Introduction:
The poem ‘Dad’ explores the author, Elaine Feinstein’s life and the feelings surrounding the passing of her father. The poem was written a year and a half after her father’s death as she tried to come to terms with her feelings of grief and sadness towards losing a loved one. Elaine Feinstein reflects on the images she has of her father.
The themes that evolve throughout the poem ‘Dad’ are those of grief for the father she has lost, love and great sorrow. “Every day I grieve”, demonstrates the degree of loss the author feels towards her father’s death. Fond memories of her father caring sacks of potatoes, fresh eggs and flowers show the great love she feels towards her father. She feels sorrow for all the childhood
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It portrays the image of a little child wearing a hat that falls over his eyes. The purpose of the imagery is to show where the poem starts off; when the author was a child describing what his earliest memories were like.
In the second stanza the most significant poetic device was a metaphor. This could be found at the end of the stanza, “you beached: cold, white-faced, shivering.” This metaphor is comparing the man or dad to a beached whale suggesting he is sick or reached a difficult obstacle. The image put forward is of the father lying in a hospital bed with some illness. The author has gradually worked to this image, each sentence is about the author’s memories this is a recent memory, unlike the others which were from when the author was younger.
In the third stanza an important sentence for imagery is, “What happened, old bull, my loyal hoarse-voiced warrior?” The image captured in this sentence is of someone questioning how this could have happened to such a determined and wilful man. This suggests that the now old man had such an effect on the narrator/author that they thought the old man could never be stopped but they were proved wrong. This adds to the mood of the poem as well. In the final stanza the most obvious poetic device was a simile. In the sentence, “the earth as chosen as a bed…” is where the simile is. It is comparing the earth of a grave-pit to a bed
There is also figurative language used in phrases such as “Having come from the clouds” and “tilting road”. This adds to the effect of imagery and emphasis on the journey to the sawmill town. It also helps to make the stanza more interesting to the reader.
Scott Hightower’s poem “Father” could be very confusing to interpret. Throughout almost the entirety of the poem the speaker tries to define who his father is by comparing him to various things. As the poem begins the reader is provided with the information that the father “was” all of these things this things that he is being compared to. The constant use of the word “was” gets the reader to think ‘how come the speaker’s father is no longer comparable to these things?’ After the speaker reveals that his father is no longer around, he describes how his father impacted him. Details about the father as well as descriptions of the impacts the father has distraught on the speaker are all presented in metaphors. The repetitive pattern
An ideal father should be someone who nurtures and lovingly cares for his offspring, and some kids are blessed by this opportunity growing up to spend time with their father, even if their parents are divorced. As the years go by our fathers grow older and we too grow old. We start to reminisce about the nostalgic times we had when we were young. In the poems “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, and “Tips From My Father” by Carol Ann Davis; the authors draw from different life events, in which each communicate a happy memory with their fathers to the audience, and conclude a common theme surrounding a bond with their fathers, which can be inferred through how the parents care about their kids and show affection to them by giving their
The imagery used in this verse appeals to the sense sight. This helps the reader visualise what the writer is taking about. It also allows the reader to relate and connect more to the poem.
"He had…split purple lips, lumped ears, welts above his yellow eyes, and one long scar that cut across his temple and plowed through a thick canopy of kinky hair…" Imagery is very effectively used by Knight in order to illustrate Hard Rock and incidents in the poem. Phrases such as "bored a hole in his head," "handcuffed and chained," "the jewel of a myth," and "barked in his face," paint vivid images in the readers mind. Knight's use of imagery keeps the reader interested in the poem while slowly drawing the reader into the story (emotionally). This element ultimately proves to be very useful to convey the motif of the poem.
Authors tend to write on subjects that they know the most about, or subjects that affect them on a personal level. Authors and poets use various aspects of life for the basis of their works, such as life experiences, romances, and family roles. Poems like “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “Forgiving My Father” by Lucille Clifton feature one of the most important roles in a family: a father. The two poems differ vastly in many regards, but many similarities surface among them and a common theme resides between them. Through the similarities they hold, the poems represent a common theme of regret for one’s lack of action.
