Occasionally, we befriend a person we should not have—the kind that borrows a shirt and never returns it, never seems to remember to bring a wallet to dinner, or never offers to drive or give gas money. This type of friend resembles the speaker of Kenneth Koch’s “Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams.” The speaker of Koch’s poem lightheartedly apologizes to an unnamed person for off-the-scale wrongdoings, such as chopping down his house and breaking his leg. He has no genuine reason for these potentially life-ruining actions, only that he saw an opportunity and ran with it. “Variations on a Theme” parodies the similar unsympathetic apology given in “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams through its use of amusing parallel word choice. In “This is Just to Say,” the speaker apologizes for eating plums “you were probably / saving / for breakfast,” (Williams). A similar apology is parodied by Koch when he also uses the word “saving” in the first and third stanza of “Variations on a Theme.” The first line of Koch’s poem begins with the speaker stating he “chopped down the house you had been saving to live in next / summer” (Koch). The speaker admits he knew his friend was saving the house, but nonetheless he still chops it down for he had nothing better …show more content…
Koch mimics Williams’ use of adjectives in “Variations on a Theme” when he describes the wind in the third stanza as “so juicy and cold” (Koch). Wind can be described in several ways; it can be breezy, blustery, or strong, but wind will never be “juicy.” However, a familiar pair of plums could be described as juicy, meaning Koch’s choice of using the adjective juicy was deliberate, parodying “This is Just to
These individuals do not sugar coat their feelings and tubs would do anything to release themselves from their everlasting pain, and thus continuously react violently to ease their feelings. The speaker’s repetitive “thanking” in the poem for every action or idea is sardonic because none of the thanked deeds are particularly good, but hindering. “Rude muscles” and “castrated legs” do not help someone succeed, yet are thanked; while efficiency and all the work put into creating “good machines” are left unthanked. This expounds the skewed nature of society’s priorities-- people only see the bad and do not acknowledge all the amazing things the world has to offer, and in result feel the need to react violently.
In the fiction short story “Greasy Lake” author Bruce Springsteen writes about three young adults who think of themselves as tough characters only to have a run-in with actual bad people which put into perspective how they were merely acting like rebels and that they didn’t truly have it in them. There are many notions of epiphany and evolution in “Greasy Lake”. The protagonist which is also the narrator of the story tells the events in a sorrowful way. He forms his sentences in a way that lets the reader know that he doesn’t feel the same way anymore. This regret, this remorse is a rhetorical appeal known as pathos, which focuses on emotions. Author Springsteen uses pathos in his bildungsroman, more distinctly realism and foils in order to persuade the reader of the epiphany and evolution that the protagonist now has in his life.
A video is put on, and in the beginning of this video your told to count how many times the people in the white shirts pass the ball. By the time the scene is over, most of the people watching the video have a number in their head. What these people missed was the gorilla walking through as they were so focused on counting the number of passes between the white team. Would you have noticed the gorilla? According to Cathy Davidson this is called attention blindness. As said by Davidson, "Attention blindness is the key to everything we do as individuals, from how we work in groups to what we value in our classrooms, at work, and in ourselves (Davidson, 2011, pg.4)." Davidson served as the vice provost for interdisciplinary studies at Duke University helping to create the Program in Science and Information Studies and the Center of Cognitive Neuroscience. She also holds highly distinguished chairs in English and Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke and has written a dozen different books. By the end of the introduction Davidson poses five different questions to the general population. Davidson's questions include, "Where do our patterns of attention come from? How can what we know about attention help us change how we teach and learn? How can the science of attention alter our ideas about how we test and what we measure? How can we work better with others with different skills and expertise in order to see what we're missing in a complicated and interdependent world? How does attention change as we age, and how can understanding the science of attention actually help us along the way? (Davidson, 2011, p.19-20)." Although Davidson hits many good points in Now You See It, overall the book isn't valid. She doesn't exactly provide answers ...
In dire situations, it is common for people to seek moral guidance. William Wordsworth and Paul Laurence Dunbar did this through poetry. The two poems, “London, 1802” and “Douglass,” share a similar underlying cause, sentence formation, and the conditions of their particular country, but differ drastically in tone, use of comparisons, structure, and the author’s goals.
Baldwin’s story presents the heart breaking portrayal of two brothers who have become disconnected through respective life choices. The narrator is the older brother who has grown past the depravity of his childhood poverty. The narrator’s profession as an algebra teacher reflects his need for a “black” and “white,” orderly outlook on life. The narrator believes he has escaped life’s sufferings until the death of his daughter and the troubling news about his brother being taken in for drug possession broadside him to the reality of life’s inevitable suffering. In contrast, his brother, Sonny has been unable to escape his childhood hardships and has ended up on the wrong side of the law. While their lives have taken ...
Though this poem is only a small snapshot of what I personally thought Douglass was going through, I could never adequately understand the frustration he must have had. My hope in writing this poem was not to provide a psychoanalysis or theoretical idea structure to any audience, but rather to show that even today, a modern audience member like me, can appreciate the struggle of a fellow human and speak against injustices, specifically in Douglass’s time.
