Irony In Mark Doty's 'Golden Retrievals'

Writers are constantly looking for new ways to convey their messages. Even if a piece isn’t serious, creative delivery is vital to captivating a modern audience. Humor isn’t just about becoming the next Tina Fey or Stephen Colbert. Adding comedic elements to writing can set an argument apart--in both negative and positive ways. Laughter may not be the best medicine, but it definitely can help convey an argument. While the goal may be to improve an argument or message, it can sometimes be a disadvantage as well, especially when discussing education.

The poem opens with “THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL”, as if it were a play. Golden Shovel is the name of the pool house and the number seven is considered a lucky number among gamblers. The color gold is associated with wealth, prosperity, youth and sunshine. Shovels are associated with death and the burial of the dead. There are seven young men at the Golden Shovel. Seven young men who will not prosper and will have no wealth, whose youth will be lost because they will have no education to prosper, and they will be exposed to the hardships of like early. The poem is narrated by the seven boys. They begin with “We real cool” (line 1), and their incorrect grammar is shown, demonstrating how they obviously dropped out of school. The way they speak is in an uneducated manner. “We left school” (line 2), makes the boys sound sound arrogant, like hey are showing off being drop-outs and receiving no education. It is unknown whether they skipped school or dropped out, but given what the rest of the poem says, it seems like they dropped out and are proud of it. In an interview with

However, the issue, as brought to attention by various individuals and highlighted by the barks of dogs can be fixed. Playing on the dog breed Golden Retrievers, Doty characterizes the pup as a means of “retrieving” humankind from the fears of thoughts overtaking happiness, and by offsetting this one word, he brings a concise realization that humans need advice to live in the present (11). The dogs try to bring their owners “entirely” to the present so they can receive as much love as they provide (Doty 14). Since this word, offset in the poem, engenders a powerful response, the speaker hopes that his actions will make a noticeable difference. The two juxtaposed sides of this poem between playfulness and reflection of unhappiness aptly describe humans’ inability to live in the moment, placing dogs above us since they discover happiness within each day. In fact, dogs may realize their responsibility to retrieve humans from their “haze” determining a possible reason why they bark: to “call [their owners] here” to the present (Doty 12, 13). Doty concludes the poem strongly with caesura establishing how humans should fix the problem “now,” followed by a colon and the onomatopoetic use of barking “bow-wow” (Doty 14). This forceful end to the dog’s thoughts convey the importance of change represented by the passion in the

Furthermore, poetry, and the personification of poetry, conversations with old friends and family, should not need a special occasion, rather it should “ride the bus” with patience for the stops before your own and the understanding of other’s needs before your own (line 13). You can also say the bus can represent the speed at which life passes you by and how easy it is to miss something if you are not paying attention, or even, that these missed moments have a poem to help you along your long journey home. With the use of

This shows the deep roots of collectivism in this dystopian society. As he becomes more individualized he finds a lover, the Golden one, and escape into the dark forest. There they both find an old house filled with books and ancient advanced technology. There they both find the concept of ego, the concept of self. He realizes that happiness is found through accomplishing his own purpose in life. Following his own passions and ambitions make him happy. This is illustrated in the following quote “I owe nothing to my brothers… And to earn my love, my brothers must do more to have been

“The Eye of the Beholder” uses situational irony and the ending was opposite of what you expected. It builds up until her face bandage is taken off in the end and she has what we would describe as “a normal” face. Throughout the video, you hear how her face has always been different and how she has gone through many treatments to get her face somewhat like other’s faces, but all failed and her face stayed the same, making you think that her face must be really awful. The tension builds even more when he says that this would be the last chance for her ugly face to be fixed and that if this failed she would have to live in a community with her “deformity”. Finally, in the end, when the doctors take off her bandages it shows that she had what

Yusef Komunyakaa and Eavan Boland illustrate their personal experiences in order to emphasize how mistakes or tragic events will follow you for the rest of your life. The events that occur personally will haunt you every second of your life until you come to terms with them. The poems “Facing It” and “The Necessity of Irony” both reflect on past memories by using similar language and tone in order to realize what is truly important in life for a better future.

As Bill Nye once said: “Humor is everything in that there’s irony in just about anything a human does.” Irony affects everybody. It affects how we think, do, and even act. Situational irony is a distort on a story; the opposite of what was expected for the reader, typically occurs in short stories. For instance, Guy de Maupassant uses situational irony to capture his readers into feeling sympathy for his main character in “The Necklace”. Also in “The Ransom of Red Chief” O.Henry uses situational irony to formulate an emotion in his readers, in this story O.Henry formulates the feeling of humor. By reading these two stories it is clear that authors utilize situational irony to deploy emotions in there

In his poem, “Golden Retrievals”, Mark Doty writes about a dog that wants to play. It takes great joy in a “thrillingly dead thing” (6) and “sniff[s] the wind” (4) in search of fun. Still, the dog is not satisfied. It notices its owner sulking over the past, so, through disjointed thoughts and sporadic style, it tries to help its owner forget about the past. Doty writes his poem through the perspective of a dog, utilizing structure to convey a sense of playfulness that highlights the importance of living in the moment.

This indicates that the poet is willing to wander from the sweet thoughts these readings generate, the "Golden-tongued Romance" being a synecdote for chivalric romances in general.

One line of this poem is Nothing gold can stay.The literal meaning of this part of the poem is stating the growth and winter ending.The metaphoric is that you will never get your innocence back.In the novel the Outsiders,a boy named Johnny will not get his innocence back.Johnny's good friend Pony is being drowned by a Soc named Bob and Johnny decides to kill him.Johnny says "I killed him,I killed that boy" you can tell that Johnny was shocked and scarred.Johnny's innocence will never come back to him after killing Bob.

The third poem "Gold"

Most writers use irony to make their readers think. In the three short stories “Because My Father Always Said He Was The Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ At Woodstock,” by Sherman Alexie, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor, and “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, there are numerous examples of irony. While all three of the stories have unalike plots, the authors all used similarly ironic situations in their writings.

A strongminded man who has everything going for him, nice job nice car, great friends, etc. comes home every night to a sick mother whom he takes care of after a long day of living a lavish life. His one weakness is his sick mother because she taught him everything. No one, not even his best friend knows about his other life and so that 's how he keeps it. Oh the irony right? Big strong man afraid to live his truth in fear of change and facing his reality. In The Metamorphosis, author Franz Kafka speaks on a character name Gregor, who somehow manages to transform into a hideous insect, and the ironic life he lives. During the story Gregor has a family whom he cares for, a job as a salesman, and a lack in

In Robert Frost’s poem Nothing Gold can Stay, the theme is also about death like it also is in Out Out—, as well. Yet, this poem emphasizes more about the transience of life rather than the suddenness of life ending. “Nothing Gold can Stay” is about the appreciation for the golden days while the cycle of life continues and death becomes of each and every one of us.