Insanity: A Poem Analysis

The irony in the poem of Ordinary Life displays an uncharacteristic and unordinary day of a mother. For example, "Went off to school / Without a murmur / Remembering their books, lunches, gloves"(2-4). This can be a parent's dream of their children well-behaved, instead of forgetting school supplies and making loud sounds in the morning. For instance, "The baby and I built block stacks /and blended into naptime” (7). The irony shows the mother is comfortable with her daily routine and playing with the blocks with the baby shows that her childhood remains with her. In other words, "Grace before bread" (22). Not all families say a grace before they eat, but in the poem, it reflects how families are kept together with their own traditions and

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.

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.

Jim Stevens’ poem, Schizophrenia, gives readers an insight of how the mind of a schizophrenic operates and how the disorder affects an individual. Stevens creatively reveals the main idea through his use of the elements of imagery, diction, and style. He does so, specifically, by his heavy use of metaphors. To demonstrate imagery, Stevens links the devices, extended metaphor and personification, and also relies on onomatopoeia, which make it easier for Stevens’ audience to visualize and understand the mind of a schizophrenic individual. Moreover, he heightens his level of diction through creating double meanings out of common words, which begin to symbolize the symptoms of a schizophrenic. By his short sentences and the way that each stanza

In Sharron Olds’ poem “The Victims,” the bitter reality of a presumably abusive father conjures a disgusted attitude towards his presence. Upon growing up, the speaker recognizes the mother’s tendency to manipulate her independent thoughts into that of her own; thus, portraying the father as a deviant, despicable human being. However, the speaker evidently demonstrates a shift in perception from vividly displaying the pleasure taken by the failures of the father, to evolving a sense of compassion towards those who resemble the man she was taught to despise.

You feel an intense, out-of-the-skin awareness of your living self—your truest self, the human being you want to be and then become by the force of wanting it. In the midst of evil you want to be a good man. You want decency. You want justice and courtesy and human concord, things you never knew you wanted. There is a kind of largeness to it, a kind of godliness. Though it’s odd, you’re never more alive than when you’re almost dead. You recognize what’s valuable. Freshly, as if for the first time, you love what’s best in yourself and in the world, all that might be lost. At the hour of dusk you sit at your foxhole and look out on a wide river turning pinkish red, and at the mountains beyond, and although in the morning you must cross the river and go into the mountains and do terrible things and maybe die, even so, you find yourself studying the fine colors on the river, you feel wonder and awe at the setting of the sun, and you are filled with a hard, aching love for how the world could be and always should be, but now is

As Grendel is introduced in the poem, the quote immediately tells the reader that Grendel is an outcast compared to others. As a natural instinct, people assume a flaw is a flaw and there is something bound to be wrong with the individual, because he is not like the rest of the others, he is different. However, less emphasis is placed on the quote which helps to justify why the creature is as it is, The quote, once analyzed, helps to explain the creature itself from how it was brought up and the background behind all its actions. It so happens to be a trait that was carried throughout each generation. Having been a part of the Germanic culture, the role of Grendel plays a major role when it comes to picking and choosing one's destiny.

"You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life" quoted by Zig Ziglar. His words define the influence which John Schwartz produced upon the class during his visit via Skype. Schwartz gave the class a moment of his time to answer previously assembled questions each student had, and filled our minds with a significance of inspiring information. The virtual presence of John Schwartz impacted my abilities in becoming a better writer.

A contrary explanation is that, Vonnegut is showing how finding the inner truth in a novel results in the breakdown of insanity that ultimately reveals the tragic nature of human essence. There is a point within the mind when things become too real to deal with, and the feelings of intense suffering and pain slowly turn to numbness. Within fiction the author brings up the abstract idea that

As readers of great novels, we are continuously examining and explaining the actions and thoughts of characters. Are we the only ones? Or do the characters actually analyze their own thoughts and actions as we do? In Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, the protagonist, Werther, tells the story of his love for Lotte and the ensuing hardships through letters to his friend and confidante, Wilhelm. Through various situations and excerpts from his letters, we see Werther simply gliding through life, not pondering the motivations for his thoughts and actions, or even questioning his own state-of-mind; the effects of this lack of self-awareness negatively affect him and eventually lead him to commit suicide.

For more than 200 years, clinicians have recognized the existence of individuals who did not fit the established categories of mental disturbances by failing to show remorse or an understanding of the severity of their conditions (Cleckley, 1982). For the next two centuries, researchers would subsequently refine this nomenclature by including various types of antisocial and criminal behaviors that were characteristic of mentally disturbed individuals. In his book, The Mask of Sanity (1982), though, H. C. Cleckley maintained that psychopaths were not necessarily the product of deprived lives in the early years, but suggested that people who have some of the characteristics of psychopathic behaviors do not have the requisite insight into their disorder or their personal state of well-being to recognize them (Raine, 1993). According to Gao and Glenn (2009), "Cleckley's book, The Mask of Sanity, provided the first and classic description and interpretation of psychopathy and theorized that this form of personality disorders may be due to a biological deficit" (p. 813).

I had a very complicated life. There were many struggles and obstacles to get my to be the poet I became. I was born January 6, 1878 in a three room cottage in Galesburg, Illinois. I was born to Swedish immigrants August and Clara Sandburg. My parents had seven children, I was the second child they had. I quit school following my eighth grade graduation and then for decades I spent my life working various jobs like delivering milk, harvesting ice, shining shoes, etc.

This poem represents the book The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson. The novel is about a girl, Rory, who discovers she has an amazing power; she can see ghosts. In chapter 27, the last chapter of the book, Rory finds out that Stephen has been hit by a car and badly hurt. She and her friends rush to the hospital and see him lying in a bed, in a room, he is very relaxed and calm and the monitor beeps rhythmically. Stephen might die so they are arguing what they should do. They bicker back and forth and finally come up with a solution. They come to an agreement that they would give him a terminus. His own terminus where even if he died, there would be maybe some hope that they would meet again in time. Before the doctor could give him the

I really enjoyed the poem, but it is quite sadistic when someone thought about it as deeply as I did. In my personal opinion the poem is about sociopaths and mental illness, and the crazy things it does to our minds. They way it conveys its point is by by saying things like “confine me a padded cell” and “let the doctors take me away”. I mean that keep me up at night when I read it. My question was how did the man who wrote this poem think like that. Does he suffer from a mental illness? The poem never answers this question directly or indirectly just continues with the poem. My opinion of the poem is that it is a call out to our mental health wing of our government. Some of my family have mental disorders that are not severe and some that

Do you hear the trumpets cry out to the world? It is the language of the oppressed soul. It sings at night, and tells of the day's troubles.