When we read the title of the poem by Lucie Brock-Broido, our attention is interrupted by a little number ‘1’ on the tail of the word ‘Lion’. Instinctively we stop in our tracks and gaze down to the bottom of the page to the footnote, initially forgetting about the poem all-together and instead, focused on the tiny font that displays some added information. This text changes the way we look at “Self-Deliverance by Lion” by transporting us from poetic language to academic writing, by adding authenticity and authority to the poem, and by literally changing our focus from inside the poem to outside of it. I will explain the techniques that footnotes use to add to the meaning of the poem by comparing my interpretation of the poem before seeing the footnote and that upon reading the footnote in Vendler’s edition. This will aim to show that the poem is best suited without the footnote and that its presence deters from a more meaningful reading. Before that, however, I will examine the techniques of both the footnote and the poem in helping one work towards meaning. The language a poet uses in a poem is what separates it from any other type of writing. We notice right away by the rhyme, the metaphors, the similes, the alliterations and the metric patterns that we are reading a poem, a piece of art. We recognize that what sits in front of us is a portrait of a time, a place, a person, or an event that may or may not exist in our world and that to enjoy this literature we do not need to know for certain what the details mean; it is up to interpretation. This is precisely what Lucie Brock-Broido achieves in her poem. She uses beautiful language to paint a vivid picture in our minds. She extracts feelings through phrases like “Her body was... ... middle of paper ... ...p against the truth. This takes away from the poetic liberties that Lucie Brock-Broido has. It summary, the footnote takes away more than it gives to the reading of the poem. In conclusion, footnotes can be incredibly useful in validating and sourcing a text. The authoritative language and placement on the page can have an impact on our reading of a piece of litterature. Nevertheless, Lucie Brock-Broido’s poem, “Self-Deliverance by Lion” is a powerful poem that when stands alone, is much more powerful and enjoyable. Because the footnote distracts the reader, adds unnecessary authority and detracts from the poetic freedom of the poet, the poem is more meaningful alone. Though the footnote can add more emotion for the reader, it is not worth the cost. Perhaps, poems are meant to be works of art presented without any other texts to interfere and distract the reader.
Poetry’s role is evaluated according to what extent it mirrors, shapes and is reshaped by historical events. In the mid-19th century, some critics viewed poetry as “an expression of the poet’s personality, a manifestation of the poet’s intuition and of the social and historical context which shaped him” ( Preminger, Warnke, Hardison 511). Analysis of the historical, social, political and cultural events at a certain time helps the reader fully grasp a given work. 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
The language of the poem holds five of the eight languages to poetry. Allegory, personification, symbols, figures, and metaphors. In the beginning of the poem she uses Allegory, Personification and a metaphor. “Allegory- related symbols working together with characters, events, or settings representing ideas or moral qualities” (Sporre). Paula compares the silence in the air to describe how clear the air was. Going on to using personification and a metaphor, “Peaks rise above me like the Gods. That is where they live, the old people say.” Personification is the figure of speech in which abstract qualities, animals, or inanimate objects take into many forms of literature (Sporre). Metaphors, are figures of speech by which new implications are given to words. Metaphors are implied but not explicit comparisons (Sporre). She goes on to imply that the Gods lives above us in the peaks, that’s where the old people say that they live. Using Symbols, “Which is critical to poetry, which uses compressed language to express, and carry us into its meaning (Sporre).” Ending the first line she writes “I listen and I heard”. Going on to explain how she heard the voice in the wind and by giving us the emotion of that feeling set the understanding of what the poem was all about. Following the next line Paula uses a form of Imagery. A verbal representation of objects, feelings, or ideas can be literal or figurative. figurative imagery involves a change in
The verbose use of imagery in this poem is really what makes everything flow in this poem. As this poem is written in open form, the imagery of this writing is what makes this poem poetic and stand out to you. Marisa de los Santos begins her poem with “Its here in a student’s journal, a blue confession in smudged, erasable ink: ‘I can’t stop hoping/ I’ll wake up, suddenly beautiful’” (1-3). Even from the first lines of this story you can already picture this young girl sitting at her desk, doodling on her college ruled paper. It automatically hooks you into the poem, delving deeper and deeper as she goes along. She entices you into reading more as she writes, daring you to imagine the most perfect woman in the world, “cobalt-eyed, hair puddling/ like cognac,” (5-6). This may not be the ideal image of every person, but from the inten...
