In his poem “To America,” H. Leyvik utilizes a distinctive feature in both the second and seventh stanzas. This feature is roughly worded, forty years ago I arrived here and I wanted to, but didn’t, fall prostrate on your earth and kiss it (Leyvik, 251-253). The function of this distinctive feature is to help organize the speaker's words as he struggles to admit his love for America. In its first appearance, it ties the meaning of stanzas three, four, five, and six, where the speaker outlines the sources of his struggle, back to the first appearance of the distinctive feature. In its second appearance, it segues to the climactic conclusion where the speaker officially exclaims his love for America. As is stated above, the first appearance …show more content…
of the distinctive feature occurs in the second stanza. It is worded, “I shall disclose now: when I got off the ship / Forty-one years ago, and touched your earth--I wanted to / Fall prostrate upon it, kiss it with my lips.
Yes, yes, I wanted to, should have, / And--I didn’t…” (Leyvik, 251). The ellipse at the end of the quotation indicates an incomplete thought with more to come. Therefore, in this case, the distinctive feature serves as an introduction to the speaker's explanation of why he was unable to admit his love for America. His struggle stems from multiple variables which are hinted at when the speaker states, “You see--I am cruel to myself when I say: It is certainly my fault, (...) / I am trying not to cast part of the blame on you, America” (Leyvik, 252). Despite the speaker's desire to point blame away from America, it is revealed that some of the blame should belong to America because living there made the speaker feel conscious and fearful of his Jewishness. This is evident when he says,“I mourned under your skies / Deep inside me, lamented that I carry my Yiddish song / In fear, through your streets and through your squares,” (Leyvik, 252). Consequently, these feelings undoubtedly slowed him in his proclamation of love. Alternatively, the blame on the speaker derives from his personal ineptitude to express his feelings for the things that he
loves as is revealed when he states, “I wrote, in memory of my father’s image, songs of guilt and longing. / And I said to that image: accept, though late, the kisses / That I wanted to give--should have given--as a child” (Leyvik, 251) which shows that in the past the speaker had failed to express his love to his father until it was too late. The fact that he struggled to admit love for someone so close to him points to the undoubted struggle he must face whenever he tries to express deep personal feelings. Despite these barriers faced by the speaker, he does end up confessing his love for America at the end of the poem, and this confession is accompanied by the second appearance of the distinctive feature. In the last paragraph, after the speaker's reasons for withholding his love have been uncovered, Leyvik writes, “I recall again / the moment, forty-one years ago, when I reached / Your shore, America, and I wanted to and should have / Fallen prostrate to your earth and touched it with my lips, / And in confused embarrassment I did not do it” (Leyvik, 253). Whereas in the first instance, the distinctive feature ended in uncertainty with an ellipse, this time it ends strongly with the speaker completely admitting to his faults when he says “in confused embarrassment I did not do it.” In contrast, the distinctive feature now serves as a segue to the climactic conclusion of the poem where the speaker overcomes both his distrust for America because of the fear it caused him and his personal ineptitude to express his feelings for things he loves when he says, “Let me do it now--as I stand here truthfully, / Embracing the glare of intimacy and farewell, America.” (Leyvik, 253), and confesses his love before saying goodbye, either to America or to human existence altogether.
“America” by Claude McKay is a poem dealing with McKay’s thoughts as he processes through his inner turmoil as he faces the reality of being rejected from a country that he loves. As Claude unveils his feelings to the reader, a creative description of America is presented. The poem deals with love and loyalty and the vicious rejection when you aren’t accepted in a society’s culture. In the short poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus showcases and contrasts the ancient Greek statue Helios and the Statue of liberty. Lazarus lets the reader compare the ancient Colossus of Rhodes, representing traditional masculinity in contrast with the New Colossus a feminine symbol of unity and refuge for those in need. Both poems are social commentaries
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.
One of the strongest parts is the questions-passage: the sender asks Americans what made them change, why the national-exaltation… He doesn’t look for the answers.
After reading The Book of the Unknown Americans, I realized how difficult immigrating to the United States can be. I am an immigrant also, so just reading the story makes me relate to many problems immigrants experience relocating to a different country. Immigrants often face many issues and difficulties, but for some it is all worth it, but for others there comes a point in time where they have to go back to their hometown. Alma and Arturo Rivera came to the United States to better their life, but also so that Maribel could attend a special education school. While Arturo had a job things had gone well for the family, but once Arturo lost the job and passed away the two of them had to go back because they felt that that was the best option for them. Reading this book made me realize how strong an individual has to be to leave their own country and relocate somewhere else not knowing if this will better your life or cause one to suffer.
..., the content and form has self-deconstructed, resulting in a meaningless reduction/manifestation of repetition. The primary focus of the poem on the death and memory of a man has been sacrificed, leaving only the skeletal membrane of any sort of focus in the poem. The “Dirge” which initially was meant to reflect on the life of the individual has been completely abstracted. The “Dirge” the reader is left with at the end of the poem is one meant for anyone and no one. Just as the internal contradictions in Kenneth Fearing’s poem have eliminated the substantial significance of each isolated concern, the reader is left without not only a resolution, but any particular tangible meaning at all. The form and content of this poem have quite effectively established a powerful modernist statement, ironically contingent on the absence and not the presence of meaning in life.
