The Madness Underneath Poem Summary

Take a minute to imagine “Men looking like they had been/attacked repeatedly by a succession /of wild animals,” “never/ ending blasted field of corpses,” and “throats half gone, /eyes bleeding, raw meat heaped/ in piles.” These are the vividly, grotesque images Edward Mayes describes to readers in his poem, “University of Iowa Hospital, 1976.” Before even reading the poem, the title gave me a preconceived idea of what the poem might be about. “University of Iowa Hospital, 1976” describes what an extreme version of what I expected the poem to be about. The images I

Thesis: Edward Hopper’s painting the Nighthawk represents that someone does not need large quantities of people to make them feel important.

What would you do if you could rewind time? Paul Verlaine, who was elected “Prince of Poets” by the French literary world, would probably want to rewind time if he could (Biography n. pag.). He was identified as “a major influence on the burgeoning symbolist movement and Decadent movement” (Biography n. pag.). The subjects of his poems are “living, sorrow and grieving, time and brevity, love, heartache and loss, landscape and pastorals, and nature” (Biography n. pag.). In December 1880, the publication of a new collection of poems, Sagesse (Wisdom), subsequently comes to be seen as a major work of Verlaine, as one of his most beautiful (Biography n. pag.). It comprises more than forty poems, some religious, other profane, and some which can see Verlaine’s remorse and loneliness (Biography n. pag.). “The sky above the roof’s…” is one of the collection of poems, Sagesse (Wisdom), using the visual imagery illustrating the nature.

Edgar Allan Poe shows how subconscious fears and guilt can lead to insanity through the irrational behaviors shown by the narrators in “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat”. Both narrators have committed a crime due to their insanity in an attempt to relieve themselves from their fear and guilt, but instead ultimately cause their further decline of mental stability.

The poem Dream By Nikki Giovanni is about Nikki's childhood dream. On the surface, this poem is about a dream about being a singer in a band, but eventually maturing and growing up became a sweet inspiration. Looking deeper one can see that the poem is really about black people being equal and being able to accomplish big things.

“’ But this is merely a negative definition of the value of education’” (23-24). Mark Halliday wrote “The Value of Education” from a first person standpoint. The introduction and the use of “I” demonstrates the poem is about the speaker. Likewise, the speaker uses imagery, self-recognition, and his own personal thoughts throughout the poem. He goes on throughout the poem stating external confrontations he is not doing because he is in the library receiving an education and reading books. With this in mind, the speaker goes on to convey images in your head to show a realization of things he could be doing if he were not in the library getting an education.

In 'Much Madness is divinest Sense' (435), a definition poem, Emily Dickinson criticizes society's inability to accept rebellion, arguing that the majority is the side that should in fact be considered 'mad.' The perception of madness and insanity are a common theme among Dickinson's poetry, as she fought against society's tainted view of herself as crazy. She focuses on how judgmental society is on non conformist views when she describes the majority as 'discerning' (line 2). As similar to most of her poetry, she writes in iambic meter and uses slant rhyme, as lines one, three, and seven end with 'Sense', 'Madness', 'dangerous', and lines six and eight, in 'sane' and 'Chain' in seemingly rhyme scheme. Dickinson credits the majority

Sideshow is a poem written by Danez Smith describing that he has been worrying too much on boys killing each other that he has forgotten when they do it on themselves. He explains that even though the cause of death is similar that they are the same even using a metaphor to call them as actors.

Initially, Collins demonstrates how one can weigh a dog’s weight with his method. Concrete diction in the first stanza, such as, “ small bathroom”, “ balancing”, and “shaky” suggest the uncomfortable nature of his intimate relationship with his pet. Although Collin is unappreciated for the gritty toil determination, he praise himself to applauded that “this is the way” and raising his self-esteem by comparing how easier it is than to train his dog obesity. In addition, the negative diction used to describe Collin holding his dog to be “awkward” for him and “bewildering” for his pet. This establish he rather force love rather willing show patience. When holding a pet on scale, there is less hustle because he secures the dog’s position by carrying it. Where as when he orders the dog to stay on the weighing scale with a cookie, his dog only followed him because of the expected reward.

In the final stanza, he makes the reader sad as he assumes the inevitable will happen and she will die. He expresses this through metaphors such as a “black figure in her white cave”, which is a reference to the bright white hospital rooms and although he is the black figure he thinks she just sees a shadow which could be the grim reaper or even death himself, coming to end her journey. No one wants to deal with the sorrow of losing a loved one for good, as

Frost further points out that the stretch of woods being viewed is very rural. This is made possible by the reference to the location between the woods and frozen lake. In closing the final sentence of the second stanza Frost reiterates the fact that this occurs on “the darkest evening of the year” stating the darkness of the mood.

In this context, I believe that the fruit being cut down symbolizes that Ha is leaving South Vietnam too soon, before she is ready, just as the papaya is cut down before it is ready. I believe this because in the poem “Wet and Crying,” Ha says, “My biggest papaya is light yellow, still flecked with green.” This shows that the papaya is not quite ripe and ready to be picked, just like Ha is not yet ready to leave her home country. Furthermore, in the same poem, Ha says “Brother Vu chops; the head falls; a silver blade slices.” I believe that, judging from the word choice that the author uses, Ha thinks of this as an execution of sorts. I believe this because of the words the author uses such as “Chop” and “The head falls.” This shows that Ha

The 2016 census reported that 14% of the United States population was living below the poverty line. And sometimes, desperate times call for desperate measures. Leading people to go as far as committing a crime just to feed their family. This was the theme of Cage The Elephant’s song, “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked,” written by Matt Schultz. In the song, Schultz utilizes personal experiences and an emotional appeal to address the issues of poverty to the upper classes and to justify how people in poverty or “the Wicked” handle their situation by the means of crime and immoral ways.

Matt Skiba’s song “Blue In The Face”, performed by Alkaline Trio in 2003, is written in a first person narrative directed towards a former lover. Skiba uses dark connotations and satanic allusions to portray his emotions and describe the various reasons he thinks she left that night, how he feels about the situation that happened and lastly that he wants her back.

Ted Kooser, the thirteenth Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner, is known for his honest and accessible writing. Kooser’s poem “A Spiral Notebook” was published in 2004, in the book Good Poems for Hard Times, depicting a spiral notebook as something that represents more than its appearance. Through the use of imagery, diction, and structure, Ted Kooser reveals the reality of a spiral notebook to be a canvas of possibilities and goes deeper to portray the increasing complexities in life as we age.