“Title” Although the world today seems completely corrupt at times, some happiness and hope can be found when one is determined enough. Even in the middle of the worst day ever most humans manage to smile at least once in that day. However, in the two poems “For My Daughter” by Weldon Kees and “Rite of Passage” by Sharon Olds the speakers are both quite acceptant that there is no hope for a good life in this world. In these poems the speakers are parents concerned that their children are doomed to live a life of war and hurt. The authors of these poems relay a theme that even the most innocent of children will eventually be tainted by the villainous ways of society. Obviously, anyone considering having children becomes exceptionally consumed with the “what if’s” that could follow bringing a child into the world. Throughout the poem, “ For My Daughter” Weldon Kees continuously describes all that could go wrong in his potential daughter’s life, “Death in certain war, the slim legs green/Or, fed on hate, she relishes the sting/Of others’ agony; perhaps the cruel/ Bride of a syphilitic or a fool” (Kees lines 9-12). It is very …show more content…
easy for readers to call this poem negative but Ryan Matthew Reyes writes in his analysis of the poem, “Some would call that pessimism and some would call that realism” (2). Perhaps Kees is simply recognizing the true destructive nature all humans have or he is just super paranoid about being a potential father. Reyes also writes,” I do believe that he is terrified of having a daughter, he is truly horrified by the idea of possibly being forced to hate something that you are designed to love” (2). Simply put, all villains and murderers have mothers and those mothers probably love their children despite their children being monsters. Undoubtedly, when a parent’s child is young it is interesting to see the bits that will turn him or her into an adult and the adult they will become. In the poem, “Rite of Passage” the speaker is assumed to be a mother describing her son’s birthday party. Although the tone is light and playful the theme is quite dark. The poem frequently makes references to the cruelty of man. Olds writes, “We could easily kill a two-year-old”(l 22). By having the boys mention death so causally the malevolent theme is prominent. Amanda Nicole writes in her analysis, “ The poem is a satire about war that expresses the immature and cruel nature of warfare”(1). The reference to war is clear when the speaker calls the boys “generals” and “men”. Although the guests are so young the mother realizes soon they will be men capable of much destruction and hate as the world sculpts them into adults. When reading the two poems, “For My Daughter”, and “Rite of Passage” readers can easily recognize the similar theme in the poems.
Both authors create this theme that all good ultimately turns to bad due to the malicious nature of the world. In “For My Daughter” the speaker deeply fears having a daughter that becomes wrathful and hateful, he writes, “Or, fed on hate, she relishes the sting/ Of others’ agony; perhaps the cruel” (Kees lines 10-11). In the poem “Rite of Passage” the speaker does not necessarily fear what her son could become but does recognize the beastly nature of war, “men agree, they clear their throats/ like Generals, they relax and get down to/playing war, celebrating my son’s life”(Olds lines 24-26). Ultimately, both authors have a similar theme that war wages on and there is no shelter for children in such a cruel
world. Throughout the two poems the speakers are parents concerned with the world corrupting their children. While all parents have these concerns these speakers take it to an extreme, especially in “For My Daughter”. Both poems make references to war and suggest that no hope for a pure life free of this war is possible. In the end, even in the worst of times, in the middle of the worst day, a smile can be found, and a parent must simply trust that they gave their children enough smiles to last through the worst of days.
In her poem “The School Children”, Louise Gluck uses imagery by applying an extended metaphor to show how going to school is similar to going to battle and by describing the mothers’ actions through the use of vivid verbs to portray the disconnection between children and their guardians, despite the sacrifices that mothers make.
...escribable sadness that lurks in the air around them. The way the young child will not be satisfied sends his father into a frustrated resentment of modern society. People take too much for granted in a place of hope, privileges, and freedom while war drags on in another country, ten thousand miles away. The appreciation of youthful innocence is thus juxtaposed with selfishness and an inability to be satisfied, which seems to create a double tone that creates a contrast about the reality of humanity. Sometimes we can never be content with what we have until something is lost or sacrificed. In youth and innocence, satisfaction and the appreciation of the world around us seem to come more easily, perhaps because life has not yet been tainted by greed. It may be part of human nature that, as one grows, his desires become more complex and thus more difficult to satiate.
...areness of unjustifiable conditions that are imposed on societies youngest and most powerless members. Intermingled with his convictions of the necessity for equality and justice are portraits of children who display a most astounding amount of hope and courage. It is an essential read for all who have plans to enter the field of education. Those of us who aspire to shape the minds of the future need to be aware that all children possess the ability to love and prosper despite whatever environment they have emerged from. It is our duty to provide all children, without regard to race or economic status, with the tools and opportunities they require in order to flourish and lead the satisfying lives that they so greatly desire and deserve.
