A work of art seeks to fulfill various functions hence, the poem gives me a critical and rational outlook; elicits various emotions and the danger brought by lack of strength and hope while striving for humanity. Change is inevitable but some things take longer to change compared to others. Racism spreads in all directions from its source. This therefore brings about social classes and levels of treatment and handling of situations. In the poem "Hard Rock Returns to Prison" by Etheridge Knight it is evident and how it is handled might raise various questions. The setup is a prison more specifically the United States Prisons where we have African American inmates and whites in charge as a correctional officers. The inmates go through various …show more content…
The readers respond to what they read based on how it is brought out. "Hard Rock Returns to Prison" by Etheridge Knight starts by presenting us with a character who is against manipulation and oppression but this is at a huge cost. “…Split purple lips, lumbed ears, welts above / His yellow eyes, and one long scar that cut /Across his temple…” These are reminders of what one has to go through especially if considered inferior to avoid oppression. This is inflicted on a prisoner by guards hence it must have been a painful ordeal which makes me pity the inmate. “…bored a hole in his head, / Cut out part of his brain, and shot electricity / Through the rest…” By reading this I feel the ordeal that the inmate went through which makes me compassionate and sympathetic. This is so extreme hence the question of did they lack any other way crops up. It is also unnecessary to inflict such pain to someone and destroy one’s life completely. All these are brought together by oppression and the need to avoid it. Those who are afraid to come out remain oppressed while those that come out are shut down. Every person as a right and the only way that one can come out clearly is by expression. ‘Hard Rock’ has gone through all that for not keeping quiet. The instances of suffering are brought out clearly due to the use of vivid description as this makes you feel in the moment and go through all that. The use of similes ‘…like a
and that we should help those less fortunate than ourselves. In this I essay I have shown how successful the poet was in making me share this view by using his thoughtful and intense language, word-choice and imagery techniques.
In the existence and effort of Etheridge Knight, the premise of prisons inflicted from slavery, racism, poverty, incarceration along with addiction and repetition of painful patterns are offset with the subject of freedom. His poems of travail and endurance, misery and tribute, loss and love bear witness to the reality that we are under no circumstance entirely confined. Knight's poetry articulates our choice of awareness and makes plain our capability for relationships with others.
enable us to understand the moral of the poem. Which is work hard and you will receive you goals and never give up.
This poem “ Read from the Bottom up” has every element to be consider a great poem, it inspires to think different the diction of words seem weird but yet it accomplished it point to go beyond a normal point of view and see things further then are. The purpose was accomplished the central theme is challenging to understand, but that was the whole of the poem to challenge traditional thinking and think beyond ourselves.
Many Americans pretend that the days of racism are far behind; however it is clear that institutional racism still exists in this country. One way of viewing this institutional racism is looking at our nation’s prison system and how the incarceration rates are skewed towards African American men. The reasons for the incarceration rate disparity are argued and different between races, but history points out and starts to show the reason of why the disparity began. Families and children of the incarcerated are adversely affected due to the discrimination as well as the discrimination against African American students and their likelihood of going to prison compared to the white student. African American women are also affected by the discrimination in the incarceration rate. Many white Americans don’t see how racism affects incarceration rates, and that African Americans are more likely to face discrimination from the police as well as being falsely arrested.
Etheridge Knight’s “Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane” (1968) effectively illustrates the devastation a group of prisoners’ feel as the state of their hero, Hard Rock, is realized. Though he was once the most fearless of the inmates, he is no longer the man he once was due a lobotomy performed by the doctors. Hard Rock is no typical hero, however, he still represents the hope for a future that all the inmates admire. The loss of hope that comes with the destruction of the inmates’ hero is artfully communicated through Knight’s use of tonal shifts representing the shifts in the inmates’ reaction to this situation, the use of diction in the deification of Hard Rock, and the use of similes to avoid the acceptance
The speakers and audience in poem are crucial elements of the poem and is also the case in these poems. In the poem Untitled, it can be argued that the poem is being written by Peter based on what his father might say to him...
It is not a coincidence that the majority of people in the correctional system are black, but there is the hope that through the knowledge and respect of one another those grievous acts that divide people into skin color, race, ethnicity, and religion can find a common ground. Common ground as in laws that everyone can agree on, not just what the majority decrees as being justice. There isn’t any government that can achieve this because of the seemingly infinite amount of strife in the world which causes people to become refugees and flee to strange countries. The only way that I can perceive the extinction of unconscious racism is the development of science which can prevent hardships. A common enemy has historically been known to bring people together, whether that enemy is a shortage of food or lack of resources, the most basic needs of freedom and liberty bind all men together with a goal in a positive direction.
...nly purpose for which it is worth living. The poem is effective in detailing the general struggle which many people go through, searching for a place in life, whether among acquaintances, friends, or a spouse. The ultimate meaning however is not found in reality, even when we understand it perfectly, but in a purpose higher than in oneself. In the poem, there is a continuing theme of change. In the beginning the changes are simple, like the acts of day turning to night, but at the end we see the life changes of a woman in particular. Through the use of metaphor and personification in the poem, Plath creates images of water, reflections, and colors as having human characteristics to emphasize the strong theme of change throughout the poem. Therefore throughout the poem “mirror” Plath uses several elements of terror and darkness to show change in the minds of readers.
if the minor details were not taken into consideration. The literary device ; connotation and imagery supports the figurative meaning of the poem very well. However, this poem could be considered as an irony in today's world. The theme; feelings are more important than wisdom in life is just another way of saying the thoughts are less important than the feeling that are being produced. The wisdom is just a minor detail and if we consider it, the feeling that are produced will be ignored. The poem literally talks about a man expressing his love to his beloved women. This poem is in a stanzaic form with a total number of 16 lines. It is a wonderful poem that makes the readers think about the life they are living.
The structure of this poem is not the traditional form of poetry, in that he begins with a first person statement then after an indentation, he elaborates on it almost lik...
Poetry is the most compressed form of literature, which should be read slowly and savored attentively. Poets employ different poetic techniques to convey their ideas, opinions, and express their feelings. Some poems can be understood easily while others seam vague. But whatever they are, they all contain some common elements of poetry such as theme, figurative language, and tone, etc. ¡§Constantly risking absurdity and death¡¨ and ¡§betting on the muse¡¨ are two poems which are written by two different poets. By comparing and contrasting these two poems, the full beauty of the poems can be greatly appreciated and their theme can be deeply explored.
The poet mourns the death of his loved one and wants the world to grieve with him. His wants his subjective to be objective. The first stanza links everything to noise. He wants to 'silence the piano ' for example, showing how he wants no more noise in the world. Throughout the poem, there are many imperatives. This relates back to Remember, where the poems title is included in the imperatives. The third stanza has no imperatives at all, and many antonyms. This is the poets way of saying they meant everything to him. The second stanza uses 'scribbling ' to personify a plane. The use of personification in the poem links back to Do not go gentle into that good night. The first stanza contains references to things that can be easily done like 'stop all the clocks '. The second has things that are theoretically possible but a bit harder to do. The poem seems to get less and less realistic as it goes on. The final line, 'For nothing now can ever come to any good ', is quite bleak, showing how the death of his partner has affected the poet. It gives him no good feelings
...the fleeting innate qualities of human beings and their world that they have constructed, giving way to the idea that mortals should live their lives as honorably as possible, so that they will be remembered by their future generations. The impermanence of the human form and its creations is heavily referred to as neither can survive throughout time, however, their words and deeds can live on through stories. The mere existence of this poem can attest to this idea.
Lyric poetry is based off song and establishes human condition, in this poem the condition of African Americans.