Derek Walcott’s poem A Latin Primer focuses on the influence of Walcott’s education on the process of becoming a poet, the tension between the education opportunities provided by the privileged elite and the richness of folk traditions preserved by the oppressed majority.
The poem stresses the narrator’s frustration with a British educational system that does adjust to the local Caribbean people and landscape. As a child, the narrator felt limited by the rigid established teaching methods that analyze poetry through signs of scansions that he hated and that warped enjoyable, poetic language into murky discipline and Mathematics. The narrator struggles to make sense of the sea of texts. However, the literary text remains detached and dully technical under such algebraic colonial methods: “Raging, Id skip a pebble across the seas page; it stills canned its own syllable: trochee, anapest, dactyl.” (1737)
As an adult, he continued to have to sort out the ways in which he was to personally deal with various colonial cultural differences that divide the European elite from the African ma...
He began reading when most of his friends wouldn’t even think of reading at level. In high school, he was exposed several writings of different author, some of the writers include Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Johnathan Swift (1667-1745) including the great Williams Shakespeare 's(1564-1616), he carefully analyzed their works and was amazed with them. He was fascinated to the point he started adopting the norms of what he has read in them. Before graduating from high, he also had the chance to read some rare works of African cultures by foreigners such was the one written a polish-born English author. Although his books seem to psychologically his way of thinking decided to conform to cohort himself to his local traditions (African). Reading is one of the skills the acquirer earn do, either it was learned a young stage or adult, to read is an aspect, but to write another important which many often consider less necessary important.
Although the two poems “The Tables Turned” by William Wordsworth and “To David, About His Education” by Howard Nemerov are significantly different in structure, both Wordsworth and Nemerov support the theme of how life cannot be completely enclosed within the pages of academic textbooks. Wordsworth’s structure of “The Tables Turned” contains a series of eight neatly categorized quatrains, each systematically emphasizing on the incompleteness of education through a different descriptive focus. The quatrains in “The Tables Turned” also alternate between eight and seven syllables throughout the poem, marking a contrast between the traditional meters of academically conservative poems with a fresh and lively structure, which is further manipulated by the natural alternating rhyming scheme kept consistent throughout the poem: Word...
...nd contrasting points of African kings. While they both approved the use of slaves, Mbemba despised the slave trade and coaxed Portugal’s royalty into ending the entire business for the benefit of his nation. The king of Ouidah however seemed adamant about getting rid of his slaves in the trade without regard to how the slaves were being treated or how it affected his country. The mixed opinions on the slave trade and the identical thoughts of slavery during the 17th century allows one to see the varying notions the two issues had on the kings in Africa.
At a young age, Malcolm saw the ways in which blacks were seen as inferior, when his father supported an organization that promoted the return of blacks to Africa. Malcolm watched at a young...
One of the most well known historic characteristics of poetry is that of rhyme, a technique that Alexander rejects. In American Sublime, every poem is written in free verse. Although some poems may contain an occasional slant rhyme, there is no fixed rhyme scheme in Alexander’s works. Along with her lack of rhyme, there is a no consistency in the structure of Elizabeth Alexander’s poetry. This is best demonstrated in the “Amistad” section of American Sublime. Each of the poems in this part tell a piece of the story of the Amistad ship and the slave revolt. However, only a few of these poems share similar structures. While some poems contain seven stanzas, others a written in haikus, and while others do not contain stanza breaks, making the poem one long stanza. By doing this, Elizabeth Alexander keeps herself from having a signature structure for her poems. Instead, by neglecting to use a specific style, Alexander creates a stark distinction between herself and other
“…combination of swarthy skin, European dress and deportment, knowledge of local customs, and multilingualism” which “…gave them inside understanding of both African and European ways” (Berlin, p.23),
Ferguson, Margaret W., Salter, Mary J., and Stallworthy, Jon. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. fifth ed. N.p.: W.W. Norton, 2005. 2120-2121. 2 Print.
New Criticism attracts many readers to its methodologies by enticing them with clearly laid out steps to follow in order to criticize any work of literature. It dismisses the use of all outside sources, asserting that the only way to truly analyze a poem efficiently is to focus purely on the words in the poem. For this interpretation I followed all the steps necessary in order to properly analyze the poem. I came to a consensus on both the tension, and the resolving of it.
European slavers altered the way that different African people viewed one another and themselves. The book by Miguel Barnet, Biography of a Runaway Slave is a strong account that can be used to explore how Africans changed their perception of each other, and how this change influenced the lives of Africans in the Americas.
In “The Fatal Sisters” Thomas Gray has created a monologue pregnant with references to history, geography, and mythology. These reappearing references and allusions enrich the text, as they allow a closer look at the political situation surrounding eleventh century Britain. The poems’ sixteen stanzas exhibit an ABAB rhyme scheme, which provides for systematic organization and positive aesthetic effects. Closer examination of the setting, tone, and imagery of the poem permits insight into the text’s content and artistic genius.
Rothenberg, Jerome and Pierre Joris, eds. Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern and Postmodern Poetry, Vol. 2. Berkeley: University of California, 1998.
Both forms of these poems, history and storytelling have a certain degree of fluidity to help determine the meaning from the speaker to the reader. The compositions of these poems show that the poets, Owen and Brooks, did not write for an audience, but rather for an absent reader, by using more imagery and sound elements. But, thanks to the introduction of electronic media, the seven poetic elements are now easier to be “seen” and heard. This allows for the reader or listener to reach the full potential of the poem. Through listening the speaker’s tone, witnessing the time period, hearing the diction, speech and sound elements, the true meaning of the poem is painted for the audience.
Khapoya, Vincent B. The African Experience: An Introduction. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. Print.
While Collins does a succinct job of examining the economic and political factors that heightened colonization, he fails to hone in on the mental warfare that was an essential tool in creating African division and ultimately European conquest. Not only was the systematic dehumanization tactics crippling for the African society, but also, the system of racial hierarchy created the division essential for European success. The spillover effects of colonialism imparted detrimental affects on the African psyche, ultimately causing many, like Shanu, to, “become victims to the white man’s greed.”
"Prose and Verse Criticism of Poetry." Representative Poetry On-line: Version 3.0. Ed. D. F. Theall. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. .