Suicide Note Poem Analysis

Nevertheless, in the poem ‘Nesting time’, Stewart interprets a personal experience in first person of the appearance of a bird that lands upon his daughter and forgets the thought of the harsh world. Stewart’s descriptive language repeatedly explains the poem as if seen in his viewpoint, beginning with an interjection, ‘oh’ communicating of his incredulity of an ‘absurd’ bird. Symbolizing the bird with strong coloured imagery its ‘mossy green, sunlit’, described to be bright and joyful, with sweetness shown with the type of bird, ‘honey-eater’, Douglas Stewart takes the time to describe its admiration juxtaposed to the dangerous world surrounding it. While visualizing the birds actions, ‘pick-pick-pick’ of alliteration and repetition of its

It’s easy to feel worthless. Almost every person feels this deep emotion at some time in life, but people handle it different. Everywhere people are always judging. Judgement from parents, from family, and even from friends is inescapable. People can tear themselves down in many ways, such as through school, not feeling they look good enough, and even just not feeling like they’re ever good enough to be living on Earth. In Janice Mirikitani’s poem “Suicide Note,” it talks about an Asian-American student currently in college. She tries her hardest, she wants to succeed and make her parents proud. Her parents have high standards for her, as they want her to receive a 4.0 grade point average. Although she gives her best effort, her grade point average is still less than a 4.0, and for that reason her parents are not proud of her, she’s not their perfect, ideal daughter. So she enters that point where she no longer feels proud of her accomplishments, she feels worthless, and unintelligent. She decides to commit suicide by jumping out of a window in her college dorm. In her suicide note she apologizes to her parents for not being good enough. “Suicide Note” is a free form poem, it has no set stanzaic pattern, the sentences break in unexpected places, and the structure varies throughout the poem. It uses imagery to connect with the reader, and the stanzas are set up in way that make the lines to appear as they are falling. Through the use of enjambment, and end-stopped line the

Lorna Dee Cervantes' poem, “Poema para los Californios Muertos” (“Poem for the Dead Californios”), is a commentary on what happened to the original inhabitants of California when California was still Mexico, and an address to the speaker's dead ancestors. Utilizing a unique dynamic, consistently alternating between Spanish and English, Cervantes accurately represents the fear, hatred, and humility experienced by the “Californios” through rhythm, arrangement, tone, and most importantly, through use of language.

There are times when we feel like we must be perfect in other to please others. No matter if we did the best we could, if it isn’t perfect, we felt like a failure. We want the approval that comes with perfectness but perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be our best. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth; it 's a shield. Perfectionism is refusal to accept any standard short of perfection. “Suicide Note,” by Janice Mirikitani, is about an Asian American college student who commits suicide by jumping from her dormitory window. This poem is read as the suicide note that was left behind by this young woman to apologize to her parent s for having received less than a perfect four point grade average and not being perfect in life. Her last thoughts and feelings were left on this note, describing why she did what she did. The pressure to succeed that this student felt from herself and her parents was far too much to overcome. Even though the girl worked really hard and did her very best, it wasn’t good enough in her mind and maybe in her parents’ minds to be worthy of her parents’ love or life itself and so her only option was death to atone for her sin of imperfection. Sometimes pressure to succeed that a student feels from herself and her parents is far too much to overcome.

In her poem "Suicide Note", Janice Mirikanti expresses that the amount of stress she's experiencing is a result of the continuous pressure from her parents and culture. In her poem she apologizes to her parents. She even goes on to say that if she were a boy that things could possibly be easier for her. She expresses that she gives each task her all, no matter the difficulty and somehow still fails to receive validation. In the poem she uses key words or phrases to trigger specific emotions within the reader such as "not good enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough."

Death is a topic that unites all of humanity. While it can be uncomfortable to think about, confronting death in unavoidable. “Dying” addresses that discomfort and universal unwillingness to consider the inevitability of death. Pinsky’s use of imagery, symbolism, and tone create a poetic experience that is like death, something every reader can relate to. In “Dying,” Pinsky describes how people are oblivious and almost uncaring when it comes to the thought of death. Pinsky is trying to convince the reader that they shouldn’t ignore the concept of death because life is shorter than it seems.

