Sharon Old Poem

The next image Olds puts into play is that of the vision of her daughter reborn as the enemy. Olds describes the daughter’s hair by saying, “each strand now cuts/ both ways. The blade of new bangs hangs over her red-brown eyes/ like carbon steel.” This is not a typical description of hair. Olds specifically compares the young girl’s hair to a freshly sharpened weapon. With words such as “cuts,” “blade,” and “carbon steel,” Olds builds up an image of a lethal weapon such as a knife or perhaps sword, weapons both clearly used for battle. Olds further describes the girl’s hair by acknowledging that “all the little/ spliced ropes are sliced.” The line break in the poem which leaves the phrase “all the little” alone to be followed up by second line describing the sliced hair, adds to Olds image. “All the little” appears as a memory of the mother of her former daughter, a memory that is quickly destroyed by the second image of those little strands now taking on a threatening sliced form. In addition, the line also holds a visual separation between the two different images that occupy the mother’s same thought

The tone of the poem changes as the poem progresses. The poem begins with energetic language like “full of heroic tales” and “by a mere swing to his shoulder”. The composer also uses hyperboles like “My father began as a god” and “lifted me to heaven”. The use of this positive language indicates to the responder that the composer is longing for those days – he is nostalgic. It also highlights the perspective of a typical child. The language used in the middle of the poem is highly critical of his father: “A foolish small old man”. This highlights the perspective of a typical teenager and signifies that they have generally conflicting views. The language used in the last section of the poem is more loving and emotional than the rest: “...revealing virtues such as honesty, generosity, integrity”. This draws attention to a mature adult’s perspective.

The author uses raw descriptive words such as “iron,” “tarry,” and “tin,” to display this city as superficial. The city is just made out of these substances that the people have made these buildings out of. These substances all conduct heat and present this madness and anger of the man in the poem. These materials present a manmade structure that displays the city as shallow.

The use of symbolism is one of the main literary elements used in this poem. The speaker’s long hair is used as a representation of sexuality. Women are often viewed to be more desirable with longer hair. Long hair it is also used to validate femininity and in earlier years also represented social status. Throughout history, hair has been worn in a variety of ways often determined by the

On December 26, 1996 Patsy Ramsey made a phone call to 911 and frantically told dispatch that she found a ransom note on the main staircase of her home and that her daughter was taken. Experts from the CBS special reviewing the ransom note determined whoever wrote it was desparately trying to “sell” it too much and used too many words instead of getting right to the point as most ransom notes do. Also, the amount of money that was asked for was the same amount of money that Mr. Ramsey got for his bonus that year. Linguistic experts also matched most of the handwriting to Patsy and said that parts of the note used maternal language, also pointing to Patsy. While reviewing the ransom note, CBS showed experts also looking at the autopsy report.

In the poem “XIV,” Derek Walcott utilizes the use of inhumane imagery that is being counterpointed with the use of happy imagery to show the view of an elderly woman with his experiences with her; the speaker recalls this information by describing his experiences with her with a sense of happiness, fear and appreciation.

In “Gathering” by Margaret Atwood, the poet uses visual imagery to portray the aging process. The old people “whiten, like raw wood in a salt wind … / [and] silver” (5-6). This phenomenon corresponds to the old people’s appearance as their hair turns white. At the same time, they have experienced so many events in life that new affairs no longer surprise them and their eyes are no longer “guile- / free blue pools, translucent” (7-8). This transformation implies that the cunning society has caused them to lose their translucent eyes which symbolizes innocence in children, and thus the fact that they have aged. Furthermore, the poet describes the eyes of the aged adults as “hard black berries / … clutching the vines / just before frost” (11-13).

In conclusion, Gwen Harwood deals with the constant relevant issues of loss and consolation by the enduring power of poetic treatment of age and youth. In my opinion, on the most profound of universal truths, there is no certainty in life and we must deal with events and situations as we encounter them. Harwood’s poetry distinctly presents a

The imagery in the poem “35/10” also conveys the speaker’s wistfulness and jealousy for her daughter’s youth. The speaker describes her daughter as, “a moist/ precise flower on the tip of a cactus” (9-10) while she says, “my skin shows/ its dry pitting” (8-9). These phrases paint an image of the daughter as blooming and new, whereas the speaker is wilting and used. The word moist is associated with youthfulness and the word dry is associated with old age. The speaker’s use of the contrasting words moist and dry also allows the reader to use visual and tactile senses to picture the physical differences between the

The poem describes the weather and its effect on cotton flower by pointing out the dying branches and vanishing cotton. The image of insufficiency, struggle and death parallel the oppression of African American race. The beginning of the poem illustrates the struggle and suffering of the cotton flower; which represent the misery of African Americans and also gives an idea that there is no hope for them. But at the end the speaker says “brown eyes that loves without a trace of fear/ Beauty so sudden for that time of year” (lines 13-14). This shows the rise of the African American race, and their fight against racism. The author used mood, tone and

Rosemary Dobson's Poetry "Rosemary Dobson seems intent on presenting a view of life as bleak and generally uninteresting In the poems by Rosemary Dobson it generally presents the view of life as bleak. " The Tiger" is an example of this. This also reinforces the limitations on her poetic inspirations. The idea is presented by the effective use of imagery, tone, sound devices and the temporary progression.

Jane Kenyon once said, “The poet's job is to put into words those feelings we all have that are so deep, so important, and yet so difficult to name, to tell the truth in such a beautiful way, that people cannot live without it.” Many poets take the bottled up feelings everyone feels and puts them into their writing. Kenyon often did this in her poetry, telling her difficult story in powerful ways. Her writing represents her truth and difficult emotions with an obsessive nature. The important feelings Kenyon felt are always shown in her poetry. Jane Kenyon’s poetry reflects her religious views and her grandmother’s influence, her life in New Hampshire, and her battle with leukemia.

I pictured someone thinking back to memories of their youth now that they are elderly.

Olds does an excellent job of demonstrating the gender roles placed on men, and how these characteristics can even be seen in young boys. In the poem all of the boys are gathered together playfully fighting. One boy notices that he is older than the other boy and uses thus information as dominance over the younger boy proclaiming that he could beat him up.

Sara Teasdale, an extraordinarily sensitive and almost reclusive woman, had a lifelong struggle with her disparate personalities and ever-changing beliefs which led her to write extremely passionate poetry about her venture to find love and the hardships she faced along the way. To say the least, Sara Teasdale had an extremely difficult life full of ups and downs. She went from being a puritan young woman from St. Louis, Missouri to a successful but uneasy poet in New York City to a depressed and disillusioned person who ended up killing themselves in 1933. She constantly dreamed of and wrote poetry about a love that would set her free from all of her problems. Her “feminine love poetry” included philosophical depth and self-examination and eventually made her a fortunate woman, winning her the first Columbia Poetry Prize, later renamed the Pulitzer Prize, in 1918 (Walker).