The Jacob's Ladder Analysis

Poems and songs may have strength in literary terms, but have you ever wondered what makes them powerful? In this essay, there will be analyzed two poems “The Boy Died in my Alley” and “Daddy”, as well as the song “Firework” in which theme, metaphor, and repetition are the literary devices that make them powerful.

11. A poet can work its magic on the reader by “choice of images, music of the language, idea content, and cleverness of wordplay” (Foster 17).

When I think of a poet, images of scowling, mustached men whose 19th century wardrobe could use an update spring to mind—a somber Edgar Allen Poe type whose ink strokes inquire of unrequited love interests and dreary days alone in the snow. I certainly do not imagine modern, multi-ethnic women who live in the same state as me. However, as soon as I read Natasha Trethewey’s poetry, I immediately admired the way her words so effortlessly danced on the page, my mind’s eye watching the elegant choreography with each syllable read. Moreover, when I learned of her tragic history, and the strength and resilience she possessed to carry on, I could not help but to respect the way she turned pain into beautiful art. The right words carry great power

She references this back to Greek history when she says "Would Cicero have shone so distinguished an orator if he had not been roused...tyranny of Castiline, Verres, and Mark Anthony?" She brings this up comparing great geniuses to John Quincy Adams stating that wisdom and penetration are the fruits of experience. The logos she uses shows her knowledge that has been attain being an educated woman learning from experience. This logic then transpires back to Quincy showing that he should listen to her words due to her highly skilled

George Szirtes article “Formal Wear: Notes on Rhyme, Meter, Stanza, and Pattern” from the Poetry Foundation opens with opinions which focus on limitations of poetic form. As a counter to these common arguments, Szirtes claims, “Verse is not decoration: it is structural. It is a forming principle and words at depth” ("Formal Wear: Notes” 2). He then develops an argument explaining, “the constraints of form are spurs of the imagination: that they are in fact the chief producers of imagination” ("Formal Wear: Notes” 2). Taking these ideas into consideration Szirtes incorporates the idea of language explaining how language connects to memory and imagination which come together to form poetic images. Additionally, when poets use form it develops

With the language being written in a colloquial style, it illustrates a more true and realistic approach while underlining the speaker’s statement to the Pope in a much stronger way. The choice of using words that solely relate to the native culture such as “isistawina” (27) and “matotsan” (42) demonstrate the effort the speaker is publicly displaying to maintain and uphold her customs. The use of no capitalization can relate to the idea that the poem is written in a vernacular language, but also provides evidence that the speaker does not believe the she or her culture, is better than another. It is not her objective to prove her culture should become more dominant, but to provide awareness of the past history and the impact caused from it. Communicating and expressing the poem with the heavy dialect not only signifies the importance of the speaker’s culture, as well adds humour and a sense of satire as a result of the improper diction.

Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.

In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by

The idea of poetry is a long romanticized work of art, that’s been analyzed and exploited over the centuries. Since it was first discovered in 40,000 B.C. it’s revolutionized the style of writing. Poetry wrecked the border and rules of literature, that has taken millenias to be developed by several dynasties and empires. From the billions of poems that have been recorded, and the thousands of themes these authors write about, choosing merely two poems to be compared is almost a disgrace to the community. Disregarding this, two poems from Richard Berengarten and Edgar Allen Poe will be analyzed. Despite their related themes, the two poems narrowly match each other besides the theme of Dreams.

“From the sphere of my own experience I can bring to my recollection three persons of no every-day powers and acquirements, who had read the poems of others with more and more unallayed pleasure, and had thought more highly of their authors, as poets; who yet have confessed to me, that from no modern work had so many passages started up anew in their minds at different times, and as different occasions had awakened a meditative mood.” (2) (paragraph 31).

“A Transcultural Monument: Anna Akhmatova in Postsocialist Russia.” South Atlantic Review. 74.2 (2009): 62–81. JSTOR. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. Written by Sarah A. Krive, from the Department of Languages at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the article, “A Transcultural Monument: Anna Akhmatova in Postsocialist Russia” (2009), argues that Akhmatova was a postsocialist poet, because she began producing her work at the end of Imperial Russia and throughout Soviet Russia, until her death in 1966. She believes that Akhmatova was a symbol of strength in her stand against Stalin, and subsequent persecution from his regime. Next she posits that Akhmatova achieved what many Russians could not; she was able to make a permanent record of Stalin’s reign through her poetry. She emphasizes that instead of Russians internalizing the trauma, they turned to Akhmatova and regarded her as the voice of Russia. In the second half of the piece, she details the creation and collection of Akhmatova’s poetry cycle Wreath for the Dead, an elegiac work. Krive discusses elements of Akhmatova’s work of poetry in order to express the importance of the poet as a mouthpiece for Russia. Her audience appears to be any researcher who wishes to further understand the relationship between Akhmatova and Russia. This article focuses on delivering a large measure of information on Akhmatova’s work of poetry, and this will aid the

Anna Akhmatova (June 23, 1889-March 5, 1966) was a renown Russian poet and prophet. Often credited for being the Russian Antigone, Akhmatova was unlike any of the other women of her time. “ Anna Akhmatova was the leader and heat and soul of Saint Petersburg tradition of Russian Poetry in the course of the first half of the twentieth century.”(New World Encyclopedia 1). Along with being a poet, Akhmatova also wrote prose, literary scholarships, memoirs, and autobiographical pieces. In her 77 years of living Anna Akhmatova accomplished so much she went down as one of the greatest Russian poets and an inspiration for women all over the world.

poem is not merely a static, decorative creation, but that it is an act of communication between the poet and

“The relationship between the energies of the inquiring mind that an intelligent reader brings to the poem and the poem’s refusal to yield a single comprehensive interpretation enacts vividly the everlasting intercourse between the human mind, with its instinct to organise and harmonise, and the baffling powers of the universe about it.”

With the formation of a “rare device”, symbolizing his masterpiece of poetry, Coleridge acknowledges that poetry forms through the combination of nature and human perception. In the end, Coleridge demands the readers to “beware” (49, p.1634) of the power of the inspired poet, who recreates his own “sunny dome” (47, p.1634) in the protection of a “circle round him thrice” (51, p.1634). The energy from nature is eventually transferred to the poet, the poet to use his imagination to create his own “Paradise” (54, p.1634), which resembles Xanadu of Kubla Khan. Through the metaphors developing in the poem, Coleridge pieces together the process a Romantic poet creates a poem from the inspiration of a nature scene.