Knock Poetry Essay

What is a childhood memento that most people keep? Among the many toys or gifts, security blankets are one of the most common objects that are stored when people grow out of them. The one thing that was given to me when I was young still holds dear to me: my baby blanket. My blanket has been with me throughout my whole life. Although it seems like an ordinary object, it came from an important figure in my life, and having it with me constantly caused me to almost lose it, but luckily I was able to find it, and I still have it to this day.

Some people drink for the sport of getting drunk. However, in this poem, the father is not a pleasant drunk to be around. When the speaker states "We romped until the pans / slid from the kitchen shelf," the reader gets the impression that the father is roughhousing with the son (5-6). It is not until the speaker says "The hand that held my wrist (9)" that one realizes that he is being physically held by his father. The child has no choice but to keep on "waltzing." There is nobody that is going to stop what is going on in this house due to the fact that the mother is simply watching. The boy did not realize his father was doing anything wrong until he remembers back to his childhood and comes to understand what really happened. He discovers that his childhood wasn't actually like everyone else. That may be why the speaker is now looking back on these drunken nights and remembering how horrible they were.

“Enter without so much as knocking” is a poem that is critical of consumerism in the modern world. The poem itself is a story of one man’s life, from birth till death and is a satirical look at modern society and its materialism. The poem begins with the Latin line “Memento, homo, qui, pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.” This means in English “Remember you are dust and dust you will return”. This is the central idea of the poem; no matter how many materialistic items we acquire and consume, in the end, we all end up at the same place. The poem then follows by speaking of a baby waking into life,

Didn’t we all have that one thing that we loved so dearly when we were growing up? It may have been the teddy that you always lost or your favourite blanket that you could not sleep without. Admit it. We’ve all had that

Any interpretation of this story is due to the reader’s personal emotions and feelings toward his or her own Papa. This story can be either a dance between him and his father, thus bringing them closer together. However, there is a darker side of this poem, on this side it is an unsettling fight between a boy and his drunken father and all the intimacy of the dance does not make an impression on the reader and is overshadowed by the anger they feel.

The poem “Knock Knock” is a great poem of the game knock knock. The background of this poem is about a boy who plays knock knock with his dad. In the poem “Knock Knock” Beaty use simile, symbolism, and hyperbole to show meaning. Beaty use similes in the poem “Knock Knock” to show alikeness. In the line “walk like a man” In stanza 35.

The poem is much more innocent than what the modern reader may think. We can start off by looking at the title of the poem “My Papa’s Waltz.” A waltz is a ballroom and folk dance. Clearly, the speaker of the poem is speaking about his father and the dance. In the first stanza, the speaker explains how such waltzing with his father is not easy, as speaker’s father has had a little too much whiskey, which made the waltzing a little difficult as the father was under the influence and probably had difficulties keeping his balance. If we read on to the next stanza, it shows father is all over the place and having trouble keeping balance while dancing with his son in the kitchen. Mother seems to be upset about the situation, but only because pots and pans slid from the kitchen shelf onto the floor from all the romping. As we move on to the next stanza, the speaker explains how fathers knuckle is battered, which is most likely a result of injury from romping in the kitchen. Speaker also speaks about his right ear being scraped with every step his father missed. This could be because the speaker was a young, short boy who reached his father’s waistline and as they danced roughly the buckle will scrape his

‘Enter Without So Much As Knocking’ by an ex-Vietnam veteran Bruce Dawe was published in 1959 and can be found in his Sometimes Gladness: Collected Poems 1954-1992. ‘Enter Without So Much As Knocking’ shows how consumerism has a negative effect on society. The poem portrays the life of a typical man who is living in the suburbs. It begins with the birth of a child. As the baby begins to observe the world he has been brought into, he sees instructions, signs and expectation. Dawe stresses the point of the first thing that the baby heard, a voice of consumerism on television opposed to a loving and comfortable family. The baby has been brought into a materialistic world, a world where such a significant event has just taken place, a new

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.

Knock Knock is of the symbolism used throughout the poem. Knock Knock is a childhood game and later changes in the poem. The game Knock Knock symbolizes the speaker's love for his father. It also shows the relationship they had with each other. Later Knock Knock shows the power that the speaker has from learning that he is not his father's choices. Overall Beaty uses Knock Knock to symbolize the speakers love and his power.

His feelings of betrayal are translated to his sleep, as he dreams of his dad playing "fiddle and bow" to a "malignant" dance, the intensity of the words, reveal how serious the bond between mother and child are, and how hurtful a brush aside is to a juvenile's spirit.

The parents understanding of knowing that the child needs security is just one the many responsibilities they have for being a parent. Furthermore, the parents feel that even though the situation there in is very frustrating, they would not give it up for anything. The love for their child will never go away. Kinnell expresses this feeling of love on the last couple of lines of the poem:

Letting go of the child whom one nourished from birth is challenging. When the mother senses her child drifting away and sees her child at the gateway to independence, who once ran to meet her when the she picked up from school, the mother is heartbroken and feels depressed. However, the mother’s love exceeds the bounds of anguish and disappointment. The mother considers what’s best for the child and “says nothing” when the child is making his or her own choices (54). Johnnie Dent Jr. once said, “As parents we have a tendency to be overprotective; it's okay to try and show them all positives, but we cannot forget that the real world has teeth” (Dent Jr.). This convoluted relationship and mother’s train of thoughts are carefully described through appropriate allusion, syntax, and symbols in the poem. As the poem suggests, silently watching the child make life choices and wishing the best for the child could be an effective parenting method for growth in the

My first memories include crawling around that old claw footed table. I remember we used to have a kid’s picnic table In the kitchen for when we had more kids than we knew how to deal with. There is no badge of honor and no expression of joy, that could sufficiently say how it felt to finally move to the big table. My five-year-old self knew that now I could take pride in my fancy adult life.

Some of the poems and essays I have read during this class were relatable to me. Being away from college, I have struggled with not being at home. I have become a different person when I am at school, but when I am home, I feel like I am my normal self again. Some of these authors of the poems and essays that I have read throughout this class has struggled with being somewhere where they don’t belong and that they are someone else when they are not home. Unlike the other poems and essays we have read throughout the course. I enjoyed reading the ones about “home” because I actually understood what they are going through and that I can relate. Some of these poems and essays include “Going Home” by Maurice Kenny, Postcard from Kashmir”, by Agha Shahid Ali, “Returning” by Elias Miguel Munoz and “Hometown” by Luis Cabalquinto. All of these poems deal with duality.