Sharpio's "Auto Wreck": The Theme of Death
Few subjects can be discussed with more insightfulness and curiosity than death. The unpredictability and grimness of it are conveyed well in Karl
Shapiro's poem, "Auto Wreck". The poem starts with a description of an ambulance rushing to the scene of a crash, and hurriedly gathering up the victims and rushing them away. The aftermath of the police investigation that follows leaves the crowd gathered around the scene to explore privately and individually a range of feelings and emotions about the reality of death.
Shapiro's usage of imagery together with figurative language is a key element in getting the theme of death across to the reader. By
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The words themselves continue to give clues about the theme in line 11 which reads, "Then the bell, breaking the hush, tolls once." I saw this line as an allusion to an old expression taken from poetry for the unpredictablilty of death, "for whom the bell tolls". The expression emphasizes the fact that no one knows who will be next in line for fate to meet them in a grim way, and this allusion gives the last two stanzas more effectiveness when the feelings are expressed by the speaker.
In the second stanza, the actual words are not the main reflection of the theme of the poem as much as the imagery itself. The reader gets the clue that the speaker is actually at the scene reacting to it simply by the word "We" in the first line. When the scene is described there is mention of "pools of blood" and glass being swept away by seemingly unfeeling policemen, described in line 16 as "large and composed". The speaker feels deranged walking among these cops and actually feeling the gravity of the situation, while the police go on about their business not expressing any remorse. They make notes and hang lanterns and just do their job. Again, the "pools of blood" is the best example of imagery reflecting theme by explaining the grimness present at an auto wreck.
The reaction to the wreck and imagery created in
The imagery used in this verse appeals to the sense sight. This helps the reader visualise what the writer is taking about. It also allows the reader to relate and connect more to the poem.
How does the poet use language and form to give readers an insight into the thoughts and feelings of the speaker?
to look at the story. One idea is that the poem is a journey, most
The poem gives several traits throughout the poem such as metaphors, allusion, emotion, and illusion. At the beginning of the poem the narrator uses the metaphor, “Many scenes of my life flashed before the sky” (line 2). This gives an intense moment in the
The refrain, “five bells”, in italics is like a stage direction that reminds us the bells are still in the process of
In the second stanza, the narrator’s attention falls upon the mourners around her. She sees the onlookers in terms of sight and sound. Their strained eyes and gathered breath imply that they have waited for the “last Onset” (), which is the final moment of death, for a long time. And they are prepared for the arrival of the “King”, who is the personification of death.
“The Bells” is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, writer, literary critic and editor. Poe is known mostly for his poetry and his short stories,
The first description given of a poem is “ A poem should be palpable and mute as a globed fruit.” The fruit, as a poem should be, palpable. We can hold it and see it. But as a globed fruit, you can hold it, but it you are not holding the fruit itself, you are holding what is coving it. This gives us the feeling of there being more to the poem than what
3. Diction and Imagery: Create categories of diction that can form imagery patterns—the same six images appear in each stanza but are arranged in a different order. Within the pattern you can see the meaning—the theme—of the poem. Interpret the grid you develop.
The images the poet uses are a diner on the corner, she is sitting there and witnesses a couple giving each other kisses in hello. Also she is reading a newspaper and she sees a women pull up her skirt to pull up her stockings. The women's hair got wet when she stopped to pull up her stockings. Plus there were church bells ringing and she went on a midnight picnic are also all signs of imagery being used. The images relate to one another because this is all happening in a diner on the corner and what she witnessed at the diner. The only kind of I can see is a day at the
The lightning and thunder tolls the bell for people who have been cast out or unappreciated by society such as the “mistitled prostitute” and the “gentle soul misplaced inside a jail,” (cite). The storm is thus able to spiritually free the unfreeable who have been left “burnin’ constantly at stake” (cite). The storm has taken on a spiritual quality and like the young man’s song, the storm creates a blending of the senses with the “majestic bells of bolts [that] struck shadows in the sounds,” (cite) combined with “mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail,” (cite). The sounds, sights, feelings, and presumably smells of the storm are all blending together making a natural spiritual experience. The speaker goes so far as to describe it as “the wild cathedral evening” (cite) in part because the sky is colorful and an echo chamber from the storm but also to continue ascribing that spiritual quality onto the rain. In the last verse after the storm has rolled out – “hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting” (cite) – the listener learns that this is a memory of a storm that the speaker spent with this woman. However, the last verse still supports the spiritual aspect of the storm the speaker states, “we were caught/ Trapped by no track of hours for
Set in the duration of the Spanish civil war, For Whom the Bell Tolls presents the quintessential image of community and benevolence; Robert Jordan. Leaving a comfortable life in America for one of a Spanish bridge bomber, Jordan emphasizes the importance of helping others in need. During one of his combat missions, in which he is pinned down due to heavy gunfire, Robert turns to a terrified stranger lying next to him. Looking directly into his
Furthermore, symbolism plays a huge part in this poem. One of the main symbols in this
and "dying" are used to show that even though the speaker is hurt by his death and wishes he had not died, the speaker is also happy at the same time because his suffering in the real world has ended and is finally over. These words allow the reader to envisage this in their minds and understand how the speaker feels. On the final line of the first stanza, terms such as "Cease", "Nature" and "life" are utilized. "Cease" means to stop, when the reader looks at this term, they imagine that something has stopped, then when the reader reads on, the idioms "Nature" and "life" are read. This allows the reader to visualize that a life has stopped and that nature no longer has a grasp of this life anymore.
pattern in the poem. The poem reminds the fallen reader that Satan is the first will to