The Blue Estuaries Summary

In Julia Alvarez’s poem “On Not Shoplifting Louise Bogan’s The Blue Estuaries”, the poet uses poetic devices to convey the speaker’s discovery of a poem that catches her attention so much that she feels a rush of excitement that wants to hold on to as long as she can. She discovers about herself how captivated she can be from a poem and how she would even shoplift to keep the rush. The exciting tone is revealed through the entrancement of the girl.The smooth, calming imagery shows how impacted she was by the poem and how uncertain she was about her situation. The selection of detail shows how the book was unique and how she eventually saw who she was becoming.

The books and reading materials we read and encounter can have an impact in our education and in who we are. This is because our ideas, beliefs, imaginations and way of thinking can change based off how we react to the material. In Julia Alvarez’s poem “On Not Shoplifting Louise Bogan’s The Blue Estuaries” the author uses various literary devices, such as tone, imagery and selection of detail to convey the speaker’s intriguing and suspenseful discoveries of her voice and her talents.

It is by the help of nature, in particularly the river and the swan, that she finds the strength within herself to challenge her fears, and also how she beats them. The river, as mentioned earlier, gives her a safe spot, where she can be herself. As a result of the river being her safe spot, nature in general is also described in many details throughout the short story, where it often gets described with beautiful adjectives such as: “bleached starling’s egg blue” (line 3) and “tiny glimpses of light and green water glitter” (lines 35-36). By describing nature with descriptions and words like these, the author makes it very obvious that nature is a big part of the main character’s life, or at least she wants it to be a big part, and therefore it becomes a sacred place for her that heals her mentally, and where she finds peace. Just like the river symbolises something bigger than just a normal river, the swan also has a bigger symbolic meaning: it symbolises the freedom that she desperately wants and needs. Therefor her search and longing to see the swan is a metaphor for her longing for a free life, where nothing, not even her own fear, is holding her

There are various places I would like to experience in my lifetime, and this place is

In the poem “Stealing” by Carol Ann Duffy the speaker attempts to steal the intangible emotions of others. The speaker does not steal for material gain, rather for emotional gain. The speaker is ambiguous, (henceforth referred to as “he”) and appears to be answering a question. In this dramatic monologue Duffy explores violent and self-destructive behavior in order to impart the speaker’s desolate attitude towards life.

Julia Alvarez conveys the speaker’s discoveries through her use of imagery in “On Not Shoplifting Louise Bogan’s ‘The Blue Estuaries’”. Throughout the poem, Alvarez uses vivid imagery to describe the swans on the lake that are on the cover of the book. As a result of these descriptions, the speaker discovers a poet, her book, and ultimately not to steal the book. The speaker begins the poem by stating that the book surprised them on the shelf at the bookstore.

However, the readers possibly feel depressed as it suggests the mother has killed the baby. The other image of this poem is “its roads sunken in like a grey washboard”. It suggests me to think about the loss through her flat stomach. It challenged me to think about the mother’s feeling, she is possibly regretted, as she would not be able to keep her child in her womb. Furthermore, “the ground cracks evilly”. Evilly is a strong adverb, which suggests the moral dilemma of choosing to kill her child. This also forcing herself to confront the truth of what she has done, knowing that explaining it away amounts to “loss without death” This provides the personal, reflective, and possibly regretful tone of the poem as they are linked to the idea that the mother chooses to kill her baby. The idea of the “you coward” also provides the guilt emotion of the woman that has experienced when she looses her child. It provides me to think about the narrator's attempt to show what is the character’s thinking. The mother feels possibly guilty about killing her baby. Even though, she knows it is a sin, she still decided to do

Estuaries are very productive systems that have a large ecological and economic value. These unique habitats that estuaries provide are utilised by many biota as well as humans. The importance can be linked to its utilisation. Numerous organisms use estuaries as natural nurseries and complex communities are present. Estuaries are are a valuable resource for the fishing industry and provide spaces for recreational activities. Estuarine habitats such as wetlands provide water filtration and carbon storage. Floodplains and daughters are utilised by the agricultural industry as they provide fertile soil.

Hypersalinity Laguna Madre is like a temporary creek whereas a Typical Estuary is a permanent (constant) river flow.

