In classic, down-to-earth fashion, the dog in “Golden Retrievals” just wants to play. It takes great joy in a “thrillingly dead thing” (6) and “sniff[s] the wind” (4) in search of fun. Still, it wants one more thing: for its owner to share in the joy. For the dog, each moment is the best; for the owner, no moment engages like the past. Thus the poem follows the dog’s thoughts, comparing the dog’s sporadic energy to the owner’s sullen lethargy. In that way, Doty writes his poem through the narrative of a dog, utilizing stream of conscious and structure to convey a sense of playfulness that highlights the importance of living in the moment.
The poem’s organization into stanzas mimics the dog’s train of thought. Each break between stanzas occurs
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in the middle of a sentence, which indicates the dog’s tendency to drift in thoughts. This creates a sense of excitement for the dog who is always “off again” (5) and jumping back and forth excited by some new moment. The dog’s disjointed thoughts highlight how it lives in the present, as opposed to its owner who is “sunk in the past [...] or else [off] in some fog concerning [tomorrow]” (7-10). By using stanza breaks to present both the dog’s joy and its focus on the present, Doty connects the two, painting the dog’s viewpoint in a positive light. Thus Doty writes that the dog the owner, who is “sunk”, or held back, by the past, must move on. Indeed, the dog says the future is “some fog” (9) and the past is something “you can never bring back” (8). The dog thinks it is futile to dwell in the past. Instead, it enjoys each moment, which reveals the joy of living in the present. Underneath the poem’s large scale stanza structure, each line’s structures similarly reveals the dog’s stream of conscious.
The dog’s thoughts are interrupted by punctuation like dashes, colons, and parentheses. These interrupt the poem’s flow, mimicking the interruptions in thought created by stanza breaks. The dog finds a “[b]unny, tumbling leaf, a squirrel who’s -oh joy- actually scared”(4). The repeated commas reveal how dog is always thinking about something new as it lists item after item, jumping from attraction to attraction. Furthermore, It uses dashes, exclaiming “oh joy”, to generate a sense of excitement. For the dog who never dwells on anything, everything, be it a leaf or a squirrel, is exciting. Thus Doty suggests that living in the moment makes life enjoyable. This playfulness is furthered when the dog says its work is “to unsnare time’s warp (and woof!)” (11). The parentheses indicate an interruption in the dog’s thoughts. This interruption reveals how the dog does not dwelling on anything for too long, and therefore lives in the moment. With this in mind, The “woof” interrupts the otherwise serious task of saving its owner from “time’s warp”, and therefore gives the poem a lighthearted mood. The dog finds happiness by not dwelling on the past, staying lighthearted even in hard
situations. Mark Doty’s “Golden Retrievals” focuses on a dog whose thoughts fill the poem with gushing emotions. Bouncing between squirrels, leaves, bunnies, and others, the dog tries to use its whimsical energy to rejuvenate its owner. With surprising wisdom, the dog realizes that the past only makes its owner “haze-headed” (12)as he dwells in the past while the present carries on. The dog instead chooses to live in the moment. Every path is a new adventure, every moment a dazzling discovery. Perhaps it is better to forget about the past. Perhaps it is better to just let go.
Both poems use repetition of phrases and anaphora to establish a pace for the speaker’s voice. The repeating syllables provide a pseudo-break in
In Tim Seibles' poem, The Case, he reviews the problematic situations of how white people are naturally born with an unfair privilege. Throughout the poem, he goes into detail about how colored people become uncomfortable when they realize that their skin color is different. Not only does it affect them in an everyday aspect, but also in emotional ways as well. He starts off with stating how white people are beautiful and continues on with how people enjoy their presence. Then he transitions into how people of color actually feel when they encounter a white person. After, he ends with the accusation of the white people in today's world that are still racist and hateful towards people of color.
Kim Addonizio’s “First Poem for You” portrays a speaker who contemplates the state of their romantic relationship though reflections of their partner’s tattoos. Addressing their partner, the speaker ambivalence towards the merits of the relationship, the speaker unhappily remains with their partner. Through the usage of contrasting visual and kinesthetic imagery, the speaker revels the reasons of their inability to embrace the relationship and showcases the extent of their paralysis. Exploring this theme, the poem discusses how inner conflicts can be powerful paralyzers.
In the poem Reunion by Carolyn Forché, she does an excellent job of including line breaks to make a meaningful impact. I noticed that the poet’s use of “half-commas” as referenced in the book helps show the reader where there’s an emphasis. For example, in the poem stanza, “later, the tongues swishing in my dress, some yours, some left by other men.” The punctuation here aids in presenting the words in an exciting way as “some left by other men” was not what I expected after the pause.
