An Analysis Of Whare By Glenn Colquhoun And The Old Place

1039 Words3 Pages

Analyse how language features were used to shape your reaction to one or more ideas in the written text(s).

The poems Whare by Glenn Colquhoun and The Old Place by Hone Tuwhare used language features to . Both poets used repetition and personification in their poems to allow the reader to see the value of old houses as they do. These helped me understand the cultural and historical significance old houses have.

Both poets appeal to the reader's imagination through the use of repetition. Colquhoun repeats “If I fix..” at the start of five of his stanzas, “If I fix the step outside, it will creak or bulge like an armful of groceries ready to drop.” This allowed me to imagine him fixing his house and the benefits it will have but also the …show more content…

Colquhoun used the metaphor, “rough stitches,” in “ Let it leave a rough scar/ the rough stitches placed me/ through the slants of light in this ceiling/ where nails use to cling.” This metaphor is used to represent the healing power of the house. The stitches refers to the light that shines in on his body from where nails use to be, Colquhoun is comparing this light to stitches as it looks similar. This helps the reader appeal to their imagination of the light beaming in, providing a emotional and spiritual healing. Colquhoun also compares his house to an old shell, “And when I leave this old shell.” The shell represents the protection the house gives the poet as a shell gives an animal protection. Eventually the shell is left and outgrown, similar to the poets house but in this case it's not time. The reader's imagination is sparked in the metaphor as they imagine the old house living peacefully on the beach, much like the house does. Tuwhare uses the metaphor, “ the golden city,” in “ for no one will ever leave/ the golden city.” This refers to the previous homeowner abandoning their home for the city that's considered to be filled with opportunities and wealth. This allows the reader to imagine the contrast between the abandoned house compared to the great golden city. Another metaphor Tuwhare uses is “the doughy track,” to describe the train track near the house. The doughy track refers to the sticky pale track made of clay. Tuwhare uses this to help the reader imagine the setting and have a feeling of nostalgia as they remember the clay tracks from the past. In both poems the poets use metaphors to enhancing the setting in the reader's mind to better imagine

Show More
Related

  • Analysis of Tracy K. Smith´s Life on Mars

    2420 Words  | 5 Pages

    As the first poem in the book it sums up the primary focus of the works in its exploration of loss, grieving, and recovery. The questions posed about the nature of God become recurring themes in the following sections, especially One and Four. The symbolism includes the image of earthly possessions sprawled out like gangly dolls, a reference possibly meant to bring about a sense of nostalgia which this poem does quite well. The final lines cement the message that this is about loss and life, the idea that once something is lost, it can no longer belong to anyone anymore brings a sense...

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of James W. Loewen's 'Land Of Opportunity'

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his essay “Land of Opportunity” James W. Loewen details the ignorance that most American students have towards class structure. He bemoans the fact that most textbooks completely ignore the issue of class, and when it does it is usually only mentions middle class in order to make the point that America is a “middle class country. This is particularly grievous to Loewen because he believes, “Social class is probably the single most important variable in society. From womb to tomb, it correlates with almost all other social characteristics of people that we can measure.” Loewen simply believes that social class usually determine the paths that a person will take in life. (Loewen 203)

    Read More

  • Dahlia Ravikovitch Pride Essay

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shelley uses symbolic meaning to depict the destruction of a statue and the “sands that stretch far away” in relation to the effects of pride, a direct contrast from the words on the pedestal. The images of the deteriorating items gives the readers an understanding of time’s ultimate power beyond both life and pride. However, the cliché use of sands as a means of representing time still explains to readers that the passing of time is prevalent in the poem and related to the destroyed items presents the concept of a useless

    Read More

  • Mao's Last Dancer

    433 Words  | 1 Pages

    The composer uses simple words and simple poetic techniques such as metaphors and similes to make the book more effective. Metaphors are used to give the viewer a better understanding of how the composer felt at a certain time. For example, when Li Cunxin enjoyed his stay in America, he told himself that he was “the fish and China is the pond.” From this metaphor we can see how Li felt about China as a fish cannot exist anywhere else other than its pond so like the fish, Li thought he would not be able to live out of China. Another example of a metaphor is when Li refers to his commune as a “deep well.” This metaphor shows us how Li feels trapped in his commune and how it was unlikely for him to ever get out of the situation he was in.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis of The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell

    530 Words  | 2 Pages

    Metaphors and Similes are often used in this story, so the reader has a better image of the setting, this is something, and I find Connell did incredibly well, for instance when he refers to the darkness of the night like moist black velvet, the sea was as flat as a plate-glass and it was like trying to see through a blanket.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis: The Dandelion Wine

    467 Words  | 1 Pages

    The author uses a simile in lines 42-44 the author compares the streetlights to candles and activate the readers mental eye "the streetlights, like candles on a black cake went out he exhales again and again and the stars began to vanish".This simile helps set the image of Douglas turning of the street lights since it won't be night there anymore. The author also sets in plain lines 58-59 olfactory detail, and tactile imagery "the warm scent of fried batter rose in the drafty halls". The olfactory detail , and tactile imagery help the reader's mental eye of the "somewhat" smell of "the warm scent of friend batter"and touch of "drafty halls".Bradbury finishes off the passage with a metaphor and visual imagery in lines 73-75 and figurative language onomotopia;sonic imagery and metaphor in lines81-83. Bradbury underlines a metaphor and visual imagery "soon, scattering hot blue sparks above it, the town trolley would sail the riveting black street". The author is conveying, a direct association in the readers mind and the visual imagery activates the reader mental eye to picture the "hot blue sparks".Bradbury also sets in play figurative language such as onomotopia and sonic imagery "Mom,Dad,Tom wake upchuck alarms tinkled faintly.The courthouse clocked boomed".The onomotopia gives the reader the chance to

