Written in 1986 by Li-Young Lee the poem “I Ask My Mother to Sing” shows the immigrant story. Through the use of metaphors and strong imagery Lee paints a joyful picture to begin the poem. As the poem progresses however the metaphors are used to show what causes immigrants to leave their home country, how immigrants face hardships, and the resilience they possess. The title and first stanza are filled with joy. Together they paint a picture of a family gathering where lee has asked his mother to sing a folk song. The mother begins to sing and the grandmother joins in. The first of many instances of figurative language in the poem appears in this stanza. Lee compares his mother and grandmother singing to “young girls”. He then mentions that his father would “swing like a …show more content…
While the first stanza was energetic and happy this one presents nostalgia and ends with a reference to fleeing. The nostalgia comes from Lee naming famous Chinese landmarks which he has never been too the same way a French immigrant would sing of the Eifel Tower. However, the women then begin to sing about rain. By mentioning rain Lee appeals to the visual senses. Rain means a cloudy dark sky; the rain is a metaphor for dark troubled times that fell over the famous landmarks of his homeland. After darkening the mood Lee then makes a strong vivid reference to immigration. “The picnickers have running away in the grass”. The rain started causing picnickers to flee. Immigrants flee their home country because of hard times. The third stanza continues the metaphor of falling rain and adds to it the imagery of water lilies filling with water. The rain continues to represent hardships and problems; the water lilies represent immigrants. As the hardships continue to mount up and “fill” they eventually force immigrants to “overturn” or flee. However, their hardship’s do not end as the immigrants “rock back” only to “fill with more”
...ntion of memories sweeping past, making it seem that the grass is bent by the memories like it is from wind. The grass here is a metaphor for the people, this is clear in the last line, “then learns to again to stand.” No matter what happens it always gets back up.
The descriptions and words used create the most vivid images of a mother’s escape to freedom with her son. This poem takes you on both a physical and emotional journey as it unravels through the treacherous demands of freedom. A beautiful example of her ability to rhyme both internally as well as externally can be seen here,
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts by telling the reader the place, time and activity he is doing, stating that he saw something that he will always remember. His description of his view is explained through simile for example “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets of their branches” (Updike), captivating the reader’s attention
This frustration acted as a vehicle for her to gain a desire to be more
This poem captures the immigrant experience between the two worlds, leaving the homeland and towards the new world. The poet has deliberately structured the poem in five sections each with a number of stanzas to divide the different stages of the physical voyage. Section one describes the refugees, two briefly deals with their reason for the exodus, three emphasises their former oppression, fourth section is about the healing effect of the voyage and the concluding section deals with the awakening of hope. This restructuring allows the poet to focus on the emotional and physical impact of the journey.
“Like cattle bought for slaughter.” this simile reveals the awful and crowded conditions that the immigrants are experiencing. The third stanza tells us about the family groups and that they huddled together with blankets ‘Families stood with blankets’ with the parents having to keep a close eye on their children ‘Keeping children by their sides’. ‘Watching pigeons that watched them’ this suggests that the immigrants are fascinated by the natural wildlife, it could be a metaphor for the local people at the station who just stare at the immigrants as they wait for their train. The fourth stanza portrays the fear and uncertainty of these immigrants and also reveals the impact of the whistle. “It was sad to hear” this is the repetition of the opening line of the poem. It seems like this journey was a forced journey that is controlled by man made machines “like a word of command” this represents the whistle, “like a guillotine” the use of simile suggests being cut off a kind of death as a guillotine is an instrument of
Li-Young Lee is a brilliant contemporary poet who used his figurative language skills to write about a complex relationship between father and son. In the poem, A Story, Lee utilizes his abilities of emotional appeal and literary devices to depict a loving father who reads stories to his five year old son; fearing that one day, his son will tire of him and leave. Lee was able to use strategic literary devices such as point of view, structure, and imagery to convey the complexity of the father and son relationship.
E: In the line “I am, you are, we are Australian” (stanza 4,8,9 & 10) repetition is used to create a metaphor which highlights the song’s central message - no matter your background, all Australians work together to make Australia great. This can be seen as an expression of cultural inclusion. E: “The rivers when they run” (stanza 7) is an excellent example of personification and alliteration. The poet used this clever image to describe areas of Australia that are usually in drought, but in flood times they flow wildly and dangerously.