Love is powerful and could change a person’s personality. In “The Book of Unknown Americans”, the author Christina Hernriquez tells us the definition of love. It is a book combined with different stories but each story is connected to others. It talks about the immigrants that moved to America with lots of hope, but didn’t end up with a happy ending. The story is about love, hope and guilt and different kinds of emotional feeling. In the book, Mayor has an internal change because of Maribel, and the power of love. He wants to be a strong man who can protect Maribel. He used to be someone who couldn’t defend himself and he changed because of Maribel.
“Travel, Homecoming and Wavering Minds in Lyrical Ballads and other Poems.” ' A Natural Delineation of Human Passions': The Historic Moment of Lyrical Ballads. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004.
...een physical and cultural American growth. Although the early country was growing in land and although the Americans had surrendered their talents, Frost ironically says that Americans were still "unstoried, artless, and unenhansed." This final statement of the poem seems to imply that Frost saw that citizens' unity was really created by "the gift outright" of talents and work, but that the American culture they were seeking to make is still unfulfilled. Throughout the poem, Frost does seem to be saying that Americans were making advancements towards creating an American culture, such as when Americans "found salvation in surrender." In the end, though, Frost realizes that America is still "unstoried, artless, and unenhanced" and presents Americans again with the persistent goal of giving themselves outright in order to continue to build a uniquely American culture.
middle of paper ... ... Ultimately, we have two poems which can be compared on the grounds of their subject, but are poles apart regarding their message. The structure of these poems is not what would be typically expected from a war poem, but are structured on the basis of these typical structures in order to create some sense of familiarity.
freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building” (Edward Snowden). Before WW2, communism became a colossal concern due to the idea that various people were aiming more on what countries they wanted to colonize. Later after the war, from 1945-1964, the Vietnamese expanded Southward expecting to reach the Mekong River Delta. As a result of their movement, the Vietnamese absorbed French influence established upon choice and freedom to individuals. France was preferential where as the U.S. Was pushed further away because the French recognized the democratic republic of Vietnam (DMV) as a free state. In the novel The Quiet American, by Graham Greene, Thomas Fowler, a British journalist, meets an American CIA agent named Alden Pyle who is always reading books by York Harding. Pyle's opinions are based on Harding’s beliefs that a Third Force, a country that interferes with two fighting nations to help reach a settlement, is the best way to help Vietnam out of Communism. Both Fowler and Pyle battle over a women named Phuong, wanting what is best for her and the rest of Vietnam. While Fowler wants nonintervention, Pyle wants to do the complete opposite. In the novel The Quiet American, Pyle believes he has to bring in a Third Force to stop communism which became a threat to the Vietnamese when in contrast, Fowler is more justified because he interpreted the main conflict of the Third Force and the view of the Vietnamese people.
In the last line of the second stanza, the subject enters dramatically, accompanied by an abrupt change in the rhythm of the poem:
“To let the form of a poem succumb to its matter is and always will be the destruction of poetry” Yvor Winters is a modern poet, but he is very much a traditionalist. Poetry is a beautiful art that when properly mastered can exhume beautiful emotions from its readers. Proper forms, structure, grammar, rhyme scheme, all are elements of traditional poetry, and all, in my opinion, are elements of lovely poetry. I will argue that Yvor Winters poetic theory, The Fallacy of Expressive Form, written in 1939, arguing that poetry must be traditionally written can be tested using a Non Traditional song, Seven Nation Army by The White Stripe, and a Traditional poem, Incident by Countee Cullen; I will then explicate each poem to further explain my opinions on his theory.
In the poem “A song of Despair” Pablo Neruda chronicles the reminiscence of a love between two characters, with the perspective of the speaker being shown in which the changes in their relationship from once fruitful to a now broken and finished past was shown. From this Neruda attempts to showcase the significance of contrasting imagery to demonstrate the Speaker’s various emotions felt throughout experience. This contrasting imagery specifically develops the reader’s understanding of abandonment, sadness, change, and memory. The significant features Neruda uses to accomplish this include: similes, nautical imagery, floral imagery, and apostrophe.
“Letter to America”, was written in 2003 and composed by Margaret Atwood. Margaret Atwood was asked by the Nation to write a letter concerning America’s foreign policy. Margaret Atwood is one of the finest poets in Canadian history; therefore, it is difficult to understand why she made so many statements that were not backed up by factual evidence. Margaret Atwood made many statements concerning the actions America has taken over the past fifty five years. She stated America had taken a turn for the worst. She also stated that Canadians had never understood who America was trying to be. This caused her difficulty in writing the letter, because she never understood what was really going on. She made statements such as: we were gutting the constitution, running up record labels of debt, and torching the American economy. Margaret Atwood’s compelling statements towards America’s policies were well written, but lacked the factual evidence it needed to make her statements credible.
In “What is an American” by Hector St John de Crevecoeur, the writer described many notable differences that he discovered when he first arrived in America. He marveled at the many differences in structure, diversity, and the overall equality of this new land. Crevecoeur’s early America was much different than the land that he once knew. America gave him a sense of freedom, hope, and possibility. He wrote letters in hope to inspire all who were looking for a change in their lives, and who would be ready to contribute to the advancement of such a great land. America was more united, with every man working for themselves. There were no monarchies with Kings and Lords who contained all wealth while others suffered. Every