William Carlos Williams ' A Poor Old Woman

At the onset of the Play, Dubois arrives in New Orleans where she intends to stay with her estranged sister, Stella Kowalski. There is something timid about her demeanor, characterized by great “uncertainty” (Williams 15), suggesting the immediate apprehension Blanche experiences subsequently after arriving in New Orleans. Consequently, Williams immediately places an emphasis on the significance of her apprehension which begins to unveil itself as the narrative progresses. Prior to illustrating this, it is important to understand Blanche’s rationale for leaving her ancestral lands. As aforementioned earlier, the Civil War and the subsequent cultural transformation of the United States alienated women like Dubois; moreover, ill-equipped to deviate from the rigid conservative ideals that Southern Belles were raised with followed by the incumbency to abandon her formerly held ideals in the midst of cultural change, Dubois is compelled to abandon the decrepit ideals of the Old South and to establish a new life for herself. However, this proves to be a difficult endeavor for Dubois as she embodies the vestiges of the Old South in New Orleans which forms her identity. Firstly, racist attitudes towards those who were not of white skin colour dominated the Old South; moreover, Dubois echoes her intolerance towards other races in several instances. At the outset of the play, Williams introduces the notion of racial tolerance in New Orleans through the stage direction of an “easy intermingling of races” (Williams 13). Moreover, Dubois is immediately confronted by this intermingling (alien to her) as she takes notice of a black woman nonchalantly and joyously conversing with Eunice Hubbell, a white woman. In the Old South, this would have been unheard of as plantation workers were expected to work diligently and without question. Dubois still conforms to the Southern Belle archetype as she expects the black woman to find Stella Kowalski for her on the basis of skin colour. This event lays the foundation for her psychological dilapidation as it is the initial experience that questions her psyche and everything it believes. The culmination of racial tension in Dubois’ psyche ultimately impels her to express her disdain for

Language is a remarkable thing. It can convey every thought, feeling, and emotion with perfect accuracy. Almost exclusively, language has taken awkward, unfit animals out of nature and made them rulers over the earth and many of its elements. When used well, it has the power to change an individual's view of the world, make someone believe they have seen something they have not, and even more astonishingly, look inside one's self and see what exists. If language is mixed with the tempo of music, something new arises; poetry is born. When words and ideas are set to a beat, they can far more subtly convey concepts that would otherwise need to be explicitly stated and the poem can be appreciated more as a whole,

11. A poet can work its magic on the reader by “choice of images, music of the language, idea content, and cleverness of wordplay” (Foster 17).

against the standard poets to say the least, “I wanted to break the linearity of poetic text — to mess with it, if you will.” (poetryfoundation.org) He was not born into the wealthiest of families and found himself unable to pay for education, yet he has pushed boundaries for many

Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, and Rudyard Kipling all have an incredible sense for poetry. “The Road Not Taken”, “Dreams”, and “If-” all have many themes, unique writing styles, and clever uses of rhetorical devices.

He thought poetry was an art of association, it inspires readers' imagination with symbolism rather than direct imitation of life, and hold the reader's feelings and arouse them to act with passion. His style throughout the 19th century formed the mainstream of American poetry”(1).

Poetry, what first comes to mind? If your anything like me, poetry can seem somewhat monotonous, rather like a locked door exclusive, complicated, and hard to understand. I think poetry tends to be a big game of “Guess what I’m thinking!” and I hate that game. I’m not a mind-reader. I think a lot of people who get excited about poetry are really pretentious. This possibly comes from believing that they actually can guess what other people are thinking. When we think poetry, we tend to know poetry by it’s traditional forms of having sonnets, ballads, often rhyming (but not always) and they tend to have a specific and symmetrical structure (APA). Throughout this essay I wanted to consider poetry through different explorations and how subverting the traditional conventions of poetry might be an effective way of engagement or in an opposing way of demotivating the reader.

The world is filled with many different types of societies and cultures. This is due to the fact that many people share dissimilar beliefs and ideas, as well as diverse ways of life. People lived under different circumstances and stipulations, therefore forming cultures and societies with ideas they formulated, themselves. These two factors, society and culture, are what motivate people to execute the things that they do. Many times, however, society and culture can cause downgrading effects to an assemblage if ever it is corrupt or prejudiced. Society and culture not only influences the emotions individuals have toward things like age differences, religion, power, and equality but also the actions they perform as a result.

In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by

The postmodern period came next, in which poets began to use more unconventional formats for their poems. Postmodernist poems normally go against the grain of what had previously been deemed the correct poetic form. One example of this is “American Sonnet (10)” by Wanda Coleman, in which she recounts the atrocities suffered by slaves:

In Peanut-Butter Sandwich, Silverstein uses a specific rhyming structure to enhance the poem. Throughout the poem, Silverstein rhymes the last words of each line with the final line to offset the rhyming pattern. This rhyming structure drives the poem along at a very even pace. The reader is very likely to read this poem at a consistent speed, with a slight pause before the offset line. Silverstein’s word choice also adds to the rhyming structure. Throughout the poem, Silverstein uses very simple words that are both easy to rhyme and easy to say. The combination of simple rhymes and the structure of the rhymes create a poem that bounces at an even pace. The words are fun to say and rhyme, thus

A well-written poem would help one to engage into the work with their senses. One should be able to ask themselves what the poem caused them to think, hear, see, feel, taste, and to determine what he or she learned from the poet’s words. Many people believe that because poetry is an enigmatic art, and that there is no way for sure to know the

Today, few would deny that Emily Dickinson is an important figure in American literature. The numerous ways to interpret her poetry draws more and more readers into her publications. It's as if everyone could interpret Dickinson's poems into his or her personal life; seeing the poems the way they want to see it. This is the effect "flexible" poems have on people.

poem is not merely a static, decorative creation, but that it is an act of communication between the poet and

Because of the strong ties to European poetry, American poets wanted to distinguish themselves from their origins and began their crusade to build a new foundation for American poetry. Therefore, the “19th century began with high hopes for poetic accomplishment. The first comprehensive anthologies of American poetry appeared in the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s. In the first half of the century poets sought to entertain, to inform, and to put into memorable language America’s history, myths, manners, and topography, but they did not seek to forge a radical new poetic tradition. Their poetry built upon tradition, and they met the first great goal of American poetry: that it be able to compete in quality, intelligence, and breadth with British poetry. But just as they achieved this goal, poetic aspirations began to change. By the mid-19th century the new goal for American poetry was to create something very different from British poetry.” (MarcoPolo.net).