Why does Carol Ann Duffy put Little Red Cap at the beginning of the
collection and Demeter at the end? How effective do you think they are
as first and last poems?
In Carol Ann Duffy’s collection of poems, “The Worlds Wife” the first
and last poems are vital to the collection. The opening poem must
successfully introduce the themes and style of poems in the collection
and the final poem should conclude the collection.
Little Red Cap successfully introduces themes that are present
throughout the collection. Sexuality is a theme that is present in
most of the poems and Little Red Cap is no exception. Duffy writes
“which flew, straight, from my hands to his open mouth”, this is a
metaphor for Little Red Cap’s virginity this introduces the reader to
the theme of sexuality but much more subtly than the majority of other
poems. Duffy may be subtler in Little Red Cap purposefully in order to
make her following poems transgressive to the reader. In order to
continue to shock the reader she cannot be too dreadful in the first
poem the reader may become bored with the poems. Also the first poem
should just be a taste of what is to come and Duffy does this
effectively.
Another prominent idea or theme throughout the collection of poems is
feminism. Little Red Cap coincides with this theme. Little Red Cap
kills the wolf; the death of the male character occurs frequently in
many poems such as Delilah, Queen Kong and Mrs. Lazarus. The death of
the male is very significant in showing the how feminist the poems
are, it shows the female having power over the male. Little Red Cap
introduces the principle of feminism effectively, making the reader
understand that the poem is written with feministic views in mind.
Li...
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...ng’s flowers" these two lines are obviously
very similar and may explain their positions in the collection. The
tone of the two similar lines are severely different, Demeter is more
calm and collected whereas Little Red Cap appears more bitter and
sinister. This change in tone could well indicate the change of tone
in terms of over the whole collection therefore Demeter does conclude
the collection effectively showing the change in tone and character
experienced by the reader.
To conclude I feel the positioning of Demeter and Little Red Cap was
effective in introducing themes and style to the reader and concludes
the collection effectively. Although Demeter can be seen as completely
in contrast to the other poems but I feel this works to Duffy’s
advantage in ending the collection on a calm note leaving the reader
to reflect on the collection as a whole.
Pearl is a symbol of Hester’s transgressions and even has similar qualities as the sin which she represents. Pearl’s life and behavior directly reflects the unacceptable and abnormal nature of Hester’s adulterous sin. Hester is plagued with more than just a letter “A”; she is given a child from her affair who is just as much a reminder of her sin as the scarlet letter. Ultimately Hester overcomes the shame associated the scarlet letter and creates a sense of family for herself and Pearl. This relationship is integral to the theme of this novel and the development of its characters.
...r corset as the last page of a book he is reading. The poetry eventually reaches an end, and he states Dickinson’s poetry lines to remember her words and leave the implication of her death. Collins usage of words, even though he does not directly states “death” in the poems, contains the nostalgia of old days and feeling of sadness which naturally leads to his central poetry theme, death.
In the fantasy novel Red Queen by bestselling author Victoria Aveyard, fantasy takes a different take when the color of one’s blood determines their lifestyle. Young pickpocket Mare Barrow is an exception to this rule. In her world, if you have blood the color of silver you hold magical abilities and are treated as a noble. If you are red blooded on the other hand, you are treated poorly and given the bare minimum. When her friend Kilorn is told he must go to war, she dreads that he will be taken away from her similar to the way her brothers, Shade, Tramy, and Bree, were. The story takes place after nuclear warfare, where trust is limited and silver-blooded individuals rule. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel because of the characters and their stories and secrets, all of which kept me on the edge of my seat.
One of the most commonly used and arguably most effective literary devices used in literature is symbolism. A symbol is merely a tangible object with an abstract meaning. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn is a highly symbolic novel, and its author uses each symbol to add a deeper meaning to the story. One of the most important symbols in the novel is Hester’s young daughter, Pearl. The child represents both negative and positive concepts, but one of the most important interpretations is Pearl as a symbol of her parent’s guilt.
In Chapter 19, “Thinking Critical about Poems”, I chose the three poems, “ I heard a fly buzz –When I died”,“ Those – dying, then”, and “The Starry Night”. These poems particularly have the same theme of dying or coming to an end and I enjoyed reading them and hearing the backgrounds to the author’s lives. It put things in perspective once I knew these poems had meaning to not only the story told, but the meaning to the author in the life.
