The Word Plum Analysis

In Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Blackberries,” a youthful speaker seems to be living past the boundaries of city life and exhibits qualities of rural living. The poem tells of the speaker’s adventure of picking blackberries from a thicket and encountering the duality of urban society. Readers of “Blackberries” might at first be puzzled by the speaker’s youthful memory of picking berries, but a closer analysis of the poem allows readers to recognize that the speaker’s internal conflict originates from strict societal boundaries and the loss of his childhood innocence.

Continuing on from this, the monosyllabic line ‘does not rust’ is assertive as he emphasises the permanence of the father’s love; the internal rhyme ‘brightens as it tightens’ reflects not just the rhythm of the plaiting motion but also the fluidity of the movement as the wheat is burnished by the constant tightening and smoothening; as he shapes it into a halo-like crown with the luminescence of gold (transformation). However, the ‘throwaway love-knot’ is a contradictory/juxtaposition as the oxymoron suggests that it is both disposable yet also a cherished air loom.

Kennedy is “The Sick Rose” (168). Similar to “The Blossom,” “The Sick Rose” is a two-stanza poem. Each quatrain uses an ABCB rhyme scheme. Again Blake uses personification of botanical and natural subjects to explore the roles within human gender relationships. A conventional symbol of love, lust, beauty, and “a nubile,” “modest” or ”beautiful” girl specifically in the tradition of “Le Roman de la Rose” of the 13th and 14th centuries (168), the rose is personified as the vulnerable female. The speaker acts as a controlling agent who identifies what the rose is: “ thou art sick” (Blake, Sick Rose 1). The worm, like the sparrow, takes on masculine characteristics: it becomes a phallic symbol destroying the rose, which is another traditional symbol from “Shakespeare and other Elizabethan love-poets” (Kennedy 168), and represents death and decay. Blake intensifies these symbols to present a truth about the inner lives of men and

The poem “Persimmons” by Li- Young Lee tells the story about the poet’s life, flashing back to his early childhood and adulthood having trouble adjusting to the English language. English was not his first language, which caused more confusion than understanding of new words. Persimmons shows how words can mean different things, but also how when someone truly loves you, some opposite words can have the same meaning. The poet is bashed by his sixth-grade teacher Mrs. Walker, but with the help of his mother and father he can overcome English boundaries and gain knowledge through their love.

Small details are instrumental in seeing the bigger picture. This is apparent when reading “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop. Most often the reader experiences visual imagery in poetry. In this poem the reader encounters visual, auditory, and sensory imagery. “The Fish” is filled with minute details that paint a picture for the reader. With each new element that is introduced, it becomes easier to visualize the fish. The speaker is able to show the reader the beauty as well as the ugliness of this creature with her vivid imagery. The imagery used is so distinct that the reader can envisage being the fisherman and catching this fish. Another important element involved in this poem is irony.

Poetry, more than any other writing style, is filled to the brim with literary devices. These devices are used by the author to communicate their story. Mary Oliver’s, “Crossing the Swamp,” is a tale of one person’s struggles in crossing a swamp. Mary uses the techniques of descriptive language, metaphors, and personification to develop the relationship between the speaker and the swamp.

There is a conflict between practicality and sentimentality conveyed through the use of both literal and figurative language by poet Mary Oliver in “The Black Walnut Tree.” There is an alternation from a debate between mother and daughter rationalizing reasons of selling the black walnut tree- that sits in the family’s backyard- in order to pay off their mortgage, to the symbolic viewing and characterization of the tree as a reflection of the family’s history and what value it holds to further generations. Despite the “whip-crack of the mortgage” experienced every month, cutting down the black walnut tree would be a heinous deception on the family’s heritage.

¨Those Winter Sundays¨ by Robert Hayden and ¨Snapping Beans¨ by Lisa Parker are two different narrative poems that share the same theme. Similarly both poems consist of a speaker being affected by the relationship they have with their elders. In ¨Those Winter Sundays¨ the speaker tells us about his hardworking father who takes care of his kids even though he may come off as a harsh father. The speaker of ¨Snapping Beans¨ is a granddaughter who discusses about the change that she is going through but is afraid to tell the person that raised her. Therefore this essay compares the two poems with respect to the speaker's feelings and morals.