Several boys believe that they are capable of handling on their own without any guidance from their parents. In "Rites of Passage" by Sharon Olds, the son is celebrating his birthday with his friends through the perspective of warfare. In "Boys" by Jim Tilley, the speaker is portraying the life of a war through their premature games with his neighbors. Both poems establish the reality of transition of reality from boys to men by creating warfare imagery that contradict the trait of a man and a child. Olds and Tilley demonstrate that boys want to prove themselves that they want to take care of themselves. Because of that, they switch between imagination and reality. The two poems emphasize the boys’ childhoods through their interest in playing war, and show their immaturity in trying to be proud and aggressive. However, their naivety is holding them back
...ll wants and desires often results in a future filled with deep sadness. However, children do not degenerate by themselves; rather they are not spoiled till those of influential stature in the eyes of the children sink in to the corruption of favoritism. Even though times have changed, this corruption present in “Why I Live at the P.O” is analogous to what favoritism is today. In the modern world, partiality towards a certain child usually comes from strong feelings of love that bury themselves in an prominent figure’s mind and subconsciously spoil the child. This irony, that amplified love actually causes one to suffer later in life, depicts the broader issue that by getting one used to an imaginary life where all desires are fulfilled, he or she cannot accept the fact of human nature that, outside the household, people are indifferent to another person’s wishes.
Through diction, the tone of the poem is developed as one that is downtrodden and regretful, while at the same time informative for those who hear her story. Phrases such as, “you are going to do bad things to children…,” “you are going to suffer… ,” and “her pitiful beautiful untouched body…” depict the tone of the speaker as desperate for wanting to stop her parents. Olds wrote many poems that contained a speaker who is contemplating the past of both her life and her parent’s life. In the poem “The Victims,” the speaker is again trying to find acceptance in the divorce and avoidance of her father, “When Mother divorced you, we were glad/ … She kicked you out, suddenly, and her/ kids loved it… ” (Olds 990). Through the remorseful and gloomy tone, we see that the speaker in both poems struggles with a relationship between her parents, and is also struggling to understand the pain of her
I have elected to analyze seven poems spoken by a child to its parent. Despite a wide variety of sentiments, all share one theme: the deep and complicated love between child and parent.
During the process of growing up, we are taught to believe that life is relatively colorful and rich; however, if this view is right, how can we explain why literature illustrates the negative and painful feeling of life? Thus, sorrow is inescapable; as it increase one cannot hide it. From the moment we are born into the world, people suffer from different kinds of sorrow. Even though we believe there are so many happy things around us, these things are heartbreaking. The poems “Tips from My Father” by Carol Ann Davis, “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, and “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop convey the sorrow about growing up, about sorrowful pretending, and even about life itself.
My thesis statement is that children’s innocence enables them to cope in difficult situations. Children generally have a tendency to lighten the mood in sad situations because of their innocent nature. They turn even the saddest situations to mild, innocent situations. This is evident when Marjane says “these stories had given me new ideas for games”, (Satrapi, 55). By saying this she refers to her uncle’s stories of how he and other prisoners were tortured in prison. Stories of torture have never been easy to hear even for adults but Marjane so innocentl...
The author uses imagery, contrasting diction, tones, and symbols in the poem to show two very different sides of the parent-child relationship. The poem’s theme is that even though parents and teenagers may have their disagreements, there is still an underlying love that binds the family together and helps them bridge their gap that is between them.
Phoenix’s Grandson in “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty’s "A Worn Path" is a short story by Eudora Welty that discussions around an old lady who lives in a period portrayed by a wild and widespread racial bias. The old lady is alluded to as Phoenix Jackson in the story who a grandma who lives with a sole inspiration of supporting her sickly grandson back to wellbeing. Grandma Phoenix displays a solid love bond towards her grandson and will do farfetched and bizarre things. Eudora keeps in touch with her book through the focal thought of an old lady demonstrating her affection to her grandson by vanquishing all chances against her. Be that as it may, the reader does not get a reasonable picture on Phoenix's grandson.
In her essay, “A Child’s Garden of Subversion,” Cornell professor Alison Lurie reminds adult readers of the ‘sacred texts’ of childhood, which “recommended—even celebrated—daydreaming, disobedience, answering back, running away from home and concealing one's private thoughts and feelings from unsympathetic grown-ups” (Lurie 131). Such subversive books “overturned adult pretensions and made fun of adult institutions, including school and family” (Lurie 131). In other words, these books are unlike the moral didactic books, wherein a ‘bad’ child undergo a pivotal occurrence ultimately making them seek out help from their caregivers, and reforming them into a ‘good’ child; however, realizing that this philosophy is irrational, authors of subversive works celebrated the fact that children are indeed, children and should be children to their fullest potential while they are in this “unusual, partly savage tribe, ancient and widely distributed” (Lurie 130).
This poem portrays the world that we now live in. In today’s day and age the youth are expected to live a normal lifespan butt with the cold hard truth in this poem you can see that for most kids that is not the case. Not only is that sad it is just not right, there is something we as a people
In the poem, “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake, the author attempts to educate the reader about the horrors experienced by young children who are forced into labor at an early age cleaning chimneys for the wealthy. The poem begins with a young boy who has lost his mother but has no time to properly grieve because his father has sold him into a life of filth and despair. The child weeps not only for the loss of his mother and father’s betrayal, but also for the loss of his childhood and innocence. Blake uses poetry in an attempt to provoke outrage over the inhumane and dangerous practice of exploiting children and attempts to shine a light on the plight of the children by appealing to the reader’s conscience in order to free the children from their nightmare existence. Right away in the first lines of the poem we learn through the child narrator that his life is about to change dramatically for the worse.
In the eyes of a child, there is joy, there is laughter. But as time ages us, as soon as we flowered and became grown-ups the child inside us all fades that we forget that once, we were a child.