Reading the poems in second person makes them much more personal and easier to connect to and imagine oneself in the situation, to picture what is happening. It forces you to pay attention to the little details. Second person point of view forcibly draws the audience into the scene, gives them no choice but to mentally participate. It helps you to avoid the disconnection brought on by monotone narrative textbooks. In her Ted Talk, Chimamanda Adichie makes the observation that if you “show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.” With Rankine’s second person tellings, creating a “single story” becomes impossible, because the reader is drawing on their personal emotions and experiences. So
even though the reader may not have had an experience exactly like the one in the poem, the use of the word “you” still allows them to feel and see and understand more deeply. A first person telling allows insight to the character’s feelings and thoughts, which can be interesting and helpful. However, when approaching the issue of racism, putting the reader in the position of the character instead is potentially a more powerful method for making connections and realizations. On the other hand, a narrator often has powers of omniscience. While this could also be a strong technique, at the same time there is a sort of disconnect from the characters since the point of view is not directly the character’s, but at a distance.
The way the points of views in each different poem creates a different theme for each poems using different points diction to convey meaning for each of the two poems. In the poem “Birthday” a humorous tone shows a newborn baby in a first person point of view. As opposed to the poem “The Secret Life of Books” which uses a third person point of view for a more serious tone. The two poems would change dramatically whiteout the different points of views because without the humor of the newborn baby being the narrator the poem might take a different spin on the meaning to create a more serious tone. As opposed to “The Secret Life of Books” where the poem is a big personification which if it was not in a third person point of view it might have a a humorous tome in the background. The two poems have many things that help contrast them with each other another one of these being the theme chosen to give each poem a separate identity, while “Birthday” has some background information in some of the diction it uses to World War II “The Secret Life of Books” has no need for the knowledge of background information just the curiosity of the brain
It is only human to be biased. However, the problem begins when we allow our bigotry to manifest into an obstacle that hinders us from genuinely getting to know people. Long time diversity advocate, Verna Myers, in her 2014 Ted Talk, “How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them” discusses the implicit biases we may obtain when it comes to race, specifically black men and women. Myers purpose is quite like the cliché phrase “Face your fears.” Her goal is to impress upon us that we all have biases (conscious or unconscious). We just have to be aware of them and face them head on, so that problems such as racism, can be resolved. Throughout the Ted Talk, Verna Myers utilizes an admonishing yet entertaining tone in order to grasp our attention
Katy Hutchison opened to viewers with two heart felt stories during her Ted Talk. In her opening, she states lots of experiences will happen in life whether it be great or bad. She believes that when it them becomes a time in one’s life where a mess happens then there’s a moral responsibility to clean up the mess no matter the means. In the process, if cleaning the problem one may realize that they’ve been standing next to the person who created the mess. In the moment of realization, you’ll begin to feel the amount of possibility. What I gained from her message was that life has its up and down. While you’re up life is great, and everything goes as for as planned. You look forward to the next day because you know it going to be great. But,
Why should poets convey their thoughts through symbolism, imagery, figurative language, etc? In the poems “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost both use figurative language, symbolism and imagery to convey the reader’s thoughts differently. The poems topics are distinctly different, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” uses an allusion of Adam and Eve in “So Eden sank to grief” (lines 6). The poem “The Road Not Taken” uses symbolism to describe life as shown in “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”(lines 1). The poems can often use the same approaches such as figurative language and symbolism to captivate the reader.
The poems make for a simple addition to the narrative and allows for a much more meaningful experience for a reader and makes for a much more engrossing story, thus adding to the experience as a whole.
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 poem is told from the point of view of a young child. Writing it in a first person point of view was clever on Dove's part. Since it's written in first person, the reader feels more compassion toward the character and is able to relate more than if it were told from the point of view of an outside narrator.
Having this written in the first person allows the audience to have a more understanding. It also makes the reader feel like they are in the book. Although if this book were to be written in the third person the text would carry on forever and you also would not understand to its full potential.
Kenyon’s choice of a first person perspective serves as one of two main techniques she uses in developing the reader’s ability to relate to the poem’s emotional implications and thus further her argument regarding the futility of mankind’s search for closure through the mourning process. By choosing to write the poem in the first person, Kenyon encourages the reader to interpret the poem as a story told by the same person who fell victim to the tragedy it details, rather than as a mere account of events observed by a third party. This insertion of the character into the story allows the reader to carefully interpret the messages expressed through her use of diction in describing the events during and after the burial.
The two poems I have chosen to explain are Piano by D H Lawrence and
Brian Little, an award-winning psychology professor explains the science behind personalities in his Ted talk, “ Brian Little: Who are you really? The puzzle of personality.” He is a professor at Cambridge University and his students often describe him as, “A cross between Robin Williams and Einstein.” Brian wrote the book Me, Myself, and Us: The Science of Personality and the Art of Well-Being. Brian uses his degree in psychology and the acronym OCEAN to explain the different characteristics of personalities in his TED talk, “Brian Little: Who are you really? The puzzle of personality.” In his Ted talk, Brian describes how the acronym OCEAN applies to the science of personality. He says, “ So “O” stands for “open to experience” versus those
When reading or listening to poetry, the main objective for me is to feel moved. Happiness, longing, sadness are some of the feelings that can be achieved just by listening to others’ words. It is within these words that creates another world, or separates us from our own. Words all have a certain kind of attachment to them, so if used properly an author can stimulate a reader beyond belief.
I believe so much of poetry enlists the senses, beginning with the sense of sound. Whether it’s the rhythmic flow of the poem or the mere need to recite the words for a clearer understanding. The sense of sight can’t help but participate while one reads a poem. It’s like asking an artist to paint how he feels. Imagery is a key part of poetry creating a visual understanding. In the end poetry give a voice to the unsayable in our lives and indeed to life itself. After reading “Birches” by Robert Frost, my senses were reeling. The poem reads beautifully and is soothing to the ear. The imagery also paints a scene I have witnessed many winter days, growing up in the mountains. Robert Frost, while knowing the realistic cause behind the bent birch trees, prefers to add an imaginative interpretation behind the bending of the birches. He also uses the entire poem to say something profound about life. I feel it is indeed a message that, yes life may get hard, and we may lose our way, but there is still innocence and beauty in our world. We just need to remember.
While watching the Ted Talk, we came across terms like mitigation, adaption and risk. These terms have their own specific meaning and have a close connection with climate change. Mitigation refers to minimizing the fallout of disasters in terms of life and property by preparing in advance for the disasters. Risk refers to threats to human beings and things that are important to us. Adaptation literally means to adapt or adjust to changing situations or systems, taking advantage of a situation or dealing with the consequences. All these three factors apply strongly to climate change. Climate change is now a serious phenomenon and in my opinion, it is the chief cause for many of the world’s natural disasters. For instance, Hurricane Katrina was truly a large-scale natural disaster that took away the lives of 1,836 people along with the loss of nearly 300,000 homes. Thus, it’s quite important to take significant precautions for preventing such huge-scale losses from disasters and this is where mitigation, adaptation and risk comes into play. We already have witnessed the risk and dangers that a
In conclusion, the poem and prose are written very differently. However they both show the suffering and tragic persecution of the Jewish people. They write in different styles for different effects. I find that the use of first person in “refugee blues” is very effective because not only is it more relatable the speaker is also speaking to his loved one or family. this takes the poem to a very personal and emotional level.