In the poem, “Face Down” by Mary Karr, she speaks about how a suicide shook veryone close to her, how this person was basically a ticking bomb set to self destruct, and how he still haunts everyone around her. Karr makes it clear that she is upset by what he did and uses imagery and diction to create and communicate her angry
tone.
Also frustrated with her suggested place in American society, Georgia Douglass Johnson, over-shadowed by her male counterparts, published several poems during the Harlem renaissance, which exposed the struggles faced by women of color, in what is often categorized as aa golden age for African Americans. Her works are a testament to her own struggle, as a female African American writer in the first half of the century. Although Johnson graduated in 1896, from Atlanta University, she did not publish her first poem until 1916, at the age of 36. This is partially due the gender expectations, that kept her geographically removed from the major literary circles of her day, which were in Harlem. Due to her marriage to Washington lawyer Henry
“Still Memory” by Mary Karr is a poem that depicts the distant, childhood memory that the author fondly recalls. Karr’s nostalgic diction and word choice is evident when she says, “…till it found my old notch in the house I grew up in…” In this section, Karr is dreaming, hoping to find a happier time in her life, her childhood. Throughout the poem, Karr is recalling a time when she was only ten years old, and shows how each of her family members’ mannerisms influenced her and her future in writing. What may only appear to be the family performing their daily routine, is much more beneath the surface. According to the lines, “My ten-year-old hand reaches for a pen to record it all as would become long habit,” these actions are what influenced her writing. For writers, inspiration can come from the simplest of elements, and for Karr, this happened to be her family.
As this character hangs on to the window, a whirlwind of thoughts runs through her head. “Her mind chatters like neon and northside bars” (Harjo 55). This woman is striving to understand how her life has come to this point. She reflects upon her life, remembering dark times and searching for a reason to survive. This character hears voices that are “whispering / to her to get up, to get up, to get up” (Harjo 37-38). Other voices “scream out from below / for her to jump…” (Harjo 42-43). Notice that the encouraging voices whisper. This woman’s confidence is hidden within. It murmurs softly. Yet, the negative voices scream, because self-doubt is strong and alarming. These voices represent her contemplation. She must decide whether to let go and die or hold on and live (Harjo 1-66). The narrator states, “The woman hangs from the 13th floor crying for / the lost beauty of her own life” (60-61). This character’s life is not what it once was. However, despite the hardships she has faced, she continues to value life. This woman yearns to regain the beauty she lost, and she knows she must lift herself up to do
I think in the beginning, this poem is mocking the façade of happiness that many clean-cut individuals have. It is a mockery of the thoughts in the criminal mind. Many times, a criminal cannot bring himself to commit suicide, so they take someone else's life instead. By doing so, subconsciously, the criminal knows he will be caught and in turn, executed.
Suicide Note, written by Janice Mirikitani, is a poem in which a girl apologizing to her parents and expressing herself and her actions. The poem is well constructed and the author describes many of the feelings using metaphors. The author’s purpose was to show people how many kids felt in her days. Although there is no reason for a person, who chooses to fail and pity themselves, to end there life, let alone write about how they pity themselves. I hate these kinds of poems because they are stupid for such stupid actions, but I guess the author had a reason. No matter the circumstances, not child or adult should take their own
I will discuss the similarities by which these poems explore themes of death and violence through the language, structure and imagery used. In some of the poems I will explore the characters’ motivation for targeting their anger and need to kill towards individuals they know personally whereas others take out their frustration on innocent strangers. On the other hand, the remaining poems I will consider view death in a completely different way by exploring the raw emotions that come with losing a loved one.
Marsha Norman was born into a very religious family in 1947 and was taught from an early age to read and write which sparked her interest in literature. Her strict upbringing, the death of her father when she was eight, and her work with disturbed adolescents in a mental hospital are all accredited as inspiration for her works, including ‘night, Mother. ‘night, Mother was published in 1982 and is most likely set in America during the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. During this time period, suicide was a sort of taboo subject, even though death by suicide made up 11% of the total death percentage (CDC of Nevada). The fact that Marsha Norman directly confronted the issue of suicide in her play and that one of the characters actually committed suicide during the play caused an outrage as the reasons as to why people committed suicide had not been fully explored yet. The reasons behind as to why people commit suicide varies enormously and with every situation there is something to learn about the victim and the circumstances that caused them to resort...
