Mark Doty’s poem, “Golden Retrievals” describes the thoughts of a dog who’s merry tone contrasts with the human’s sentimental view towards life. The poem is in a form of a Shakespearean sonnet, but uses slant rhymes to further portray the speaker is a canine. Doty uses images, rhythm, rhyme, and organization to encourage the tension between the speaker and the human. Through merry and sentimental diction, the speaker joyous life is compared to the sad life of his human. The dog is, “thrillingly”(6) enjoying the world, “sniff[ing]”(4), anything he could find and playing “fetch”(1). The author bounces from one noun to the next allowing the reader to imagine the dog running from one thing to the next, the speaker appears to be carefree and …show more content…
The speaker scans his surroundings, “muck, pond, ditch, residue”(5), spondee, stressed words, are used to show the typical image of a distracted dog. This is further emphasized in the enjambments and caesuras at the hyphens and colons, to express the unpredictable actions of the speaker. At the beginning the speaker includes rhetorical questions, to highlight the merry, short attention span, “Fetch? Balls and sticks capture my attention seconds at a time. Catch? I don’t think so” (1-2). The rhyme scheme is abba ccdd efef gh and often are slant rhymes which shows the dog is not as educated as a human. The vowel ‘o’ in “or else you’re off in some fog concerning/ --tomorrow”(9-10) is an assonance and “bow-wow…”(14), is onomatopoeia illustrates the dog howling and barking at his human. “Golden Retrievals” also can be seen as golden retriever, which is most likely the breed of the speaker; asks the reader to live life in the moment. Doty describes through images, slant rhymes, rhythm, and organization to enforce the tension of the poem between the speaker and the human. The tension of the poem lies in the merry tone of the personified dog, which lightens the morbid context, but it’s also seriously discusses grief through the humans sentimental
Henry was an extremely lonely nine-year-old boy whose greatest wish was to get a dog. His parents were busy with their work most of the time and it seemed that Henry did not have any friends, perhaps because they moved so often. A dog would have provided Henry with unconditional love - something in short supply around his house - and would have been the perfect companion. The problem was, his parents did not want dog, which would have been another obligation and something else to take care of. As emotionally detached as his parents were, something else to take care of was just not desirable.
... wildly, beating his little yellow wings against the wires" (259). When Joe is around Caesar, he threatens to take the dog off his chain and release him into the town. To Louisa, taking the dog off his chain symbolically relates to her being freed from the constraints Joe is putting on her. Because she, like the dog, have been alone for so long, it would be frightening to go out and experience new things. People tend to do what they know, and for fourteen years, Louisa and her pets have been accustomed to solitude. The man's influence is seen as disruptive since it threatens change on Louisa's life. The symbolism Freeman portrays between the pets and Louisa is immense and obvious. Because of this, it is easy for the reader to make such connections. Freeman's choices make this an easy to read story that appeals to all readers at all different skill levels.
The speaker continues to take on the role of beggar as she imagines the Hound “sometimes – at your side to run”, but only “When you were willing” (11-12). Again, she is implying that the poem’s subject holds the power. The speaker does not want to irritate and exert her own sense of empowerment, so will only act when or if the subject is willing. The final lines bring the poem to a close by asking, “May it come – Tell Carlo – He’ll tell me!” (13-14). Carlo was the name of Emily Dickinson’s Newfoundland dog, which lived from 1850 to 1865 and was a gift from her father. The moniker Dickinson bestowed upon the dog was an allusion to St John River’s dog in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. (Lexicon). The speaker is suggesting that, perhaps, her dog might serve as an emissary between the she and the subject of the poem. This is an abrupt change in tone and may be a light-hearted acknowledgment of the juvenile outlook that the speaker has toward her beloved. Since she has yet to fully develop a stable sense of self, this contributes to the speaker’s underlying fear of
The dog they rescued is a particularly prominent topic, a vestige of the past civilizations. In defiance of the treacherous environment, the dog managed to survive, a feat that even Lisa, the most cold-blooded of the three main characters, could not help but be “impressed by” (Bacigalupi 61). Therefore, the dog is a symbol of hope for the reader, an animal that is in the extreme, completely out of its element, and yet capable of surviving. As a result, nature’s idea of itself is astoundingly resilient, keeping certain species alive as an attempt to return to the normal state of the world. Even after horrendous trauma the natural world is still capable of a stalwart attempt at reclaiming itself. Accordingly, it is never too late to start fixing the damages and help nature’s cause, before allowing it to escalate to such a degree where the oceans are black with pollution and there is no room left for the humans of today. Chen could not help but notice that the dog is different than them in more than just a physiological nature; “there’s something there” and it’s not a characteristic that either them or the bio-jobs are capable of (64). Subsequently, the dog has something that the evolved humans are missing, compassion. In consequence, the author portrays the idea that the dog
Canine tales are becoming an ever-more-popular medium for expression, says Garber: “Just as the pathos of human love and loss is most effectively retold, in modern stories, through the vehicle of the steadfastly loyal and loving dog, so the human hero has increasingly been displaced and replaced by the canine one” (44). The spotlight has been shifted from the larger-than-life human to the humble family pet and his canine brethren. Stories that feature a dog rather than a person are able to more convey a deeper sense of meaning, establishing their...