... happier humans may feel. Hughes' Hawk views the world in a way that he is the center of all creations and that he is the one that would prevail through all troubles. Doty's Dog views the world in the present, never looking toward the past or future living in the moment. Both poets convey their speakers in different scenarios and different viewpoints, but in general both hawk and dog sees the world through their eyes as if they're both of better-quality than humans. The techniques both poets presents helps shape these speakers as egocentric (hawk) and carefree (dog) showing the perspectives each holds dearly to the Earth. In my analysis, [H]ughes' [H]awk in "Hawk Roosting" and [D]oty's [D]og in "Golden Retrievals" were really written in their point of views of the world and conveying their own personalities within a poem only to be swathed under stanzas and a title.
The poet begins by describing the scene to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and elaborates on how the sky and the ground work in harmony. This is almost a story like layout with a beginning a complication and an ending. Thus the poem has a story like feel to it. At first it may not be clear why the poem is broken up into three- five line stanzas. The poet deliberately used this line stanzas as the most appropriate way to separate scenes and emotions to create a story like format.
The speaker scans his surroundings, “muck, pond, ditch, residue”(5), spondee, stressed words, are used to show the typical image of a distracted dog. This is further emphasized in the enjambments and caesuras at the hyphens and colons, to express the unpredictable actions of the speaker. At the beginning the speaker includes rhetorical questions, to highlight the merry, short attention span, “Fetch? Balls and sticks capture my attention seconds at a time. Catch? I don’t think so” (1-2). The rhyme scheme is abba ccdd efef gh and often are slant rhymes which shows the dog is not as educated as a human. The vowel ‘o’ in “or else you’re off in some fog concerning/ --tomorrow”(9-10) is an assonance and “bow-wow…”(14), is onomatopoeia illustrates the dog howling and barking at his human.
Some people never get satisfied with what they have. In the stories, "Amir", and, "Gold Mountain Poems", The life lesson is to be happy for what you have. In both stories the main characters are immigrants coming to America. In the story, Amir just moved here from India and is upset with the people. In the poem the speaker is taken to an immigrant island instead of being released to go live in America. In both stories they are grateful for what they have.
Each stanza is composed of words that present a logical flow of growth through the entire poem. The words in the poem do not rhyme and the lines are different lengths.
The poem “Always Something More Beautiful” by Stephen Dunn is certainly about running a race, but the speaker is also arguing that pursuing something beautiful can help guide us through life. Through the title, we can see that we should constantly look for more beautiful things in life. The poem begins with the speaker describing his experience before a race. He uses words like “best” and “love.” The tone is extremely enthusiastic. In the first line, he talks about coming to the starting place. This can be a metaphor for beginning our lifelong journey. The speaker also implies that we need to approach it with a positive attitude. In the next few lines, the speaker indicates being tested in excellence
In relation to structure and style, the poem contains six stanzas of varying lengths. The first, second, and fourth stanzas
Did I Miss Anything? is a poem written by a Canadian poet and academic Tom Wayman. Being a teacher, he creates a piece of literature, where he considers the answers given by a teacher on one and the same question asked by a student, who frequently misses a class. So, there are two speakers present in it – a teacher and a student. The first one is fully presented in the poem and the second one exists only in the title of it. The speakers immediately place the reader in the appropriate setting, where the actions of a poem take place – a regular classroom. Moreover, the speakers unfolds the main theme of the poem – a hardship of being a teacher, the importance of education and laziness, indifference and careless attitudes of a student towards studying.
the poem keep the reader in tune with the flow of the poem. In this
This poem is broken up into three stanzas with each stanza containing six lines and within each line, eight syllables. With a set structure such as this, the poem is more organized and better understood by the reader.
Each of the seven stanzas in the poem are made up of twelve lines that allow the reader to understand and follow along while reading the poem. In this particular poem the way that the stanzas are arranged make an important contribution, because without the arrangement of the stanzas the reader may not be capable of grasping the poem mentally. “Tinkle homeward thro’ the twilight, stray or stop/ As they crop” (Browning). In the poem the reader is able to identify a pattern between the lines; the first line is long while the second line is short and this can be seen from the beginning of the poem to the end of the poem. Alternation between a long line and a short line help the reader keep up with the poem and maintain the rhythm when reading not only mentally but also physically. The reader can also observe that the lines are arranged to where the last word of two lines rhyme, “But he looked upon the city, every side, / Far and wide” (Browning). The use of this technique contributes to the formation of the rhythm while at the same time making the poem catchy. Rhythm can be identified by the reader as a result of the line alternations. The rhythm of the poem contributes to th...