Literary Devices In The Slow Goodbye By Ted Hughes

The two poems by Langston Hughes “Theme for English B” and “ I, Too” both identify racism that permeates all stations of life. In both texts, Hughes represents the two speakers as African Americans and identifies how one tries to elevate himself through education and the other individual remains trapped at a lower station. In the poem “Theme for English B” skin colour and all that it represents emerges when the speaker searches for his identity as well as what is the truth about his abilities. The speaker expresses his view in how he deals with his white counterparts (the instructor). “I, Too” centers on the idea of racial oppression, looking at how whites do not recognize blacks as equals and how this affects the individual. Yet the texts attempt to show the basic human similarities between African Americans and white people despite their perceived differences and societal segregation. The two speakers within the poems struggle with their own self-worth in relation to their colour. The similarity between the two speakers is that they approach their issues confident in their capabilities and futures. The two speakers differ in that they appear to have different stations in life; servitude versus achieving higher education, yet both struggle with self-worth.

In this poem there is a lot of figurative language. One of the biggest types of figurative language used in this poem is irony. The irony in this poem is how the mother wouldn't let her child go to march because she feared her child would get hurt. Instead she sent her child to church because she believed it was a safe and sacred place but ironically the church ended up being bombed. Another piece of figurative language that is very effective in this poem is imagery. The way the poem is written helps me create images in my head for example, "She raced through the streets of Birmingham." I can imagine her running around desperately, looking for her child. The metaphors and hyperboles in this poem also help with the imagery, for example, "...night dark hair," and "…rose-petal sweet." These metaphors make me think of the girls smoothly combed black hair and her fresh and beautiful rosy smell. A hyperbole that had a huge effect on the tone was, "But that smile was the last smile to ever come upon her face." This hyperbole really helps me understand the effect of a tragic moment like this and how it can completely ruin

Figurative language is one of the devices used to give this piece structure, structure is given to this piece by figurative language. One example of figurative language is personification in many instances such as page seven of The Yearling. “ The palm-leaf paddles were frail but they made a brave show of strength rippling against the shallow water”. Meaning the palm leaves showed strength to the world, rippling against the water in an act of rebellion. More examples of figurative language used are similes. The strongest one used is found on page six elegantly describing the flutter mill. “Drops of silver slipping from the wheel blurred together like the tail of a shooting star”. Imaginatively describing the clear water streaming through the frail mill, turning timelessly like a shooting star flies through the sky, symbolizing times and presence. Additionally used as figurative language in this piece as hyperboles to elaborate on the existence of the spring. Used on page six, “The bubbling spring would rise forever from the earth, the thin crust was endless”, is the most powerful use of hyperboles in The Yearling. Rawlings used the words “endless” and “forever” to demonstrate to the reader the length of time the mighty wheel and the young stream would toil and remain youthful.

A shift in focus from the students to himself creates an interesting structure in the poem. Collins began discussing his disinterest of his students and their laughable yet pathetic lifestyle. Then toward the end, the author shifts to speak about himself. He expresses the impact of being a long time teacher and the loneliness that comes along with it. Collins creates the detailed image of his colonial house, the deflated car, and vines growing on the porch swing, revealing his depression and sense of being trapped. Therefore, the author connects how past students have driven him to insanity and caused him to create a false reality in his head.

One of these is the hefty amount of repetition used throughout the poem. In the first, second, third, and fourth stanzas, she repeats the first rhyming word of stanza. The words before these rhyming parts are also parallel to each other. Therefore, she used repetition inside of parallelism. This creates a powerful effect.

It is the idea of contrast that Hughes imposes on the reader. Hughes not only focuses on the negativity aspects of life, but through the negative elements is one able to see the positive outcomes. It is the over all theme of overcoming these obstacles, that captures the audience. Towards the end of the last stanza of the poem, we, the audience, see a complete transformation of the speaker and his view on life. He now comprehends the extensity of his actions and views his emotions as a blinding element from reality. He does not have the need to commit suicide anymore, and now fully accepts the loss and embraces the lament. "Though you may hear me holler, and you may see me cry- I'll be dogged, sweet baby, If you gonna see me die. Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine! (Conarroe pg 242, 27-33). With the passage, the reader is now aware of the transformation of the speaker.

