When I first encountered the difficult poems, I was clueless and felt not so smart because I couldn't understand or remember what I had read. After reading Bernstein’s strategies for coping with difficult poems, I found it a little easier to understand these types of poems. It gave me a new perspective of these poems. The poem “Geology of Water” gave me a really hard time. It used vocabulary that I do not usually see or use in my everyday life. It was very frustrating and confusing trying to read the poem with those words present and not knowing their meanings. I looked the words up, applied his strategies and read the poem over and it became very clear to me. Bernstein’s strategies are very helpful. They gave me a better approach on how
Poetry is often created by an author’s need to escape the logical, as well as expressing feelings and other expressions in a tight, condensed manner. Hundreds of poets have impacted society throughout history through phenomenal poetry that, even with dark tones can be emotionally moving.
In Drea Knufken’s essay entitled “Help, We’re Drowning!: Please Pay Attention to Our Disaster,” the horrific Colorado flood is experienced and the reactions of worldly citizens are examined (510-512). The author’s tone for this formal essay seems to be quite reflective, shifting to a tone of frustration and even disappointment. Knufken has a reflective tone especially during the first few paragraphs of the essay. According to Drea Knufken, a freelance writer, ghostwriter and editor, “when many of my out-of-town friends, family and colleagues reacted to the flood with a torrent of indifference, I realized something. As a society, we’ve acquired an immunity to crisis. We scan through headlines without understanding how stories impact people,
Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water challenges the prevalent idea of colonial history. King retells and revisions the past in order to convey the post colonial ideas. King uses the creation stories, the four Indians, the narrative, and the three vanishing cars to argue and revise the effects of North America’s history on the Blackfoot people and the telling of the past. From the moment in which Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492, it was thought to be the initial discovery of North America (Christopher Columbus). King sets his book in 1992, 500 years after Columbus’ voyage. King’s telling of the past and their effects of colonial history are displayed in the novel.
Poetry is something that is to be read delicately and cautiously if one wanted to find meaning through the words. Readers have to be gentle and patiently ponder about what they are reading in order to find any significance in the poem. If someone is not patient with reading, they will not feel impacted by poetry and will not want to read it. In Billy Collins’, “Introduction to Poetry,” he uses figurative language to help readers see that the way to enjoy and understand poetry is by reading between the lines and being patient with how each individual relates to the readings.
Some people never get satisfied with what they have. In the stories, "Amir", and, "Gold Mountain Poems", The life lesson is to be happy for what you have. In both stories the main characters are immigrants coming to America. In the story, Amir just moved here from India and is upset with the people. In the poem the speaker is taken to an immigrant island instead of being released to go live in America. In both stories they are grateful for what they have.
People that behaive good and look up to there parents it dosent means it will always be like that people change in some points.The novel The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon is a novel that talks about a 13 year old whos father is a civil rights activist in the midle of the the novel he starts to gain intrest in a group called the Black Panthers.The protagonist of The Rock and the River,Sam,becomes more mature over the course of the novel his perspective of the world shifts after using a gun at the peaceful demonstration and Stick’s death by the police officer.
Poetry has a way of making us feel every range of emotion, in some cases better than other forms of entertainment. Unlike a novel, which gives a wide field of vision on any subject, poems have a more focused look mostly on the raw emotion of any one topic. Understanding poetry is an art onto itself, to be able to peel back the words and feel the emotions within them is truly its own work. Harder yet is the ability to dissect and explain these ideas to another person (in this case through an essay)and have them feel and see the poem and the topic it brings to light in the same way that you do. The poem that we will explore is powerful and thought provoking, because it brings the ugly subject of oppression to the front of your mind and forces you to engage in a conversation that you have no control over. It makes you feel hopeless and angry at the same time. In the poem Unwanted by Edward Field we are going to explore the parts of the poem but mainly we will
We all have faced challenges that make our lives succeeding difficult, but the way we approach these challenges is what affect us in the long run. In “Annabelle Lee”, by Edgar Allan Poe, “Oranges” by Gary Soto, and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost they all feature speakers that deal with hardships that they must overcome. The three poets use literary devices to show how they deal with theses challenges along with the struggles that come with it.
