Visually Impaired: A Poem Analysis

Suddenly losing his eyesight at a young age and having to deal with living in a whole new world, Marcus Engel tells his story of how he coped with losing his eyesight. Marcus Engel described his hardships and struggles after he became blind in his book, After This…An Inspirational Journey for All the Wrong Reasons. The book begins with Engel mentioning his college life and how he was excited to be going back home for vacation. While he was with his friends he got into a bad car accident that left him blind. The rest of the book tells his emotional life changing story of how he learned to accept his blindness and to do daily tasks. In his stay at the hospital he made a goal to get back to college.

In Cathedral, the unnamed narrator, husband, defines the character of Robert as an anomaly in which he doesn’t comprehend. “He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (Carver 1983). The media has been able to lead people like the narrator to develop negative opinions towards those with disabilities creating a type of phobia. After hearing stories about Robert, told by his wife, he could not imagine this blind man having a good life, one worth living. He assumes that Robert’s wife, Beulah, had lived a very pitiful life as well, not having her husband ever knowing what she looked like or what subtle nuances her facial expressions could only show through sight.

Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.

“You have to be deaf to understand the deaf”’ is a deaf poem by Willard Madsen, and he was written at 1971’s. He was a professor of journalism and former Associate Professor of Sign Language at Gallaudet University. He was born from Peabody, Kansas in 1930s. He lost his hearing to scarlet fever when he was two age. He attended public junior high school before he transferring to Kansas school for the Deaf at Olathe. He went on to study at Gallaudet. He graduating in 1952s with a degree in the education. He do taught at the Louisiana school for the Deaf for five years after, he received a master’s degree from Louisiana State University. After he joined to Gallaudet faculty in 1957s, and he taught at gallaudet for 39 years when he have retirement at 1996s. His career was spent to teaching journalism and english to preparatory students. He was a founding member of American Sign language Teachers Association, which provided certification for sign teachers across the country. He wrote two text book for sign language but, he was well known as a poets in both American Sign Language and English. Classics of Deaf cultures are “You have to be deaf to Understand” and “NO!”.

Many people make an assumption they are not blind to life itself whether ignorance plays a part or pride. In Cathedral by Raymond Carver, it describes a few myths that society has portrayed and opinions of the visual impaired. The main focus is getting to know the person before drawing a conclusion. Its not fair to anyone to be neglected whether you are visual impaired or have the functionality of what is considered to be a normal human being.

People who are blind face many different problems in accomplishing everyday activities and becoming an independent individual. Some are able to overcome this issue while others struggle through it in their lives. In “Helen Keller’s Address before the New York Association for the Blind, January 15, 1907” she makes an appeal to the audience that the blind should be helped and made independent so that they can stand up and support themselves. She uses pathos or emotionally packed words, examples and anecdotes and cites from a prominent source to convince her audience that the blind are not helpless, but they are in need of guidance from people who can see in order to live and thrive independently.

Equal Opportunity is a free verse poem and it is made by Jim Wong - Chu. The poem is about early Canada. In the early Canada, the railways were highways. People used to take railways all the time. But there was a rule. The rule was that Chinese could only ride in the last two cars but that is until an accident happened and kills all those in the front of the cars. Canadians made a new rule. The Chinese must ride in the front two cars of the train but this rule lasted until another accident happened and kill all those people in the back of the train. After much debate, the Chinese were allowed to site anywhere on the train.

Bare, her footing was effortless, her senses were all that could guide her without the vision to see where she head.

Raymond Carver focuses on one of the critical problems that has been present for ages is that people do not know how to interact with those with disabilities in his short story the “Cathedral.” Stereotypes have led to awkward or lack of communication. Breaking down the barrier between disabilities and the world is necessary to develop an understanding for the other and to “look through their eyes.” In the “Cathedral” the husband breaks down many stereotypes of the blind, overcomes barriers in communication and develops an understanding for his wife’s blind friend, Robert.

John Milton blindness might have stopped him from during many things but he surely didn’t stop doing what he loved. He continue writing and doing his day to day living for he might one day have to present his Maker an account of his live and his faith. “Milton’s faith in God seems to give him the courage to face his life despite his blindness. It is this faith that seems to give him courage and patience to cope and also gives him the hope that salvation lies for those who wait in patience (Darr). John Milton continue with his live even though he was blind but this didn’t stop him because he was doing what he loved and also because of his faith in God.

Poetry can be divided up into different forms, more easily expressing an author’s emotions and intent with their poetry. For analyzing purposes I chose the poems Self-Help by Michael Ryan, Ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali, Psalm 150 by Jericho Brown, and Emergency by Michael Dylan Welch.

“It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was has I lay in my crib at the close of that eventful day and lived over the joys it had brought me, and for the first time longed for a knew day to come” Most would not be able to live there life without seeing. Well, Helen could not see, and could not hear. Yet, she still managed to be an author, a political activist, and was the very first deaf blind person achieve a bachelor degree of arts. Many would struggle with doing one of those things. Not to mention all 3. She also did without being able to see or hear. Further proving her courageous, and will to succeed. As well as changing the country in showing even with major setbacks, you will accomplish anything you want. Helen Keller was great proof of courage, and helping others with the same setbacks you have. Maybe deafness and blindness were blessings. They gave her to ability to show anyone, (even with setbacks) you can do anything if you really

The story “Cathedral” demonstrates that lack of sight does not necessarily prevent one from perceiving things as they are, or live their life to the fullest. In the story, a middle-age blind man, who is a friend to the narrator’s wife, and used to be her boss at one point, visits the narrator and his wife. The narrator has never interacted with blind people before, and all he knew about blind people was what he had seen on television. Blind people are stereotypically portrayed on television as slow moving, dull people, who never laugh. Based on this perception, the narrator was reluctant to meet the blind man and doubted whether they were going to connect. This is evident when the narrator states, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver 1).

He does this by make quick high pitched clicks with his tongue, and he listens to the sound of it as it impacts objects and returns to his ear, and by using this he can navigate the world. Daniel adapted his biological system to disregard the sense of sight and focus more on hearing and processing power of the brain. This capability of the brain to understand and use echolocation is an aspect of the psychological system as well by allowing him to solve problems that would originally be solved by sight instead solved with echolocation. There were also outside psychological effects that affected how Daniel's psychological system developed, which included how Daniel’s parents embraced his blindness and were set on raising him like a normal child. This in turn also created a sense of meaning-making for Daniel’s tied his blindness to who he is as a person, Daniel even said in his Ted Talk “If given the chance to see I would remain blind.” The way that the parents treated Daniel just as another ordinary child also had major societal effects on him as well as psychological and biological

When an individual is born blind, their coping skills begin at an early age because they have never seen the world around them. However, losing one’s eyesight is probably one of the most devastating things that could happen to an individual. I believe that some individuals could deal with cancer better than they could with going blind. Rapid progress is being made in finding a cure for cancer, but our eyes are the windows to the world and to be thrust into total darkness is indescribable and scary if you are not prepared. However, there are ways to overcome blindness in a positive way and live a normal and healthy life. Technology has helped to give the blind person a sense of independence by improving on the braille