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

As evident by the title of this poem, imagery is a strong technique used in this poem as the author describes with great detail his journey through a sawmill town. This technique is used most in the following phrases: “...down a tilting road, into a distant valley.” And “The sawmill towns, bare hamlets built of boards with perhaps a store”. This has the effect of creating an image in the reader’s mind and making the poem even more real.

You can tell that in the poem the season is fall because of the color of the wood. In the fall the color of the wood turns yellow which indicates that the poem takes place in the fall. The season’s representations of what time frame a person life is in. How spring represents how someone is at that kid stage of their lives and how they are getting ready to bloom into their personalities. Summer shows how people are at the fun stage of their lives. That teenage to adult hood part of life. Winter is that time of life when all the excitement has went away, kind of like the years a person is elderly. Here is a man that has had many outcomes from the decision he had made in life, so he understands how important it is to it is to make a choice and live with whatever comes after making the choices. In lines 11-12 the speakers says “And both that morning equally lay, “In leaves no step had trodden black”. When he says the leaves haven’t been trodden black indicates that the leaves haven’t been crushed from people stepping on them. So this means he was the only that have been on that

. . should burn and rave at the close of day”(2). This means that old men should fight when they are dying and their age should not prevent them from resisting death. Another example of personification in the poem is “Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay”(8). This line personifies the men’s frail deeds by saying that they could have danced. This means that the potential actions of the men could have flourished and contributed greatly to their lives. The metaphor “. . . words had forked no lightning. . .”(5) is about how the men had done nothing significant with their lives. They had not achieved anything great or caused a major change. The simile “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay” is about how even grave and serious men will fight against death for as long as they can. Another notable example of figurative language within the poem is “. . . blinding sight”(13). This oxymoron details how the men can see very well and it is very obvious to them that they will die soon, but they know that they can control how they will leave this world. There is an abundance of imagery within this poem, a few examples of which are “. . . danced in a green bay”(8), and “. . . caught and sang the sun in flight”(10) . These examples of imagery are both appealing to the sense of sight by using descriptive words such as “Green” and “danced” in the first example and words such as “caught” and “flight” among others. The second example also appeals to the sense of sound by

The power of the poet is not only to convey an everyday scene into a literary portrait of words, but also to interweave this scene into an underlying theme. The only tool the poet has to wield is the word. Through a careful placement and selection of words, the poet can hopefully make his point clear, but not blatantly obvious. Common themes of poems are life, death, or the conflicting forces thereto. This theme could never possibly be overused because of the endless and limitless ways of portraying life or death through the use of different words.

To start off the analysis, the setting of the entire poem is significant. Though the poem takes place in a house, the atmosphere the house is set in is also important. The month is September which is a month of fall which can be seen as a symbol for decline. It definitely insinuates that the poem is leading towards death. Line 1 has “September rain falls on the house” which gives the feeling of a dark and cold night with a storm on top of that. To further develop that, Bishop gives us the failing light in line 2 to also give us an idea of the grandmother’s struggle. Bishop uses the cyclical theme of changing seasons to show the unending nature of what is transpiring within the

There is a rhythm throughout the poem with strong rhyme, this pattern is like heavy breathing you have when you try to go to sleep it could also represent the rhythmical counting of sheep.

It’s almost as if Hughes is trying to show that in life, most of the time you just dive right in without thinking about the consequences. But then, life turns around and bites you in the butt leaving you crying, hollering, and in shock from the “cold”. Even though it catches you off guard, frightens and shocks you, you still survive. You survive by fighting, and resisting the urge to sink. The elevator represents life as well, but in a different way. The stanza about the elevator states “I thought about my baby And I thought I would jump down” (14-15). I think that these two lines do a great job portraying that in life, a lot of times, you feel powerless and you want to just give up; however, you must remember those around you who are ruiting and depending on you. Often times, this can lead to stepping back and consciously choosing to not give up, and the main character does not give up at the end of this stanza.