Similarities Between 'The Whipping'

Not only does Andrea connect related words, she also makes words and stanzas with double meaning. She uses these to suggest that both she and her bully have a dysfunctional and possibly abusive home life. This allows Andrea to better relate to the bully. In stanza fourteen, about the attics, can be interpreted as saying that Andrea’s father was an addict who left home and that, instead of seeking validation through her parents, she seeks it from “the sticks and stones,” (46) referencing the words that would never hurt her, but did. This would explain why she is a sensitive kid who a bully would prey on. This stanza could conversely be about the bully, and how her father is an addict and she is neglected, so she becomes violent and resorts to using “sticks and stones” (46) on the other children. The topic of abuse ends in the twenty-third stanza and it again represents both Andrea and her bully. It uses the an analogy of a belt to represent a dysfunctional family as something that can “hold some[one] up”

In this poem there is a lot of figurative language. One of the biggest types of figurative language used in this poem is irony. The irony in this poem is how the mother wouldn't let her child go to march because she feared her child would get hurt. Instead she sent her child to church because she believed it was a safe and sacred place but ironically the church ended up being bombed. Another piece of figurative language that is very effective in this poem is imagery. The way the poem is written helps me create images in my head for example, "She raced through the streets of Birmingham." I can imagine her running around desperately, looking for her child. The metaphors and hyperboles in this poem also help with the imagery, for example, "...night dark hair," and "…rose-petal sweet." These metaphors make me think of the girls smoothly combed black hair and her fresh and beautiful rosy smell. A hyperbole that had a huge effect on the tone was, "But that smile was the last smile to ever come upon her face." This hyperbole really helps me understand the effect of a tragic moment like this and how it can completely ruin

Secondly, the author uses word choice to show the speakers overall sorrow. Throughout the whole poem there are word scattered everywhere that describe the general emotion of sorrow, some of those word being “restless” (19), “torment”, and “troubled” (4). These words instantly give the connotation of feelings like despair and sadness. The speaker also uses literary elements such as simile to express sorrow, like when she says “These troubles of the heart/ are like unwashed clothes” (27, 28). Everyday people usually do not pay much mind to unwashed clothes, and usually look at it as something unimportant or irrelevant. When the speaker compares her internal troubles to something that holds little importance to everyday life and is also seen as unpleasant, the readers really get a look into the sorrow and sadness that the speaker is truly feeling. The speaker also uses word choice to help show the readers the true intensity of what she is going through.

Secondly, the speaker of the poem can be described as underprivileged, and this is shown throughout the entire poem. For example, line 1 of the poem it states "some are teethed on a silver spoon” and line 5 it states "some are swaddled in silk and down”. This shows that the speaker is not the same as the person who is teethed on a silver spoon or cared for very carefully. This inclusion also shows that the speaker was not born into a wealthy family and so the speaker must fight for what they need pertaining to themselves and the family.

The speaker starts the poem by describing her mother, who was a white settler. Hogan worded this in a way that the reader could interpret as a negative connotation, which was later made clearer when Hogan pronounced the Grandmother’s hatred toward the white settlers.

The tone of this poem effects the internal message as it starts off somewhat calm then takes a sadistic turn. Even though Gretel had achieved the life she essentially wanted, the remembrance of the witch makes it unbearable for her

However, in the following stanzas, Carter changes his tone and tense to show how he felt growing up with his father. He states, “I despised the discipline / he used to shape what I should be” (7-8). This shows Carter, even though he disliked the means of reprimand his father implemented, understands his father’s ways were to help him become the man he “should be.” Through this insight, Carter says, “not owning up that he might feel / his own when he punished me” (9-10). This is possibly saying not only did he bear the chastisement, but his father sensed the “pain” as well. Yet again, maybe Carter has a deeper message and is saying fathers and their children share the same troubles and triumphs. In addition, Carter remembers how he “didn’t show [his] need to him, / since his response to an appeal / would not have meant as much” (11-13). Furthermore, he states “his response,” (12) “would not have… / …been as real” (14). Telling such a harsh reality, Carter contrasts his statement and relays to the reader through “those rare [hard] times,” (15) “…the pure joy / survive[d]” (16-17).

Carolyn Kizer’s “Bitch” is describing the unnamed woman’s feelings towards an ex-lover from an unspecified time in the past, which she has just encountered. The woman was extremely hurt by the ex and has a lot of anger deep inside towards this person, but does not want to demonstrate it. The main image is the speaker and the ex-lover running into one another and catching up. “Now, when he and I meet, after all these years, I say to the bitch in me, don’t start growling.” (Kizer 1,2). The tone of the poem is angry, sad, and reflects a relationship where she was hurt and misses the other person. The woman tries to control her inner feelings when she encounters the man, concealing her true feelings with polite conversation. Just by the tone of her inner feelings, you can see the woman thinks the man from her past caused her harm.

