To A Daughter Leaving Home Analysis

“There are a number of different lyrics used in songs that have been derived from poetry” (Kumar). Poetry is an older form of art and song lyrics have evolved from the art. However, it is a great debacle over which one can be considered the higher art form. The underlying question is if song lyrics have evolved past poetry, or has poetry remained artistic and intellectual. Despite bearing some superficial similarities, the differences between “To a Daughter Leaving Home” and “Never Grow Up” in imagery, message, and point of view are prevalent causing poetry to be considered a higher form of art.

One of the most difficult, yet rewarding roles is that of a parent. The relationship between and parent and child is so complex and important that a parents relationship with her/his child can affect the relationship that the child has with his/her friends and lovers. A child will watch their parents and use them as role models and in turn project what the child has learned into all of the relationship that he child will have. The way a parent interacts with his/her child has a huge impact on the child’s social and emotional development. Such cases of parent and child relationships are presented in Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” and Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”. While Roethke and Plath both write about a dynamic between a child-father relationship that seems unhealthy and abusive, Plath writes about a complex and tense child-father relationship in which the child hates her father, whereas Roethke writes about a complex and more relaxed child-father relationship in which the son loves his father. Through the use of tone, rhyme, meter, and imagery, both poems illustrate different child-father relationships in which each child has a different set of feelings toward their father.

Linda Pastan’s poem, “For a Daughter Leaving Home,” displays how a parent views the life of his or her daughter by relating it to their daughter’s first bicycle ride. Her bicycle ride represents the difficult and stressful journey that the girl has embarked on throughout her life. Although the girl is now grown up and ready to start a life of her own, her parent is recalling everything about the girl’s life up to this point.

The reader cannot help but feel the burden the daughter will be sharing with the mother. And while the plight of the mother is real, the reader cannot ignore how the isolation and loneliness of this type of community, or lack there of, has effected Tome's judgment in mothering.

Poetry is like a song without music, it has the ability to awaken your emotions and the ability to tell stories that can paint beautiful, relatable, imagery in the viewer’s mind. Upon reading the poem, “My Son the Man” by Sharon Olds, she presents a unique view on her bittersweet experience of watching her son gravitate towards manhood, “Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider” (line1), while realizing he is astute enough to escape his mother’s strong hold, “to learn the way out” (line 16). As a mother myself, I began to recognize how I can relate to the speaker’s challenges of understanding a child’s need to test limits and break free from dependency. I realized through the speaker’s obvious allusions to Houdini expressing the need to break free, the contrast used to convey the indirect references to Houdini, and the similes used to express emotion toward reflecting back on a time of innocence, accepting the need of a maturing child’s independence proves the strength of a mother’s love.

In the poem “To a Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Pastan is filed with metaphors and symbols that represent the feeling of a child growing up and moving out onto their own. There comes a time when every parent must send off their child into the world, and these parents feel a multitude of things when sending them off. It paints a picture of a father teaching his young daughter to ride a bike, but uses this image to represent a child growing up. The mixed feeling of pride and fear as the child grows up and moves out of the nest. The use of first person past tense shows us that the narrator is recalling the time they taught their child to ride a bike and are reliving that experience with the child moving out again. The fright of watching your child speed down the road towards life is portrayed from the start and continues throughout the poem. A good parent is always worried about their child’s wellbeing; they will always worry as they watch their children head straight to the destruction that comes with living life. Though the good parent will try their best to teach their child how to ride their bike into adulthood. This poem uses imagery, word choice, and metaphor to express the fears a parent has when sending their child out on their own into the world.

Few relationships are as deep as those between child and parent. While circumstance and biology can shape the exact nature of the bond, a child’s caretaker is the first to introduce them to the world. And as they grow and begin to branch out, children look to their parents as a model for how to interact with the various new situations. Through allusion, potent imagery, and nostalgic diction, Natasha Trethewey constructs an idolized image of a father guiding their child through life’s challenges only to convey the speaker’s despair when they are faced with their father’s mortality in “Mythmaker.”

Children are often expected to forgive their parents for any mistake their parents may have made, however forgiving and forgetting are not the same thing. How parents nurture their children has a significant role in those children’s lives. Children may have forgiven, but forgetting is a not always as easy or even possible. Theodore Roethke’s poem “My papa’s waltz” and Lucille Clifton’s “forgiving my father” recalls the speakers’ respective childhoods and treatment by their father. The poem shows that even through time it is not as always easy to forgive and memories make people incapable of letting go. Lucille Clifton’s poem “forgiving my father,” a daughter recollects the animosity she has for her father. She is here to collect for all his wrongdoings not just as a father but a horrible husband. Theodore Roethke’s poem “My papa’s waltz” leaves the reader to interpret his feelings through “a waltz” - dance. It is unclear whether there was love between Roethke and his father. However, the reader understands there was fear. Clifton’s “Forgiving my Father” uses a more direct approach to let the reader knows her thoughts towards her father; both poems show that forgiveness is required to move forward. However, one never forgets.

