Fort Red Border is the title of Kiki Petrosino’s compilation of romantic poems. Petrosino breaks down objects, feelings, and being alive to discover love, intimacy, and contemporary culture. Many of the poems seem to juxtapose reality with desire and fantasy. Even in the intangible realm that the poet explore, simplicity and objects in their natural state are still considered beautiful. Throughout each of the three sections: “Fort Red Border,” “Otolaryngology,” and “Valentine,” Petrosino talks about different foods and cuisines. The food items listed in the poems provide a contrast between the real and imaginary realms by being both simple and natural (carrots, eggs, rice, etc.), and artificial and overly sweet (Pop Tarts, ice cream, sprinkles, …show more content…
The first section of this book uses simple foods such as graham crackers, peanut butter, chocolate, French rolls, and coffee to convey the intimacy and fascinations of the speaker’s life. These simple foods and the speaker’s vivid imagination help to keep the fantasy alive. Petrosino musters up a new life into the poems. The entire first section of her book is about a female speaker and her imaginary lover, Robert Redford. Redford is the essential figure in Petrosino's book. Ironically the title of the book and the first section is an anagram. In the first section of the book he is a symbol of the speaker's ideal partner. He utters words to her that every woman longs to hear. The first poem “Wash,” and “Nestle” both exemplify the speaker’s …show more content…
Lines 1-6 of the poem use narration and a bit of imagery to convey the intimacy and the fantasy that the speaker is living. The lines “I’m washing the dishes at the kitchen sink, & Redford/puts his arms around my waist. He says: I want/to tell you something. You float around my house all day/just like a little cloud of sweetness. That’s all. /He kisses the back of my earlobe, then reaches/over my head to take a Lion bar from the cupboard” show this imagery (Lines 1-6). The couple are in the kitchen and like any other couple in this fantasy they are having moments together. Throughout the entire poem the couple is having a playful time in the kitchen, enjoying each other’s presence. The use of narration and imagination throughout Petrosino’s poem create this type of contemporary fantasy. The use of narration and imagery aid in making the fantasy believable. Petrosino uses real life situations of couples to support her contemporary
In the first stanza, “one leaned on the other as if to throw her down” symbolism has been used to show the intensity of the embrace between the two. In stanza two, “and finally almost uprooted him” symbolism has been used to show how much the female dominates in this relationship. “He was thin, dry, insecure one” this symbolized that the male did not have much power nor say in the relationship.
The informal language and intimacy of the poem are two techniques the poet uses to convey his message to his audience. He speaks openly and simply, as if he is talking to a close friend. The language is full of slang, two-word sentences, and rambling thoughts; all of which are aspects of conversations between two people who know each other well. The fact that none of the lines ryhme adds to the idea of an ordinary conversation, because most people do not speak in verse. The tone of the poem is rambling and gives the impression that the speaker is thinking and jumping from one thought to the next very quickly. His outside actions of touching the wall and looking at all the names are causing him to react internally. He is remembering the past and is attempting to suppress the emotions that are rising within him.
Ludvigson imagines her parents are the man and woman in the painting and she creates a dialogue between them. "They sit in a bright café, discussing Hemingway and how this war will change them" (Ludvigson 1- 3). They seem to be suspended in the glow of the light from the diner and framed in a sheet of glass that divides them from the street. There is no rhyming, except between café and Hemingway, which establishes a cheery tone, despite the dark subject matter of war. During this defining time in America, the poem seems to be lighthearted and playful. "Their coffee's getting cold but they hardly notice. My mother's face is lit by ideas. My father's gestures are a Frenchman's" (Ludvigson 11-14). The rest of the imaginary conversation goes on about novelists and poets and they joke in a loving manner. "They decide, though the car is parked nearby, to walk the few blocks home, savoring the fragrant night, their being alone together" (Ludvigson 20-23). Her parents are depicted as equals and speak to each other as equals, unlike the other poems where the male is superior. Her parents seem to remain fully engaged in a conversation about what it means to be in America. Whatever the fascination is, these four people and a diner scene have led to the retelling of a possible storyline and the life these people
Erdich , Louise “The Red Convertible” 1984.Schalfel and Ridl 126 – 133. Schakel, Pete, and Jack Ridl. Eds. Approaching Literature Reading + Thinking + Writing. 3rd Ed. Boston: Bedford/ St Martin, 2011. Sprint.
