Matthew Olzmann and Joy Harjo employed distinctive poetic techniques to convey humanity's profound connection to life in their poems "Remember" and "Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now." Both poets explore themes of gratitude, nature, and the importance of memories in their poetry, each offering a unique perspective on these universal concepts. While their works share similar ideas, such as gratitude for life's experiences and reflections on the order of nature, their approaches differ significantly. Olzmann uses humour and a more informal and conversational tone in his poem, since it is technically a letter. Whereas, Harjo draws on her Native American heritage, incorporating cultural and spiritual elements to delve into the poem's …show more content…
Jay Harjo’s poem delves into the theme of memory by making the reader recall and acknowledge the deep connections between their own ancestry and the natural world. She emphasises remembering the origins of life, from stories of the stars and the moon to the personal struggle and sacrifices our ancestors had to go through to get to where we are today.. By invoking the elements of earth— in the lines “Remember the earth whose skin you are:/red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth/ brown earth, we are earth.—uses personification to highlight the link between humans and the earth, suggesting that we are not merely on this planet but of it, made from the same materials and subject to the same The repetition of the word "Remember" serves as a powerful incantation, binding the reader to the natural world, their ancestors, and ultimately, to the broader universe, highlighting the notion that memory is a vital link to understanding the essence of life itself. Matthew attempts to make it clear to a person who will be alive in 50 years that their generation did not harm the environment out of resentment. Instead, he suggests that by ignoring the risks and taking nature for granted, humans unintentionally destroyed the earth. He reminisces on a time when the world was more composed and natural, highlighting the loss of various species of animals and environmental wonders. These memories served as a contrast to the apparent current state of the world, which is characterised by pollution and environmental destruction. The poem suggests that the person reading it may remember Matthews' generation for the negative impact they had on the environment, but instead, he claims that they also had moments of joy where the earth was better. He uses juxtaposition to compare these two different memories in the lines “There were bees back then, and they pollinated/a euphoria of flowers so we might/ contemplate the great mysteries and
As the first poem in the book it sums up the primary focus of the works in its exploration of loss, grieving, and recovery. The questions posed about the nature of God become recurring themes in the following sections, especially One and Four. The symbolism includes the image of earthly possessions sprawled out like gangly dolls, a reference possibly meant to bring about a sense of nostalgia which this poem does quite well. The final lines cement the message that this is about loss and life, the idea that once something is lost, it can no longer belong to anyone anymore brings a sense...
Memory is both a blessing and a curse; it serves as a reminder of everything, and its meaning is based upon interpretation. In Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies Dedé lives through the memory of her family and her past. She tells the stories of her and her sisters lives leading up to their deaths, and reflects upon those memories throughout her daily life. Dedé lives on for her sisters, without her sisters, but all along carrying them with her throughout her life, never moving on. Dedé lives with the shame, sadness, and regret of all that has happened to her sisters, her marriage, and her family. Dedé’s memories serve as a blessing in her eyes, but are a burden
Suspicion, mistrust, and accusations were the first three words that came to mind when reading Dana Gioia’s “Thanks For Remembering Us”. This sarcastic poem brings darkness to an action that would otherwise be deemed as thoughtful and kind-hearted. The title of the poem is deceiving and taunting, the speaker’s fruitless relationship is heavily symbolized by the flowers, and the overall theme is “failing to let go of love”.
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 poems facilitate the investigation of human experience through illustrating life’s transience and the longevity of memory.
Wright utilizes personification to provide the narrator with an amplified empathy through the personal reflection required in order to experience the sympathetic suffering accounted for by the physical remnants of a lynching. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker describes the scene as “guarded by scaly oaks and elms” (ln. 2) thereby stating nature guards and preserves memories of the atrocities of society, despite certain distortions associated with time. By presenting the woods with this lively quality, Wright emphasizes the eerie qualities of the world in preserving the scars of inhumane acts dealt through society’s hand. Once recognizing nature’s preservation of the memories, Wright implies that the speaker remains capable to unearth the scene in which they are to experience sympathy and empathy. The speaker then discovers “white bones slumbering” (ln.4) which presents the bones with the human ability of sleeping. This in return suggests an ironic twist crucial to the development of the poem. By suggesting the bones are in mere rest, this also renders bones capable of awaking from their rest. As the speaker continues, the bones as well as the other elements described suddenly “awake” and reform thereby creating a shift in the visual experience of the...