...the death of her husband and father, she finally decides to move on and forget about her husband and father completely. She succeeds in doing so for awhile, but five months after writing the poem, the speaker commits suicide, leading the reader to believe that she had some sort of a mental issue and was never able to completely, like she thought she would be able to. It is sad that the narrator had such a hard time moving on and was majorly depressed, but sometimes it is better to move on life and not dwell on the past.
In the autobiography Brown Girl Dreaming, written by Jacqueline Woodson, an African-American girl grows up in the 60’s and begins to find herself with the help of friends and family. Individuality is a topic that connects the book to me because Jacqueline and I have both gone through situations where we felt like we had to be someone else to make the people around us happier. Maturing and individuality go hand in hand.
This last verse just stops. Without warning, it just finishes and you are left thinking, "Oh..." It is short and it leaves the poem sounding slightly un-finished, like Nesbit?s life with her partner. It stops suddenly like his death, his death was sudden. This last verse tells us that he has only recently died in the war and been buried, becoming part of nature, not just an observer of it. Nesbit has all her memories of him to hold onto mentally, but physically all she has is his gravestone and maybe a few photos.
While the monsters of the poem are the antagonists of the poem, the author still manages to make the reader feel traces of sympathy for them. Grendel’s human depiction, exile and misery tugs at the heart of readers and indeed shows a genuine side to the figure, while Grendel’s mother and the dragon are sympathetic mainly because they were provoked into being attacked over things they both had a deep affection for. Their actions make us question whether they are as evil as they seem.
In poetry, figurative language and poetic devices are used to convey meaning. The literal meaning of the poem is a parent narrating her kid’s journey walking to school alone, but figuratively the poem is describing the emotions of the parents and child’s reaction to the child’s gaining independence. The poem, “The Red Hat” by Rachel Hadas uses several poetic devices and figurative language. The poem uses imagery and symbolism to convey its meaning.
During the 1970s a researcher named Carol Clover researched films and novels using various methods to help make them more enjoyable and easier to understand for the viewer. Carol Clover is very active in her views. One particular view she stands for is feminism and believes in equality for everyone. The first theory Clover provides is an interesting one about equality. Clover relates gender research into her own work and also relates the situation to her personal life. A main item Clover researches is “slasher” films and the role feminism has in them. “Slasher” films are an exceptional choice to research feminism. Often times in “slasher” or scarier films females have a limited role. Often times in those cinemas females are being tormented
Objects such as a casket, satin, cosmetics, and a turned-up putty nose are all symbolic because they represent the event of a funeral. Death normally suggests the end of something; likewise, the fact that these objects don’t occur to the end of the poem is symbolic. The cosmetics and turned-up putty nose also represent the idea of fantasy. Early in the poem, Piercy writes “The girlchild was born as usual”; whereas at the end of the poem, the woman is covered cosmetics that falsify her beauty. The most important symbol is the poem is the pink and white nightie. The nightie is significant because it represents the journey that the woman endured throughout the poem. Pink is a color that represents feminine passiveness and white represents purity; furthermore, the woman had to become passive to be accepted.
Throughout this poem, Death, Immortality, and the Setting Sun are all personified to make the experience more personal and relatable. The narrator states that “because [she] could not stop for Death- He kindly stopped for [her]- ” (1-2). Giving off the feeling that Death is a gentlemanly character picking her up for a date. Not only that, but Immortality is there in the carriage as a sort of chaperon, perhaps to ensure that Death would keep his promise. As the date progresses, “[they] passed the Setting Sun- Or rather, He passed [them]- ” (12-13). This goes to show that the three men at her life’s end, were all there to secure her safe transportation to eternity. Portraying these large factors in one’s
Covergirl’s advertisers display color symbolism, a type of graphical design, in the ad so consumers associate positive notions with the Natureluxe products. Creative glossary defines color symbolism as a “meaning associated with that of a certain color” with the meaning “depending on the context and culture it is used in”(). Covergirl’s advertisers utilize this tactic with copious amounts of green. Green is present in the background, the product packaging, the title, and Swift’s clothes. The covergirl advertisers creates a brand for their product with the abundant amount of green. The abundance of green makes Consumers automatically associate nature and it’s olive color tone gives consumers a sense of “peacefulness”. Advertisers manipulate what consumers perceive the product because of the color. The
Death is a predominant theme in the collection of poems, all of death portrayed in the poem lead to a similar interpretation of grief, regret and despair. Throughout the essay I will discuss the similarities and differences between the poems. Although the content of the poems are distinct, the views on death stay constant.