Just how many regrets does the average individual have? The poems “Time” by Joe Massocco, “No Simple Thing” by Stephen Dobyn, and the song “Time Stand Still” by Rush, lament the swift passage of time and inevitably along with it, the loss of loved ones, discussing thoughts and emotions on the passage of time in a similar fashion, through a pessimistic lens. They discuss an unexpected human condition within them – the desire to cherish life while possible. The human condition, a common topic in literature and media, is discreetly demonstrated in the poem “Time”. In this piece, the author mourns his past, wishing to somehow travel back to his childhood. “Oh, how I wish I could turn back time, // Spend it with loved ones and cherish what once was mine. // Or to go back even more, // Being a kid in a candy store. // How I miss the way I used to feel // On Christmas day when Santa was real.” (line 292929 - line13901313, Masocco). In this phrase, Massocco deems it sweeter to live a simpler life of naiveté by telling brief descriptions of his past. This is an expression of his desire to embrace the past, allowing the reader to deduce that the author has in actuality missed his chance to revere those precious moments.
Another example from the same poem is,
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Even by looking forward to the anticipation of the future and the novelty of the present, there is the risk of being lost in the familiar past, a concept that “No Simple Thing” employs. This can be explained by a simple evolutionary trait. As a species, humans have the tendency to plan in preparation for future possibilities. It is necessary to analyze and interpret the past for the future. This, however, can be a slippery slope of delving too deep and centralizing energy for what cannot be changed, as seen in
The title of this piece, “Remembered Morning,” establishes what the speaker describes in the stanzas that follow as memory; this fact implies many themes that accompany works concerning the past: nostalgia, regret, and romanticism, for instance. The title, therefore, provides a lens through which to view the speaker’s observations.
Imagery uses five senses such as visual, sound, olfactory, taste and tactile to create a sense of picture in the readers’ mind. In this poem, the speaker uses visual imagination when he wrote, “I took my time in old darkness,” making the reader visualize the past memory of the speaker in “old darkness.” The speaker tries to show the time period he chose to write the poem. The speaker is trying to illustrate one of the imagery tools, which can be used to write a poem and tries to suggest one time period which can be used to write a poem. Imagery becomes important for the reader to imagine the same picture the speaker is trying to convey. Imagery should be speculated too when writing a poem to express the big
The timeline carries on chronologically, the intense imagery exaggerated to allow the poem to mimic childlike mannerisms. This, subjectively, lets the reader experience the adventure through the young speaker’s eyes. The personification of “sunset”, (5) “shutters”, (8) “shadows”, (19) and “lamplights” (10) makes the world appear alive and allows nothing to be a passing detail, very akin to a child’s imagination. The sunset, alive as it may seem, ordinarily depicts a euphemism for death, similar to the image of the “shutters closing like the eyelids”
The past dictates who we are in a current moment, and affects who we might become in the future. Every decision people make in lives has an influence on future, regardless of how minimal or large it is. Some decisions people decide to make can have dire consequences that will follow them for the rest of the life. Moreover, even though if someone would want to leave any memories from past behind, however it will always be by his side. Specific memories will urge emotional responses that bring mind back to the past and person have no choose but to relieve those emotions and memories again. Nonetheless, certain events change people and make them who they are, but at the same time, some wrong choices made past haunts us. This essay will discuss the role of the past in novel Maestro, that was written by Australian author Peter Goldsworthy in 1989 and also in Tan Shaun's story Stick Figures which was included in book called "Tales from outer suburbia" and published in 2008.
