I read the poems, “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde and “In the Waiting Room” by Elizabeth Bishop. “Hanging Fire” was written in 1997 and “In the Waiting Room” was written in 1979. After reading each of them carefully, I noticed that the poems contained similarities as well as differences. "Hanging Fire" features a fourteen year old girl who discusses her thoughts and concerns directly with the audience. She talks about various things as she moves from one topic to another randomly. For instance, the fourteen year old girl is concerned about her visual identity such as braces and ashy knees. Suddenly, she is contemplating about serious concerns like death. In the first stanza, she states that she is in love with an immature boy who still sucks his thumb in private,worried about her skin condition as her skin has “betrayed her,” and worried about dying when she says, “what if I die/before morning” (Line 8-9). In the second stanza, she goes on to tell us that she feels inadequate from a social perspective. She says that she wants to learn to dance in order to fit in. However, she also indicates that she doesn’t want to learn. Those things along with “too much/that has to be done,” imply that she is overwhelmed and she needs guidance (Line 20-21). However, that much needed- guidance isn’t there as her “mamma is in the bedroom/ with the door closed” (Line 10-11). The third stanza starts off with “Nobody even stops to think/about my side of it” (Line 24-25). Through those lines,
Poetry is one of the oldest forms of literature and bridged the gap between oral storytelling and prose. Poetry can be in countless forms, and it can be structured or unorganized. More contemporary poets tend to prefer to use free verse, which has no rules and is completely at the author's discretion for format and flow. Poetry is a creative form of art and can allow for a poet to express their emotions and ideas in an original and cathartic way. As with any other form of literature, similarities and differences can be observed between two works. Two poems, “1999” written by Kevin Gonzalez and “Snowbanks North of the House,” by Robert Bly are examples of poems that have varying components. There are parallels between them, as well as unlike
Essentially I feel that each poem in its own “Funeral Blues” (W. H. Auden), “Death, be not proud” (John Donne), and “Because I could not stop for Death” (Emily Dickinson) are unique in their own way however, I feel that two poems in particular may show more similarity in each other versus all three being compared at once although, I will be comparing and contrasting all three poems towards the end of this essay. For example, When reading “Funeral Blues” (W. H. Auden), I felt a greater sense of similarity to “Because I could not stop for death” (Emily Dickinson) versus “Death, be not proud” (John Donne) so I will begin to discuss those poems first. When comparing each poem I will
Not only do these poems share differences through the speakers childhood, but also through the tones of the works.
The poem, “Hanging Fire,” by Audre Lorde was a very relatable and enjoying poem to read.
Two literary pieces, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by, Dylan Thomas and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by, Emily Dickinson are both poems that discuss the topic of death. While there are some similarities and comparisons between the two poems, when it comes to the themes, both poets writing styles are quite different from one another which makes each poem unique. Thomas and Dickinson both use identical figurative language devices and other literature symbolisms as they explain their main themes which contrasts the differences to the concept of death. These distinct variations between poems are apparent in both the form, and how the choice of words is used in the poems. Both of the authors have presented two very different ideas on death. The poems are well distinguished literature devices, they share minor similarities and differences between each other and how they present the meaning of death to a toll.
There are lots of things in the poems that are similar and different both of the writers are different and similar in many ways .In the poem’s “When You Are Old” By W.B Yeats, and “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” By Dylan Thomas.They have a bunch of similarities and differences.For example in each of the poems the theme of the poems are death and the narrator’s message in the rhyming pattern poems are both similar in the poems ,and the writing style of the poems are rhyme schemes and therefore they use different rhyme scheme in each of the poems.
For example, “with blocks of ice on her feet”. The scenario in the poem is very serious it is filled with sorrow and vulnerability. All 3 people fail to tell one another that they are dying it symbolizes the way people tend to stand back and watch while they should be intruding. The poem is an allegory all the characters have a meaning. The deeper meaning of this poem is how everyone has troubles.
