“September Elegies” is a poem written by an American poet Randall Mann in memory of Seth Walsh, Justin Aaberg, Billy Lucas, and Tyler Clementi. It articulates a gloomy story about four young boys who took their own lives by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. The memorialization is a reminder of how cruel our world can be and how bigotry and indifference destroy people’s lives. The poet reveres their memory by making use of various literary devices in order to transmit the pain the boys experienced. Examining the literary terms used in this poem, one should mention alliteration first. It is used in the following line: “There are those who suffer in plain sight, / there are those who suffer in private” (line 1-2). Another literary device,
Alan Shapiro is a poet whom uses the sorrowful tragedies that occurred in his lifetime and turns them into beautiful poems in which he greatly expresses through his poetry. Most of his poems symbolize either a type of sorrow or tragic death, and the expressions used throughout his poetry make it noticeable that Alan Shapiro endured a life of hardship and tragedy. While Shapiro was growing up he lost his brother and his sister in which the poem “Sleet” by Alan Shapiro beautifully encompasses his feeling of grief and sorrow due to the loss of his siblings.
The word choice used in this poem helps to portray a mood of isolation. “And all I loved, I loved alone” (8). What the speaker is saying with this quote is that everything they found interest in, nobody else did, and therefore had nobody to share their life experiences with. Even from a young age, the speaker felt as if they were an outcast, and the loss of the loved one just intensified their loneliness. “Then- in my childhood, in the dawn, Of a most stormy life- was drawn, From every depth of good and ill, The mystery which binds me still” (9-12). The speaker felt that they had no control over their fate. No matter what happened, whether it be good or bad, the speaker felt abandone...
After tragedy strikes people reflect on the importance of their own life and the importance of the lives of those surrounding them. The tragedy that occurred on September, eleventh is no different. There is no definition for a great poem but a good start is one that makes us reflect. The poem “The Names” by Billy Collins is an excellent poem that makes us consider the importance of our names, how we’ll be remembered, and our place in the world.
Identify two themes from the poem and show how they are presented in the poem as a whole.
The poets studied this year have explored a variety of different themes throughout their poetry, using a number of techniques to accentuate these ideas. The issues that are addressed evoke the emotions of anger, awe and distress in the reader. W.H Auden’s poem ‘Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone’ explores muted anger throughout as the speaker grieves the death of a loved one. Similarly, Wilfred Owen’s poems of and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ express anger in his response to Jessie Pope’s poem, ‘The Call’. Alternatively, William Shakespeare and Pablo Neruda both explore their awe of a loved one where as Bruce Dawe and Wilfred Owen convey their distress by explaining the deaths of soldiers at war. The techniques of metaphors, commands, setting
The speaker is someone who has endured much pain during his time. When reading the poem we can sense that the speaker was born in a time when
between the human struggles and the struggles of the speaker in the poem. S/he also uses visual
It seems like the poet wanted to commit suicide but he was too scared. My initial thought is that he is suffering from depression. The theme of this poem is suicide.
"Out, Out," by Robert Frost is a gruesomely graphic and emotional poem about the tragic end of a young boy's life. It is a powerful expression about the fragility of life and the fact that death can come at any time. Death is always devastating, but it is even more so when the victim is just a young boy. The fact that the boy's death came right before he could " Call it a day" (750) leads one to think the tragedy might have been avoided and there by forces the reader to think, "What if." This poem brings the question of mortality to the reader's attention and shows that death has no age limit.
The setting is a key part when presenting suffering. The poem is set in a ‘darkroom’; the concept of being in a dark place (both metaphorically and theoretically) is associated with emotions such as suffering and depression. The dark room can not only signify his place in mind but also the darkroom could reflect his deepest and darkest thoug...
Elegy in a Country Courtyard, by Thomas Gray, can be looked at through two different methods. First the Dialogical Approach, which covers the ability of the language of the text to address someone without the consciousness that the exchange of language between the speaker and addressee occurs. (HCAL, 349) The second method is the Formalistic Approach, which allows the reader to look at a literary piece, and critique it according to its form, point of view, style, imagery, atmosphere, theme, and word choice. The formalistic views on form, allow us to look at the essential structure of the poem.
As an unrhymed poem, the rhythm created uses devices such as, consonance, repetition, and alliteration. The inconsistency rhyme schemes in both poems seem to reflect the speaker’s turmoil and feelings they harbor for their fathers. The poetic meter Plath uses gives a slow, almost childlike melody. Throughout the poem, a soothing sound with the continuous use of the “-oo” sound anchors Plath to a childlike tone. Words like “do,” “shoe,” “Achoo,” and “you” gain recognition with the continuation of the poem. Meanwhile, “Those Winter Sundays” provides fourteen-lines, but its meter distinguishes. Some examples of rhymes and near-rhymes are shown but no rhyme scheme. The first line is presented as a trochaic pentameter rather than the standard iambic pentameter. In order to capture the harshness of his father’s life, Hayden uses grating consonance sounds in the words “cold,” “cracked,” and “ached” (Line 2 and 3). Gradually, the “k” sounds become replaced with “o” sounds, like in the words “good,” “shoes,” “know” etc. these sounds evoke associations with love and
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem composed by Thomas Gray over a period of ten years. Beginning shortly after the death of his close friend Richard West in 1742, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was first published in 1751. This poem’s use of dubbal entendre may lead the intended audience away from the overall theme of death, mourning, loss, despair and sadness; however, this poem clearly uses several literary devices to convey the author’s feelings toward the death of his friend Richard West, his beloved mother, aunt and those fallen soldiers of the Civil War. This essay will discuss how Gray uses that symbolism and dubbal entendre throughout the poem to convey the inevitability of death, mourning, conflict within self, finding virtue in one’s life, dealing with one’s misfortunes and giving recognition to those who would otherwise seem insignificant.
The third part in the poem exclaims what happened to the hate and anger he tried to hide while hiding it from his foe. His hate “grew both day and night” which can basically sum up that what the speaker really has is angst towards his enemy. Finally his angst grew so much that it could not be hidden anymore and his enemy found out about his “secret”.
"Dry September" by William Faulkner is a story about Minnie Cooper, a lonely and unhappy woman, who accuses a black man, Will Mayes, of rape. The story happens in rural South, where racism against black people is wide spread in the society. A group of hard-core bigots, led by ruthless John McLendon, decides to punish Will Mayes, without even bothering to check whether Minnie's claim is true. The only opposition to their plan comes from a barber Henry Hawkshaw, who believes that they should try to "find out the truth first" (339). In their hatred, they accuse him of being a "damn niggerlover" (339) and proceed with their plan regardless. In attempt to change their minds, Henry joins them, as they leave to find Will. Upon finding him, Will tries to reason with the mob, but they handcuff him anyway and take him into the deserted forest. Henry suddenly decides to leave the car and does this by jumping out of it, for McLendon would not stop the car for him. As he slowly walks back into the town he hides when the mob was on their way back, upon executing Will Mayes. Next day Minnie's friends took her out to town for an evening walk and a movie. Everybody is curious about her and she is in the center of attention. During the movie, while watching all the young couples in the theater and realizing the consequences of her frustrations and lies, she starts laughing hysterically and has a nervous breakdown. The author emphasizes that human tendency for self-deception has a good breeding ground within the racist society and one of its consequences is a loss of innocent human lives.