In this poem the writer uses a technique called Enjambment. In most cases Enjambment can show anger, desperation or frustration...
Recently I learned firsthand how deceptive these masks could be. Someone that I know but that I was not really close to took his own life this past week. On the outside he seemed like a happy person. He had a lot of ‘boys’ and everyone seemed to know him. But could it be that something was going on inside that no one knew about? “Poor chap, he always loved larking / and now he’s dead / It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, / they said.”(Lines 5-9) This is how it was with his guy, everyone cold only speculate why he would kill himself because none of them knew anything except that he was a fun guy to be around. It’s a shame that it takes something as drastic as suicide to make people even wonder if people have conflicts going on inside them that can be extremely detrimental to them. As the speaker states, “Oh no no no, it was too cold always, / … / I was to far out all my life” (lines 10-12). Only a true friend would know this and like the man I referred to earlier it can be assumed that the man in the poem had no true friends.
The speaker started the poem by desiring the privilege of death through the use of similes, metaphors, and several other forms of language. As the events progress, the speaker gradually changes their mind because of the many complications that death evokes. The speaker is discontent because of human nature; the searching for something better, although there is none. The use of language throughout this poem emphasized these emotions, and allowed the reader the opportunity to understand what the speaker felt.
In his narrative poem, Frost starts a tense conversation between the man and the wife whose first child had died recently. Not only is there dissonance between the couple,but also a major communication conflict between the husband and the wife. As the poem opens, the wife is standing at the top of a staircase looking at her child’s grave through the window. Her husband is at the bottom of the stairs (“He saw her from the bottom of the stairs” l.1), and he does not understand what she is looking at or why she has suddenly become so distressed. The wife resents her husband’s obliviousness and attempts to leave the house. The husband begs her to stay and talk to him about what she feels. Husband does not understand why the wife is angry with him for manifesting his grief in a different way. Inconsolable, the wife lashes out at him, convinced of his indifference toward their dead child. The husband accepts her anger, but the separation between them remains. The wife leaves the house as husband angrily threatens to drag her back by force.
Many times people express their feelings through words others can understand but in the poem, “Lost Soul” by Brianna Alvarez, she expresses her way of feeling and thought through poetic and literary devices. There is a use of imagery and the theme to imply heartbreak, suffrage, and hopelessness. The poem express how the speaker wants to be left alone of something or someone that has hurt or is hurting them.
The poem "The Suicide" by Louis MacNeice is a mind-expanding and touching poem based around the poets work experiences and sequentially describes the aftermath of the death of his former office colleague, who met his fate by suicide. I feel melancholied having read this poem and it leaves in the mind blanks for the reader to answer.
Suicide is the death of one’s body who has lost its soul a long time before. Suicide is a light at the end of a dark tunnel with no way out. Suicide is an end to the heartache and all their troubles. Suicide is not the killer, rumors are. Haters are the killer. Suicide is the one that everyone blames for the end of one’s own life that is taken by themselves, but it’s not. Suicide is when another has already cut apart everything that there is to a person until there is nothing more left of their soul, and the only thing that still exists is the body that has to be destroyed as well. Rumors are the real killer. Rumors fueled by the hatred of others made only to
Through out both poems, the reader is presented a insight into two unique, yet parallel types of violence. Both writers experience the turmoil of both internal and external types of violence. Although the circumstances surrounding their despair are totally different, many of the feelings felt through out the poems are encountered by both authors. The feelings of despair when violence is encountered is a common theme in both works, and both have a feeling of intimacy with the narrator. Both Sylvia Path and Derek Walcott use the theme of violence in both poems to give the reader insight into the lives and situations of both of the characters, and the unique ways they handle their despair.