Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
Rupi Kaur wrote Milk and Honey as a 21-year-old woman and it's the first collection of her poems, based on past experiences she had. This is the first time she fully let herself be vulnerable and real in her poetry in such a public manner, besides the reason to get her own story out, the purpose of Milk and Honey is to help other girls. Rupi Kaur was raped by one of her dad's co-workers whom she had known for a long time. This among other past experiences is what helped shape Milk and Honey. The structure of Milk and Honey is very unique; it is separated into four sections: The hurting, the loving, the breaking, and the healing. The book begins with Kaur at a young age, but there are several elements that do not go in chronological order. The hurting is the first section of Milk and Honey; these poems center around Kaur's misconception about love and touches on why they are the way they are. Kaur is rejecting love and has been hurt by men, creating a negative connotation with both love, physically and emotionally from a very young age. She explains the first time a boy kissed her and compares him holding her shoulders down to the handlebars of the first bicycle he ever rode. This metaphor explains the first time she felt empty because of the way a boy touched her. From a young age, Kaur felt this sense of emptiness and numbness in her life. She says that "she was a rose in the hands of those who had no intention of keeping her". This use of symbolism hints at the delicacy of a rose and how it was manhandled by someone who didn't recognize it's true worth. Her distortion of love in this section is so evident and each poem appeals to pathos, each hitting at a different emotion. The next section is “the loving”. This part of the book highlights the beauty in love and is a total shift from the hurting. Not only has Kaur opened herself up to loving someone else, she says she is learning to love by loving herself. This concept appeals to so many girls who have lowered their self-worth because of a male figure in their life. She learns that love is not always physical, but she can feel "touched without being touched". As she grows deeper into this love, he becomes the light
The atmospheric conditions may represent the hardships that the couple had to go through in their relationship, and may also be used contrast the unpredictability of the outside world compared to the steady relationship that the couple have. ‘A Youth Mowing’ is also a poem about relationships, this time it is between a younger couple. The river ‘Isar’ is a symbol of freedom, it represents the way that the men’s lives are. However, this sense of liberty is broken by the ‘swish of the scythe-strokes’ as the girl takes ‘four sharp breaths.’ Sibilance is used to show that there is a sinister undertone to the freedom that the boy has which will be broken by the news that his girlfriend is bringing. She feels guilty for ‘what’s in store,’ as now the boy will have to be committed to spending the rest of his life with her, and paying the price for the fun that they had.
In this poem, symbolism is used to help reader’s find deeper meaning in the little things included and show that everything comes back to the father’s fear of the child he adores growing older and more independent. “In a room full of books in a world of stories, he can recall not one, and soon he thinks the boy will give up on his father.” This sentence makes a reader assume that the story the five year old so
Milk and Honey is a poetry book that is divided into four chapters, the healing process: The Hurting, The Loving, The Breaking, and The Healing. The title ‘Milk and Honey’ comes from Exodus 33:3, “…unto a land filled with milk and honey,” this is referred to as the Promised Land. Throughout the book, every other poem is accompanied by an illustration that relates to the poem in one way or another.
‘Up the Wall’ by Bruce Dawe and ‘In the Park’ by Gwen Harwood both utilise the structure of the poem, dialogue and imagery to explore the idea of personal limitation and the loss of identity and love that accompanies maternal and domestic responsibility. Both poems have a third person persona where the use of “She” can indicate the mother’s universal sense of alienation and drudgery, which is further emphasised through the miserable and despairing tones of the poem. The incorporation of a generalised, impersonal pronoun adds to the evident struggle of separating her maternal identity from her identity as an individual. The poem ‘In the Park’ by Gwen Harwood is constructed in the form of a Petrarchan sonnet with an iambic pentameter and a rhyme
There are clues throughout the poem that express the man’s past experiences, leading him to have a hostile tone. The speaker represents his past as “parched years” that he has lived through (7-8) and represents his daughter’s potential future as
The imagery in the poem “35/10” also conveys the speaker’s wistfulness and jealousy for her daughter’s youth. The speaker describes her daughter as, “a moist/ precise flower on the tip of a cactus” (9-10) while she says, “my skin shows/ its dry pitting” (8-9). These phrases paint an image of the daughter as blooming and new, whereas the speaker is wilting and used. The word moist is associated with youthfulness and the word dry is associated with old age. The speaker’s use of the contrasting words moist and dry also allows the reader to use visual and tactile senses to picture the physical differences between the
The use of symbolism and imagery is beautifully orchestrated in a magnificent dance of emotion that is resonated throughout the poem. The two main ideas that are keen to resurface are that of personal growth and freedom. Furthermore, at first glimpse this can be seen as a simple poem about a women’s struggle with her counterpart. However, this meaning can be interpreted more profoundly than just the causality of a bad relationship.