To conclude, Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time uses distinctive qualities to enhance the reader’s understanding of coping with difficulty and accompanies appropriate language and prose action to express
... happier humans may feel. Hughes' Hawk views the world in a way that he is the center of all creations and that he is the one that would prevail through all troubles. Doty's Dog views the world in the present, never looking toward the past or future living in the moment. Both poets convey their speakers in different scenarios and different viewpoints, but in general both hawk and dog sees the world through their eyes as if they're both of better-quality than humans. The techniques both poets presents helps shape these speakers as egocentric (hawk) and carefree (dog) showing the perspectives each holds dearly to the Earth. In my analysis, [H]ughes' [H]awk in "Hawk Roosting" and [D]oty's [D]og in "Golden Retrievals" were really written in their point of views of the world and conveying their own personalities within a poem only to be swathed under stanzas and a title.
Mays, Kelly J. ""Puppy"" The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Love That Dog is a phenomenon free verse piece written by Sharon Creech that talks about a young boy named Jack’s inspiring journey with poetry. Jack finds poetry difficult and irrelevant to his life; however, as he progresses the school year, his poetical journal responses to his teacher, Miss Stretchberry, significantly improve. Jack begins to share sensitive and moving topics through his poetry. Poetry becomes inspirational to him to an extent that will astound the reader and keep them on their feet. This book is best suited for students ages 8 - 12. The book falls under the genre of poetry (realistic fiction and tragedy). The genre provides condensed, evocative language, causing the reader to interpret beyond literary meaning. Instead of analyzing this book from a simplistic point of view, one can delve more in depth based on its genre. The concepts discussed in this book are universal and applies to humanity at large.
“It’s to bad that Mr. Griff is closing the shop,” Queen thought to her self. Queen and three dogs had been pets of Mr. Griff the owner, but now the shop was going out of buisness and Mr. Griff put all the furnistur outside his shop so people could look at them. Queen had to hold a meeting with the dogs. They loved the shop but they would probably have to go to the pound because Mr. Griff wouldn’t be able to feed them with what little money he had. Queen meowed a couple of times and the dogs came bounding over. First Charlie then skip and then spot. Queen climbed up to the top of the velvet chair and got right down to the point. “You guys are going to have to leave hear or
...s the theme of family. For example, when you truly love someone in your family, you make sure that you show them you truly love them by not only giving them a hug but also telling them that you love them. I can relate to this situation because whenever I notice that my mom is feeling down, I make sure that I tell her that I love her and she is the best mom in the world. Another theme that is present in this poem that I can relate with my life is the theme of mortality. For example, the man is obsessed with not only how but also why Annabel died. I can relate to the man in this situation because after my mom’s dog passed away about nine or ten years ago I was wondering for the longest time why she had to pass away. She wasn’t always the nicest dog, but I still loved her anyways. This poem celebrates the child-like emotions with the ideals of the Romantic era.
The poems facilitate the investigation of human experience through illustrating life’s transience and the longevity of memory.
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...
feelings in the man and the dog, of a constant battle with this world of
Not too long ago, Ms. Morris’s beloved dog, Hattie, had 5 puppies. Everyone in town thought the puppies were boring and ugly. Their eyes were closed, made a little movement, and didn’t make any noise. Nobody thought the dogs were cute, and nobody wanted them.