“Fire is catching and if we burn, then you burn with us!” A powerful quote from a popular book series and movie Mockingjay that sums up the meaning of this poem quite nicely if you think about it. The spread of this powerful emotion is going fast if our hearts burn then yours will too once we are all connected and able to feel for each other.“I’ll bleed so much you’ll be bleeding, all of us bleeding in and out like it’s breathing” An interesting concept, by bleeding you can cause others to bleed. By feeling pain you can cause others to feel pain. Through examining diction, appeal, tone, and other literary figures it is clear that Carmen Giménez Smith is trying to help people become more compassionate towards one another using her poem “Bleeding …show more content…
Heart” She tries to explain the struggles of being so compassionate and empathetic that she cannot bear it. There is too many problems in the world that one person cannot worry about all of them. She is calling all of her readers to action to help support the heavy load she is carrying. She believes that if everyone can help her carry that tremendous load that many of the world's problems can cease to exist. Problems that deal with relations toward one another such as wars, bombings, and hate crimes. Smith uses diction very carefully and thoughtfully.
In this poem Smith uses the saying of a bleeding heart to show her immense pain and so others can relate but there is also a hidden meaning that most people don’t find upon a first glance. If you look up bleeding heart in a dictionary it explains that to be a bleeding heart you are “dangerously soft hearted” she chose this phrase to help prove her point that you can never be too soft hearted or too compassionate. She uses her words very carefully, choosing the lesser known definitions of the words. Once you find out the true meaning behind the words she chooses you can realize what her poem is about. She also uses very simple words that are easy to understand so her message can reach and be understood by everyone who reads it but only the people who truly care can get the full meaning out of what she is implying. For example, she uses the word choke. When most people think of the word choke they think of choking on a piece of food or not being able to breathe. When Smith uses the word choke she is using the definition “to suppress a feeling or emotion” She uses it in this line of her poem, “My heart rises up in me, becomes a cork of me and I choke on it” She is explaining how her pain rises up and she wants to let it free but she can’t she has to suppress this feeling because the world will not accept her “dangerously soft heart”. Another example is how she uses the word heart. Many people think she means just her heart …show more content…
that pumps in her chest but she really means “her capacity for sympathy; the center of emotion” She uses heart as a container, the container that cannot contain all this pain and compassion she feels. That is why she chokes on it. She must contain these feelings but she cannot. Smith uses the tone of compassion. Her words reflect that tone quite nicely. She uses phrases like “for you and for me” and “all of us” showing that we are united and she cares for us all. If you look up compassion in the dictionary it will explain how compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for someone else but if you keep reading it explains that not only do you feel the pain you also feel the strong desire to get rid of the suffering. Throughout the poem she paints pictures in the reader's minds of all the big and little things she feels sorrow for but she also shows the readers how they can change and help get rid of the sorrows just by caring for one another. She explains that she is ready to feel and worry about everything this imperfect world throws at her but at the same time she challenges the readers to be just as prepared. Smith uses the appeal of pathos. She pulls at people's heartstrings by relating to many problems that average people will come in contact with such as death, cancer, and war. These things hold power in many people's minds and hearts. So when she uses these people will feel sympathetic towards these situations. By pulling at readers heartstrings she is already putting them on the path to become compassionate towards everyone all the time. Smith uses figurative language cautiously in this poem.
She uses it in one phrase that gets repeated over and over but most everything other than that is pretty literal. the phrase that is the most figurative is of a “bleeding heart” She uses this literally in the sense that our heart bleed constantly circulating our body with the blood it needs but she tries to use a “bleeding heart” in as many ways as she can. As previously explained she uses it to mean compassion and empathy and sympathy which are all connected. She also uses it to explain her sorrows and her immense pain. Another way she uses this is by, using it as in a way that she is leaving blood behind on the streets and steps of city hall and in that pizza parlor she most likely did not actually bleed in those places but how she left it behind could mean that she changed someone’s perspective or she left an impact or helped someone realize and help out with her purpose. Another line in her poem that also uses figurative language would be when she says, “my sloppy heart a sponge filled with blood read to squeeze onto any circumstance.” She shares her readiness to share whether she is able to control it or not. She is ready to face the outcome. She is giving us a warning of what is
coming. Throughout the poem she expands on this idea that if we would just open up our hearts and feel and worry we can change the world and make it a better place. She also makes it clear that we all must unite with one another and that one person can not do this on their own. When you open up and begin to feel for others, then others will start to do the same. When everyone is compassionate the world will be better. It will be righteous and everyone will feel better. It will be terrible because opening up is not easy and the sorrows will still exist. It will also be red which symbolizes love and blood and both are a big part of living the lives we are given. Just remember that “Fire is catching and if we burn, then you burn with us!” If our hearts burn then yours will too once we are all connected and able to feel for each other. Compassion is a very powerful emotion that once is gets shared it won’t stop all you have to do is help it be spread along.
