive reputation, overcoming obstacles, and the solitary nature of people.

Natasha Tretheway’s first two poems, leading introductions give an image of having false expectations and leads with another device of foreshadowing. “Theories of Time and Space,” and “The Southern Crescent” both show how the same situation happens to the mother, and then it happens again to her when she is with her mother. The train personifies as the mother’s life. She leaves at sixteen years old, “She is leaving behind, the dirt roads of Mississippi…” However she doesn’t ascertain for what she would find at the end of her journey. This ride involves another disappointment, just like the first trip. The speaker and her mother derail on their train ride and never reach their final destination. Both trips, the reader can imagine and feel the hope of visiting important man in their lives that let them down in the end. “Each small town pass before her window/ until light goes, and the reflection/ of mothers face appears clear now/ as evening comes on, dark and

Anne Bradstreet was not the typical Puritan author. She wrote sweet and loving poems that greatly contrasted from other writers of her time. She did not write the ever so popular sermons that told people that they were going to hell and there was nothing they could do about it. Bradstreet was a rarity in Puritan times, she was a very educated woman that worked on something other than being a woman in the household. She was one of a kind and the beginning of an era. Using literary criticism when reading Anne Bradstreet’s poems adds a deeper understanding of her character and difficulties in life.

Throughout the poem, Olds includes repetition of “This is” statements to convey how it can be exhausting to raise a child, but in the end, it is bittersweet to have watched them grow. Looking back on the child’s life, the speaker recollects the first trip to the pediatrician's office: “This is the archway” (Olds 1). In combination with later repetition, the line foresees the many appointments the child and mother will attend. Along with conveying the first appointment, the phrase also demonstrates a parent’s first time worries after having a child, where each sniffle or cough is serious. Upon returning to the doctor’s office, the mom comes to realize that taking care of a child is constant work: “This is the door / we came

Through both poems, Duffy establishes the cause of both the women 's suffering and how it 's the foundation for both of their lives. In the 'Map women ' Duffy uses an extended metaphor that the "women 's skin was a map of the town", the

At the beginning of the poem, the speaker, a twelve-year-old girl, is instantly gripped by a strong feeling of lust toward this mysterious seventeen-year-old boy: the paperboy. She even goes on to describe him as a “gift. A fluke from God” as if she believes that she and this boy are destined to be together (2). From her vantage point, the girl instantly notices the boy’s physical characteristics, traits which the young girl appears to admire when she describes the boy’s “bicep in the twilight” (3). This intense, love-at-first-sight reaction to the boy’s arm shows how irrational the girl’s feelings are. She seems to simply lust after the idea of him. The girl has “no memory of language” from their nightly encounters, further showing how this “relationship” was merely visual and very one-sided (6). The boy, potentially, never even notices the girl; and if he does, he does not acknowledge her presence, let alone her strong emotions. The only memories the girl has are from “loitering, lingering far past curfew,” times in which she merely stares at the boy while he completes his daily paper route (7). The girl's depictions of her mother "lost in steam, stirring" and her father "asleep beside his Manhattan, the half-read mail" almost puts the reader directly into the house. The girl, meanwhile, lost her in her emotions, wanders around her yard "without knowing what I longed for" (16). The parents, both focused on other activities, leave the twelve-year-old speaker to do as she pleases in the night.

When writing a collection of poems, most poets chose to focus on maintaining certain themes throughout their literature and Cornelius Eady is not an exception. Cornelius Eady’s collection of poems in Brutal Imagination focus on issues such as racism, family crisis, internal conflict, and death. The first part of the collection circles around a servant who works for Susan Smith and is the caretaker for her children. The story centers around the perspective of the servant who is also the overarching narrator. The story describes old version of United States when racism was still bluntly present and affected individuals identities and financial opportunities. Based off the information presented in the collection, the servant can possibly be male. The general plot follows deeply into the difficult life of the male servant through examining the issues he faces. The first poem within the collection set-ups the rest of the story with context for the readers giving them a few expectations about what they should look forward to reading further. Eady draws the reader through integrating an origin for the male servant and his connection to Susan Smith’s family.

Elizabeth Bishop is a poet native to Worcester. Her mother was widowed when Elizabeth was merely eight months old, and as a result, slowly fell into a string of mental issues that would cause her to be institutionalized until the end of her life. This resulted in Elizabeth moving in with her grandparents in Nova Scotia at the age of eight before briefly moving back

Another poem titled “The Author to Her Book” gives the reader the image of a baby being born. Bradstreet critics her works again and again seemingly portraying her works are not good enough. She refers to the “child” having blemishes and crippling handicaps that represents the deep faults and shortcomings in her work. Washing the child, rubbing off a blemish, and stretching its joints but failing to improve his imperfections all contribute to an image of Bradstreet rewriting her book. Dreadfully trying to increase the quality and standards in her work, the more imperfections she found. Towards the end of the poem Bradstreet talks about how she would give her ugly “child” new clothes and it just appears that her real life actions contradict her poem. She is actually very poor in life and could not afford new clothes thus sending her children away from the house.

In this stylistic analysis of the lost baby poem written by Lucille Clifton I will deal mainly with two aspects of stylistic: derivation and parallelism features present in the poem. However I will first give a general interpretation of the poem to link more easily the stylistic features with the meaning of the poem itself.

Her diction is one of an educated adult, or at least a well-spoken college student. She uses strong imagery when describing her hometown. She goes into great detail in describing not only the look of the setting, but the mood as well. Her recollections of the past that directly involve the main story are short, but help build the world in which the story is being told. In paragraph eight Elizabeth says “I remember squatting in the road drawing a picture in the dust, a picture which Joey gleefully erased with one sweep of his dirty foot. I remember fishing for minnows in a muddy creek and watching sadly as they eluded my cupped hands, while Joey laughed uproariously” as she remembers the past. This is more than painting a picture for the audience. She uses physical descriptions as well as conveying the setting through memories. You can almost feel her nostalgia for her younger innocent days through the words. The memories described here are short, but give us examples of joy in her youth. Juxtaposed to her other tellings of her childhood which seem mostly

A sestina is a fixed form of six stanzas that end with an envoi, an address to an imagined or real subject. This particular form of “Sestina” by Elizabeth Bishop takes you through one particular afternoon of a grandmother and her grandchild. Though the poem itself is ambiguous, Bishop foreshadows the grandmother’s demise throughout the entirety of the poem. The five words almanac, grandmother, tears, stove, and house are used at the end of each line for the six stanzas and envoi. They are clues as to figuring out the meaning of the poem. However, they are not the only clues as symbolism is the main usage of figurative language. The speaker is assumed to be Elizabeth Bishop but even she has written the poem in a way that reflects that of an outside observer to obscure the poem even further.

In the introduction of the poem, Heaney paints the picture of the girl as if seeing her recently after she was killed, creating a chilling image of cruelty for the reader. The first stanza of the poem aims at setting the scene and drawing the reader in: “I can feel the tug / of the halter at the nape / of her neck, the wind / on her naked front” (Heaney 1-4). In this first stanza, he uses the repetition of the word “her” and alliteration—the repetition of consonant sounds—of the “n” sound. The repetition of “her” shows the author’s want for the girl to keep some part of her identity, rather than becoming a nameless body in history. This word also holds some possession; her body, however mangled or ruined it was, still belongs to her, even in death. But the reader also sees her vulnerability through her nakedness and the further