Firstly, the speaker’s attitude or the tone demonstrates how a person can be the cause of their own misery. From the very start of the poem the speaker has a depressing tone. Any little event that occurs the speaker reads it as a negative occurrence that adds to his ever growing misery. For Example, when the speaker says “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” The speaker hears a knock on the door and opens it to see that there is no one there. Instead of going back to sleep he demonstrates his negative attitude by
many types of imagery throughout his poem that depicts more negativity than positivity, however both are present. For instance, the poet says “ The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death” (lines 1-3). This pinpoints one example of negative imagery in the poem because whiskey on his breath, dizzy, and death all provide unfavorable images in the reader’s mind. Another representation of this, is when the author states “ You beat time on my head ” (line 13). This also portrays negative imagery in the poem because it reveals an abusive image to readers. Lastly, a contrasting illustration of imagery is when the author conveys “ We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf” ( lines 5 & 6). This encourages that there also is positive imagery present in the poem because the father dancing with his child which provides love and security for the reader's mind.
Bruce Dawe uses symbols to create moods showing sadness and the loss of hope. Dawe’s line ‘and when the loaded ute bumps down the drive past the blackberry canes with their last shriveled fruit’, the blackberries were used as an indicator of time, on their arrival the berries were the 'first of the season' but by the time when they drove past the blackberry cane was they're saw only 'their last shrivelled fruit'. This tells us that they perhaps only stayed for about two or three months. ‘The brown kelpie pup will start dashing about, tripping everyone up’ The dog run around barking, shows the scene of a chaotic house, it also conveys a sense of bad luck to the family. A “kelpie” is an Australian sheepdog, in Scottish it refers to an evil water spirit that takes the form of a horse and drowns travellers. This cross-meaning gives the poem a sense of danger, implying that the family is not only traveling with a puppy for the children but is also an omen of bad luck. The unexpectedness of the move is conveyed by the fact that the tomatoes are still green on the vine. They never live in the one place long enough for the tomatoes to ripen. This could be the same for other aspects of their lives, making new friends could be an example. They started to become friendly with the
Another powerful symbolisms was when Jim meets the girls for a picnic. The symbol of the plow against the powerful sun. The third symbol is the rattlesnake and it 's symbol of Jim becoming a man. The girls reminisce as does Jim at the picnic. The girls remember the beautiful wonderful memories of their homelands and contemplate they 're great struggles to make it in America. At the end of their picnic the silhouette of the pile against the setting sun symbolizes the plow like the pioneer spirit of strength, beauty in all inspiring greatness of nature like the sun. “Presently we saw a curious thing: there were no clouds, the sun was going down in a limpid, gold-wash sky. Just as the lower edge of the red disc rested on the high fields against the horizon, and black figure suddenly appeared on the face of the sun. We swing trophy, straining our eyes toward it. In a moment we realized what it was. And some upland farm, a pile have been left standing in the field. The sun was thinking just behind that to find across the distance was the horse on a light, it 's third against the sun, it was exactly contained within the circle of the disk; The handles, the tongue, the share-Black against the mountain ride. They are at wise, heroic in size, A picture the sun. Even while we were whispering about, our vision disappeared; The ball dropped and dropped until the red tip meet with the earth. The field below us was dark, the sky was growing pale, and that forgotten
“‘Dead birds [are] bad luck,’ said Aunt Nicey, poking her head from the kitchen door. ‘Specially red dead birds!’” The scarlet ibis is very symbolic; it is a foreshadowing of what is to come. When Aunt Nicey says that red birds are bad luck, she is right. Directly afterwards, Doodle wants to bury it. Once they get to the woods, it starts thundering. Then, as they exit the woods, the narrator has a feeling return to him that he hasn’t felt in a long time, an aggressive feeling towards Doodle. The narrator proceeds to leave Doodle behind, and Doodle ends up getting struck by lightning and falling to the ground dead just like the scarlet ibis fell to the ground. This is both ironic and symbolic for the narrator. It is ironic because he worked so hard to get Doodle to where he was, but then is overpowered by the evil forces in his emotions. It is also symbolic, because the scarlet ibis was a warning, a warning not to leave Doodle and let childish beliefs overpower him. After the death of Doodle the narrator reflects on it, saying, “Sometimes, as I sit in the cool, green-draped parlor, the grindstone begins to turn, and time with all its changes is ground away--and I remember Doodle. Doodle was just about the craziest brother a boy ever had. Of course, he wasn't a crazy crazy like old Miss Leedie, who was in love with President Wilson and wrote him a letter every
As the poem progresses, the misplaced or forgotten items become concepts such as names and ideas, and therefore carry more of an impact. For example, forgetting someone’s name, however not uncommon, can be associated with feelings of embarrassment from the forgettor, and annoyance from the forgotten when they discover that they were not important enough to be remembered. The speaker simply shrugs off these losses because “None of [them] will bring disaster,” as mentioned in line 9. Emotion, often associated with memories is introduced in line 10 when the speaker announces, “I lost my mother’s watch.” An item such as a mother’s watch holds sentimental value, unlike the previously mentioned keys; however, the speaker repeats, “I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster,” (line 15) indicating that the watch was merely a material possession crowded with memories. At this point, the reader recognizes the feeling of missing something associated with greater losses of objects and ideas the speaker regards with more emotional attachment.
