Ian Rycroft
Period 2
Can We Forget?
1. It’s the future that brings us down,
2. The past makes it so uncertain, so unclear
3. We’ll hang on to a memory,
4. Because it is the future that we fear
5. We watch the sun rise and go down,
6. unknowing of what tomorrow brings,
7. we hope
8. we will not have to face it alone,
9. Because all we want is one thing.
10. No matter what the future will hold,
11. the past we no longer fear,
12. our memories are stale and old;
13. But, the future holds us here.
14. But the past leaves us lonely,
15. Craving the one thing we fear,
16. Is the pain that it comes with,
17. Worth the lonesomeness we feel?
18. A part of us knows its irrational to feel this way
19. Knowing a safe shell will keep it all
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More specifically, remembering the specific day that he passes with: “I will always remember that day.” I choose to leave this line until the very end to add ambiguity to the poem. Atwood often uses ambiguity as her strongest asset, making the reader wonder what the true subject of the poem is. In this poem, the subject is completely up in the air until : “remember the days spent together.” This line added some thought to the poem’s subject being a person who has lost a loved one. Additionally Atwood often references past events and the remembrance of the past. For this reason I focused on the fear of the future and how the past can create this fear and fuel the flames. I choose to use enjambment, similarly to Atwood. For example, this can be seen on lines 29-30, 7-8, and 28-29. Again, this enjambment is often used to add ambiguity to the poem’s meaning as the reader moves along through the poem. I choose to structure the poem in a way that showcased the changing mindset of the narrator. The first few stanzas are in a rhyming pattern. But, the final stanzas move to a a non rhyming scheme. Rhyming adds a bit of a childish tone to the poem, referencing the first few stanzas being before the father dies, though dying. The child is fearful of a future without a father. The final stanzas represent the narrator growing up and reflecting on the past memories of her father and whether or not to let them go and
The past dictates who we are in a current moment, and affects who we might become in the future. Every decision people make in lives has an influence on future, regardless of how minimal or large it is. Some decisions people decide to make can have dire consequences that will follow them for the rest of the life. Moreover, even though if someone would want to leave any memories from past behind, however it will always be by his side. Specific memories will urge emotional responses that bring mind back to the past and person have no choose but to relieve those emotions and memories again. Nonetheless, certain events change people and make them who they are, but at the same time, some wrong choices made past haunts us. This essay will discuss the role of the past in novel Maestro, that was written by Australian author Peter Goldsworthy in 1989 and also in Tan Shaun's story Stick Figures which was included in book called "Tales from outer suburbia" and published in 2008.
Man must not only remember his past, but also choose to remember it as it really happened—for, to again quote Eliot, “What might have been is an abstraction" (175). Fantasizing about an abstract, idealized past will never give success i...
The first stanza describes the depth of despair that the speaker is feeling, without further explanation on its causes. The short length of the lines add a sense of incompleteness and hesitance the speaker feels towards his/ her emotions. This is successful in sparking the interest of the readers, as it makes the readers wonder about the events that lead to these emotions. The second and third stanza describe the agony the speaker is in, and the long lines work to add a sense of longing and the outpouring emotion the speaker is struggling with. The last stanza, again structured with short lines, finally reveals the speaker 's innermost desire to "make love" to the person the speaker is in love
bond we share as human beings. The paths we take in life can be of great distress, but the outcome will determine the will of who we are. These paths are a “sign of where we’ve been” (line 11). Doty challenges us how to balance the weight of the world through self-confidence and consideration of others for guidance. According to Doty, this guidance can be found in common places.
It's about sunlight. It's about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do. It's about love and memory. It's about sorrow. It's about sisters who never write back and people who never listen.” -pg. 85
In the last stanza it is explained how, even when she was a child, she
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and
The second stanza immediately shows symbolism starting with the first few words. Line 10 begins with, “Once the renegade flesh was gone.” The use of the phrase, “renegade flesh” within this poem symbolizes the person who was causing the hurting. Renegade involves synonyms such as: traitor, deserter, and rebel, thus contributing to the meaning behind the phrase. Then throughout the rest of the stanza, the woman resumes talking about her time slowly going by until she begins to completely give up on
great control and confidence. In the last stanza it is important to realise that time has passed and so much has changed. It is also important to note the change in tone. from past to present, and that his father is now old. There is also a sense of impatience and irritation with the last phrase "will" not go away from it".
Through this short story we are taken through one of Vic Lang’s memories narrated by his wife struggling to figure out why a memory of Strawberry Alison is effecting their marriage and why she won’t give up on their relationship. Winton’s perspective of the theme memory is that even as you get older your past will follow you good, bad or ugly, you can’t always forget. E.g. “He didn’t just rattle these memories off.” (page 55) and ( I always assumed Vic’s infatuation with Strawberry Alison was all in the past, a mortifying memory.” (page 57). Memories are relevant to today’s society because it is our past, things or previous events that have happened to you in which we remembered them as good, bad, sad, angry etc. memories that you can’t forget. Winton has communicated this to his audience by sharing with us how a memory from your past if it is good or bad can still have an effect on you even as you get older. From the description of Vic’s memory being the major theme is that it just goes to show that that your past can haunt or follow you but it’s spur choice whether you chose to let it affect you in the
The past is something that, without clinical illness, is impossible to forget. No matter how horrific or emotionally damaging, it cannot be changed. What we chose to do with this memory of the past will shape our future. This lesson is one of the most important themes in Toni Morison's novel, Beloved.
The third stanza is a second and different refrain. This refrain occurs in every other stanza. It acts as a divider between the stanzas dealing with a specific character. In the fourth stanza, Father McKenzie is introduced to the reader. He is described as a materialistic man whose life has no meaning.
tells us how we can never go back to the past 'I weep like a child for
“This is the world we wanted/…/we are there still and it is real, real. / that
This puts an end to the checklist that they had going on and lets us know that they have finalized everything they were previously doing and are ready to get going. At last comes the conclusion of the poem which is located in stanza seven. Where the characters come to an understanding that it is time to leave the motel. They have an uncertainty of not knowing when they will be back but they mention that when they do.