“Sonny’s Blues” is a short story in which James Baldwin, the author, presents an existential world where suffering characterizes a man’s basic state. The theme of tragedy and suffering can be transformed into a communal art form, such as blues music. Blues music serves as a catalyst for change because the narrator starts to understand not only the music but also himself and his relationship with Sonny. The narrator’s view of his brother begins to change; he understands that Sonny uses music as an outlet for his suffering and pain. This story illustrates a wide critical examination.
The speaker recounts his day as if it were any other day and does not use any powerful or metaphorical language to describe hitting someone in the head “…six times with the krooklok,”. In this piece, the murder is made light of by using ironic humour to balance out any emotions that may be felt. Phrases such as “He’d said he liked the breeze,” and “You can walk from there,” make it evident that the speaker feels unaffected by what has happened which implies a strong level of apathy. No Convictions explores apathy differently; this poem displayed some zeal and passion from the speaker. The speaker of this poem compares his fist to a Swiss Army Knife and speaks of how he could “…bring about spontaneous applause,” but then annuls everything he states by saying he has “no cause,” which expresses his apathy to life in general. My Party Piece is similar as it is a speaker talking about his life story and “The torches he carried,” and “The lessons he learnt”. The language in
..., the use of literary techniques including irony, characterization and theme convey the author’s purpose and enhance Into The Wild. The author accomplished his purpose of telling the true story of Chris McCandless. He was an eccentric, unpredictable man that led a very interesting life. His life deserved a tribute as truthful and respectful as Jon Krakauer’s. Through his use of literary techniques, the author creates an intense, and emotional piece of literature that captures the hearts of most of its readers. Irony, characterization, and theme all play a vital role in the creation of such a renowned work of art. “Sensational…[Krakauer] is such a good reporter that we come as close as we probably ever can to another person’s heart and soul” (Men’s Journal).
Etheridge Knight’s “Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane” (1968) effectively illustrates the devastation a group of prisoners’ feel as the state of their hero, Hard Rock, is realized. Though he was once the most fearless of the inmates, he is no longer the man he once was due a lobotomy performed by the doctors. Hard Rock is no typical hero, however, he still represents the hope for a future that all the inmates admire. The loss of hope that comes with the destruction of the inmates’ hero is artfully communicated through Knight’s use of tonal shifts representing the shifts in the inmates’ reaction to this situation, the use of diction in the deification of Hard Rock, and the use of similes to avoid the acceptance
The narrator in James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, at first glance seems to be a static character, trying to forget the past and constantly demeaning his brother’s choices in life. Throughout the story, readers see how the narrator has tried to forget the past. However, his attempt to forget the past soon took a turn. When the narrator’s daughter died, he slowly started to change. As the narrator experiences these changes in his life, he becomes a dynamic character.
“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness towards the whites to his grave. “Till the day he died he weren’t sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.”(346) Watching the same problems transcend onto the narrator’s baby brother, Sonny, the reader feels his despair when he tries to relate the same scenarios his father had, to his brother. “All that hatred down there”, he said “all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it doesn’t blow the avenue apart.”(355) He’s trying to relate to his brother that even though some try to cover their misery with doing what others deem as “right,” others just cover it with a different mask. “But nobody just takes it.” Sonny cried, “That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(355) The narrator had dealt with his own miseries of knowing his father’s plight, his Brother Sonny’s imprisonment and the loss of his own child. Sonny tried to give an understanding of what music was for him throughout thei...
Instead of criticizing and commenting on what other poets do wrong Koch shifts gears and shows how playful and carefree poetry can be. He starts to express this idea of fresh air that the poem is titled after by being the complete opposite of what every other poet considers the norm. You can practically see how the pace accelerates throughout the course of this last part. Reading the poem starts to get confusing because it seems nonsensical but he is also aware of everything he is lacking from the typical terms of poetry. As you read lines like “Oh, pardon me, there’s a swan one two three swans, a great white swan, hahaha how pretty they are! Smack!” (Koch. 229) you can feel yourself getting more excited as you read. Koch’s energy comes right off the pages, which is extremely atypical of all his contemporaries. He then proceeds to criticize the teaching style in which students are taught poetry. He speaks of how teachers would expect a certain type of writing and if they liked what they saw they would give out good grades. The narrator continues to explain how he gets sucked into the norm of these poets he spent the entire poem criticizing. When it seems this might be his last bit of happiness he gets some fresh air from a beautiful woman. This fresh air is what saves him from falling completely into the abyss of awful poets. He then proceeds to say goodbye to all the awful things such as The Strangler, dead trees,
Jones employs the dynamics of change to his speaker throughout the poem. From an aimless vagrant to a passionate revolutionary, Jones plots his speaker's course using specific words and structural techniques. Through these elements, we witness the evolution of a new black man--one who is not content with the passivity of his earlier spiritual leaders. We are left with a threat--a steel fist in a velvet glove of poetry--and it becomes a poem that we "have to" understand, whether we want to or not.
In the poem “A song of Despair” Pablo Neruda chronicles the reminiscence of a love between two characters, with the perspective of the speaker being shown in which the changes in their relationship from once fruitful to a now broken and finished past was shown. From this Neruda attempts to showcase the significance of contrasting imagery to demonstrate the Speaker’s various emotions felt throughout experience. This contrasting imagery specifically develops the reader’s understanding of abandonment, sadness, change, and memory. The significant features Neruda uses to accomplish this include: similes, nautical imagery, floral imagery, and apostrophe.