In Purple Bathing Suit poem, Louise Gluck develops a difference between needing someone even if they are not perfect in their eyes and being unsatisfying staying in a relationship can be. There were a few things in Gluck’s poem that made it fascinating, such as the individuality related to gender, the level of love/hate relationships, and the truth of realizing that real reason you stay. Knowing that this fit effortlessly into the manner of this poem, where the speaker is in the inner confusion trying to figure out their next move in the relationship, while it does not seem very hopeful as the lines states, “I would like to see you walk off the face of the earth because you all that’s wrong with my life” (L 20). When I first read "Purple Bathing Suit", I perceived a husband addressing his wife. But then I went on to read and analyze the poem and was surprised to find the speaker described as a woman viewing her lover weed the garden. I wasn't certain if the subject was a spouse or lover, but I felt certain that the speaker was male. But, I see no more reason for thinking that the speaker is male than for thinking the speaker is female. I think individuality such as how one feels about themselves and talking as they saw their own reflection in a mirror matters in this poem which is all about a relationship and uncertainty. “You might give some thought to that mouth."(L 3) This is the way that a parent speaks to a naughty child. "How many times
The poem then transitions to the post-marriage life of the couple in stanza two. In lines eight through ten, the speaker states that she is too shy around her husband. Not only does she not smile, but also she does not answer her husband when he calls her. This shows that the speaker's life took a great emotional transition, as she is overly shy and feels uncomfortable around him. However, around the middle of the second stanza, the speaker transitions into another stage of
Philip Larkin’s poem “Talking in Bed” tells the truth about life and how relationships can slowly descend overtime. It explores the idea that no matter how close we are to someone, we can still experience intense depths of loneliness. The language emphasizes the feelings of what an empty marriage may feel like. The poem also gives the impression it is from the male’s perspective. It is written in four stanzas, each with three lines of ten syllables apiece. This makes it a short lyrical ballad. Through the tone, the language, and the imagery, Larkin is able to create a feeling in which he can effectively criticize and deconstruct the subject of innocence in relation to his current life experiences. There are many examples of imagery in this
The Color Purple by Alice Walker is the story of a poor black woman living in the south between World War 1 and World War 2. This was at a time when, although slavery had ended,many women were still virtually in bondage, and had to put up with many conditions that was reminiscent of the days of slavery. The problem was that they had to endure being treated like an inferior being by their own families sometimes, as well as from the white people that lived there. It was a life that was filled with misery for many black women, and they felt helpless to do anything about their situations.
Now I intend to turn my attention to concrete examples from Walt Whitman's poetry to provide some evidence of that sexuality played an important role in his poetry, and there are possible readings to find traces for that. Of course, we cannot only rely on selected
“Clothes” is written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. It is a short story about an Indian-American woman, Sumita, who is about to embark on a new chapter of her life, marriage. Sumita, throughout the story, is nervous and confused about what is to come next in her life. The story begins in the women’s lake with Sumita and her friends, Deepali and Radha. The groups of friends are preparing Sumita for her big day, meeting her soon to be husband for the first time.
A more disturbing perspective that the poem can take on is that the speaker wants to be the slave to this woman he admires. As mentioned before, the speaker considers the girl as a confidante, but then follows on to say that he wants to undress and take her virginity. “O she’ll give pleasure! in future, no grown man will deny it! But tonight, to me, this chaste girl bares unthinking the delicate blush/Of a most secret landscape, her woman’s body” (9-14). These lines also gave me pedophilic vibes because he calls the female figure “a girl” and it was interesting
In the analysis of the language used by the speaker, the nature of the poem is written from a professional standpoint using medical terminology, such as parts of the anatomy. Based on the speaker, it suggests that the poem could be written in support of gay pride due to the lack of shame that he described in the patient. The patient is projected as calm and collected throughout the poem and does not seem
Some people think that once you have set morals and values for yourself, you have to stick with them for your whole life. There are going to be experiences in a person’s life that will go against their beliefs, and it’s up to that person to decide if they are going to change. Ruth McBride, mother of James McBride, author of our book, The Color of Water, has shown us through her struggles in growing up, having children, and losing ones, that adapting while still keeping your main beliefs is a good thing.