The comparisons--North vs. South, city vs. country, technology vs. nature--are numerous and have been well documented in 20th century literature. Progress contrasts sharply with rooted cultural beliefs and practices. Personalities and mentalities about life, power and change differ considerably between worlds... worlds that supposed-intellectuals from the West would classify as "modern" and "backwards," respectively. When these two worlds collide, the differences--and the danger--rise significantly. This discrepancy between the old and the new is one of the principal themes of Gloria Naylor's Mama Day. The interplay between George, Ophelia and Mama Day shows the discrepancies between a "modern" style of thinking and one born of spirituality and religious beliefs. Dr. Buzzard serves as a weak bridge between these two modes of thought. In Mama Day, the Westernized characters fail to grasp the power of the Willow Springs world until it is too late.
Along with the imagery we get from the title, there is a lot of imagery within this poem. Let us start with the first three lines:
The poem opened up with a fairy tale line and right off the bat you had the idea that it was going to be about the narrator sharing his love. Not to mention, it was a poem of rhyming to help make the reader feel a type of way. This poem was written after the death of his beloved wife, Virginia Clemm (the woman who married him at the age of thirteen) so it is most likely based off of her and the love that he had for her. Love is the main theme in the poem and the love that Annabel Lee and the narrator shared starting in their childhood. In the poem, Poe demonstrates that even after Annabel’s death that their love was too strong to be destroyed by the angels or demons. Just about everything that he sees reminds him of Annabel, the stars, moon and he lies by her tomb at night by the sea. Loving her wasn’t complicated at all for him, even when he was known to struggle with relationships throughout his whole life. Even though she is dead, he makes us believe that he can still see her bright eyes and that they will soon meet again in the future. The one line that caught my eye the most about their love is this, “But our love it was stronger by far than the love of those who were older than we—“ (Poe). Their love was said to be so strong that even the older and wiser people couldn’t understand the strength of their love. The main purpose of this poem was to show all of the outsiders that there was nothing that could ever come in-between their love, no matter if she was dead or alive. Their souls will forever be united until the day that they will meet
“Annabel Lee” is based on a couple in a kingdom by the sea and the girl, who’s name is Annabel Lee, dies ("Shmoop.com"). So Annabel’s partner is reminiscing about the memories he once shared Annabel. However, the partners’ tone of voice slowly changes throughout the poem from a caring and happy voice to a sad longing voice as if to say Annabel’s name would somehow bring her back ("Shmoop.com"). Throughout the poem, it is evident that the theme of the poem is that the speaker was in love with Annabel Lee. Furthermore, in line 9 it says, “But we loved with a love that was more than love” (Poe) which is basically stating the couple loved each other so much that they felt something that was more than love. The speaker uses symbols to help the reader visualize his point. Symbols such as a chilling wind, a highborn kinsman, and winged seraphs that apparently “took” Annabel Lee from him ("Shmoop.com"). The poem of “Annabel Lee” may be a tragic love story, but in the end it is a very interesting piece of literature written by Edgar Allan
In the first stanza, first line; I saw two trees embracing, this means that there is a couple that is in love. In the second and third line we see that the male is weaker “one leaned on the other, as if to throw her down” and in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh line we notice that the female has the strength, willpower and is dominating. In the second stanza, line one, two and three we see that the female being dominant makes the male feel broken and intimidated. In line four “the most wind-warped, you could see”, hear we see that there is a major problem between the two.
The title of the poem is very significant. The title penetratingly outlines how precious they view the water to be. He does this by titling the poem ''Blessing''. Water is something which most people take for granted, so by making this the title he emphasizes the value they place upon the water. The poet highlights how much value they place upon the water in the fourth stanza when the pipe bursts by using word choice. ''As their blessings sing'' is the quote from the poem and the effect of this is that it gives you a sense of harmony. The words sum up a peaceful ending for the last two stanzas where the mood of the poem changes from desperation to the contrast of greatfulness. The poet has chosen the phrase ''blessings sing'' as when put together it has conitations of bountful amounts of happiness which accuratly shows their joy and relief they would of felt in that moment of time. I think the poet has used this quote to symbolise the end of a struggle which turned into a celebration and the word ''sing'' to create the passion for the villagers in that moment.
Poems have really intricate meanings that can be portrayed in many different ways. They can be used to express feelings and emotions towards someone or something. Poems can be about love, hate, nature, or anything in particular. The poem “Annabel Lee,” by Edgar Allan Poe is a romantic poem, written during the Romanticism period. The poem is about the narrator, a young man, who is dealing with the tragic loss of his fair maiden, whom he fell in love with at a young age. The love between the couple is described as very childlike and innocent. Their love for each other is extremely passionate, for that reason, the angels became jealous and killed Annabel Lee. Although his wife passed away, the narrator does not want to give up on their love and