Memory is both a blessing and a curse; it serves as a reminder of everything, and its meaning is based upon interpretation. In Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies Dedé lives through the memory of her family and her past. She tells the stories of her and her sisters lives leading up to their deaths, and reflects upon those memories throughout her daily life. Dedé lives on for her sisters, without her sisters, but all along carrying them with her throughout her life, never moving on. Dedé lives with the shame, sadness, and regret of all that has happened to her sisters, her marriage, and her family. Dedé’s memories serve as a blessing in her eyes, but are a burden
The speaker starts of by describing his cheerful and joyous years of when he was a child. The way the speaker describes his childhood on “Fern Hill” is as if he was living within an eternal holy Garden of Eden. It seems as if the speaker lived throughout his childhood feeling as if “time” allowed him to “play and be”, as if he was young and innocent for and eternity. Additionally, the continuous cycle of beautiful nature portrayed the speaker's idea of his never ending childhood. However, the tone of the speaker appears to shift significantly from cheerful reminiscence to regretfulness. It is as if the speaker believes that the time he spent in his ‘eternal’ childhood has betrayed him. The speaker now moves from assuming that the sun is “born
In the poem, Harjo portrays the importance of recalling the past to help shape one’s identity. She uses the repetition of the word “Remember” to remind that while the past may be history, it still is a defining factor in people’s lives (l. 1). This literary technique
The constant process of life and death, driven by an indestructible progression of time, explains the attitude of carpe diem expressed in three poems focused on human love being a fickle matter. Within the poems “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick, and “Youth’s the Season Made for Joys” by John Gay, the concept of how a shy attitude towards the inevitable end of all life is exposed as an inherently useless view. Nevertheless, though their primary themes and ideas of this constant procession of time are obviously expressed, the manner in which they do this, through figurative language and imagery, is the main point in which each of these three poems can be contrasted and examined
Nostalgia is an idealised longing for former times, places, or people; it colours memory, softens the hues of the past, and inspires a longing to return to these times or places. The poems, “Tantramar Revisited” by Charles G. D. Roberts, and “Low Tide on Grand Pré” by Bliss Carman each explore the idea of returning to a fondly remembered past. In these two poems both Bliss and Carman use descriptions of nature as a means to connect with the past. In “Tantramar Revisited”, repetition of key words and phrases evokes the feeling of the passage of time. In “Low Tide on Grand Pré”, the passage of time is stated more
In the world today, we highly value newness. Even though we value the future, it is also important to remember the past. We should focus more on our past accomplishments and errors so we can heed learn lessons on how we can improve the future, improve society, and to prevent becoming rigid and stagnate.
...nation of regret for life choices. Robert Frost exceptionally portrays the different types of nostalgic feelings within his poems. Skillfully constructed structures and expressive imagery, and vivid symbolism lend a beneficial hand in helping these authors convey meaning. Ultimately, though both poems have differing perspectives of nostalgia, their poems express true nostalgia nonetheless.
In life, people have to endure lots of things. These things affect us all differently, in many different ways. They shape a person's life. When we go through everyday life, we don’t always become conscious of it, but everything we go through, could somehow affect the choices we make. The decision could be so small as choosing between certain types of donut, or something as big as applying for a loan, but because of the things we’ve learned through past experiences, it could stop us from doing them. People’s actions and their intentions are based on past experiences, causing them to make certain decisions. Kn kn kn kn kn kn kn kn knkn n kn kn kn n ljn ln kn kn
... is romantic and at ease, but he turns brisk and honest as time disintegrates. This image becomes crystal clear with words and phrases such as, "heart", "beauty", "youthful hue sits on thy skin", "our sweetness", "virginity", "breast", and "pleasures". All of these words provide the reader with an illustration of the man's desires. The use of imagery permits the author to fully describe the necessity of time, and allows the reader to visualize the thoughts and feelings that the characters experience.
Life is constantly throwing curveballs. They come from every angle, at differing speeds and all make diverse, lasting impacts. Yet, no matter how many are thrown in our direction, one may never be able to know when or from where the next is coming. Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher, once said that “Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forward.” Meaning that, much like the curveballs, there is no way to understand what life will throw at us in the future, yet we must learn based on the experiences that have occurred in our past. For instance, when one becomes aware of the fact that a curveball is in their near future, and is ready to throw them off course, there is no time to think of what steps to take in order to get out of harm’s way. One must act solely on instinct, while simultaneously thinking through the process. We must then continue to think it over after the ac...
However, (Lamond, 2005) touched on how we could deal with the present and transform it to the future in trying to learn from the past. He draws attention to past theories that have been mistreated but yet have influence on modern day theory.