Poetry is known to be a creative thought or impassioned feeling using language and is expressed in many places in the world. A poem can have many different meanings according to how an individual interprets it. Various literary devices are used to bring out that interpretation and the sense of what the person thinks that is going to happen. In the poem “Saturday at the Canal” by Gary Soto and “Nothing Better” by The Postal Service the theme is sometimes in life you may go through tough times but it is up to you whether they will continue. Some literary devices that show the coming up from tough times are figurative language, imagery, and the mood of the poems/songs. Figurative language is one literary device that supports the theme of coming back from tough times. In “Saturday at the Canal” the speaker is in school and is going through a tough life and “the teachers were too close to dying to understand” (Soto 5-6). This hyperbole is showing how miserable in life the speaker is in that current point using exaggeration and how the speaker wants to change it by heading to San Francisco. The teachers probably were from an older time and could not possibly understand the life of a modern teenager. In “Nothing Better” the speaker is going through a breakup with his girlfriend and is willing to “block the door like a goalie tending the net” (The Postal Service 6-7). The simile shows how much the speaker wants things to become better and does not want her to leave him. In soccer
It is evident through both poems that Dawe believes the events in these poems are an injustice and he disagrees with these events; this is heard through the melancholic, sad tone that is apparent in both poems. He uses this sad tone to persuade the reader to disagree with what has happened. The poem “Katrina” uses many metaphors to create imagery, which is also another technique in the poem. One example of the use of metaphor would be “suspended between earth and sky”, this line is a metaphor for life and it signifies the suspense as to whether Katrina will live or die as well as providing imagery to the reader. Similarly, the poem “A Victorian Hangman Tells His Love” in
To continue, the poem “ Mother to Son” uses figurative language and conflict to develop the theme of rising above challenges. To begin, the author uses figurative language to develop the theme by using Metaphor. In the text it said, ““I’m still climbin’, And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” Figurative language develops the theme of rising above challenges in this text because the author is comparing her life and the stairs to show that there are going to be hard things that are going to come into your life. Second of all, to develop the theme of rising above challenges the author also used conflict. In the text it says, “ “Don’t you set down on the steps ’Cause you find it’s very hard. Don’t you fall now— For I’m still going, honey, I’m still climbin,”. The conflict of this poem is the person on the stairs is starting to give up. The conflict develops the theme of rising above challenges in this text because in the poem it shows that the mother is trying to convince the son to keep going and to overcome his challenges. In conclusion, to develop the theme of rising above challenges the author of the poem, “Mother to Son” used figurative language and conflict. The author used these to show how the metaphor is showing us how life is at times and how the conflict help show the theme of the poem.
Throughout history, authors have used poetry as a way to express themselves and how they think or feel in an artistic way. There have been poems written about almost every feeling a person has ever had which is why poetry is so popular, because it describes feelings in a way many people cannot. In present day, people from all around the world look back at old poetry and try to define the true meanings behind poems using literally elements and context clues to aid them, this is known as explication. The writing named “Boat of Cypress” is a famous poem written long ago by an unknown author, and composed about a woman full of misery and despair from her personal point of view. Throughout this poem, the readers
Poems consist of a variation of different techniques in order to convey a message or idea to readers. Wilfred Owen, Thomas Hardy, Adrienne Rich, Bruce Dawe and Robert Browning are great poets who explore these issues, conveying their emotions, which influences a perception of an issue. In each of their poems they express the hidden message of hope, along with their main message. They use similar techniques to express their ideas, which illustrates their purpose to the reader.
Markus Zusak’s intricate novel, The Messenger tells a story of a teenager living in a low socio-economic area of Sydney. Throughout the text Zusak employs a variety of literary devices to assist in the readers connection with Ed’s journey of self-discovery as well as questioning their own. Ed Kennedy narrates the book as the protagonist, following his ‘epitome of ordinariness’ life. Ed is faced with a number of challenges, which contributes, in his journey of self-discovery. Each literary device used in the book compliments the challenge during the text.
Poetry deals with words and meanings of important things. It also uses detail, and is a form of art in many different ways. Leonie Adams, the author of “Home Coming” writes a poem about someone coming home, and what their journey was like as they were coming home. She uses many different poetic forms, but focuses more on speed, shape, and emphasis. These three things take place throughout the story, and is explained throughout the story.
Bernard Malamud’s award winning novel The Natural achieves organic unity through his expletory use of details to help maintain and sustain the major themes throughout the novel. The Natural contains many themes, perhaps the most visible of these themes is dissatisfaction. Roy Hobbs a once great, thriving baseball player projected for great things is shot by a serial killer that attacks young star athletes. Hobbs was dissatisfied with how his life turned out and how he couldn’t play the game he loves. You see Hobbs’ physical ability and mental strength taken from him after he is no longer a sought after. Through his ambition to return to the game that was taken from him when he was so young you see his strength and skill return to him,
In Middlemarch, George Eliot utilizes several literary devices to portray her two characters and their complex relationship that reveals their marriage is dominated by the husband who objectifies his wife into silence. Throughout the passage, Eliot makes it clear that Rosamond and Tertius Lydgate are in an uneven relationship, considering Tertius refuses to listen to his wife who seems to only have his best interest at heart, yet still, he continues to yell at her for thinking she knows what is best for him. With the help of details, Tertius’s critical tone, and imagery, Eliot is able to showcase how complex their relationship is when it comes to Rosamond giving her opinions and ideas, just to be casted to the side.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien expresses the importance of a story-truth, as opposed to a happening-truth by use of literary elements in his writing. The novel is about war and the guilt it leaves on everyone involved in the war. Story-truth is not exactly what happened, but uses part of the truth and part made up in order to express the truth of what emotion was felt, which an important thematic element in the novel is. The three literary devices he uses to express this are diction, imagery, juxtaposition, and hyperbole. All of these elements allow the reader to identify emotion that is expressed in each story, as though that were the complete truth.
The dead have no guilt. No responsibilities. No memory. They need not to follow any rules but two; be still and silent. But for those unlucky enough to have to live, they must carry the burden, and guilt of life and survival. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses imagery, mood, tone, and repetition to answer the question, what is the effect of conflict on humanity?
Imagery plays a big part in this poem. “Hope Is a Tattered Flag is a simple text,
The second poem is “Home Burial”, by Robert Frost. The poem is about a couple, Amy and her husband, losing their son causing Amy to go through emotional turmoil. Amy is trying to avoid the situation by trying to leave, but her husband is trying to pull her back, so he can figure out what’s wrong with her and as the poem continues the drama increases. The topic of the poem is sadness, which ties into the theme of Amy and her husband’s relationship is on the rock. The theme in this poem is that everyone goes through sadness, but bottling it up doesn’t help the situation. This is due to the death of their son and as the story continues the husband is trying to understand, why Amy is acting the way she is but she receives the message as rude and offensive. Most of the tension is coming from the graveyard, which resigns on their lot that contains their relatives and son. In lines 1-2, it expresses my theme because it has both
The theme for the poem and the movie was that everyone makes mistakes and gets down and low, but it’s up to you to bring yourself back up and you shouldn’t let anyone determined your future. The poem also has points where the movie agrees with the poem. When the poem says “out of the that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole”. When Darius was describing his life when he was 14 or 15, or an early adolescent
The poet uses a lot of emotive language in this poem to try and make
"The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor." [It is] "a sign of real genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars." Aristotle in Poetics.