In Tim Seibles' poem, The Case, he reviews the problematic situations of how white people are naturally born with an unfair privilege. Throughout the poem, he goes into detail about how colored people become uncomfortable when they realize that their skin color is different. Not only does it affect them in an everyday aspect, but also in emotional ways as well. He starts off with stating how white people are beautiful and continues on with how people enjoy their presence. Then he transitions into how people of color actually feel when they encounter a white person. After, he ends with the accusation of the white people in today's world that are still racist and hateful towards people of color.
The poem explains her hardships. Reading poetry is different from reading prose because you really have to dig deeper and study harder. A poem is not always straight forward like many other writings. You have to use context clues and understand imagery, tone, and sense. Summarizing a poem becomes difficult if you do not re-read several times. I learned that figurative language and lifestyle really tells a great story. Language especially helps you understand what is going on between the lines. Overall, family is always there at the end of the day. Sometimes situations get tough, but there is always a light at the end of the
The first stanza describes the depth of despair that the speaker is feeling, without further explanation on its causes. The short length of the lines add a sense of incompleteness and hesitance the speaker feels towards his/ her emotions. This is successful in sparking the interest of the readers, as it makes the readers wonder about the events that lead to these emotions. The second and third stanza describe the agony the speaker is in, and the long lines work to add a sense of longing and the outpouring emotion the speaker is struggling with. The last stanza, again structured with short lines, finally reveals the speaker 's innermost desire to "make love" to the person the speaker is in love
Army veteran Brian Turner, knows a thing or two about the fears of war. Turner served for 7 years. He was deployed to Iraq for a year, and in 1999-2000 had been deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina. In his poem “Here, Bullet” the bullet embodies fear that shows valiance through word choice and personification.
She says, “To mourn over the miseries of others, the poverty of the poor, their hardships in jails, prisons, asylums, the horrors of war, cruelty, and brutality in every form, all this would be mere sentimentalizing.” This reflects the personality of women to be very kind, but also shows that men don’t show the mercy or affection needed in some areas. She also showed this in the quote from the first paragraph, “...while mercy has veiled her face and all hearts have been dead alike to love and hope!” She implied that men aren’t showing the love they must show in order to have peace, therefore bringing destruction. She then reminded us that mother nature is trying to repair all of the destruction in the world. She used the term “mother nature” because it causes the audience to connect the earth with the gender of the woman and how they are kind is
As Carter opens the poem, he tells how at this point in his life, he still has this essential want for things his own father presented him growing up. In the beginning, he expresses he has this “…pain [he] mostly hide[s], / but [that] ties of blood, or seed, endure” (lines 1-2). These lines voice how he longs for his father and just how painful it is without him at his side. In addition, he still feels “the hunger for his outstretched hand” (4) and a man’s embrace to take [him] in” (5). Furthermore, Carter explains how this “pain” he “feel[s] inside” (3) are also due to his “need for just a word of pr...
Although the little girl doesn’t listen to the mother the first time she eventually listens in the end. For example, in stanzas 1-4, the little girl asks if she can go to the Freedom March not once, but twice even after her mother had already denied her the first time. These stanzas show how the daughter is a little disobedient at first, but then is able to respect her mother’s wishes. In stanzas 5 and 6, as the little girl is getting ready the mother is happy and smiling because she knows that her little girl is going to be safe, or so she thinks. By these stanzas the reader is able to tell how happy the mother was because she thought her daughter would be safe by listening to her and not going to the March. The last two stanzas, 7 and 8, show that the mother senses something is wrong, she runs to the church to find nothing, but her daughter’s shoe. At this moment she realizes that her baby is gone. These stanzas symbolize that even though her daughter listened to her she still wasn’t safe and is now dead. The Shoe symbolizes the loss the mother is going through and her loss of hope as well. This poem shows how elastic the bond between the daughter and her mother is because the daughter respected her mother’s wish by not going to the March and although the daughter is now dead her mother will always have her in her heart. By her having her
The extreme crisis that Bradstreet goes through in losing her house and of her possessions would be detrimental to any human being. The content in this poem reflects the doubts, thought process, and battle Bradstreet had with her faith during this crisis. An example of Bradstreet showing her grief throughout the poem would be as followed: “Then, coming out, beheld a space/The flame consume my dwelling place/and when I could no longer look,/I blest His name that gave and took,” (Bradstreet 11-14). This quote exemplifies Bradstreet’s loss especially with the line “and when I could no longer look” (14). This quote indicates Bradstreet’s immense grief to the point where her eyes cannot bare to look at what causes her pain. Another example of the grief Bradstreet is going through is as followed: “Here stood that trunk, and there that chest,/There lay that store I...
