Poem Analysis: The Sun Ranch

“Something More” by Tracey Moffatt is a formal and stylistic experimentation photography and her work draws on her own childhood memories, popular culture, as well as the history seen in still cinema, art and photography. Apparent in her works are themes such as childhood cruelties in suburban life, the mutiny of stereotypes and relations between white and black Australians. In her works, referencing to the artist’s own life and experiences, Tracey Moffatt draws on her Aboriginal background as a foster child growing up in Brisbane in a foster family in the sixties, avidly consuming images from magazines, films and television.

The song, “Hotel California”, by the Eagles, is a very poetic song that uses imagery, and symbolism to bring out the theme in an indirect way of the speaker’s personal issues of life. The Eagles use imagery to set the mood and tone of the song. Along with many aspects of symbolism to input a lot of double meaning throughout the whole song. With both imagery and symbolism incorporated, many fans or people who have heard of this song would believe that the theme of this song is about a lonely traveler trying to break his own temptations.

Individuals have been brought to believe that the only way to end their griefs and sorrows is to end their lives. Though suicide has become a detriment and devastating issue, it has not been presumed to be an effortless or painless act. In society, people become their own threats as they tend to isolate themselves from others which often increases this devastating issue of unsubstantial pain and long-suffering. In the poem, Tuesday 9:00 am, by Denver Butson, individuals are unable to speak and move because of their own specific problems which are burdening them and their ability to help others. The poet is enforcing the idea that individuals need to open up their eyes and be aware of others relentless despair and their struggle to reach out.

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.

I chose the poem Oranges by Gary Soto because it seemed simple but at the same time seemed profound. When I first read this poem it was easy to follow but I realized there was a deeper meaning behind the simplicity and I was intrigued. To find this poem, I searched on the internet for poems that were recommended for students in grade 11. I was looking for a poem that was somewhat long so I could write quite a bit about it. I was also looking for a poem that did not contain any allusions or ornate language. While I was reading through my choices, I briefly analyzed them, after this process I chose the one that I understood the most. The word ‘oranges” caught my eye, because it is rare to see a poem with such a simple name, but I felt that

Dawe in his poem ‘Drifters’ presents the inevitable nature of change, particularly change that is unwanted. Moreover, Dawe manifests the diverse responses individuals have when encountering change in their lives and the transformative impact of change. These prominent themes are manipulated through the motif of travelling, flashbacks and symbolism.

Language Analysis- ‘Bali Nine: Why I won’t be lighting a candle for Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan’

In “Monkey Hill,” Stan Rice writes about the speaker of the poem who sits at a zoo with his friend observing the spider monkey exhibit. The two stay the whole day to observe these monkeys. The speaker becomes envious of these monkeys and their ability to be confident with exactly where they are and with who they are. Rice argues that our minds imprison us when we are worried about judgment from others. The monkeys in the exhibit felt free and at ease while the two observers were trapped in worrisome about the outside world in fear of how others would perceive them.

Freedom I need freedom Not confinement I need courage Not fear I need bravery Not cowardice For one day It will All be okay Seeing the world From “the other side” Feeling Abe Lincoln's hand On my left shoulder And George Washington’s On the right Then and Only then Will I be alright By: Skylar Dishman

In the poem “A Story” by Li-Young Lee, the topic of growing up is easily seen. With this in mind,the relationship between the father is constantly changing and evolving even if we do not personally see it. This growth is seen through the use of many literary elements.

The poem The Summer I was sixteen describes the summer of a sixteen-year-old American in the nineteen sixties. The writer of the poem, Geraldine Connolly, compares the shortcomings experienced by the United States to a sixteen-year-old summer. The theme of this poem is to remind the audience of childhood and calls for the need to enjoy the good fruits that life has provided.

In Natasha Trethewey’s poetry collection Native Guard, the reader is exposed to the story of Trethewey’s growing up in the southern United States and the tragedy which she encountered during her younger years, in addition to her experiences with prejudice and to issues surrounding prejudice within the society she is living in. Throughout this work, Trethewey often refers to graves and provides compelling imagery regarding the burial of the dead. Within Trethewey’s work, the recurring imagery surrounding graves evolves from the graves simply serving as a personal reminder of the past, to a statement on the collective memory of society and comments on how Trethewey is troubled with what society has forgotten as it signifies a willingness to overlook the dehumanization of a large group of people.

In the music video/song “Strange Fruit”, the phrase strange fruit doesn’t really refer to a fruit that is strange. It actually refers to people being lynched and hanging from trees. More specifically, the term strange fruit applies to the lynching of African Americans. This song was performed by Billie Holiday in 1939 at the Cafe Society in New York. The music video was actually a recorded performance from 1959. The song was written and performed because the purpose of was to raise awareness and fight against African American lynching because during that time, African Americans were being discriminated and abused. Billie Holiday in the music video/song “Strange Fruit” displays logos through context and imagery, pathos through her sorrowful tone and facial expressions, and lastly, ethos because she won many awards during her career in singing, and Strange Fruit is one of them.

Some of the poems and essays I have read during this class were relatable to me. Being away from college, I have struggled with not being at home. I have become a different person when I am at school, but when I am home, I feel like I am my normal self again. Some of these authors of the poems and essays that I have read throughout this class has struggled with being somewhere where they don’t belong and that they are someone else when they are not home. Unlike the other poems and essays we have read throughout the course. I enjoyed reading the ones about “home” because I actually understood what they are going through and that I can relate. Some of these poems and essays include “Going Home” by Maurice Kenny, Postcard from Kashmir”, by Agha Shahid Ali, “Returning” by Elias Miguel Munoz and “Hometown” by Luis Cabalquinto. All of these poems deal with duality.

Attempting to treat the ‘pastoral’ as a distinct mode which has endured from Theocritus and Philitas to the Romanticist and finally Post-Modernist world is highly anachronistic . And that is not the assumption which I have made in the title. Instead of reading ‘pastoral’ into the corpus of a poet who may have not even conceived it, this essai (and I have chosen that word carefully) is an effort to survey the poems of Catullus for evidence of agricultural, floral and rustic motifs. But Catullus is not a poet with whom this mode is traditionally associated. Indeed, the standard account of ‘Roman Pastoral’ begins with the “second birth of Theocratic poetry” in Virgil’s Eclogues which are typically credited with introducing the juxtaposition between urban and rural lifestyles as a political allegory . But Virgil probably also drew on the agricultural works of Cato and later Varro. Hence, since there is no evidence of this mode existing in previous Latin authors, Catullus must have derived any understanding of ‘pastoral’ from Cato and surviving works of the Hellenistic poets, in particular Theocritus . Therein is problem with our question. Whether Theocritus employed Arcadian motifs as a means of bringing out the pastoral charm of the land or understood them as something constituting a literary mode that embodied a lifestyle is highly contentious, and for Catullus even more so . This speculatory nature is probably what has dissuaded recent scholarship from engaging in such a