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Diction and imagery of poetry
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Bryant, when writing this poem, was only 17 years old, but that did not stop his amazing ability to shine through his work. Bryant’s similes are dynamic and powerful, not only because of the images that he uses, but also the simplicity in which he words them. Anyone can understand his flow from one image to another, making the figurative language commanding to the readers attention. Lines 77-81 demonstrates Bryant’s considerable range in depth, because he keeps his language simple and easy to understand. This allows more people to read and comprehend his poem, spending his purposes. “Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,/ scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed/ by an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,/ like one who wraps
The speaker’s rocky encounter with her ex-lover is captured through personification, diction, and tone. Overall, the poem recaps the inner conflicts that the speak endures while speaking to her ex-lover. She ponders through stages of the past and present. Memories of how they were together and the present and how she feels about him. Never once did she broadcast her emotions towards him, demonstrating the strong facade on the outside, but the crumbling structure on the inside.
While the poem's situation is simple, its theme is not. Stafford appears to be intimating that life is precious and fragile; however, nothing so clearly discloses these attributes of life as confrontation with death. Furthermore, the very confrontations that engender appreciation of life's delicacies force action-all to frequently callous action.
Jones employs the dynamics of change to his speaker throughout the poem. From an aimless vagrant to a passionate revolutionary, Jones plots his speaker's course using specific words and structural techniques. Through these elements, we witness the evolution of a new black man--one who is not content with the passivity of his earlier spiritual leaders. We are left with a threat--a steel fist in a velvet glove of poetry--and it becomes a poem that we "have to" understand, whether we want to or not.
The entire poem is based on powerful metaphors used to discuss the emotions and feelings through each of the stages. For example, she states “The very bird/grown taller as he sings, steels/ his form straight up. Though he is captive (20-22).” These lines demonstrate the stage of adulthood and the daily challenges that a person is faced with. The allusions in the poem enrich the meaning of the poem and force the reader to become more familiar with all of the meaning hidden behind the words. For example, she uses words such as innocence, imprisonment and captive to capture the feelings experienced in each of the stages.
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
For most students, poetry is a complex subject that we all wish to avoid. Much effort is needed to understand the vague imagery and complicated word play to comprehend the overall message the poet is trying to portray. Ultimately, in the end, we fail to actually enjoy the piece because we are too focus on analyzing everything in the poem. Billy Collins “Introduction to Poetry,” criticized this need to torture a poem for its meaning when in fact it should be a slow but enjoyable process to go through. Due to this, he illustrates way in which poetry should be tackled. He was able to convey his idea through the usage of metaphor and imagery as we all as the structure of the poem .
When reading Wilcox's poem, metaphorical reference and philosophical contemplation occur multiple times. For instance, in the opening stanza of the poem, there is an instant establishment of spiritual content and philosophical questioning. Wilcox writes:
The last and most effective aspect of writing Larson uses is figurative language and devices; it is best to start with the basic use of a simile used to illustrate and aspect for the reader, as seen when he portrays the Worthington pumps, “Worthington pumps began stretching their shafts and pistons, like praying mantises shaking off the cold” (Larson 238). Its effect is providing an artistic interpretation of events so that the experience is not just reading facts that could cause the reader to become unamused. This is the same reasoning behind the use of personification in the passage. This can be exemplified when the verb soared is applied to the water from the fountain, “pumps exploded from the MacMonnies Fountain and soared a hundred feet into the sky, casting a sheet rainbow cross the sun” (Larson 238-239). The latter section of this sentence comments on the creation of a sheet rainbow and serves as an accent for the rest of the sentence. Another form of accent that Larson uses if foreshadowing, a small literary device that can achieve great power of meaning and is the reason he uses this technique. The passage ends in a dramatically unexpected dark note that reflects the overall main themes of the book, this ending being, “As the crowd thundered, a man eased up beside a thin, pale woman with a bent neck. In the next instant Jane Addams realized her purse was gone.” (Larson 239). The purpose of this is highlighting all of the
First, the poem’s interfering similes and metaphors undermine its formal coherence and consistency. Whereas the foregoing paragraph explains the uniformity of tone, syntax, diction, and purpose that emanates from the poem’s form, its conflicting comparisons make the poem’s subject protean at best and amorphous at worst. I will argue that Lady Lazarus is the latter.
To begin, the reader may gather that the poem has a very dark and saddened tone. Due to Lowell's vivid imagery, a mental image of a dark urban setting is created. It also seems very cold, with the mentioning of wind and nighttime. Readers may be able to relate to urban places they know, adding to the reality of the poem. Connections can be made. The imagery is left in such a way that the reader can fill in the gaps with their own memories or settings. Also, since the poem uses free verse, the structure is left open to interpretation. This makes the poem more inviting and easier to interpret, rather than reading it as a riddle. However, though simple in imagery, the poem still captures the reader's interest due to the creation it sparks, yet it never strays away from the theme of bei...
Exaggeration in the poem could stretch the truth too much and could complicate the reader’s interpretation of the poem, and if figurative language that language that is unfamiliar to the reader and is used, the reader’s knowledge of the real events behind the poem could be false. Most importantly, rhyme and repetition could emphasize points in the battle that aren’t necessarily important. These elements put the spotlight on lessons that life needs to teach readers and things everyone must
It is relatively easy to see the repression of blacks by whites in the way in which the little black boy speaks and conveys his thoughts. These racial thoughts almost immediately begin the poem, with the little black boy expressing that he is black as if bereaved of light, and the little English child is as white as an angel. The wonderful part of these verses is the fact that the little black boy knows that his soul is white, illustrating that he knows about God and His love.
Browning's amazing command of words and their effects makes this poem infinitely more pleasurable to the reader. Through simple, brief imagery, he is able to depict the lovers' passion, the speaker's impatience in reaching his love, and the stealth and secrecy of their meeting. He accomplishes this feat within twelve lines of specific rhyme scheme and beautiful language, never forsaking aesthetic quality for his higher purposes.
One piece of the poem hints towards imagery involving slavery, this occurs when the speaker talks about the “charter’d street….charter’d Thames” and later on mentioning “The mind-forg’d manacles”. The street and Thames being described as charter’d shows the power of the government having the control of parts of the city such as a river and the streets. The use of “the mind-forg’d manacles” is symbolic by showing that their brains or minds are being controlled and limited by the government and is a symbol of enslavement. The poem seems to express a lot of imagery about death and sadness, terms such as cry, curse, plagues and hearse are used. The use of such words tells the reader that the soldiers are being forced by the government to kill. Therefore, causing the soldiers despair. Another portion of the poem uses phrases such as “in very infants cry of fear” and “how the chimney sweepers cry” to show an image of child labor. The term “appalls” is used to describe the “blackning Church” to allow the audience to realize that the church is horrified of the child labor. The chimney sweepers are a specific example of child labor. And the use of the word “blackning” suggests that a sin such as child labor is occurring. Lastly, imagery is used in the last stanza to show the horrifying cycle of living in London, England. “How the youthful Harlots curse, blasts the new-born Infants tear” describes how prostitutes are
/ Remember us—if at all—not as lost/Violent souls” (lines 15-18). This novel is a perfect example of this poem’s theme. As the well-known quote from the novel tells the reader to abandon all hope, just as the hollow men have done. This also