In the article “A Scary Time to Raise a Daughter,” Steve Lopez discusses the reasons for sexual harassment of children under twenty-four. The author states that sexual harassment can happen to anybody. Young kids are all worrying about sex. Because that is how the world is now, it is either how you appear or having sex. Mr. Lopez gives an example about husband and wife. The wife is pregnant, but the husband seems very worried, and very afraid for his future daughter. He is really terrified about what is happening in the society. This is because he received an email from his friend that talked about a problem of sexual harassment. This changes his opinions about raising a child in today’s society. He is afraid because he worries about his future

Running faster and wilder than the horses she was racing and was changing faster than a frightened chameleon’s colors, she dreamed of her adventures. By merely catching sight of her sporty vehicle, the girl was transported out of a musty and dingy garage, and she became the heroine of worlds only she could see. She tiptoes towards her shining bike, ignoring the house rule of never biking alone. She speeds like a bullet around the driveway’s racetrack. A sustained creak comes from the door, and she shoots back to her mound of tangled toys. Whew. Safe. Scrumptious smells of a home-cooked meal wafts from behind a mother who is making sure her child is still in one piece. A sweet smile and an itsy bitsy white lie are offered and accepted to cover for the daughter’s rule-breaking behavior. Safe again. The door gives a satisfying click, and the girl bounds over to her bicycle. Her sticky post-peanut butter and jelly fingers fumble with the helmet’s complicated buckle. The girl rearranges the wicker basket’s mostly-dead flowers from a previous adventure. Just as she teeters off of the seat, she starts to waddle across the garage floor.

Emotions are expressed immediately at the beginning of the writing to have his readers grasp his feelings of the situation. Goldstein compares Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” a “depiction of Chinese-style extreme parenting” (Goldstein 272). He then continues to maintain the reader’s attention by explaining Chua’s parenting skills by addressing the fact how the children cannot have play dates, or even watch television. Goldstein inspires his readers by giving individual’s personal experiences that reflect how they became successful.

The relationship between a parent and child is potentially one of the most influential in a child’s life. A positive interaction often yields admiration, love or a sense of support. A negative relationship may yield distrust, animosity or a sense of solitude. Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” describes the admiration of his hardworking father. The speaker, a young boy, depicts roughhousing with his father in the form of a waltz; expressing his desire to stay up and spend more time together though their relationship is detached. Seamus Heaney’s “Digging,” instills a sense of respect, pride, and a slight affliction for the speaker’s choice of the pen over the spade. The speaker has chosen a different path in life than that of his father and grandfather. Although written at different stages in life, both Roethke and Heaney write a poem about their families utilizing vivid imagery to demonstrate the love and pride they felt for these men.

I would like to give you some insight regarding my custody case Elaine Sinclair Perry vs Officer Peter Perry (estranged husband). This case has been ongoing for over four (4) years and I am eager for this case to come to an amicable solution. My daughter is six (6) years old and her father Officer Peter Perry continues to fight for weekend visitation. Officer Perry is inconsistent with visitation and child support payment. Whenever he comes to pick up our daughter, Officer Perry doesn 't give any advance notice. He texts the night before and then show up the next morning to pick up our daughter. He doesn 't give detailed information as to where our daughter is being dropped off or the address and telephone number of where she is dropped off. Officer Perry also wants our daughter to stay over the weekend through Monday. The environment where Officer Perry resides is not livable for anyone because it lacks basic survival needs such as water. The home environment is unhygienic and unsafe for our daughter to spend weekends. I lived at the house and there was no running water. Also, no light is in the home. A home visit needs to be conducted in order to investigate if there is food, light and water. It is unrealistic for our daughter to stay overnight Saturday through Monday. Officer Perry resides in Stony Hill, Kingston and our daughter resides in Spanish Town, St. Catherine. Our daughter education will be negatively affected by being dropped off on a Monday.

Danni contemplated turning around and going only god knows where but before Danni could decide she was yanked out of her thoughts by an abnormally loud horn blaring from a car. Sighing she jerked her bike forward and away from the packed Diner. Danni's figure biked down a wide road, not quite leisurely, for her large backpack hanging off of her back had started to dig into their shoulders, but happy. The girl was happy because of the easy escape, she had left the commotion of the town many times. The girl smiled there was the worn path down to the center of her small town, snaking through the trees to meet the rocky dirt roads. Danni had always loved the buzz of the new, the thrill of the unknown, the seeking of new answers that push her limits.

As a little girl when my mother would get frustrated with my behavior, she would recite out loud for me to hear, “There was a little girl, / who had a little curl, / right in the middle of her forehead. / When she was good, / she was very good indeed, / But when she was bad she was horrid” (Longfellow). I was introduced at a very young age to the importance of poems to help soothe the soul and solve problems. I have a great fondness for poetry, and with that love, I have read many children’s poetry books, but one has become my favorite, Poems to Learn by Heart (2013), compiled by Caroline Kennedy, with illustrations painted by Jon J Muth. Poets relay life lessons in the smallest amount of words possible, which is perfect for children. There