For example, “with blocks of ice on her feet”. The scenario in the poem is very serious it is filled with sorrow and vulnerability. All 3 people fail to tell one another that they are dying it symbolizes the way people tend to stand back and watch while they should be intruding. The poem is an allegory all the characters have a meaning. The deeper meaning of this poem is how everyone has troubles.
The poem tells the story of a farmer who accidentally ruins a mouse’s hole. The man talks about the poor mouse and his burrow. The characters from the book and the poem all had hopes and dreams that never materialized because of another person.
Imagery plays a big part in this poem. “Hope Is a Tattered Flag is a simple text,
The author uses a number of different literary devices to describe the hardship she feels such as metaphor, simile, and imagery. The author revels that her life and the chickens are not very different. “I felt her body break deep inside my own chest” (6). The way the chicken has to be killed after being loved for so long is the same way Hall feels about being with her husband for so long and then having him cheat on her and leave her. “Guilt and fear tugged me like an undertow” (7). The chickens are being killed by the one that loved them and in the same way; Hall is killed by the one she loved: her husband. The author uses a numerous number of vivid imagery to describe the struggle she is going through with her husband leaving and her having to kill the chickens. “Her shiny black beak opened and closed, opened and closed” (5). The rumors and suspicions that the author’s husband was cheating on her would come and go, until it reached a breaking point
. . should burn and rave at the close of day”(2). This means that old men should fight when they are dying and their age should not prevent them from resisting death. Another example of personification in the poem is “Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay”(8). This line personifies the men’s frail deeds by saying that they could have danced. This means that the potential actions of the men could have flourished and contributed greatly to their lives. The metaphor “. . . words had forked no lightning. . .”(5) is about how the men had done nothing significant with their lives. They had not achieved anything great or caused a major change. The simile “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay” is about how even grave and serious men will fight against death for as long as they can. Another notable example of figurative language within the poem is “. . . blinding sight”(13). This oxymoron details how the men can see very well and it is very obvious to them that they will die soon, but they know that they can control how they will leave this world. There is an abundance of imagery within this poem, a few examples of which are “. . . danced in a green bay”(8), and “. . . caught and sang the sun in flight”(10) . These examples of imagery are both appealing to the sense of sight by using descriptive words such as “Green” and “danced” in the first example and words such as “caught” and “flight” among others. The second example also appeals to the sense of sound by
In his poem “Acquainted with the Night,” Robert Frost describes a character who spends his nights wandering the city streets. The reader can infer from both Frost’s tone, and the time of day in which the speaker chooses to walk, that the character is in a world of isolation. This is especially evident in the lines, “When far away an interrupted cry/ Came over houses from another street,/ But not to call me back or say good-by” (Frost 898). From this line, the reader understands that the poem’s speaker feels as if he is completely isolated in the world. In a similar way, E. E. Cummings poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town” expresses the loneliness felt by people of this era. Cummings creative use of pronouns gives the poem a double entendre. The characters, anyone and noone, can represent their literal meanings, or a single man and woman. Therefore, when Cummings writes that “noone loves him more by more,” he could mean that anyone is being loved greatly, or not at all. This loneliness is expressed yet again when Cummings informs the reader, “Women and men (both little and small)/ cared for anyone not at all” (Cummings 922). The works of both Frost and Cummings both portray the hardship that accompanied the feeling of loneliness during the modern
Throughout the poem, W.D. Auden did an exceptional job incorporating the several examples of figures of speech. By including these devices, Auden drew deeper connections to the overall themes of death and love with the readers. For example, “let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead/ scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead” is an illustration of personification (Auden, 5-6). Auden personifies an airplane to mourn over someone and scribble in the sky. Both human like characteristics suggest that the speaker wishes for everyone to know that his loved one has passed, so that everyone can mourn over the deceased, like the speaker. Another example of this is shown through a series of metaphors in lines 9-12 “…my North, my South, my East, my West,/ My working week and my Sunday rest,/ My noon, my
The imagery shows the main point of the poem which is children going through a tough time when they are not supposed to and all they can do is cry at the moment. A symbolism that was found in the poem was the death of alice. The death of alice symbolize joy because Alice was able to escape the tough time children had to face. It says in line 54 “ death in life as best to have” this indicates that many of the children rather die because it is their only escape from child labor.
The main theme of the poem however, is the sadness and misfortune that accompanies everyone's journey through