Skunk Hour Essay

Essentially a monologue set within a frame, this poem creates two personae. The anonymous author gives a brief introduction and conclusion. The Wanderer, an aging warrior, who roams the world seeking shelter and aid. The Wanderer’s monologue divides into two distinct parts, the first being a lament for his exile and the loss of kin, friends, home, and the generosity of his king. In nature, he finds absolutely no comfort, for he has set sail on the winter stricken sea. Poignantly, the speaker dreams that he is among his companions, and embracing his king, only to awaken facing the gray, winter sea, and snowfall mingled with hail.

Having to find a place to cremate his friend’s corpse, and at the same time trying to stay alive, proved to be quite the challenge. His hardships on his way to find a suitable place to cremate Sam McGee is described in stanzas 34 - 39, “In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load. In the long, long night, by the firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring, howled out their woes to the homeless snows - O God! How I loathed the thing And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow; and on I went, though the grub was getting low; the trail was bad and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in.” The goings get so tough along his trip that the narrator begins to feel jealous of Sam McGee’s corpse, thinking death is better than what he is going

In the beginning of the short story, as Brother reflects on Doodle’s life, the author uses personification and foreshadowing to create a mood of remorse. As he gazes out of the window into his backyard, Brother states that “the graveyard flowers were blooming. ...speaking softly the names of our dead” (Hurst 1). The flowers provide flashbacks of the past, and foreshadow a loss of life. The loneliness felt by Brother causes readers to consider how they would feel if their loved one was gone. As Brother observes the seasons, it is noted that “summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born” (Hurst 1). The personifications of the seasons as stages in the cycle of life and death creates an unsure and uncertain mood. The shift between seasons creates an idea of change and uncertainty of events to come. Hurst creates a mood of remorse through

Can a cow be anything more than a cow, or a wall actually be something other than a wall? Robert Frost, who lived from 1874 to 1963 and was considered one of America’s most eminent poets, demonstrated metaphors frequently within his poems. Readers of Frost’s poetry are often faced with the question, “What is Robert Frost really trying to say?” It is without a shadow of doubt that the American poet had the capability of taking his poetry and turning it into something preternatural, but not without the help of metaphors. Frost elaborated the meaning of metaphor as, “Saying one thing and meaning another, saying one thing in terms of another….” Several pieces of his work provides images such as a cow, a flower, country roads, and a wall that serve as metaphors for larger ideas.

I’ve lived in South Ozone Park, Queens for three years and throughout those three years my family and I have overall good remarks. South Ozone Park used to be a predominant Italian neighborhood, but over the years a lot of Guyanese individuals have occupied residency here, so that’s mainly the type of people you see in this neighborhood. There are of course plenty of people from other backgrounds; the whole area of South Ozone Park is pretty diverse. Italians still live here, and so do some Hispanics like Dominicans and Cubans from what I’ve seen on my block, but there are surely others. In my block everyone gets along because we all know each other well. Most of the residents on my block (there are

The poetic form and structure of Komunyakaa's poem helps to strengthen the reader's understanding of the emotions felt by the "tunnel rat." The poem is written in stichic form, which conveys the idea that even though the man is only

Symbolism shows there is a motif of death throughout the story, “The last graveyard flowers were blooming, and their smell drifted across the cotton field and through every room of our house, speaking softly the names of our dead”(416). The narrator is describing how even the blooming flowers smelled like death which symbolises the death of Doodle. This helps build the theme because the narrator is relating the flowers’ smell to death because he wants to set a mood of sadness and mourning. The narrator also symbolises the scarlet ibis’ connection with doodle, “For a long, long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain”(426). The narrator is relating Doodle to the scarlet ibis, both fragile yet indigenous. This helps build the theme because the narrator is trying to shelter himself from the truth that is brother has died because of his

My work in the region confirms the dense distribution of sites along the Little Bison valley and all tributary valleys. It also identifies the much lower frequency of sites in plateau areas. However, the judgemental sampling techniques employed by Horned Toad Con- .

speaker is the dog, and he is able to reflect on his feelings towards the poet after his” death. The dog goes through emotional changes during his time of pondering, however, he comes to the conclusion of what he truly yearns for since his death. What he yearns for is what any dog looks for, but some pass before they get a chance to achieve it. Throughout his pondering, the dog uses several tones and imagery to express his hurt and longing for love from the poet after his death.

In Maxine Kumin’s poem “Woodchucks”, she describes the speaker’s progression from first hunting the woodchucks to killing them off rapidly, until only one remains. The brutal nature of the poem may often draw readers towards the graphic content of the poem, where as the primary focus should lie on the speaker herself. Furthermore, the deeper meaning found in the author’s character can be seen as she demonstrates major and minor changes in her tone throughout the poem. Although on the surface the speaker may appear to be simply insane, she is more than likely a regular everyday person.

However, I thought about the poems we covered in class and this poem called “The Fish” by Marianne Moore crossed my mind. I remembered that Professor Wagstaff, our English professor, who is also a poet herself, had mentioned in class that Marianne Moore is an excellent poet. We could all guess that the poem “The Fish,” is about a fish. Though, this poem interests me, not because how beautiful is the poem, but because how the poet wrote it. It was extraordinary and the words she used, left me with all kinds of

In the poems “Traveling Through the Dark” and “Woodchucks” man must make a decision about nature in the most inconvenient ways. In “Traveling Through the Dark” the narrator is faced with, literally, a life or death situation, whereas in “Woodchucks” the narrator is faced under the Darwinian belief about killing. Both poems reveal the interpersonal relationship between man and animal as well as the moral dilemma that man faces with nature. However, through the use of narration, vivid imagery, and personification, the poets show one speaker’s sympathetic attitude towards the animals while the other speaker has an adversarial attitude toward them.

A Swiss chemist named Dr. Albert Hoffman first produced lysergic acid Diethylmide –or best known as LSD in 1938 (Dye, 1992, p. 2). Hoffman discovered the drug while trying to synthesize a new drug for the treatment of headaches. He obtained the lysergic acid from the parasitic fungus that grows on rye plants known as ergot. From the lysergic acid, he synthesized the compound LSD. He used the compound to test for its pain killing properties on laboratory animals. Being that appeared totally ineffective, the bottle of LSD was placed on a shelf and remained untouched for five years.

The dramatic situation of the poem becomes apparent in the second stanza, where Frost details the main conflict between the narrator and society. Although the speaker is currently walking in a city, he is alone, “[looking] down the saddest city lane” and shunning any interactions with other people, such as “the watchman on his beat”

Opium- an addictive drug originally used as a painkiller. It is obtained from the unripe seeds of the opium poppy and can be made into substances that a person can smoke causing relaxation, alleviated anxiety, and a state of euphoria. Continued use of the drug also induces deterioration to the mind and body of a person eventually causing death. The substance was therefore stated illegal in China during the late 18th Century yet consistently smuggled into the country via British merchant ships. As the Chinese placed more restrictions on trade in an effort to abolish the importation of opium, the battle against the drug raged on until war was unavoidable between England and China. It is this war that lasted from 1839-1842