The writer makes use of diction to express his feelings towards the literary work and to set the dramatic tone of the poem. Throughout the poem, there is repetition of the word “I”, which shows the narrator’s individual feeling of change in the heart, as he experiences the sight of hundreds of birds fly across the October sky. As the speaker effortlessly recounts the story, it is revealed how deeply personal it is to him. Updike applies the words “flock” and “bird” repetitively to the poem, considering the whole poem is about the sight of seeing so many birds and the effect this has on a person. When the speaker first sees the flock of birds in lines 8-10, alliteration is applied to draw attention to what the narrator is witnessing. In line 29, Updike

Diction affects the tone of the passage. Starting from line 14, the diction evolves into a more negative view. He uses biblical reference towards the beginning of the stanza. He begins to analyze his surroundings more rigorously, and sees the differences in how they look from a distance, to how they appear close by. Once this negative connotation has begun, the flock is said to be “paled, pulsed, compressed, distended, yet held an identity firm” (Lines 20-21). The author’s choice of words as in “less marvelous” (line 25) indicates his intention for making his lines definite, giving it a solid state of meaning. It symbolizes that the feeling of someone longing for something, and once they receive it are not as impressed by it. The diction plays a critical role when the tone of the qualities of nature are exposed. The author conveys the “trumpeting” of the geese as an exaltation to the beauty and simplicity of nature. “A cloud appeared, a cloud of dots like iron filings which a magnet underneath the paper undulates” (Lines 16-18). The iron filings in this phrase symbolize the issues the man faces. Once he looks closely at the flock, he realizes that these issues are only miniscule and do not add up to life in general. This elates him, thus concluding him to lift his heart.

The poem “Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note” by Amiri Baraka uses vivid images of sights, sounds, and daily activities to symbolize a heartfelt story. In the poem, Amiri, is one of the African American slaves who is frustrated about the discriminatory treatment by whites. So frustrated he wants to commit suicide. The writer used transition words starting with “lately”, “now”, and “then” for each stanza. He was imagining how he acted before his death and how his daughter reacted to his death.

Poetry can be divided up into different forms, more easily expressing an author’s emotions and intent with their poetry. For analyzing purposes I chose the poems Self-Help by Michael Ryan, Ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali, Psalm 150 by Jericho Brown, and Emergency by Michael Dylan Welch.

The poem, “Suicide Note,” by Janice Mirikitani, is about a young Asian-American female college student who decides to end her life by jumping out of her dormitory window. Her last words, thoughts and emotions were written in the note she left behind. This note is recorded in the form of a poem, and permits the reader to see what can cause an individual to commit suicide. To begin, the girl has is a perfectionist, which pushes her to be extremely judgemental of herself. She's also unfortunately set irrational measures for herself, and was unable to get high marks on exams. As the girl waits on the ledge of her building in preparation for death, snow has begun to fall, leaving her hesitant as to what to do. It then arises to her just how upset

The speaker states, “This air will not hold me, the snow burdens my crippled wings” (45-46). The speaker describes herself as a fragile bird forced down by the snow because she is weak. The snow represents men keeping women suppressed, and the speakers crippled wings are what the years of oppression have done to her already. The speaker repeats these words several times, “not good enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not strong enough” (3, 8, 22, 30, 41, 48). Rearranged in different orders throughout the poem the repetition of similar word phrases induce an emotional response to the poem, and sets a sorrowful tone. The title of the poem “Suicide Note” predicts what will come of the speaker at the end of the poem, which is the act of committing suicide. The actual suicide stands for a bigger picture in the speaker’s life; for it is the only way, she can free herself from the harsh gender inequalities that haunt her every thought. The speaker becomes free from oppression, ridicule, pain, and suffering for the first time when she ends her life.

The entire time, he is talking about birds but, that is just a metaphor. These birds kill so viciously, they are not just killing gently, if even that is a thing but I mean it is not a hit and go. They make sure that their prey is in pain and they do not stop until they are. Or they even make sure that the prey is in pain but, leave and the birds do not put it out of misery. “And tugging and tearing without let or pause” (line 11), in this section of the poem, it shows how the birds attack. These birds are attacking and tearing apart the prey and they do not stop. This just shows much more on how the birds are destroying. Another quote from the poem,“Their shadow dims the sunshine of our day.” (Line 1) Always on the darkest days that comes destruction, just as the quote said. Before the birds seeked out their prey, it was the brightest day but, when they killed their prey, it got very cloudy and

“The Oven Bird” by Robert Frost depicts a bird sitting on top of a tree witnessing the seasons changing. The theme of the poem is how the seasons are changing which also represents the aging and what comes from it. The narrator of the poem is detailing how change is happening in not only the environment but also in himself. With summer comes vitality and enjoyment, and with that coming to an end a sense of fulfillment is lacking. The narrator is opposed to the season changing because it also means that he will be changing. When the narrator states “And comes that other fall we name the fall.”(Frost 886), he demonstrates the aging that comes with seasons changing. The first fall he talks about is the fall season but the other fall is his age and life experiences. Towards the end of the poem the narrator begins to accept reality and the change that is happening around him. The last line “Is what to make of a diminished thing.” (Frost 886) shows that he is beginning to accept that his life is diminishing, and that change is something that cannot be stopped.

Poets have used sonnets for centuries to describe popular topics such as love, sex, and religion. Many popular poets, like John Donne, embrace the Christian belief of the afterlife, but he does this in a very unusual way. John Donne uses “Death Be Not Proud” to reinforce his Christian beliefs of eternal life by standing up to the “playground bully” we call Death.