The Poem that I chose to analyze is Agha Shahid Ali's titled Leaving Your City. This is a very appropriate choice of title because it clarifies and helps you to understand the movement of the poem. We have the writer and another character meeting and spending time together and then they are not together and the title helps us to understand that the writer has left the city of the newly met companion. Also the title is not stated with in the poem and is not a real cliché title so I believe that that makes it work even better.
The way Ali has broken up this poem is very interesting. He makes use of full sentences and only uses capitalization at the beginning of each sentence. However the way that each stanza is broken up puts a great deal of emphasis on specific lines throughout the poem. There is also enjambment throughout the entire poem and it makes you keep reading a sentence and at the same time has you look at the line the reader just read more carefully. There is also a great deal of end-stopped lines and line breaks which introduce an unexpected emphasis. There is one line that is just one word, the word meticulous, and that word alone really paints the picture of the nameless character that is involved in someway with the speaker. The way you are forced to read allows for a great reading experience.
Ali pulls together very unlike images and makes them work very well together. The images however seem to be somewhat abstract. The stanza that really stands out to me is
“you sharpened the knife on the moon’s surface, polished it with lunatic silver.” (Ali) This is just very uncertain and it makes the reader have to think about what the speaker is saying. There are just so many different ways in which you can deduce that set of lines, which is definitely a good thing because then the reader definitely has their own interpretation and experience of the writing. The speaker never uses a simile flat out but everything that the speaker says is very important because there are so many events and movements that take place in this piece, yet it is all withered down to a few precise words that encapsulate everything the speaker is trying to convey.
The tone that the speaker sets is also very important to the reader empathizing.
The speaker illustrates her poor state and questions whether or not to shoplift the book to keep the work that has inspired her to unimaginable measures. This feeling is conveyed through the writing “I had no money, no one was looking./ The swan posed on the cover,/ their question-mark necks arced/ over the dark waters./ I was asking them what to do” (lines 40-44). This element of confusion strengthens the tone of passion and reveals how deeply the book has affected her. The moral battle the speaker goes through depicts the strong, positive, inspired feeling they wanted to hold on to; to “own [that] moment” (line38). Ultimately, the speaker replaced the novel which portrays her discovery of who she was and who she was capable of being. The simile: “I held the book closed before me/ as if it were something else,/ a mirror reflecting back/ someone I was becoming” (lines 46-49) convey’s her discovery of herself and the her will power to become a more disciplined individual. It also illustrates the strength she has found from the discovery of this book and the passion it
The poem is written in the style of free verse. The poet chooses not to separate the poem into stanzas, but only by punctuation. There is no rhyme scheme or individual rhyme present in the poem. The poems structure creates a personal feel for the reader. The reader can personally experience what the narrator is feeling while she experiences stereotyping.
The alliteration used is to emphasize rhythm in the poem. On the other hand, the poet also depicts a certain rhyme scheme across each stanza. For example, the first stanza has a rhyme scheme of this manner a, b, c, d, e, a. With this, the rhyme scheme depicted is an irregular manner. Hence, the poem does not have a regular rhythm. Moreover, the poet uses a specific deign of consonance, which is present in the poem (Ahmed & Ayesha, p. 11). The poet also uses the assonance style depicted in the seventh stanza, “Seven whole days I have not seen my beloved.” The letter ‘o’ has been repeated to create rhythm and to show despair in the poem. On the second last line of the seventh stanza, the poet uses the style of consonance, “If I hug her, she’ll drive illness from me. By this, the letter ‘l’ is repeated across the line. The poet’s aim of using this style of Consonance is to establish rhythm in the poem and add aural
“He uses similes such as the breeze that ‘blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale frogs’ and that also made a shadow on the ‘wine-colored rug’ as ‘wind does on the sea’.”
The passage of the simile is the first verse paragraph following several prose paragraphs. The structure of the verse is loose in following rhythmic or syllabic patterns. Although the form does not have any specific significance to the content, perhaps it is written in verse to sound somewhat poetic. Because the scene is very descriptive and dramatic, it is fitting to write it in a poem-like structure rather than simple prose.