poem wherein she’s revealing her never-ending love, devotion, and appreciation for her spouse. The fact that she was born around the seventeenth century could mean it is puritan culture for women to remain reserved, regardless of how they may truly feel; however, she makes it her obligation to make her husband aware of feelings, whether positive or negative. She uses figurative language and declarative tone through imagery, repetition, and paradoxes to send her message. "To My Dear and Loving Husband" can be interpreted in many ways by many different people depending how it is initially read. This uncertainty allows the poem to be interpreted on a surface level and on a deeper level.
“My Husband Discovers Poetry”, by Diane Lockward is a very interesting piece of poetry that I have thoroughly enjoyed delving into. The idea behind the poem is that the writer felt angry and discouraged because her husband would never read her work, so essentially to get back at him she wrote a poem about cheating on him. She hid it away in the hopes that he would one day find and read it. This poem is Lockward telling the story of writing her poem, and what happens when her husband finally discovers it. The meaning of the poem is that we must support our loved ones.
In the poem “Monologue for an Onion” by Suji Kwock Kim, an onion speaks to another individual. In the poem “The Suitor” by Jane Kenyon, the speaker reacts to the recurring presence of a suitor. In each poem, the onion and the suitor represent something else. Through the metaphor of the onion, Kim shows that the onion represents her guarded heart broken into so many pieces that she does not even believe that it is there. Someone tries to love her, but in the end they both end up hurt. In “The Suitor” the suitor represents a woman who has finally found happiness and stability after many suitors have come and gone from her life.
“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker is a series a letters by and to the main character, Celie. The book begins with fourteen year old Celie writing to God about her father raping her and taking away her children. After Celie's mother dies, Celie focuses on protecting her sister, Nettie, from her father's sexual advances and encourages her to run away. A widower called “Mr. __” wants to marry Nettie, but their father rejects him. Eventually Celie marries Mr. __, who later is called Albert, and her living conditions do not improve at all. Celie becomes infatuated with Shug Avery, a blues singer who is her husband's mistress. Years later, Celie helps nurse Shug back to health. Eventually, they fall in love with each other. Meanwhile, Nettie
Both of these works contain the unique ability, as portrayed by Browning, to create a deep fictional psyche that displays the strange relationship between man and woman. This relationship is displayed as one full of pain, jealousy, rejection and happiness, the majority of these emotion are contained in love and marriage. From this the reader can infer the nature of love being the conquering of class distinction and marriage involves sexist male inhibitions. Insecurities are seen in both poems and are evident in the perspective voices of the male protagonists, who are seen as incapable to handle their aggressive and possessive natures when it comes to love and marriage. Browning seems to be demonstrating the side of relationships avoided previously by Romantics and in doing so shows the negative implication on seemingly unruly
In the film The Color purple women are strongly objectified by men, their worth being ruled by beauty, talent and what they could do. They were left uneducated to keep them submissive and beaten down to be put in place. Men however did as they please with no repercussions for their actions. White men were given the right to an education and all
Adrienne Rich was a highly acclaimed twentieth-century poet who railed against war and the injustices in the world, and also used imagery that spoke tenderly of love—feelings that she sensed were both highly individual for her, but also universal. “Twenty-One Love Poems” were written between 1974-1976 to her lover of the time, and they track the course of the relationship through the sweet beginning stages, the development of mature love, and all the way through to its dissolution due to her partner’s seeming inability to “come out” and admit to her homosexuality at a time in society when relationships between women were not endorsed or supported. The language in these poems is very rich and weaves both ugly city imagery and elegant metaphors and similes together, with the apparent intention of making the reader search inside to see if the images and ideas conveyed by the language can be applied to the reader’s own experience of living too. While these poems are highly individualistic and at times very personal, this impressive and moving body of poetic accomplishment also reflects themes to which all human beings can relate.