The poem, “Remember”, by Joy Harjo illuminates the significance of different aspects in one’s life towards creating one’s own identity. Harjo, explains how everything in the world is connected in some way. She conveys how every person is different and has their own identities. However, she also portrays the similarities among people and how common characteristics of the world impact humans and their identities. Harjo describes the interconnectedness of different aspects of nature and one’s life in order to convey their significance in creating one’s identity.
Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, and teacher. She was born My 9th ,1951 in Tulsa Oklahoma to Wynema Baker and Allen Foster. Her name was not Joy Harjo yet though, it was Joy Foster. Joy’s father and subsequently her, are decedents of a long line of tribal leaders including a famous Native American chief that fought in the Red Stick War. At the young age of 19, Joy made a decision that changed her life, she changed her last name to Harjo and enrolled as a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Harjo is her grandmothers last name, and she credits her great aunt, Lois Harjo with teaching her more about her Native American heritage and blood line. After working many odd jobs and having her two children, Dill Dayne and Rainy Dawn, Harjo
In the first three lines of the poem, Harjo talks about opening oneself up to nature where you feel yourself. She does this by connecting the human body to the sky, earth, sun, and moon. The next six lines talk about the concepts and aspects during prayer and how you are in a whole other place. In these first nine lines, Harjo uses repetition with prayer and shows parallelism with the peacefulness nature and prayer can bring to oneself. Harjo also uses similes in lines ten and twenty two. She compares the circle of life to that of the eagle as well as the eagle to an angle.
Some people say the Mongols were and still to this day are the most feared and successful army in the history of the world. Those people would be right and in this essay i'm going to talk about their military and all the people that ruled this great empire. Also how after almost 200 years of rule it fell apart.
Australian poet Gwen Harwood is renowned for her many poems depicting different aspects of a person's life or experiences. Two of these poems are “Mother Who Gave Me Life” and “The Spelling Prize”. The “Mother Who Gave Me Life” explores how someone reminisces on past memories with and about her dying mother, in comparison to “The Spelling Prize” which tells how someone is remembering an experience and decision that they regret from their childhood. Both of these poems play into the idea of regret and guilt over a past decision or experience. This idea was likely explored by Harwood in order to examine how regret and hence imperfection are so prominent in society.
Throughout Grave’s poem, “Warning to Children,” a recurring theme can be observed – that life is full of diversity. This diversity is represented in the poem with the usage of colour, “…blocks of slate enclosing dappled red and green, enclosing tawny yellow nets, enclosing white and black acres of dominoes, where a neat brown paper parcel…” This thematic material is repeated several times throughout the poem, and creates an image of a never-ending cycle of colourful, wondrous things. The theme and the image that goes with it creates an allusion of the life that everyone wishes that they have – one that is forever full of different things to see and do. In this sense, this poem reflects upon part of Santayana’s quote: “The subject matter of art is life.”
from a dying world. The life and pretensions of their world are becoming a thing of memory:
Wordsworth visualized scenes while he was away, a way for him to feel a spiritual connection until he was able to return. Wordsworth states, “As a landscape to a blind man’s eye: But opt, in lonely rooms, and mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them” (Wordsworth 25-27). Wordsworth gives a sense of conformity and loneliness while being in the towns and cities. That he had his memories of when he was younger to keep him hopeful to return to nature and all the memories he had grasped the memories of. As the society today focuses merely on what they can profit from cities, Wordsworth understood the true meaning of memories. Memories today are mostly captured through social media, and in return being taken for granted. Wordsworth had nostalgic bliss as he replayed his memories, and knowing that in the future he could look back on that day and have the same feeling again. Social media today is destroying our memories and what we can relive in our minds as memories. We can know that when things are posted within social media it will get likes and be shared. However, there are not many people in society today that will remember the true essence of what nature has given to
...he earth and every common sight, to me did seem apparell’d in celestial light” (Wordsworth, 1807, lines 1-4). Before maturity, humans contain a firm spiritual connection with nature. Much like falling asleep, adulthood arrives slowly, then all at once. However, alongside a looming maturity, the spirituality an individual links with nature becomes “but a sleep and a forgetting” (Wordsworth, 1807, line 59).