As we get older we tend to reflect more on our life and get our priorities together. We tend to realize who and what is important, the people who mean the most to us and the ones we can’t live without. Who would those significant individuals be for us? For most people it would be their parents. In the poems “My Father’s Song” by Simon J. Ortiz, and “My Mother” by Ellen Bryant Voigt, both writers express their emotion towards a parent. The poems are similar in many ways simply because they share a parent child relationship, they are also vastly different. “My Fathers Song” is a poem about a son who lost his father and is grieving and referring back to old memories, reflecting on their past and the wonderful time he had with his father. “My Mother” on the other hand is a poem about a daughter who lost her mother and is having a difficult time coping as she reflects on the decisions she made as a child and how that affected her relationship with her mother. Despite their differences, the two poems share a true connection of love towards their parent. Most notably “My Fathers Song” and “My Mother” differ in the relationship with their parent, the settings in which the memories they hold of their parents take place, and who they are mourning over, yet the two have a strong emphasis on love.
The tone of the poem changes as the poem progresses. The poem begins with energetic language like “full of heroic tales” and “by a mere swing to his shoulder”. The composer also uses hyperboles like “My father began as a god” and “lifted me to heaven”. The use of this positive language indicates to the responder that the composer is longing for those days – he is nostalgic. It also highlights the perspective of a typical child. The language used in the middle of the poem is highly critical of his father: “A foolish small old man”. This highlights the perspective of a typical teenager and signifies that they have generally conflicting views. The language used in the last section of the poem is more loving and emotional than the rest: “...revealing virtues such as honesty, generosity, integrity”. This draws attention to a mature adult’s perspective.
In the third stanza, a lot of imagery is used. The significant ones are present in the seventh and eleventh lines. In the first line, the poet writes, "A
In the poem “Daddy,” Sylvia Plath describes her true feelings about her deceased father. Throughout the dialogue, the reader can find many instances that illustrate a great feeling of hatred toward the author’s father. She begins by expressing her fears of her father and how he treated her. Subsequently she conveys her outlook on the wars being fought in Germany. She continues by explaining her life since her father and how it has related to him.
Sylvia Plath uses her poem, Daddy, to express deep emotions toward her father’s life and death. With passionate articulation, she verbally turns over her feelings of rage, abandonment, confusion and grief. Though this work is fraught with ambiguity, a reader can infer Plath’s basic story. Her father was apparently a Nazi soldier killed in World War II while she was young. Her statements about not knowing even remotely where he was while he was in battle, the only photograph she has left of him and how she chose to marry a man that reminded her of him elude to her grief in losing her father and missing his presence. She also expresses a dark anger toward him for his political views and actions
The first stanza is addressed to ‘old men’ and how they should not simply slip away and die quietly, they should fight death until the end. Poetic techniques
Although everyone has a father, the relationship that each person has with his or her father is different. Some are close to their fathers, while some are distant; some children adore their fathers, while other children despise them. For example, in Robert Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays” Hayden writes about his regret that he did not show his love for his hardworking father sooner. In Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy,” she writes about her hatred for her brute father. Despite both authors writing on the same topic, the two pieces are remarkably different. Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” and Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays” have different themes that are assembled when the authors put their different uses of imagery, tone, and characterization together.
In the poem, I get a sense that there is no bond, like my father and I have which leads to confusion in the narrator's life. For instance, in line eight when he says, "I would slowly rise and dress,/ fearing the chronic angers of the house"(8-9), this gives me a strong sense of sadness, for him because I feel that he is greatly deprived of what every child should have a good role model as a father, and someone to look up to. “Speaking Indifferently to him, / who had driven out the cold”(10-11) is saying that they really did not know how to communicate with each other. I feel that the boy will regret not having and knowing what it is that makes you who you are, and may never get a chance to have and hold a special bond with his father and having a relationship with a person that can not be held with anyone else. This would bring an enormous amount of sadness to my life had I not had my Dad there to guide and protect me, when I could have used tremendous support and security.
In the first stanza the reader is introduced to the two characters in the poem. The reader is also made aware of the time of the year and day. The first stanza reveals a lot of information. It tells the reader who, when, and where. It also appeals to the sense of touch and sight when it describes the father's hands and also when he "puts his clothes on in the blueblack cold." One could almost feel the "cold" and see the "cracked hands."