Poet’s style A poem is usually developed by a certain method or a style that the poet uses to help the reader to understand the meaning of the poem. The poem Graded Paper written by the poet Mark Halliday, is about a teacher who is grading a student’s paper and giving feedback on it. In the poem the poet uses different techniques to support and develop the poem. In the poem, the teacher who is grading the paper uses special tone while grading the paper. The teacher is the poem uses a tone of caring and helpful to the student. Although, throughout the poem, the teacher gives negative comments to the student, at the end the teacher gives the student an A-. This is the irony that the poet uses in the poem. Another technique the author uses …show more content…
In the poem the teacher points out mistakes such as the student’s thinking, his style of writing the paper and his grammar errors. The teacher said, “there are spots/where your thinking becomes, for me, / alarmingly opaque, and you syntax/seems to jump backwards through unnecessary hoops,” (6-9). This instance shows the error the teacher found in the paper about how the student’s thinking was not straight and would jump backwards and forward throughout the poem. Another error that the teacher finds is when the teacher tells the student that he should have wrote the paper differently or said something else. The teacher said, “I’d have said it differently, / or rather, said something else” (17-18). This instance shows that the teacher is not happy about the way the student has written he paper and tells him that he should have wrote it differently. Another instance where the teacher finds mistake in the paper is when the teacher fixes the students semicolons mistake in the paper. The teacher says, “Please notice how I’ve repaired your/ use of semicolons.”(28).This instance shows that the teacher found a mistake of semicolons, which the student did not use correctly in the paper. However, even after finding all these mistakes the teacher gives A- as an overall grade to the student. This is an example of an irony that shows that the teacher not only gave negative comments to the student, but after giving negative comments …show more content…
In the poem, the poet uses symbolism to show how teacher was not actually grading the paper, but she was trying to see her inside the student. First instance which shows this is when the teacher tells the student that she would have wrote the paper differently. The teacher said, “I’d have said it differently, / or rather, said something else” (17-18). This shows that the teacher was not grading the student on his writing, but she was comparing him to herself, and she was trying to tell him that he should have written the way she writes. Another instance which shows symbolism is when the teacher tells the student that she would have quoted the context. The teacher says,” I would have quoted in this context” (24). This shows that not only she did not grade the student on his writing, but she is showing the way she would have written the paper. Another symbol that the poet uses to show that the teacher was not grading the paper, but was trying to see herself in the story is when after finding the mistakes, the teacher says that after all the student is not her and it is natural to have fault in his paper. The teacher said, “You are not/ me, finally, / and though this is an awkward problem, involving/ and inescapable fast that you are so young, so young/ it is also a delightful provocation” (34-38). This shows that the teacher is telling the student that because he is not her and he is very young, there are
Because many people who read this poem were once in a student’s role, they start to relate more and more as the poem continues. The speaker talks of “sweating the final” and “reading disorganized essays” (Lines 9 and 11). Much like any school-goer, the scenes depicted in this section of the work are humorous because almost everyone can relate to them. The speaker mentions “the boy who always had his hand up” (Line 14). Everyone has had the geeky poindexter know-it-all kid that sits in the front of the classroom, eager to answer all of the teacher’s questions. “While he seldom makes actual puns, his wit is of the punning kind: he makes idioms ridiculous through inflation, hyperbole, and repetition” (Kirsch). Kirsch also says that , “...part of Collins's talent is knowing when to stop”(Kirsch). Collins does not overdo his puns and witty remarks ,which could become quite cheesy to some readers, but he knows how to make them work. Through the use of humor, Collins brings a lightheartedness to the work that appeals to readers.“The poem also alternates between humor (jokes about teachers and students) and pathos (sad aspects of some students’ later lives or some teachers’ later lives)” (Prinsky). He even goes on to make a reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. By using this analogy, Collins touches on the social crowd platform. He says, “The A’s stroll along with other A’s” and “The D’s honk
In Conclusion, Billy Collins use of irony in both the setting and the description of the stereotypical students helped strengthen the allusion of the poem. The students in the poem are in an eternal school lifestyle as opposed to being in a normal town environment. Aspects of the setting, such as the landscape being made out of paper and the night sky being compared to a blackboard painted a descriptive picture in the mind of the reader, making the allusion more believable and relatable. Also, the use of stereotypes in this poem added on to the allusion of the school environment, giving life to the society in the town created by Collins. At first, the poem may seem like only an allusion, but with a closer look, you can see the reality behind it all.
Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities; it is solely used to evoke emotive feelings in the reader in which to convey a message or story. This form of literature has a long history dating back thousands of years and is considered a literacy art form as it uses forms and conventions to evoke differentiating interpretations of words, though the use of poetic devices. Devices such as assonance, figurative language, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve a musical and memorable aspect to the poem. Poems are usually written based on the past experiences of the poet and are greatly influenced by the writer’s morals values and beliefs. Poetry regularly demonstrates and emphasises on the
In Harrison Bergeron, the irony author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. uses is very apparent. Irony is a literary technique in which the opposite of what is meant is said or done, usually to a humorous effect. There are three types of irony used in this story; verbal, situational and dramatic. The most humorous use of verbal irony is when the narrator says “Hazel had a perfectly normal intelligence”. This is ironic because Hazel only has a twenty second memory, which is not that
In conclusion, many examples are given throughout the novel that exemplifies all three types of irony: situational, verbal, and dramatic. There are many more examples, like Bernard wanting attention and John’s suicide. His suicide can be an example of irony, with the reader hoping that John (the revolutionist) might succeed, but John taking his own life. Irony plays a huge role in the book, pointing out that no society can be perfect and that some laws are broken by the creators themselves.
poem. The tone used by each poet is critical because it indicates to the reader their
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.”
Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used as an effective literary device. Situational irony is used to show the reader that what is expected to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to clue the reader in on something that is happening that the characters in the story do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.
Examples of the use of verbal irony is present in the pre-hook of the song:
A second step in analyzing a poem is to identify the main idea or point of the poem. In “The Author to ...
In any discussion of poetry vs. prose worth it's stanzas, questions regarding such tools as meter, rhyme, and format must come into play. These are, after all, the most obvious distinguishing features of poetry, and they must certainly be key in determining the definition, and in fact nature, of poetry.
Collins himself was the speaker and author of this poem. When learn that Collins himself was the author and speaker of the poem when he says, “I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide” (Collins, Billy). When Collins says I ask them, it shows that he is the author and speaker. An example that I find is the huge difference between the tone of the last two paragraphs between the rest of the paragraph. Collins uses a cheerful tone in his first five paragraphs of the poem when he is explaining how people should examine a poem, but then changes to an unpleasant tone when he starts explaining how people examine a poem. This poetic device helps us understand how Collins feels about how we examine a poem and how he really wants us to examine a poem. Another poetic device Collins used in his poem is metaphors. A good example of a metaphor is “walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch” (Collins, Billy). The reason that is a metaphor is because a poem is compared to a room. All the metaphors used throughout the poem helps us understand just how much Collins wants us to dive in deep and examine a poem to understand the meaning of the
The author, Arthur Cavanaugh, uses irony to reinforce the theme. An example of this is when Ms.Wilson tells the class that she will be absent and that they will have a substitute. Knowing this, Roger convinced his father to take him to the park, owing to the fact that in Roger’s mind, that homework would not be collected. After a day with Ms.Orville, however, Roger completed his nightly assignments forthwith after school. Even though Roger expected to enjoy an easy few days with a substitute, he got the most discipline he’s ever experienced.
The playwright has done remarkable use of symbols, tensions, and irony. He uses all of these components to express the main theme of the play; the hopeful desire to change the present followed by unavoidable disappointments. All of the characters have dreams, which are destroyed by the harsh realities of the world. As the narrator admits in his opening of the play, "since I have a poet's weakness for symbols," is an expression of a particular theme, idea or character.
Poetry is a form of written word which has experience created by sound and meaning. It integrates various elements: Imagery; a figurative language which prompts the reader as well as the listener of the poem to create mental images. Poetic choice of words; this is based on the sound that is, denotation and connotation. Denotation refers to the accurate meaning of the word while connotation refers to the intended meaning of a word. The sound is another element of poetry which about the rhyme; words that sound similar or exactly alike in the poem. It employs metaphor which expresses something new and meaning way by way of comparison on unlike things. The theme as the main element is the purpose of the poem. Poetry is tied as an art because of