The author, Melina Marchetta applies a variety of familiar and stereotypical events in the book. From cases such as the different characters, their characteristics and their reaction upon certain events that occur in the book. One great example of a stereotypical event in this book is the relationship between Josephine Alibrandi and Jacob Coote who is the school captain of a public school called Cook High. “He cracked two eggs on my glasses once” (32).
In “The Red Convertible,” Louise Erdrich through her first- person narrator Lyman, creates an unspoken emotional bond between two brothers. This emotional bond between the brothers is not directly spoken to each other, but rather is communicated through and symbolized by “The Red Convertible.” In spite of what appears as a selfless act by one brother, in turn, causes pain in the other brother, as no feelings were communicated. In this case, Lyman explains his version as he takes us through the experiences that he and his brother Henry have with the car.
Throughout the poem there is only one narrator, a man or woman. The narrator is of high importance to the one being spoken too, so possibly a girlfriend or boyfriend. This narrator alludes to the idea that dreams and reality can be one in the same. The narrator says, “You are not wrong, who deem/That my days have been a dream;” (Line 4-5). The narrator explains that the moments spent with her have felt almost, if not, a perfect dream. The narrator also says, in the closing lines of the first stanza, “All that we see or seem/Is but a dream within a dream.” (Line 10-11). The narrator concludes like dreams, reality is not controlled; reality is what you make it, or what you see. Moreover, in the second stanza the narrator
The setting of the poem is very important to understand key elements that the poet is trying to express. The poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” is set in the family’s kitchen. The lines “The whiskey on your breath…slid from the kitchen shelf;” let the readers assume that some type of music is playing on the radio in the kitchen which the little boy and his drunken father are dancing to (Roethke 126). But the little boy’s mother does not seem too happy and the apparent reason as stated in the poem is that the waltzing in the kitchen is making all the pots and pans fall of the shelf. The mother’s unhappiness can ...
While Amy Tan grabbed the audience with both her title and first line, she never gave us more information about Robert, the minister’s son, with whom she stated in her first line that she fell in love with. Her essay included a great amount of detail when it came to her mother’s preparation of dinner, but if the story was supposed to be about his family coming for dinner, there should have been a few more details about it.
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
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...
My first and immediate explanation for the poem was an address from one lover to a loved one, where distance became a factor in their relationship. The lover has it far worse than the desired partner and the solitude builds nothing but longing for this person at a time when his love is the greatest. He says " What have I to say to you when we shall meet?... I am alone" with my head knocked against the sky”. He further asks, “How can I tell if I shall ever love you again as I do now?” There is uncertainty because he is wondering over the next encounter with his loved one. He says, “I lie here thinking of you” and is compelling when he wants the loved one to see him in the 5th stanza and what love is doing to his state of mind. He is hopeless and expresses it by asking questions he is unsure of, conveying his troubled state. Williams enforces imagery along with sound effects to demonstrate the despair of the man in a realm that is almost dreamlike with purple skies,spoiled colors, and birds. Stating he is alone and that his head collides with the sky may underline the man’s confusion. He also uses imagery in the “stain of love as it eats into the leaves”, and saffron horned branches, vivid and easy-to-imagine images that captivate the reader. The line stating “a smooth purple sky” and this stain which is “spoiling the colours of the whole world” easily formulate a very distinct picture. Through consonance words like “eats” and “smears with saffron” become fiercer in the eyes of this lover as they cancel out a “smooth sky”.
The main line that directs the poems feelings is "The wraith of Love's sweet Rose is here, It haunts me everywhere! ". The ghost of "Love's sweet rose" is in my life and mind. The ghost of that rose is in my presents and is with her everywhere she goes.
“Little Red Cap” is written by Carol Ann Duffy found in a collection of poems called “The world’s wife”, where she has given a voice to the women (fantasy characters and real people) who have generally been silent or their thoughts made clear through the voices of their husband’s or partner’s.
In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Elliot writes from the point of view of a lonely, antisocial middle age man named Prufrock, introspecting on the apathetic way he feels, resulting in his inability to propose marriage. The author uses a variety of techniques in his poem to help illustrate the type of man Prufrock is and to express his indecision, lack of initiative, and monotonous attitude toward life. From the start,Prufrock claims his purpose is to ask an important question, but only continues to beat around the bush, avoiding asking the question completely. Focusing on the fifth stanza of the poem, readers can easily gather the essence of the poem’s overall purpose through the allusions, repetition and imagery he uses.