Theodore Roethke manipulates our emotions in this poem using literary convention. A Waltz is a lighthearted, easily accessible dance. In a waltz, a couple sways back and forth as they go in a circle. Our emotions of this poem seem to follow this same path as we can see comforting and frightening images at the same time in this poem making us go in circles on whether this poem is about a boy dancing with his father, or a boy fighting his father. An example of this “waltz” we have in this poem is in the first stanza as we get the frightening image of “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” (Line 1-2). Then he follows with “we romped,” thus undercutting the serious tone that we are given from the first stanza; however, the romping is giving seriousness immediately when the pans slide from the kitchen shelves and “The mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself.” Another part that can be taken in either a positive or a negative reading is when the poem reads, “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle.” This can mean that his father was a hardworking man whose hands are altered from working long hours as a grafter, or this could mean that his hand was battered because it is the same hand being used to beat him. This gives us yet another spin on our emo...
Harper begins the poem by detailing the start of the speaker’s relationship with a man, developing it through the use of metaphor and concrete diction. From the first few lines of the poem, the reader learns that the relationship was destined to be futile through Harper’s use of metaphor: “If when standing all alone/ I cried for bread a careless world/ pressed
During the poem he writes of “loops of her hair”, and all I can think about is when I make loops with my own hair and play with it. Other than a very relatable imagery in the poem, it is also about love, which is almost always captivating to read about. While I read this poem I felt as though a man is not sure if he is ready to love, but he is being told that if not yet in love then he is wasting his time. The poem makes it feel like there is never a wrong time to begin love, and that it is all up to the
There are a couple of similes the author uses in the poem to stress the helplessness she felt in childhood. In the lines, “The tears/ running down like mud” (11,12), the reader may notice the words sliding down the page in lines 12-14 like mud and tears that flowed in childhood days. The speaker compares a...
She is known for creating radical novels, which stuck discord in many of its early readers, and writing highly respected sonnets. Similar to Behn, Smith also captures the inner thoughts of not just women, but all human beings in the sonnet “Written at the Close of Spring” and juxtaposes the beauty of the annual spring with the frailty of humanity. In the first stanza of this poem, the speaker uses imagery in order to help readers connect with the beauty and delicacy of spring flowers. In the second stanza, she calls to attention the fact that the spring flowers are dying and, to experience the beauty again, one will have to wait until next spring to enjoy them. In the third stanza, the poem’s focus changes from nature to humanity and asserts that as people age and begins to take part in, “tyrant passion, and corrosive care” (Line 11), youth becomes wasted. The speaker comes to the realization that once youth vanishes, it will forever, unlike the yearly revival of spring. The major fault of this sonnet is that it can be difficult to understand and has several different messages, some of which are not as strong or enlightening as
My first and immediate explanation for the poem was an address from one lover to a loved one, where distance became a factor in their relationship. The lover has it far worse than the desired partner and the solitude builds nothing but longing for this person at a time when his love is the greatest. He says " What have I to say to you when we shall meet?... I am alone" with my head knocked against the sky”. He further asks, “How can I tell if I shall ever love you again as I do now?” There is uncertainty because he is wondering over the next encounter with his loved one. He says, “I lie here thinking of you” and is compelling when he wants the loved one to see him in the 5th stanza and what love is doing to his state of mind. He is hopeless and expresses it by asking questions he is unsure of, conveying his troubled state. Williams enforces imagery along with sound effects to demonstrate the despair of the man in a realm that is almost dreamlike with purple skies,spoiled colors, and birds. Stating he is alone and that his head collides with the sky may underline the man’s confusion. He also uses imagery in the “stain of love as it eats into the leaves”, and saffron horned branches, vivid and easy-to-imagine images that captivate the reader. The line stating “a smooth purple sky” and this stain which is “spoiling the colours of the whole world” easily formulate a very distinct picture. Through consonance words like “eats” and “smears with saffron” become fiercer in the eyes of this lover as they cancel out a “smooth sky”.
First of all, the poem is very exquisite and dramatic. It appeared imaginable as like I see the blood on the deck, a man crying. Also, from first to last part, speaker’s voice had changed; he hold his captain’s head with deep grief, and eventually he walked weekly through on the deck. The situation of the poem is that a ship is reached to the port. And the people on the ship were exulting