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:
In this article, McIntosh explains how she was “taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage” but was not taught that her white privilege put her at an advantage, but she never noticed because whites are taught to not recognize their white privilege. She goes on to explain that even though she does not consider herself racist and has never directly been racist towards someone, she unconsciously enjoys her white privileges. In addition, McIntosh made a list of some of the white privileges that she has taken advantage of, such as her race not working against her when needing medical assistance, being able to criticize the government without being seen as a cultural outsider and being able to protect her children most of the time from people who may not like them. These are just some, out of a list of 26, white privileges that McIntosh was able to take advantage from. She never noticed them until she made it a point to recognize them, regardless, it still adds to the oppression
Sexual harassment is another subject of interpersonal communication that occurs in the workplace. Although sexual harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and as amended by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, it is still a reality in all places of employment which is why it is something that everyone should have the ability to identify, understand, and effectively respond to.
Sexual harassment refers to unwanted sexual advances, requests or favors. It can happen to anyone, anywhere. Sexual harassment; found primarily in the workplace shows that 43% of women have been sexually harassed in their workplace or at a work
Workplace harassment could come in different forms and often times overlap with discriminatory acts or violations that may sometimes be directed at someone or a group of persons. It is a persistent pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that could sometimes be physical and other times emotional or psychological in
The first thing that strikes me about this poem is the structure. The poem is very ordered written with 4 lines a stanza and a total of 6 stanza’s. This looks like a professional poem created by an adult, showing experience right away. The syllables are normally 7 per line but there are exceptions to this rule as all of stanza 5 has 8 syllables a line. The first stanza and the last stanza are nearly the same apart from the last line of each differing by a word. This poem uses many poetic devices well to create a vivid picture in the readers mind. There are rhyming couplets, alliteration, repetition, rhetorical questions as well as many biblical and egotistical references to the artist and poet himself. Now we will look at the poems meanings.
Living in the City vs. Living in the Country The age-old question has plagued many, “Should I live in a city or should I live in the country?”. There are many advantages and disadvantages to choosing a lifestyle in either setting, and careful examination of all aspects is needed to make the perfect decision for you. One major issue affecting many people trying to make the decision on where to live is their quality of life in either extreme. Health, education, and transportation are three major concerns that many consider.
Harassment of a sexual nature, typically in the workplace or other setting where raising objections or refusing may have negative consequences is considered sexual harassment. In American employment law, it is any unwelcome sexual advance on the job that creates intimidation in the workplace. Sexual harassment is considered a form of illegal discrimination. Unfortunately, the definition of sexual harassment is very controversial; it is truly based on what ones personal opinion is. Typical sexual harassment behavior usually includes unwanted touching of a co-worker, lewd comments, talk about gender superiority, or sexual jokes (Sandler, 1997).
While venturing through the world of “A Tale of Two Cities” there are many practices seen throughout the book that would be unheard of in society and politics today. The book, written by the famous English author Charles Dickens, explains the story of people from both France and England and what part they took in the French Revolution. Some of these people, the aristocrats, were against the revolution because they wanted to maintain the form of government where they ruled over the people. If the revolutionaries won, the aristocrats would lose both their power and their wealth. This tension between people and clear class definition is a perfect example of how far both society and
Everything seems like it’s falling out of place, it’s going too fast, and my mind is out of control. I think these thoughts as I lay on my new bed, in my new room, in this new house, in this new city, wondering how I got to this place. “My life was fine,” I say to myself, “I didn’t want to go.” Thinking back I wonder how my father felt as he came home to the house in Stockton, knowing his wife and kids left to San Diego to live a new life. Every time that thought comes to my mind, it feels as if I’m carrying a ten ton boulder around my heart; weighing me down with guilt. The thought is blocked out as I close my eyes, picturing my old room; I see the light brown walls again and the vacation pictures of the Florida and camping trip stapled to them. I can see the photo of me on the ice rink with my friends and the desk that I built with my own hands. I see my bed; it still has my checkered blue and green blanket on it! Across from the room stands my bulky gray television with its back facing the black curtain covered closet. My emotions run deep, sadness rages through my body with a wave of regret. As I open my eyes I see this new place in San Diego, one large black covered bed and a small wooden nightstand that sits next to a similar closet like in my old room. When I was told we would be moving to San Diego, I was silenced from the decision.