The women that bends over her comes to her daily, just as most humans use a mirror daily, and “[searches her] reaches for what she really is”(11). The metaphor of a lake comes in when the speaker begins to describe the women’s actions through imagery. The women tends to cry, “rewards me with tears”(14) and use hand movement, “an agitation of hands”(14) most likely in rage or disapproval of herself in front of the mirror. Line 14 uses diction that many would connect with one looking at themselves in a lake/water reflection. The speaker reveals that the women comes back daily and sees in her “she has drowned a young girl”(17). This description of action resembles the use of mirrors by people to find themselves and see in them what others do not. Many women use the mirror to help cover up flaws or to stand in front of and use as an accepting net while they cry or release emotion. In this piece the speaker is standing as an accepting item for this women and knows just what is behind this women’s life. The speaker states “ each morning it is her face that replaces darkness”(16). This use of imagery helps readers envision a women stepping into a mirror in the morning and facing what life has to offer that day. The speaker metaphorically being a lake and describing events through the poetic device of imagery helps create a tone of acceptance by giving the speaker a sense of attachment to someone and makes the stanza

The repetition of the words rise and sink in lines three and four symbolize the rise and fall of ocean waves. She also uses imaginary in the same line and in lines two and five when she describes the ‘’roof against the rain’’ and the ‘’thickened lung’’. The poem continues into its next section being lines seven and eight. Here Millay addresses what many of us know to be true. She says that ‘’yet many a man is making friends with death even a I speak, for lack of love alone.’’ The tone of this section is questioning all people. Millay almost says how can people still be so willing to die knowing all that she stated earlier to be true. This questioning takes readers into the next section which is from line nine to line fourteen. Here Millay shifts the focus of others to herself. She opens the section by providing readers with vivid imagery. She states that ‘’pinned down by pain and moaning for release, or nagged by want past resolution’s power, I might be driven to sell your love for peace or trade the memory of this night for food.’’ She intendeds to have readers feel her imagined pain through words like moaning and pinned. This quote also reveals to readers the setting of the

The most important pieces of punctuation are the periods at the end of select lines. Periods are used to end thoughts, while commas at the end are used to indicate slight change in the thought. Using periods as dividers, the poem is divided into seven sections, all different but reinforce the ideas of insecurity, desire, isolation, and neglect. The first section, which is only line one, explains the narrator’s rejection of herself, which easily transitions to sections two and three. These two sections describe what she wants to be, first with the narrator becoming them, and then her comparing herself to them. Sections two and three explain the effect others have on insecurity because they represent the idealized version of her. Section four details her isolation, neglect, and invisibility to them. The setting of night, which represents darkness, offers a half-baked explanation to the narrator’s invisibility, however, the fact there is starlight shows that the trees and flowers are purposefully ignoring her. With this invisibility, her feelings snowball into neglect and isolation. Section five is similar to sections two and three; it is a repeat of her comparison to the trees and flowers. Section six is a reinforcement of her insecurities, and her out of placeness. Section seven is a detailed continuation of six, but the ending of section seven represents her insecurities and her neglect. Word pairings such as “useful... finally” (l.19) and “touch me for one...have time for me” (l.20) clearly demonstrate her hope that if she changes, she will be accepted by them. Plath’s usage of end punctuation creates an easy flowing cycle of insecurity; the insecurity is made known, the justification behind it is shown; it is then reiterated; and the narrator finally finds peace in the fantasy of being like the trees and the flowers. The constant

Estuaries are incredibly diverse and rich environments. An estuary allows for diverse populations of fishes and other invertebrates because of the varying salinities and rich food sources (Keefer, Caudill, Peery, & Moser, 2013). If an estuary is long enough there is a gradient as the fresh and salt water begin to mix ("At the river 's end," 2005). This gradient provides protection for some species and breeding grounds for other species. The unique habitat is makes a great nursery for juvenile fishes (Fulford et al., 2014). Anadromous fishes spawn in freshwater and migrate to saltwater until they are sexually mature when they return to freshwater habitats to reproduce (Feyrer et al., 2015). The opposite is said for catadromous fishes which spawn in saltwater and migrate to freshwater until they are sexually mature when they return to saltwater to reproduce (Walsh, Gray, West, & Williams, 2011).

In the second stanza the poet tells how it has been nineteen years since he first visited Coole Park. All at once the swans "All suddenly mount" (line 10) and leave rings in the water. These rings are important because they symbolize the rings found in the trunk of

The once beautiful blue water. The countless days of spectacular fishing. The relaxing days spent out on the boat. All these activities that make the Midwest summer months actually feel like summer are quickly diminishing. Our lakes and rivers are progressively being destroyed. Whether it be the whole ecosystem that calls these waters their home, or the people like us who benefit from these waters for recreational activities, there continues to be one aquatic invader that is spoiling these waters. The wide range of carp species are invasive fish that have flourished and taken over these aquatic ecosystems very rapidly. With the recent advancements in the biotechnological field surrounding the use of chemical poisoning, the