Of The Threads That Connect The Stars By Martin Espada Summary

One of the most difficult, yet rewarding roles is that of a parent. The relationship between and parent and child is so complex and important that a parents relationship with her/his child can affect the relationship that the child has with his/her friends and lovers. A child will watch their parents and use them as role models and in turn project what the child has learned into all of the relationship that he child will have. The way a parent interacts with his/her child has a huge impact on the child’s social and emotional development. Such cases of parent and child relationships are presented in Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” and Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”. While Roethke and Plath both write about a dynamic between a child-father relationship that seems unhealthy and abusive, Plath writes about a complex and tense child-father relationship in which the child hates her father, whereas Roethke writes about a complex and more relaxed child-father relationship in which the son loves his father. Through the use of tone, rhyme, meter, and imagery, both poems illustrate different child-father relationships in which each child has a different set of feelings toward their father.

Throughout the poem, the speaker uses specific details that show the conflict between the speaker’s son and his parents. In the first stanza, the speaker recalls exchanges of dialogue between the speaker and his or her son. For example, the speaker’s son exclaims, “I did the problem / and my teacher said I was right!” (Nye 3-4). The child validated his teacher’s opinion but ridiculed his parents’ opinion. This is further explained through more details in a later part of the same stanza. The mother explains how the son believed his parents were “idiots / without worksheets to back us up” (Nye 9-10). The speaker’s son had entrusted his teacher and thought of his teacher as highly intelligent, but believed that way because of foolish reasoning. In addition, the speaker lists examples of minor mistakes the parents made that caused the son to be embarrassed of them. Through distinct details, the speaker describes how the son’s “mother never remembers / what a megabyte means and his dad fainted on an airplane once / and smashed his head on the drinks cart” (Nye 10-12). By choosing to include these particular details, the poet outlines the foundation of the conflict between the son and his parents.

The poem that stood out to me the most from the speaker, and narrative vs lyric unit was “Lorena” by Lucille Clifton. I really enjoyed this poem and it made it easy for me to understand the concept of speakers. Lucille Clifton wrote the poem, but wrote it about a experience Lorena Bobbit went through. It was hard for me to understand how a poem could have a speaker other then the author but this one made me see how sometimes the author is not necessarily the speaker. “I thought about/authority and how it always insisted/on itself” (pg. 57, 2-4). These lines contain the phrase “I”, but when Clifton uses the phrase “I”, she herself is not the individual, Lorena Bobbit is meant to be the speaker. This poem was a narrative, it told a story about the even Lorena actually lived through. It really stood out to me a lot and helped me understand the concept on a deeper level.

The little child “she”who is in vague identity runs through this poem. From the poem “but I was talking

He obviously loved his father enough to write poems about him, so poetically so it even brings nostalgia to the audience who recall their parents and their childhood with them.

He also describes the conditions of the father's hands demonstrating that he was a hard worker and still woke up before everyone else to warm up the rooms. The father basically says love in the simple act he does. Like many people I can personally relate to this poem. My father was not always demonstrative and affectionate but during my childhood years he always made sure I had everything I needed. That showed me that my father cared.

the poem On My First Sonne, the father loves his son a lot and feels

The reflection of each poet's childhood is displayed within these lines helping to build a tone for the memories of each narrator.

Think about a time when you had a headache, whether from confusion, a sickness, annoyance, or anything else. How did you feel? An example of sensory imagery is shown on page 103, with the author saying: “Montag’s head whirled sickeningly. He felt beaten unmercifully on brow, eyes, nose, lips, chin, on shoulders, on upflailing arms.” (Pg.103)

It is spoken in first person which helps illustrate the message because it becomes more personal then. The use of ‘I’ and ‘you’ helps show that the feelings expressed in this poem give a real feeling. If it was used in any other point of view, it would feel awkward and insincere. At the beginning of the 3rd paragraph and 13th line, it is simply “I look”, it is only those two words which gives kind of a highlight to it. That it is him looking, not anybody else. The effect that this point of view brings is that it becomes more personal and sincere. This helps the message because it truly gives a feeling of sincerity which is important when trying to express your strong love to a person, which is in the end the message of the

The speaker utilizes the word "you" which gets the reader's attention with an accusatory tone and bringing about the reader to recognize that they might play a role in oppressing others in their own lives. This creates the poem more personal and the tone she utilizes all over the poem to convey her opinion and feelings on the matter assists the accusatory tone of the

In “The Weary Blues” Hughes uses imagery to communicate to the reader what the narrator is experiencing while listening to blues. The reader can feel the slow and steady beat of the music: “He did a lazy sway…/ He did a lazy sway…” (4-5). The flow of the two lines mimics the beat of the music. The reader can hear the pain in the voice of the musician: “In a deep voice with a

In the poem, I get a sense that there is no bond, like my father and I have which leads to confusion in the narrator's life. For instance, in line eight when he says, "I would slowly rise and dress,/ fearing the chronic angers of the house"(8-9), this gives me a strong sense of sadness, for him because I feel that he is greatly deprived of what every child should have a good role model as a father, and someone to look up to. “Speaking Indifferently to him, / who had driven out the cold”(10-11) is saying that they really did not know how to communicate with each other. I feel that the boy will regret not having and knowing what it is that makes you who you are, and may never get a chance to have and hold a special bond with his father and having a relationship with a person that can not be held with anyone else. This would bring an enormous amount of sadness to my life had I not had my Dad there to guide and protect me, when I could have used tremendous support and security.

The poem was in first person, but in the beginning it seems as it is someone is speaking from the outside. For example, one of the first lines is “[...] hair on the back of his neck about to catch- nothing but morning air under his dangled feet.” But really, it was spoken by the person he left in the burning building alone, while he jumped off the ledge. The reader notices first person towards the end when the speaker says “[...] leaving me here, inside, clinged to myself, the walls on fire.” The author wait until the very end to throw this at the readers.

There is a vivid example of one of the little boy’s memories captured in a poem “My Papa’s Waltz”, written by Theodore Roethke. First of all, while reading the title of the poem, one can think that the poem should be about something beautiful like waltz dance or anything that might be associated with it. But after reading the poem, the reader realizes that it’s just a literary device, the metaphor, so skillfully used by the author. That creates the effect of