This poem by Charlotte Mew tells a story in which a farmer marries a very young girl who could not be less ready to marry. The maid in this poem is abused throughout the poem by her so called husband who does not treat her even as a human. Her marriage arranged at a young age the girl is forced into adult duties and actions much too early. This cause many issues to her mental health and her trust towards other humans. The farmer, as the narrator, uses several similes throughout the poem comparing the maid to a rabbit. This shows how he views her and why he treats her like he does in the poem. The six uneven stanzas allows Mew to express her intentions not limited to another's style. This allows for amazing line placement throughout the poem, and the only form she follows throughout the poem is iambic tetrameter. There is no rhyme scheme allowing Mew to have freedom like the girl so much desires. In “The Farmer’s Bride”, Charlotte Mew uses irregular rhyme and form with iambic tetrameter, as well as thorough imagery and comparison to show the broken marriage in this poem.
The story carried out a sentimental theme throughout the book. For starters the text states “ Light in her eyes, a smile” The author portrays the theme with that stanza alone. The words the authors use light and smile gives the reader the light-hearted feeling. To also go off of that that, the poem also quotes, “ I took my girl’s hand in mine for two blocks.” This quote also gives it the nostalgic to the story as said in the last reason. As you can see the poem has the same tone throughout but why do these poems have to do with each
In the beginning of the book Lily, is an innocent child who just wants to be loved desperately. Even though T-Ray is cruel to her she still yearns for his affection because she feels lost and unloved without her mother. Just like the bees in her bedroom, she is aimless -- “The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down its seam” (1). She feels a connection to these bees because she, too, is living for the sake of living, without a sense of importance or
The father is a drunken man who abuses his son, but the son accepts his father’s actions and continues to seek love from him. The boy would “waltz” with his father while the mother watched with fear, and with “every step you missed, my right ear scraped a buckle. You beat time on my head…” (Lines 11-13). The father drunkenly abused his son, but the son who “...hung on like death...Still clinging to your shirt” (Lines 3 and 16) was longing to be loved. The tone of this poem is violent and harsh due to the unhealthy relationship between father and
The reader begins to wonder if it is actually just the man she is afraid to be in love with rather than the idea of love itself. According to her, the man sees her simply as a problem that he can solve with his wits and charm, suggesting that he would not be interested in her once she has dissolved in the heat of his charm. Perhaps she is aware that this man might not be a good choice for her, yet she cannot control her feelings for him. However, in the following lines, she expresses her own incapacity to survive and be happy, bringing the reader back to the theme she started the poem with. Despite being blown away by his acts of kindness time after time, she finds herself beyond recovery and asks the man to reconsider his intentions since she is a problem he might never be able to solve. Therefore, the second stanza shows the grave nature of the poet's
Heartbreak is the first human experience discussed in this poem. “Tender and full was the look he gave, could a slave look so at another slave?” (Stan 9 line 62) “They wrung her cold hands out of his, they dragged him. I crawled to touch his
The poem Making Sarah Cry has a theme of being different. In the poem the author showed ways of how Sarah was different from everyone else. For example, the author said in the poem, “She was slow and not as smart”.
The "heart" in this poem is "restless and rises...sits by herself in kitchen..." (line 7-11). The heart leaves the body of the woman to go to the kitchen to drink warm milk to help calm her and make her sleepy. The heart is the compass inside of you that will point you to our own true north if you just listen to it. It will lead you to enjoyment and save us if we get misplaced. The heart though can be disingenuous and imperfect, so we have to be careful sometimes and look for other things to help us get through what we truly