The idea of loss is prevalent in both poems Stop all the Clocks by W.H Auden and Mirror by Sylvia Plath. Auden’s Stop all the Clocks reveals the travesty of death and the consuming emotions which are evoked through the devastation of physical loss of a loved one, whereas, Plath’s Mirror depicts a symbolic loss of identity through the inevitable process of ageing, as the narrator portrays the woman’s transition into someone that she does not desire to be. In the first stanza of Auden’s Stop all the Clocks, the initial idea of loss is revealed by the narrator, establishing the setting of a funeral and allowing readers to identify the grief and sorrow evoked by the death of a significant person in their life. Contrastingly, Plath’s Mirror does …show more content…
Plath similarly reveals loss of time and the consequences this has on the woman in the poem, where the narrators sees “flickers”, which is symbolic of time passing. In the middle stanzas of both first person narrations, both poets express the magnitude of loss where Auden describes “He was my North, my South, my East and West”. Similarly, Plath’s narrator acknowledges that “Now I am a lake”, where the function of the mirror changes when the woman bears to stand in front of it, portraying ageing to be a way in which the woman loses her identity. Stop all the Clocks demonstrates the importance of the narrators love for the person now deceased which extends to every facet of his life, consuming his happiness amounting to his overall depression, with the narrator describing that “I thought love would last forever: I was …show more content…
Where Rossetti portrays in Remember the intense belief that life must go on despite adversities such as death, Angelou expresses self-belief in Still I Rise in an attempt to break through the barrier of oppression caused by discrimination. Rossetti’s poem Remember does not commence with the idea of belief but rather the concept of death in which the narrator pleas to be remembered once she is deceased, though Angelou immediately depicts the idea of self-belief in Still I Rise. Rossetti uses the directive and euphemism “Remember me when I am gone away” to emphasise vulnerability as death is final, though contrastingly, Angelou uses the simile “But still, like dust, I’ll rise” to demonstrate the narrator’s determination and courage to overcome racial stigmas. Where Rossetti’s poem has a more indirect effect on evoking emotion surrounding the concept of death through imagery “gone far away into the silent land”, Angelou uses the metaphor “you may trod me in the very dirt” to more directly evoke emotion. Similarly, the first person narration demonstrated in both of these poems explore triumph through adversity as where the narrator in Remember aims for integrity and purity in her memory, the narrator in Still I Rise refuses to be disrespected in
In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.
She does a great job at using both of the appeals in “Still I Rise”. Maya Angelou was a civil rights activist, an educator, and a poet. Maya Angelou’s constant use of “I” or “my” in her poem is her greatest use of ethos. This poem is her story so she is telling it from experience. For example, when Maya says “Does my sassiness upset you?” (Angelou 5) she draws in the audience by speaking of herself. She lets the audience know that this is a real thing. Another way that Angelou draws in her audience with ethos is when she says “Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.” (Angelou 39-40) That quote gives Maya Angelou credibility because she knows the hardships of slavery and racism because of her ancestors and culture. The second and most effectively used rhetorical device used is pathos. The entire poem draws in the audience emotionally, even from the first sentence. I believe she was so great at using pathos because it was from her heart. She lived through it, she went through the pain, and she overcame that pain. She was passionate about what she was writing and you could absolutely feel it just by reading it. A great example of pathos and one of my favorite “You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise.” (Angelou 21-24) Maya’s use of words in this stanza appeals to the audience emotionally. While reading it, you feel like those things are directly happening to you. The other use of pathos that is effective is when she claims that she will rise. It appeals emotionally because it gives the audience hope, strength, and determination that they can rise. The more it’s repeated, the more effective it is. The more you say it, the more that she and the audience believe that it is true. The last example of how this poem appeals emotionally is when she says “Does my
Maya Angelou is an internationally respected, brilliant poet, and author. Maya Angelou says "In all my work I try to tell the human truth, what it is like to be human, what makes us stumble and somehow miraculously rise and go on from the darkness and into the light”. This theme is consistently exemplified throughout Angelou's greatly acclaimed poem ‘Still I Rise’. The poem tells the true life story of Maya Angelou's tragedies, and the dreadful conditions she encountered in her youth. But in Angelou's poem, she escapes the night to go into the light, leaving all the hurt and shame to prosper in a new life she has created.
“Successive Deaths” by Adelia Prado is a complex poem that deals with death, grievance, and rebirth. Prado uses free verse in her poem to express the grievance she felt of losing the three most important and influential people in her life. Losing her sister, her mother, and her father while also going through the physical changes of puberty is difficult to deal with but in the end she recalls those moments in an effort to move on from her grief. Prado begins her poem with the remembrance of her sisters death. When my sister died, I cried a great deal And was quickly consoled.
Plath employs a shift to accentuate a change in time. The speaker of the poem says “I am silver and exact/Now I am a lake” (1, 10) to indicate an alteration in time. The purpose of the device is to convey an adjustment in c...
