The Arctic Monkeys: Poem Analysis

In "This is How we Roll" Florida Georgia Line transitions from singing their lyrics to a country rap where the beat slows and the lyrics are sped up on a rhyme scheme. Similarly, Future took a step away from an overload of modulated bass to incorporate a piano rift instead. We as listeners use these genres of music to describe the music we like to listen to. However, the spectrum is so broad that it is important to understand what composes a specific genre. There are hundreds of sub-genres included in the overall label of country or hip-hop music, and the list continues to expand as artists proceed to develop new creative ideas that make it to the top of the billboards. Both of these songs are examples of songs that swept the nation with popularity but experimented with new styles the diverged from the norms of the genre. I believe genres will always stay true to their cultural origins; however, I'm excited for the future of music as artists continue to dip into various new

“An Anti-Semitic Demonstration” was the more effective poem by using metaphors to explain the fear one feels during the arrival and anticipation of being sent off to a concentration camp by Nazis. During this time period life as a Jew must have been unbelievably frightening, for one was unsure of when they would be collected and where the would be taken away too. All just because of their religious beliefs or the fact they may be considered “undesirable”. Whereas in “The Family Album” they explained more about how the Jews were before their life changed forever. Neufeld does not go to explain the way they felt during the tough times of the Nazi ruling. However, he instead talks about how life was instantly changed when no one saw it coming.

Have you ever felt like you were born to do something? Since I was born I felt like I was born to play baseball, but after that I would love to be a broadcaster. That is why I have chosen to analyze “The Broadcaster’s Poem” by Alden Nowlan. Analyzing a poem is not an easy thing to accomplish for me. As I very rarely analyze anything I read, but you should try everything once.

Would you ever think an indigenous poem about nature would have any similarities with a short story that is set later on in the future, where everybody is dependent on technology? “The Song My Paddle Sings” is by an early 1900s indigenous poet, Pauline Johnson, and “The Pedestrian” is written by early 2000s writer, Ray Bradbury. The short story and the poem both establish a very determined, lonely,anxious and gloomy mood. “The Song My Paddle Sings” is an indigenous poem that exemplifies to stay determined in every journey in life. The poem is about a man who goes sailing but there is no wind, so then he has to take down the sail and start canoeing but then the water gets faster and he accepts that he has to change for nature. Consequently

Cathy Song is a 60 year old woman who resides in Honolulu HI with her husband and 3 children. Along with being a wife, mother, and daughter, Song is a developed poet as well. Although Song does not particularly like being classified as an Asian-American poet, her ethnicity largely influences her poetry as well as her family life. Concerning her ethnicity, Song states “I am just a poet who just happens to be Asian-American.” Ethnic background and her family are not the only things that distinguish Cathy Song apart from other poets. Song also has a habit of bursting strong imagery in her poems during pivotal points in her poetry to help a particular piece of the poem stand out and

The Vacuum by Howard Nemerov talks about a widower and his late wife, and how he uses the vacuum as a symbol for her death. The poem expresses deep sorrow and sadness that derive from the loneliness of the speaker, after his other half’s passing away. Nemerov attempts to take his readers on a grief-stricken journey, by strategically employing figurative language (mainly personification, metaphor, simile, and alliteration), fractured rhyme schemes and turns in stanza breaks in the poem.

In seventh grade, I stumbled my way upon the Detroit based rapper Eminem. I was at 150 listens on his track The Real Slim Shady before I knew it. I then found my way into Kanye West, which exploded my interest into the genre. I have listened to all of the considered essential hip hop “classic” and modern day albums. I noticed in these “classic” albums very distinct change in subject matter and style that each of the different areas of rappers on where they originate from. Some people believe that the hip-hop culture is at a decline with the lose of this uniqueness and individuality shown in each of these areas. I too even thought that the hip-hop culture was at a decline until I was researching my topic, but instead this individuality and uniqueness in the rapper’s different stories that they tell in their raps. The genre has expanded throughout the world and continued to evolve while sticking to these roots of individuality and uniqueness.

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.

Dawe in his poem ‘Drifters’ presents the inevitable nature of change, particularly change that is unwanted. Moreover, Dawe manifests the diverse responses individuals have when encountering change in their lives and the transformative impact of change. These prominent themes are manipulated through the motif of travelling, flashbacks and symbolism.

The Minefield by Diana Thiel starts with a heartbreaking story of a young boy and his friend running between towns ends horribly when they took a short cut to find food. One of the young boys ran off ahead only to accidentally step on a landmine, taking the young boy’s life. The story was being told by a father at dinner to his family, but the father did not seem fazed by the horrific story of his friend. The narrator states throughout the poem, it seems as if the father is still living in the minefield by the anger busts and the bruises he leaves on his family. With the father’s violent outbursts and the way, the author talks about the abuse is both the father and the narrator suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The structure the author used of the poem says a lot about what the author is trying to say. As well as the words themselves. The words and the structure may cause the reader to have mixed feeling about the father throughout the poem, do you feel bad for the father for what he has been through or anger for abusing his family?

In the past decade, Drake happens to be the most successful and influential hiphop artist to have originated from Canadian soil. Born in Toronto, Drake resonates his feelings of the city and his upbringing in his albums which reflect a very different past when compared to traditional or even modern-day rap artists. In the context of this paper, Drake’s album which was released in September 2013 called “Nothing Was The Same” will be examined. The album consists of thirteen songs with an additional two bonus songs. While critically analyzing the album, it has a very clear reflection of Drake’s past and it is his rendition of what he went through and what has eventually led to his successful stature as it stands today.

In “Monkey Hill,” Stan Rice writes about the speaker of the poem who sits at a zoo with his friend observing the spider monkey exhibit. The two stay the whole day to observe these monkeys. The speaker becomes envious of these monkeys and their ability to be confident with exactly where they are and with who they are. Rice argues that our minds imprison us when we are worried about judgment from others. The monkeys in the exhibit felt free and at ease while the two observers were trapped in worrisome about the outside world in fear of how others would perceive them.

"Grey's Anatomy" is a popular drama doctor show to this day. They had a music event episode where everyone sang and they had two songs that display the symbolic cycle. Both pieces compliment each other because of their similarities in the symbolic cycle, birth and death. The visual display of the songs fit together because of the setting and how the music itself develops throughout each song. These songs were chosen to be in "Grey's Anatomy" because they illustrate real life of losing someone and being blind to someone's pain they try to hide. In "How to Save a Life" and "The Story" the composers develop the theme of life and death.

“Something More” by Tracey Moffatt is a formal and stylistic experimentation photography and her work draws on her own childhood memories, popular culture, as well as the history seen in still cinema, art and photography. Apparent in her works are themes such as childhood cruelties in suburban life, the mutiny of stereotypes and relations between white and black Australians. In her works, referencing to the artist’s own life and experiences, Tracey Moffatt draws on her Aboriginal background as a foster child growing up in Brisbane in a foster family in the sixties, avidly consuming images from magazines, films and television.

Some of the poems and essays I have read during this class were relatable to me. Being away from college, I have struggled with not being at home. I have become a different person when I am at school, but when I am home, I feel like I am my normal self again. Some of these authors of the poems and essays that I have read throughout this class has struggled with being somewhere where they don’t belong and that they are someone else when they are not home. Unlike the other poems and essays we have read throughout the course. I enjoyed reading the ones about “home” because I actually understood what they are going through and that I can relate. Some of these poems and essays include “Going Home” by Maurice Kenny, Postcard from Kashmir”, by Agha Shahid Ali, “Returning” by Elias Miguel Munoz and “Hometown” by Luis Cabalquinto. All of these poems deal with duality.