The Tally Stick Essay

Upon the same poem of “Divorce”, the short story line has a symbolization that is unique and holds a meaning that means more than to the eye. Johnson and Arp explain that “A symbol may be roughly defined as something that means more than what it is … A symbol, that is, functions literally and figuratively at the same time”(814). Collins poem in all, has objects symbolizing something bigger than just cutlery. “Once, two spoons in bed/now tinted forks/across a granite table/and the knives they have hired’ (1-4).” We use silverware with almost everything we eat, it’s our support when eating things we can not touch with our hands. Looking at how the

The strongest usage of metaphor in this poem is in the first stanza in the line “write their knees with necessary scratches”. While scratches cannot be written, words can, so this insinuates that children learn with nature, and that despite its fading presence in today’s urban structures, it is a necessary learning tool for children. The poet has used this metaphor to remind the reader of their childhood, and how important it is to not just learn from the confines of a classroom, but in the world outside. This leads to create a sense of guilt in the reader for allowing such significant part of a child’s growing up to disintegrate into its concrete surroundings. Although a positive statement within itself, this metaphor brings upon a negative

There is alliteration in the stanzas of 3 and 6 “blade beak” and claws clutching”. This poem also has a rhythm to it; the stanzas are not constructed in that unbalanced way in which it’s hard to keep flowing feel to the literature.

The second stanza creates a clear contrast between what each person receives in this relationship. When the speaker’s lover puts on their crown of wind-flowers, the only place it leads them is to the surging sea and blowing storms. This person is obviously getting the short end of the stick. Even though they are both receiving love, the effects of it are not always beneficial to both parties. In the relationship between these two people, one prospers while the other is left behind or led awry.

Second of all,the author uses personification establishes the obstacles and challenges faced in order for the speaker to get to his love.In the second stanza,uses objects to describe the travel to get where his lover is awaiting.From the text, “the impalpable ash or the wrinkled body of the log,everything carries me to you ,as if everything that exists,aromas,light,metals,were little boats that sail toward those isles of yours that wait for me.This phrase conveys that the feelings that exist within him can’t be felt physically,but emotionally it can be felt towards his lover.Through the words of , “impalpable ash and carries me to you”,the word impalpable means unable to be felt by touch or not easily comprehended,an intangible feelings are being carried by items of logs,metal,light,etc.To add on,The speaker explains the love he still has for his love before she even thinks about forgetting about him.From the text, “if each

The next poetry example is “The Room of My Life” written by Anne Sexton yet again another poem that is filled with imagery, which is one of Anne Sexton’s trademarks. In this poem common household objects are used such as a typewriter, an ash tray, a knife etc. This is so the reader can visualize her living circumstances and also bring to life the objects meaning to her. Each one of these items has a special importance in Sexton’s daily life because after all she is representing the room of her life. The typewriter is a symbol used to represent her writing and her poetry, poetry became her outlet to express her struggles with depression “the forty-eight keys of the type writer each an eye ball that is never shut” (line 6-7). This is an expression, meaning Sexton is very passionate about her work and stays up late working tirelessly on her writing. The next symbol is an ash tray, “ash trays to cry into” (line 4). This could imply that Sexton

Stanley relates the poem to the reader by reminding them the horrific view and dreadful pain of

Duong’s decision to describe the snowflakes as “strange flowers” exposes Hang’s attachment to the landscape of her own home, and also the strangeness of this new landscape for her. The word choice of flowers and their connotation of spring provide contrast to the harsh winter. Hang’s simile comparing the snowflakes to a “luminous” childhood dream juxtaposes the description of them as “blinding shards” and “frail”, thus revealing Hang’s opinion of dreams as something rarely obtained. Surely as a child she imagined the best that might have happened, and had such optimistic hopes of what might have been. They are thus associated with sorrow by the simile, reflective of the cruel reality she faced when her dreams were suffocated as a child. The snowy landscape also triggers a more consuming flashback to a time in Hang’s childhood. Duong provides vivid imagery of the beautiful landscape of the bay - “Clouds floated like puff jade along the horizon, a line broken jagged by solitary rocks.. This endless jade-colored necklace fallen to the earth.” (Duong ) The metaphor comparing the clouds to a jade-colored necklace further emphasizes the landscape’s beauty and richness. The idea of a jade necklace, a material wealthy good, introduces the idea that the natural landscape is a gift, accessible by all. Duong emphasizes this with the subsequent sentiment that “beauty knows no frontiers, seduces without discrimination” (Duong 83). Hang