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
Strand, Mark and Evan Boland. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New
In the poem pride, Dahlia Ravikovitch uses many poetic devices. She uses an analogy for the poem as a whole, and a few metaphors inside it, such as, “the rock has an open wound.” Ravikovitch also uses personification multiple times, for example: “Years pass over them as they wait.” and, “the seaweed whips around, the sea bursts forth and rolls back--” Ravikovitch also uses inclusive language such as when she says: “I’m telling you,” and “I told you.” She uses these phrases to make the reader feel apart of the poem, and to draw the reader in. She also uses repetition, for example, repetition of the word years.
Figurative Language in used throughout poems so the reader can develop a further understanding of the text. In “The Journey” the author uses rhythm and metaphors throughout the poem. “...as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of the clouds..”(25-27). The author compares the star burning to finding your voice. Rhythm also develops the theme of the poem because throughout the story rhythm is presented as happy showing growing up and changing for the better is necessary and cheerful. In “The Laughing Heart” the author uses imagery and metaphors to develop the theme throughout the book. “There is a light somewhere. It may not be much light but it beats the darkness”(5-7). Always find the good out of everything, even it
...ttachment or emotion. Again, Heaney repeats the use of a discourse marker, to highlight how vividly he remembers the terrible time “Next morning, I went up into the room”. In contrast to the rest of the poem, Heaney finally writes more personally, beginning with the personal pronoun “I”. He describes his memory with an atmosphere that is soft and peaceful “Snowdrops and Candles soothed the bedside” as opposed to the harsh and angry adjectives previously used such as “stanched” and “crying”. With this, Heaney is becoming more and more intimate with his time alone with his brother’s body, and can finally get peace of mind about the death, but still finding the inevitable sadness one feels with the loss of a loved one “A four foot box, a foot for every year”, indirectly telling the reader how young his brother was, and describing that how unfortunate the death was.
It is a way to crucially engage oneself in setting the stage for new interventions and connections. She also emphasized that she personally viewed poetry as the embodiment of one’s personal experiences, and she challenged what the white, European males have imbued in society, as she declared, “I speak here of poetry as the revelation or distillation of experience, not the sterile word play that, too often, the white fathers distorted the word poetry to mean — in order to cover their desperate wish for imagination without insight.”
With an evident attempt at objectivity, the syntax of Passage 1 relies almost entirely on sentences of medium length, uses a few long sentences for balance, and concludes with a strong telegraphic sentence. The varying sentence length helps keep the readers engaged, while also ensuring that the writing remains succinct and informative. Like the varying sentence length, the sentence structures vary as complex sentences are offset by a few scattered simple sentences. The complex sentences provide the necessary description, and the simple sentences keep the writing easy to follow. Conversely, Passage 2 contains mostly long, flowing sentences, broken up by a single eight word sentence in the middle. This short sentence, juxtaposed against the length of the preceding and following sentences, provides a needed break in the text, but also bridges the ideas of the two sentences it falls between. The author employs the long sentences to develop his ideas and descriptions to the fullest extent, filling the sentences with literary elements and images. Coupled...
The speakers and audience in poem are crucial elements of the poem and is also the case in these poems. In the poem Untitled, it can be argued that the poem is being written by Peter based on what his father might say to him...
Billy Collins has used a specific metaphor, simile, rhyme and personification in his poem ‘Introduction to poetry’ in order to show how one should better understand a poem. This poem focused on what the poem actually mean and how a poem should be clearly understood. Throughout the poem, Billy Collins has presented a clear way of understanding the poem by using a very interesting imagery, symbolism, metaphor and a very sensitive sound. The words used in this poem are so powerful that the readers are convinced to think about the issue presented in the poem.
..., 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.
On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
Another thing to conclude her poem would be that she uses rhyme to make the strong words stand out. Such as “Shame”, “Pain”, “Eyes”, and “Rise.” etc. The poet uses rhyme words to make the meaningful words stand out and prove her message. Shame would be a good word to Rhyme with Pain because people try to shame her culture and say lies that may be painful to her or people in her culture because they are not true at all. Another is Eyes and Rise, which brings tears to her eyes but she will not let them be seen because she is strong and no matter what she will rise and stand tall with pride from her