Poets Explore the Theme of Death in Educating for Leisure, Mother in a Refugee Camp, Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night, Remember, T...

Poetic Analysis of “Empress Dowager Boogies” Poet Bio Tina Chang was born in 1969 to a Chinese family in Oklahoma City. When she was only a year old, her family moved to New York City. As a child, she was sent to live with relatives in China for two years, where she became immersed in Chinese history and culture. Her fascination with Chinese history inspired her to write several poems, including “Empress Dowager Boogies.”

The tone of the poem changes as the poem progresses. The poem begins with energetic language like “full of heroic tales” and “by a mere swing to his shoulder”. The composer also uses hyperboles like “My father began as a god” and “lifted me to heaven”. The use of this positive language indicates to the responder that the composer is longing for those days – he is nostalgic. It also highlights the perspective of a typical child. The language used in the middle of the poem is highly critical of his father: “A foolish small old man”. This highlights the perspective of a typical teenager and signifies that they have generally conflicting views. The language used in the last section of the poem is more loving and emotional than the rest: “...revealing virtues such as honesty, generosity, integrity”. This draws attention to a mature adult’s perspective.

The fact that enjambment is used throughout the poem such as in the lines, “like a colour slide or press an ear against its hive” portrays a lack of structure and therefore emphasizes the initial enjoyment one feels when reading a poem before the chore of analyzing it begins. This is also emphasized through the fact that the poem is a free verse poem.

Each part was broken up after a noticeable shift and atmospheric changes in the poem. The first part of the poem is during “Sad is the man...with one”(Ln 1-2), and repeats again at “In a room...on his father”(Ln 6-9). These lines create a shift into a narrative stage. It puts a pause on the poem to introduce or explain the scene in the poem. The narrative is important because it shows the point of view of the poem. The second shift is created with “Already the man...should never disappoint”(Ln 10-18). This shift is when the father is thinking about his fears and desires, to be more blunt, the father’s fantasies. It creates an unrealistic tone to the poem an shows the father’s dismay when he cannot remember a story for his son. The last shift begins with “His five-year-old...scratches his ear”(Ln 3-5), and ends with “But the boy...up to silence”(Ln 19-23). This shift bring the poem into reality. In fact the poem states that the “emotional rather than logical equation”(Ln 20) is where most people get confused and frustrated at the world. The poem also states the conflict of fantasy and reality. This conflict is what creates the the multiple shifts and the complicated relationship between the father and the

“Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”s tone is urgent and fearful. The author uses a villanelle form to describe his poem. Thomas passionately discusses not to let death take over, to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light,”

The poet conveys the complex relationship through the length of each stanza, Throughout the poem the number of lines in each stanza increases which represents the escalation of varying emotions within the father. The first three stanzas introduce the situation with an average of three lines in each stanza revealing the father’s rise in emotions. As the poem progresses, the father starts to generate an imagination where he loses a relationship with his son due to his disappointment. He has thoughts such as “he thinks the boy will give up on his father,” revealing a sense of lost hope in the father because he can’t recall a single story. Despite the son calling him “Baba,” this emotional connection remains complex because he can only imagine his son leaving. As the narrator’s tone grows in anxiety, the amount of lines in each stanza also increases. The last three stanzas express a steady accumulation of fear and rage and then a transition to a decrease in apprehension. The level of sentiment attached to each stanza lengthened them as each line represented a higher level of emotion causing a new level of intensification within each stanza. The last two stanzas increase from four lines back to five lines because the father becomes less anxious and seems to realize that the complex relationship between him and his son is distinguished by emotions of love in a world with insufficiencies. Cumulatively, the father’s

The poem sits easily on a page and is visually satisfying, although this is in part due to the visual rhymes previously mentioned. This appearance though is false as the poems content is analysed but reinforces the theme of appearance and reality in the 4th stanza. Again, the "controlled" use of structure can be seen as adding to the poems "passion" showing a masterful combination of the two. The repetition of and permutations on the line: "my heart is breaking for a little love" is another structure that reinforces the poems meaning and show the despair that the poem communicates. The move away from the 1st person in the last two stanzas serves to provide a different perspective on the emotions discussed allowing a broader view than if the whole poem was in the first person, again this use of structure emphasises the underlying emotions.

The structure of a poem can influence the way the reader interprets the overall tone and theme that the

When reviewing the work of Dylan Thomas, one can see that he changes his style of language, such as using metaphors and imagery, to fit each poem accordingly. In the poems, "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night," and "Fern Hill," which are the poems I will be looking at in this presentation, he uses different techniques and language to make each poem more effective to the reader. I have chosen these works because they are his most well known, I shall start off by reading the poem “Do Not Go Gentle…” even if it was written after Fern Hill, as it is the most famous of all his works. "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" is addressed to Thomas' father, giving him advice

In Do Not Go Gentle into the Night by Dylan Thompson writes a villanelle this influences the poem, because he follows the strict guidelines of the poem; however this poem works against the language he is using this strengthens the poem because he is telling the reader to go against the night. Into the night is a poem about not giving into the demands of death, and old age. It is well aware that in a villanelle poem math is involved, and a strict rhyme scheme. Dylan Thompson uses his mathematical ability to follow the guidelines of the poem; however in the poem we see that his specific choice of grammar is contradicting with the rhymes.

One of his best works, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, is a famous example of the poetic form called villanelle. Enriched with a raw emotional power, Thomas uses this poem to address his dying father and encourages him to defy his fate and cling onto his life for as long as he can. As a result, the poem shifts from an unclear yet universal audience to the poet’s own dying father, thus making the poet the speaker as well. Though the poem comprises of various poetic devices such as metaphors, visual imagery, alliteration, repetition, assonance, (and many more), the speaker’s critical and insurgent tone is considered the most important aspect as this is what has has preserved the poem amongst the most-read works in

Not only are these poetic voices very repetitive but also focus on the idea of loss, in Do Not Go Gentle… the poetic voice cannot face the loss of the four men in the poem, with each man relating to Thomas’ father and, with each going to die, the poetic voice reiterates to the men

The statement that conformity and tradition are in opposition to individualism and defiance of authority is very true in The Dead Poet Society, and even more so in today’s society in general. One can walk into any high school and see this is true. In a typical high school, people seem to have very much in common, especially in dress, hair style, etc… which is in opposition to individualism in and of itself. People are so caught up in conforming to how society says they should live their lives, it really tarnishes the spirit of individuality human beings are meant to have.

Here is the interpretation and analysis of the poem based on the sections that respect the grammar and meaning of its sentences:

The Recurring Theme of Death in the Poetry of Philip Larkin. In reading the poetry of Philip Larkin for the first time, one is struck by the characteristically glum atmosphere that pervades most of his poems. The vast majority of his verse is devoted to what is generally taken to be negative aspects of life, such as loneliness and dejection, disappointments, loss, and the terrifying prospect of impending death. Evidently, there are uplifting and humorous sides to his work as well, but for certain reasons Larkin is invariably identified with a downhearted, pessimistic temper and tone of voice, conveying a constant sense of failure and of disappointment that underlies all the more specific emotions and reflections of individual