“Ink smeared like bird prints in snow” is the first simile that appears in the poem and serves multiple purposes. The most obvious one is the creation of imagery, where it compares the black words the persona writes on paper to the bird’s foot prints that are left behind when a bird walks on snow. The imagery alludes that the persona will leave a “footprint” in the form of a note that people can use to trace her path but she will never be there anymore. From line thirty-six to forty, the poet creates another imagery of a sparrow (a tiny and a delicate bird) flying in windy snowing weather. The sparrow is dizzied and sullied by the violent wind; it encounters a lot of difficulties and fear. In this imagery, the persona compares herself with the delicate bird. She compares the challenges that the sparrow goes through to the suffering she encounters relating to her parents.

The poem progresses from mourning of the deceased to praising of his achievements and fate to die before his glory withered. Therefore, the tone shifts from somber and quiet to upbeat and positive. Such shift of tone is achieved by Housman’s use of sounds. In first two stanzas, Housman describes the funeral procession as he remembers the time when the young athlete was proudly brought home after he won a race. Then, he solaces the mourners by reminding them it is better that the athlete “slip betimes away from fields where glory does not stay” (lines 9 and 10) because the laurel “withers quicker than the rose” (line 12). The soft “s” sound stands out especially in second and third stanza and it creates a sense of calm and quiet tone and evokes an image of townspeople mourning the death of their “hero”; Consonance of “s” sounds is present in words “shoulder, set, threshold, townsman, stiller, smart, slip, betimes, fields, does, stay, grows, withers, and rose.” In addition to consonance, soft sound alliteration in “road all runners” (line 5) helps to create a quiet tone. As the poem progresses into praising of the young athlete in stanzas four through seven, the consonance of hard “c”, “t”, and “f” sound become prominent. Readers can immediately detect

The narrator speaks of what could symbolise the lower or working class "the Chimney-sweeper", crying out against the system, and the upper class "Church" subduing them. Both the chimney and church are personified to symbolise the people they represent. This dominance is also related in the personification of "Soldier" and "Palace". The soldiers fight the wars that the monarchy decides, their blood on the King and Queen's hands. They sigh as to their shared plight, but their sighs only end in their deaths. This stanza's rhythm is different in that it follows a heptameter meter. Its pace is faster, which might reflect an increase in excitement by the narrator in what might be anger.

If one let him read poetry by candlelight long enough the words, not the flames, would seemingly melt his stone walls into a buttery enough substance to pick away at it, exposing who he truly was. Perhaps he would normally care with others but Kristofferson had admittedly gained a bit of his trust by handing him a book that wasn't just any old book, but a book he had bound himself and read and read and read. He obviously knew the book and for some reason that made a spark of trust ignite in him for the other, even as irrational as it should be for a courtesan who knew he was only a whore to be paid for, used, and then left in the cold. And sit a glimmer of his trust had fallen into his hands along with the book, offered up to the other who played with his black locks as he read poetry and prose by candlelight until the sun pestered them from their

In the third stanza a box is introduced. It can be assumed that this box is a coffin. The box is being lifted into the ground and the "Boots of Lead" "creaking" across the poets soul symbolize the mourners walking on the fresh grave. The "tolling" of space mimics the church bell that is introduced in the following stanza.

The comparison of Mr. Parsons “Malacca stick” and Markwardt’s “traditional battered cane” symbolize their social status and how successful Mr. Parsons is compared to Markwardt. Another symbol that Kantor used is the weather. Mr. Parsons feelings is linked to the weather the author had described---“Blue air of spring, fresh from its memory of windy pools and lush shrubbery.” This demonstrates Mr. Parsons eagerness and contentment. However, near the end of the story the weather had been described as “The spring wind shrilled past them, damp and quivering” showing that Mr. Parsons mood changed from eager to serious and

The last two lines of this first stanza have more repetition with the words mark and marks. The speaker “mark(ing)” (3) every face is noticing the features or characterizing the people he meets. The speaker than “marks” (4) or sees a visible clues. What the speaker sees is “weakness” and “woe” (4). Woe can possibly be seen visually as in sadness, sorrow, or grief on the peoples faces, but weakness is not really a visual sign. From Websters we find weakness means lacking in strength or vigor (weakness). We learn later in the poem that this weekness is not referring to physical strength but to mental strength.