In the text, the narrator and grandmother have aloof interactions. Both the book and the movie portray the grandmother being mute and frail. Yet, the book portrays her as mentally vacant and the narrator seems to be frustrated by this. “‘Old woman, do you want some music?’ I leaned on the arms of her rocker, my face not more than six inches from hers. She looked at my mouth… ‘Music,’ I commanded, louder this time.” (Welch, 11). By getting close to her face and shouting commands the interaction seems impersonal and distant. Contrastingly, there is a scene in the movie that is not included in the book where the narrator helps his grandmother into bed and strokes her hair. He says “Oh grandmother, I heard you fall…There we go. Ready? Don’t fret old woman.” (00:36:56). While the narrator is still stroking his grandmother’s hair she then also begins stroking his face and sings a traditional song in Blackfoot to him. The scene ends with the two holding hands. This scene imprints into the minds of the viewers a relationship of love and care, which the book depicts as the exact opposite. The movie has love instead of tension between the two characters to show that the narrator is capable of love. By being capable of love, viewers see him as more human and thus can form a connection with him.

Although Duffy narrows into the rape at first with a subtle manor by saying “One saw I was alive. Loosened his belt.” The enjambment between ‘loosened’ and ‘belt’ draws the attention to the horrific fact that this woman is actually about to be raped. Duffy goes about it in a very subtle way, but the graphic description we get next is enough to make anyone feel the sheer impact of what has just occurred. The horror of what is happening to the poor innocent Jew continues as Duffy says “My bowels opened in a ragged gape of fear” I believe this is one of the lines in the poem which has most impact toward the reader. The long vowel sounds and the graphic imagery of the event is etched into your mind. The single word ‘gape’ mirrors the word rape which leaves the horrific image in the readers head of what is happening to the Jewish girl and it makes you empathise with her situation. “I could see a child” the soldiers had no morals, the meaning of right and wrong had been torn away from the soldiers and acts of brutality were happening to women and children. “I shot her in the eye” Duffy says this so carelessly within the poem to highlight just how carelessly the soldiers shot the innocent child in the eye. In addition links with the clear horrific imagery Duffy is using whilst building up toward the main event of the poem which is the murdering of the persona. The unashamed soldiers continue their horrific acts and take no notice of

The word choice in the poem creates a tension and suggests violence the most. The word choice also creates a grimmer element “which is marked by a series of words beginning with ‘death’ in the first stanza and ending with ‘clinging’ in the last and including such words as ‘unfrown,’ ‘battered,’ ‘scraped,’ ‘beat,’ ‘hard’ in the middle stanzas” (Janssen 43). When the speaker says “At every step you missed, my right ear scraped a buckle” makes it clear that child is being hurt and abused; perhaps the actual reason the child’s guilt filled and helpless mother is unhappy, angry and disappointed (Roethke 126). The words that the poet chooses are hence very significant to understand the poem clearly.

The poems are inspired by the love that a man has for a woman and in many instances how the scenery reminds him of his love. The thirteenth tale depicts a man who was torn between whether or not he should write to his lover. The first poem shows the woman’s feelings when he did not hear from the man for a long time and shows her in a heartbroken tone (78-9). It also shows that the woman too has conflicting emotions about her partner as she strongly dislikes not hearing from him, yet she it would not be very appealing for him to write her either. The man writes a poem in response to her, and as it says he is distraught and rushed the poem. He says to her that her requests are difficult for him to take and that it would be hard for him to heal his wounds of love lost (79). This tale and the poems from it show that there is much more that can be incited than if it were just the narrative. Without the poems, the emotional impact in the tale would not be as strong since there would not be the voice of the woman and her feelings towards the man and the man’s response to her. There easily could be a description of their interaction, but it would not be as powerful since it would not display the voices of the lovers and their views of their relationship.

The main observation readers could take from this poem is that the “lower” individual has to take care of and pick up after the white man. It is even hinted at that the poems the mother chant rival the alleged master of poetry’s own works.

The angry and aggressive tone displays the attitudes and aggression towards the tenant for being African American. The tenant begs for repairs and his denied by his cruel landlord. The hostility of the poem can be seen in “You ain’t gonna be able to say a word / If I land my fist on you” as the tenant threatens the landlord for not repairing the home(19-20). The landlord is aggressive as well; for instance when he calls the police he says “He’s [the tenant] trying to ruin the government / And overturn the land,” which shows the landlord’s distaste for the tenant (23-14). The excerpt displays the landlord’s thinking that African Americans are ruining the United States and shouldn’t even be part of the

For this essay, I will be studying nettles by Vernon Scannell and Sister Maude by Christina Rossetti. Vernon Scannell was British poet and author and was most famous as a war poet as he fought in world 2 war two. The poem nettles is about his war experience in 1944. Christina Rossetti is an English poet that wrote a poem about Sister Maude that is a tale of two sisters feuding over a lover. These two poems show feeling and attitudes therefore I will be analysing how it is shown in the poems