The Theme of Loss in Poetry Provide a sample of poetry from a range of authors, each of whom portrays a different character. the theme of loss in some way. Anthology Introduction The object of this collection is to provide a sample of poetry from a range of authors, each of whom portray the theme of ‘loss’ in some way. The ‘Loss’ has been a recurring theme in literature for centuries, from.
“She comes and goes. Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness. In me, she has drowned a young girl, and in me, an old woman Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.” The diction employed by Plath effectively conveys the idea of time words like “comes and goes,” “Each morning,” “young,” and “old.” In contrast with the first stanza where the passing of time did not accompany aging, the second stanza introduces the idea of aging.
In poetry, death is referred as the end of literature and it is associated with feeling of sorrows. However Emily Dickinson demonstrates that death is not the end of literature or feeling of sadness but death is a new element of inspiration in poetry and is the beginning of a new chapter in our life. In the poem ‘’Because I Could Not Stop for Death’, she discusses the encounter of a women with death, who passed away centuries ago. Dickenson uses metaphors and similes to show that the process of dying can be an enjoyable moment by appreciating the good moments in life, and by respecting death rather than fearing it. Also Dickinson portrays death in a humorous way as she compares it to man seducing her to go to her death as well, to childhood games that show the innocence of this encounter (Bloom). The poem is a reflection of how unpredictable death can be. Death is a scary process in life that should not be feared because it should be celebrate as new start.
Death can represent a multitude of things. For example, it can be depicted as a villain that will eventually claim everyone, or it could represent the escape from the world that someone has always been seeking. Regardless, dying is the end to everyone’s life. However, the poem "Sylvia 's Death" by Anne Sexton regards thoughts of death as well as the act of suicide as an escape from reality and the problems the world presents. Sexton utilizes organized couplets to resonate the speaker’s depression in order to emphasize the change in tone throughout the poem, which evolves as the speaker accepts the unfortunate news of Plath’s death.
I believe this is the theme because just by reading the title of her poem; “Still I Rise” i can tell its about a person who has faced many difficulties and has been ridiculed many times throughout her life and instead of giving up she decides to stay strong and continue to stand up even though the world is trying to push her down. Also another reason why i believe the theme of her poem is, “to never give up” because of her history. Maya Angelou is a Black- American who was born in the year of 1928. she has been discriminated throughout her life only being judged by the colour of her skin. Just as how Harriet Tubman was a black- Canadian who helped many slaves through the use of the underground railway as a escape path back to their native land, she has also suffered being discriminated by the use of words and in further cases, being abused. In that era African- American women were treated brutally and were always being pushed down and were not even treated like humans. They never got the respect they deserved and were treated like absolute disgrace just because of the colour of their skin. The theme of Maya Angelou’s poem is very significant because she was born during the generation where black people could not say what they wanted without others reacting with distraught and anger. Just by the title of the poem it tells us that no matter what difficulties we come across in our life we have to manage to stay strong and keep
Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” is a remarkable masterpiece that exercises thought between the known and the unknown. In Dickinson’s poem, “Because I could not stop Death,” there is much impression in the tone, in symbols and in the use of imagery that over flow with creativity. One might undoubtedly agree to an eerie, haunting, if not frightening, tone and use of symbolism in Dickinson’s poem.
The theme of death in the poems “War Photographer”, “Remember”, and “Mother in a Refugee Camp” were all portrayed in different forms to explore death and the suffering it brings. The variations of death in the three poems create a diverse image of death, which some people can relate to through the different situations of loss. “Remember” by Christina Rossetti fashions an image of death because the speaker wanted her husband to remember all the memories they had shared during her life. Rossetti found it necessary to portray death as a spiritual place rather than a physical state of decomposition so that she can finally escape to a place of silence to avoid all the darkness in her life. “War Photographer” by Carol Ann Duffy is about a man who takes photographs of death in vivid, dark and disturbing images of conflict, which Duffy conveys thoroughly throughout the poem to powerfully showcase his grief and disheartening on the situation. “A Mother in a Refugee camp” by Chinua Achebe, displays the struggles of a mother desperately trying to support and save her child while writhing in her caressing arms at death’s doors. These are the poems that represent the theme of death.
Death is a prevalent theme in the poetry of both Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson. They both examine death from varied angles. There are many similarities as well as differences in the representation of this theme in their poetry. Plath views death as a sinister and intimidating end, while Dickinson depicts death with the endearment of romantic attraction. In the poetry of Plath death is depicted traditionally, while Dickinson attributes some mysticism to the end of life.
The paradox of Sylvia Plath's "Mirror", is that the mirror is given life to reflect the image of aging, and the sadness of the inevitability of death. Ironically, Shelley has managed to employ the tool of personification, not by giving life to an inanimate object, but by giving it death.
The title of the poem includes the word ?funeral?, immediately indicating death or loss. In the first stanza Auden makes use of works like stop, cut, prevent and silence ? these words all signify ending.