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 name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”
The poems “Sea Rose” by H.D and “Vague Poem” by Elizabeth Bishop were both written by two women who took over the Victorian era. H.D’s works of writing were best known as experimental reflecting the themes of feminism and modernism from 1911-1961. While Bishop’s works possessed themes of longing to belong and grief. Both poems use imagery, which helps to make the poem more concrete for the reader. Using imagery helps to paint a picture with specific images, so we can understand it better and analyze it more. The poems “Sea Rose” and “Vague Poem” both use the metaphor of a rose to represent something that can harm you, even though it has beauty.
According to Mays “[a]ny one poem may open itself to multiple responses and interpretations…” leading to the metaphor of the butterfly (Mays 847). “The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it” (Poem 2 1). Common sense is needed to read between the lines of such poems, but according to Mays “… some poems certainly do invite us to re-think our idea of what ‘making sense’ might mean” (Mays 846). Sometimes it takes to reevaluating a situation in order to gain the proper message intended to be received. Being uncertain or misunderstanding the concept of a message or even life itself, may lead to depression, causing one to feel the need to escape the pain. The best way to overcome the trail is to continue to search for clarity, because giving up can lead to mistakes which will again delay the progress of becoming successful. Later as the “wings begin to emerge, breaking the cycle of feeling stagnant/ Finally free…” (Poem 2 15 and 16). After gaining the understanding of the way life operates people tend to realize that the struggles were meant to gain appreciation; once they are free they will not take the gained knowledge for granted, but instead use it as wisdom. “It’s a fitting
“Well, sir, I guess there’s just a meanness in this world” (Springsteen line 24). Poetry has more often than not been used to describe a situation that has happened, or could happen. A branch of poetry called Modernism rebels against traditional thought, and offers a new social agenda. “Nebraska” (1982) by Bruce Springsteen, “Marks” (1978) by Linda Pastan, and “Lies” (1999) by Martha Collins are all poems that fall under the era of Modernism. An important aspect of poetry is the author’s use of poetic devices. The young persona in “Nebraska”, metaphors in “Marks”, and repetition in “Lies” are used to promote the authors’ messages and discuss topics that challenge the public’s opinion. “Nebraska” is about a man who goes on a killing spree with a woman he loves for no apparent reason. Springsteen is known for his multiple concerts in order to fundraise for hurricane victims and selling over one hundred and twenty albums worldwide “Marks” is about a mother who is constantly judged by the people she loves and wants it to end. Pastan is known for winning the Mademoiselle Poetry prize, a Pushcart prize, and has written over twelve books of poetry and essays. “Lies” is a stream of thought contemplating what a lie actually is, and what counts as a lie. Collins has won multiple prizes and grants, along with four books of poetry. Each of these poems continues to shock readers and discuss topics few people like to acknowledge.
After spending a class talking about Hemingway, in particular, "Big Two-Hearted River," I found it most appropriate to reflect on his life after the war and how things can affect one`s mental health. I believe everyone in this world has some kind of difficulties in their life and therefore I think many people can relate to Hemingway. However, I am with the understanding that people experience different levels of difficulties in their life but that in one way or another we can all connect with the essay.
Poetry in essence is a written artistic form of expression. It allows for writers to reveal their ideas and feelings in a very unique way. Wallace Stevens once said, “Poetry is a destructive force”. In other words poetry has power, I believe this is a very true statement. Another poet by the name of William Carlos Williams once said, “Poetry is a small (or large) machine made out of words.” I also believe this statement to be true, each aspect of a poem is important to its function as a whole, and if something is missing or changed it can no longer work in the same way. The poet Derek Walcott I believe knew these “rules of poetry” and modeled them in his own writing. For example we can see use of these statements in his poem “A City’s Death By Fire”.
In the poem “The Fish”, the use of short lines and the presence of enjambments indicate that the poet, Bishop, is giving her own thoughts. This form of poetry gives the impression that the poet is not simply writing the words on a piece of paper but is rather speaking them out loud. The poem is presented in a way that the audience feels as if the poet was present at the scene and was narrating the events that occurred throughout the poem (Bishop 463). The poem is also written as a single stanza. The decision to write it this way may have been in an attempt to portray the long ordeal that fishermen engage in when fishing. In doing so, bishop is able to prepare the audience for the poem and to make sure that it resonates with the act of fishing itself. The poem is also full of imagery that is extremely vivid in description which help the audience visualize what is being narrated in the poem (Bishop 463). Through the narration, tone and imagery used, the audience is led into creating a bond with the fish. This bond is