George Gascoigne’s sonnet, “For That He Looked Not upon Her,” portrays a sullen man, hurt by the woman he loved. Through the uses of form, diction, and imagery, the sonnet evokes a complex attitude in each quatrain elaborating on the stages of torment the speaker receives from his ex-lover. By using these literary devices, the speaker portrays the dangers of desire and the conflicts that arise from within it. Gascoigne conveys a solemn and melancholy complex attitude developed throughout the use of such literary devices. The attitude of the speaker, expressed through the form of the sonnet, explains the dangers of gazing at the woman who burned him.
In the first two stanzas, she is talking directly to her parents. The speaker is apologizing to her parents for the work that she placed out and saying she is sorry for not doing better than what she had just done. “I apologize/ for disappointing you.” is her saying she is sorry. She also said three lines over and over again, which were “not good enough”, “not pretty enough”, and “not smart enough”. Those three things made her not feel she was good enough and it psyched her bad enough to not continue with life. At the end of the second stanza, she says “in my father’s dream” which automatically shows that she is doing it for her family. She was given an opportunity to bring more honor to her family by going to college and graduating it, but sadly she was not able to get that far. She thinks that she brought dishonor to her family by not being able to keep her perfect four point grade average. It is not easy at all to keep it there so she must have done a great job to get that far, but not even that was able to please her parents and making
The poem starts with the line, “Whoever it was who brought the first wood and coal,” Toomer is expressing that it only takes one person to spark a change by relating the concept to igniting a fire. On line three, Toomer makes another comparison to the fire and causing change, “Not all wood takes to fire from a match,” this line means that change does not happen instantly and will require determination and work to achieve it. Similarly, a match will not light the whole fire, but over time each piece of wood slowly ignites and eventually there is a fire. In the second stanza, Toomer explains the adversary the fire goes through to stay lit and relates it to how overcoming challenges is not easy, passion and strength is needed to resist failure. The line, “Never resting till the fire seemed most dead,” summarizes the purpose of the second stanza because it outlines the determination of African American to succeed and be free to express themselves.
Akin to intersectional romance fiction, poetry is equivalently as radical. Poetry magnifies the significance of language as a revolutionary tool, one that liberates women and cultivates an environment in which women are free to address their aspirations and anxieties while condemning the ideals of a society that operates under the canons of male chauvinism. In a collection of letters published as a tribute to the late Audre Lorde in Off Our Backs, a feminist newspaper journal written for women by women, one anonymous contributor discusses how Lorde “encourages all women to find their own means of expression, their own poetry to value and to use” (Tyler 32) in her piece “Poetry Is Not a Luxury”. In the piece, Lorde discusses how for women, poetry is not a nonessential indulgence, as Caucasian men throughout history have suggested through how they render poetry as an opportunity to “cover [a] desperate wish for imagination without insight” (Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” 36). Lorde contends that poetry is a “vital necessity of [the] existence” (Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” 36) of women because it establishes the infrastructure on which women “predicate [their] hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action” (Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” 36). Lorde’s text motivates women to exercise “the power of the word, a freedom for women greatly feared by…patriarchal society” (Tyler 32). Lorde states the poetry
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by
In order to occupy her child, the mother dresses her daughter up to go sing in the children’s choir at church in the fifth stanza. She brushes her hair, bathes her, and puts on her gloves and shoes. Randall appeals to the senses in this stanza; he uses a metaphor here to inform the reader a visual that the family is African American. She has “night-dark” hair and small brown hands. She is dressed in white and smells of sweet rose petals. The mother takes the girls mind off of the Freedom March and fixes it on the children’s choir. The tone is one of content. The sixth stanza is a
Therefore we have two poems which are deliberately changing their structure from the norm in order to create effect. However, these effects have totally different intentions, which lead to the end of the similarities and the first of many differences between the two poems.
Both poems contain declarations of love and both attempt to persuade in a personal way. Also both Poems offer gifts or nice promises to they’re women if they are to cooperate.