    Read More

  • The Progress of Love by Alice Munro

    1590 Words  | 4 Pages

    Description of the house follows, very high ceilings, old mansion it seems, with chimney stains, it has been let go. Jumps in time to narrators ex-husband making fun of narrators fantasizing about stains. The next paragraph is the father in a retirement home, always referring to things: ‘The Lord never intended’. This shows how old people have disdain for new things, the next generation appears to be more and more sacreligious. Shows streak of meanness when ‘spits’ out a reference to constant praying, narrator claims he does not know who he is talking to, but appears to be the very pious mother.

    Read More

  • The Idea of Love Illustrated in Leonard Cohen's, Suzanne

    1417 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the poem, Cohen speaks of her house on St. Lawrence River and the house with wooden floors that squeaked, whose windows overlooked the poetic beauty of the waterf...

    Read More

  • The Childhood Experience In The Harem Within By Fatema Mernissi

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author starts the narrative with the memories of her family house built in a traditional Arab style, where the nature is replaced by “geometric

    Read More

  • Analysis of Mending Wall by Robert Frost

    398 Words  | 1 Pages

    It describes how the conservative farmer follows traditions blindly and the isolated life followed by him. It reflects how people make physical barriers and that later in life come to their social life too. Where neighbor with pine tree, believes that this separation is needed as it is essential for their privacy and personal life. The poem explores a paradox in human nature. The first few lines reflect demolition of the wall, ?Something there is that doesn?t reflect love a wall? this reflects that nature itself does not like separation. The "something" referring to the intangible sense of social interaction. Furthermore "that sends the frozen-ground-swell under it" refers to Frost or to the author. Although the narrator does not want the wall, ironically, the mending of the wall brings the neighbors together and literally builds their friendship. An additional irony of the poem is that the only time these two neighbors sees each other is when they both mend the wall. The narrator sees the stubbornness in his neighbor, and uses the simile 'like an old-stone savage' to compare him to a stone-age man who 'moves in darkness', that is, set in his ways, and who is unlikely to change his views.

    Read More

  • The Paradoxical Relationship

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem begins with a childlike tone, misleading the reader on the upcoming subject matter. The first line echoes a nursery rhyme, feeling like a charm against some brooding curse. “You do not do, you do not do/ anymore black shoe” (lines 1-2). Metaphorically, the shoe is a trap, smothering the foot. The adjective “black” suggests the idea of death, thus it can relate to a coffin. The speaker feels a submissiveness and entrapment by her father. In an attempt to rid herself of the restriction in her own life, she must destroy the memory of her father. “Daddy, I have to kill you” (line 3). However, the description of the father as “marble-heavy” and “ghastly statue” reveals the ambivalence of her attitude, for he is also associated with the beauty of the sea. The speaker reacts with hate to her father who had made her suffer by dying at such a point in her development.

    Read More

  • Louise Erdich Indian Boarding School The Runaways

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem contains the central idea that many of these children never understood what home really means. In Native American culture the people venerate earth and it is referred to as mother nature which we see in the poem. The rails cut right through their home but they don’t view them like the average person. They view the tracks as if they are scars across mother earths face and her face is the Native American’s homeland. She is scarred for eternity but she is perfect in their dreams. This symbolism is ironic because the children try to reach home using the railroad that ruined natural life for them and many other Native Americans. In the second stanza the speaker says “The worn-down welts of ancient punishments lead back and fourth” (15-16). Which can be talking about the marks on the children’s bodies after getting caught while running away. But the “word-down welts” can also symbolize the welts that were put on mother nature throughout history. The last five lines of the poem sums up the symbol of hope through their memories and dreams. The last line of the poem says, “the spines of names and leaves.” (20-24). The “spines” symbolize the physical strength of the children and their ability to maintain hope individually “names”, and for their tribe

    Read More

  • A Critical Analysis of Judith Wright's 'the Killer'

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.

    Read More

  • The Courage My Mother Had Analysis

    486 Words  | 1 Pages

    For example,the speaker says “The golden brooch my mother wore / She left behind for me to wear / I have no thing I treasure more ; / Yet, it is something I could spare.” This shows that the speaker treasures the brooch that her mother left behind . But, she regrets that she had inherited the brooch instead of the courage her mother had. In addition, the speaker uses metaphors and similes to convey the theme of her poem. She uses the metaphor “Rock from New England quarried; / Now granite in a granite hill” (3-4) and the simile “courage like a rock” (11) to show the theme. This shows that her mother is a very strong and courageous woman and that the speaker really appreciates her mother’s bravery. She wishes that her mother could give her the courage that she now needs to get through the hardship of her mother's

    Read More

  • Metaphors in The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    The two roads presented in this poem represent difficult decisions we are faced with in life. He uses the relationship between the paths and real life decisions throughout the whole poem. This is an example of extended metaphor, which is used to help the readers understand the analogy between the two. The man in the poem said: “long I stood” (3), which lets us know the decision was not made instantly. It was hard for the man to make a final judgment.

    Read More

More about An Analysis Of Whare By Glenn Colquhoun And The Old Place

Open Document