For many centuries, poetry has been at the center of communication and expression. Poetry has progressed, and styles have changed. However, there are some concepts in poetry that have stayed consistent; every single poem contains a theme that readers can analyze. Poets use different methods to make sure that readers understand their themes. For example, poets may use a variety of imagery, repetition, structure, and history to achieve their purpose. One poet who exhaustively uses literary devices to reach her goal is Dolores Kendrick. Kendrick’s renowned book of poetry, The Women of Plums: Poems in the Voices of Slave Women, contains a multitude of poems that encapsulate exactly how it felt to be a woman and a slave. One specific poem from

In the poem "This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams, the narrator concedes to consuming the audience’s

H.D. uses images of fruit to symbolize women in order to highlight the confining character of 20th century London society. To establish the connection between women and fruit the speaker poses the question, “Have you seen fruit under cover / that wanted light—?” (Doolittle, lines 18-19). Although it may appear that the speaker is, indeed, talking about fruit, the following lines use such diction as, “wadded,” “protected,” and “smothered,” which evoke images of confinement and a guarded life (lines 20-21, 23). Since “Sheltered Garden” was published in a collection of poems in 1916, it is reasonable to make the connection that the language used calls forth the rather restricted and constrained life of

The word "remember" in line two may be considered a play on words; re-member, or dismemberment as in the case of an abortion. "Damp small pulps" in line three sounds animalistic, as if Brooks is saying "pups" instead of "pulps." If the word "pulp" was in fact intended, it is then part of the poem's imagery, indicating something that is crushed,

The speakers in “The Ruined Maid” are two women in the working class. The first is a simple country worker that has run into a lavishly changed version of her former farm working friend. The extravagantly dressed woman, ‘Melia, is quite different than our simple country woman remembers. Throughout the poem the manual laborer repeatedly exclaims at the difference in her appearance, dress, speech and actions. In reply to each of the country woman’s remarks ‘Melia tells her that is the result when one is “ruined” (4).

Robert Herrick, an author from the 17th century enjoyed writing about intimacy and pleasure within his poems. The poem to be discussed throughout the paper is The Vine, by Robert Herrick, because of it’s rich metaphoric and symbolic aspect to love, pleasure, and dominance. Essentially the poem, The Vine, as a whole is a metaphor because the speaker has taken the form of a vine or tendril in the poem. The poem is about a man actually dreaming of a woman, Lucia. Lucia is referred to as dainty and the speaker describes her physical characteristics which helps the reader picture what is happening. Robert Herrick specifically uses certain words to express his love and feelings for Lucia. The simile in the poem that is most significant in its entirety is “And found (ah me!) this flesh of mine/More like a stock than like a vine” (22/23). In these lines, the speaker is waking up from his sexual dream. The speaker explains that he is feeling more of a stock than a vine. This is symbolic because the title of the poem is, The Vine, as the speaker has transformed himself into a vine in his dream. By saying he is feeling more like a stock can be interpreted as the growth has diminished and he can no longer love freely for a long time. His love for Lucia is hardening or ending. The physicality of the stock to a vine can also imply that he is waking up with an erection. The speaker is turned on by his dream and has woken up with the feeling of pleasure. These lines are extremely important to the entirety of the poem because it ends with the speaker waking up from his dream and the reader is aware of how he feels.

It is certainly true that one of the distinguishing features of poetic texts is the use of figurative or non-literal language – this essay highlights the fact that metaphors do contribute to the understanding of a poem. Ted Hughes’ poem, Sketching a Thatcher, is loaded with vivid imagery and ample metaphorical constructions which aids to validate this fact. In order to uncover the message behind this poem, one must take a closer look at the arguments, focus expressions and tenor/vehicle constructions of at least six local metaphorical constructions