Both authors present the theme of identity in different ways. For example, in ‘Still I Rise’ the speaker is conveying that she is very much confident with her identity and that she has a strong sense of who she is as she fights back against the oppression of blacks in America, however in ‘An Unknown Girl’, the poem follows a speaker who is having her hand hennaed by a girl who is unknown to the reader in an Indian bazaar whilst she is trying to connect with her Indian roots and appears alienated as she desperately wants to join the culture. The fact that Moniza Alvi is determined, almost desperate to become a member of the community is shown in her line, ‘I am clinging to these firm peacock lines like people who cling to the sides of a train.’ …show more content…
This is shown in the line ‘I have new brown veins.’ The use of the adjective ‘new’ shows that the culture has changed her for the better and that she has become a completely new person. Likewise, the fact that the speaker has new ‘veins’ is significant as it shows the permanence of her new cultural identity and the use of the full stop at the end of the line shows how definitive she is about her cultural shift. This is also shown as the speaker writes that she will ‘lean across a country with [her] arms outstretched for the unknown girl in the neon bazaar.’ The fact that the speaker will ‘lean across a country’ shows how warmly she will welcome her culture into her life and how she is so determined to become a member of the culture with her new-found …show more content…
“Out of the huts of history’s shame… up from a past that’s rooted in pain”. The alliteration of the letter ‘h’ in ‘out of the huts of history’s shame’ makes the line seem as though it is hard to say, yet again alluding to her roots as slaves were often made to work until they collapsed and physically couldn’t work anymore. The sibilance at the end of ‘history’s shame’ gives the end of the line a harsh feel and gives it a bitter taste, which highlights the persona’s bitterness towards the mistreatment of her ancestors. Furthermore, the use of the plosives ‘past’ and ‘pain’ set an angry tone of passion, conflict and violence, as if she is fighting against her oppressors. The stanza is similar to a chant that shows strength and unity. This is, however contradicted by the verse’s meter, which is uneven. This may show the persona’s struggle with
The two poems best illustrate, through a reading put in a wider context of black suffering, Finney’s success in making the beautifully said thing intersect with the difficult-to-say-thing through her sharpened pencil (“Nikky Finney”), thus reshaping the present. The historical approach is necessary in order for given allusions to be situated in their social, political and cultural background. In order to escape intentional fallacy, a poet should relate his work to universal concerns. The application of the (auto)biographical-historical approach necessitates the investigation of some points: the relevance of the poet’s personal life and his/her poems; the expression of certain beliefs of the poet and his personal experience in relation to public concerns and beliefs of the time; the representation of historical figures in the poems; adequate depiction of the time/context of the poems (“Literary Criticism”); the poems as a reflection, a product of the time; the reformulation of actual events for special purposes; the difference between fictional representation and reality; the difference the time; understanding past events mirrored in the poems; and the impact of historical events/movements and literary works in formulating the poems.
This essay is anchored on the goal of looking closer and scrutinizing the said poem. It is divided into subheadings for the discussion of the analysis of each of the poem’s stanzas.
The subsequent section is concise as it provides the depressive historical context of the poem. The usage of factual period of time 1949 and the war / Now four years dead- conveys the suffering of the exiles and their endurance of the lengthy wait to migrate as they weren’t economically or physically capable to leave earlier.
As Edgar Allan Poe once stated, “I would define, in brief the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty.” The two poems, “Birthday,” and “The Secret Life of Books” use different diction, theme, and perspective to give them a unique identity. Each author uses different literary devices to portray a different meaning.
The poem is about the early stages in the narrator’s pregnancy. The doctor gives her news that the baby may be unhealthy. In a state of panic, we see the narrator turning to the methods of her homeland and native people to carry her through this tough time, and ensure her child’s safe delivery into the world. Da’ writes, “In the hospital, I ask for books./Posters from old rodeos. /A photo of a Mimbres pot /from southern New Mexico /black and white line figures—/a woman dusting corn pollen over a baby’s head/during a naming ceremony. /Medieval women/ingested apples/with the skins incised with hymns and verses/as a portent against death in childbirth” (Da’). We not only see her turning to these old rituals of her cultural, but wanting the items of her cultural to surround her and protect her. It proves her point of how sacred a land and cultural is, and how even though she has been exiled from it, she will continue to count it as a part of her
Imagine you were the rose trying to grow in concrete; would you have made it out or die trying or maybe you just gave up. So think about it, what would you have really done? The poem “The Rose that Grew from Concrete” is about a rose that grew in concrete a metaphor that shows that you have to get past your problems to succeed. And the poem “Mother to Son” is about a mother explaining how hard life is a metaphor. Both poems share the theme of You have to rise above the obstacles, but the way the authors developed the theme was similar and different.
on: April 10th 1864. He was born in 1809 and died at the age of 83 in
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 scars on Sethe’s back serve as another testament to her disfiguring and dehumanizing years as a slave. Like the ghost, the scars also work as a metaphor for the way that past tragedies affect us psychologically, “haunting” or “scarring” us for life. More specifically, the tree shape formed by the scars might symbolize Sethe’s incomplete family tree. It could also symbolize the burden of existence itself, through an allusion to the “tree of knowledge” from which Adam and Eve ate, initiating their mortality and suffering. Sethe’s “tree” may also offer insight into the empowering abilities of interpretation. In the same way that the white men are able to justify and increase their power over the slaves by “studying” and interpreting them according to their own whims, Amy’s interpretation of Sethe’s mass of ugly scars as a “chokecherry tree” transforms a story of pain and oppression into one of survival.
All the poems you have read are preoccupied with violence and/or death. Compare the ways in which the poets explore this preoccupation. What motivations or emotions do the poets suggest lie behind the preoccupation?
...tionship has completely evolved and the narrator somewhat comes into her own a natural and inevitable process.
Comparing two poems - Binsey Poplar by Hopkins and I wandered lonely as a cloud' by Wordsworth. Compare the two poems and comment on: - The overall feelings of the poem - How they use language effectively - What the poems suggest about the characters of the authors. The two poems 'Binsey Poplars' by Hopkins and 'I wandered lonely as a cloud' by Wordsworth both contain very strong, emotive feelings.
The last verse is irregular because it is about when they come after him. There is no repition and the atmosphere is diffrent.
In his preface of the Kokinshū poet Ki no Tsurayaki wrote that poetry conveyed the “true heart” of people. And because poetry declares the true heart of people, poetry in the minds of the poets of the past believed that it also moved the hearts of the gods. It can be seen that in the ancient past that poetry had a great importance to the people of the time or at least to the poets of the past. In this paper I will describe two of some of the most important works in Japanese poetry the anthologies of the Man’yōshū and the Kokinshū. Both equally important as said by some scholars of Japanese literature, and both works contributing greatly to the culture of those who live in the land of the rising sun.
of the difficulty in acceptance. In the first few stanzas the poet creates the impression that she