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Poetic devices and figurative language
Poetic devices and figurative language
Symbolism in modern poetry
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“Love Poem With Toast” by Miller Williams introduces the effect our desires have in our daily lives in order to “move, as we call it, forward” (11). Miller Williams also conveys this message accompanied with a darker meaning; though these desires make up a large part of our lives, in the end none of it will matter because we leave the world the same way we enter it, with nothing. Despite this message being carried out, it is still a love poem at the surface, but it is not about a person confessing their love, rather pretending to love, and continuing to live with this self-conflict about choosing to be in a frigid relationship over not being in one at all. It is interesting how Miller rhythmically categorizes his message throughout the poem; …show more content…
he does so by alternating positive desires with negative apathy. It is intriguing to read about his opinion about the purpose of life and the overall universe and understand why he cleverly positioned the words the way he did. For example, the alternating pros and cons continue to unravel throughout his piece but are not pointed out until he writes about the “poles of a battery,” cunningly placed in the center of the poem, similar to the heliocentric model about the sun being in the center of the universe and planets surrounding it (9). The pattern of the sentences that follow this phrase alternate from positive to negative similar to the charges on a battery.
Williams uses dry and subtle words such as “car”, “coffee”, or even plain “water” to create this powerful and foreboding poem which is interpreted pessimistically after getting past the tedious words. Its implicit meaning can be hard to grasp because it is deeply embedded into the poem and also implies the opposite of what we are taught as humans; we grow up with plans, goals, desires too, and Williams opens the reader’s eyes to explain the pointlessness of it all. Williams writes this poem knowing he will contradict everything people learn to do starting from a young age. In spite of this, it may inspire readers to stop worrying about the small things and focus on the grand scheme, maybe get them “wanting to love beyond this meat and bone,” despite its adverse meaning (21). Ultimately, the author subduedly goes against the ideal rules of life and allows the reader to interpret it however they want- either explicitly understand that it is normal for humans to want thing, not want things, and be wanted, or implicitly understand that there is no point in investing in our desires, for when we die, our goals- both the finished and unfinished- will not matter in the
end.
In the poem Reunion by Carolyn Forché, she does an excellent job of including line breaks to make a meaningful impact. I noticed that the poet’s use of “half-commas” as referenced in the book helps show the reader where there’s an emphasis. For example, in the poem stanza, “later, the tongues swishing in my dress, some yours, some left by other men.” The punctuation here aids in presenting the words in an exciting way as “some left by other men” was not what I expected after the pause.
Williams’ minimalist writing style employed free verse and by maintaining simplicity allowed the wheelbarrow to be the center of attention. He accomplished this task by breaking up the poem, which consisted of one sentence, into eight lines and further divided it into couplets. The beginning line of each couplet was longer than the second line, which only had one word. This formation allowed the reader to focus on specific words before moving to the next line. This is best illustrated in the opening lines, “so much depends/upon,” (Williams 288). Already, Williams has established the importance of the object by conveying to the reader that many things are dependent on the object. It is also significant that none of the words in the poem are capitalized nor did Williams
Poetry is something that is to be read delicately and cautiously if one wanted to find meaning through the words. Readers have to be gentle and patiently ponder about what they are reading in order to find any significance in the poem. If someone is not patient with reading, they will not feel impacted by poetry and will not want to read it. In Billy Collins’, “Introduction to Poetry,” he uses figurative language to help readers see that the way to enjoy and understand poetry is by reading between the lines and being patient with how each individual relates to the readings.
enable us to understand the moral of the poem. Which is work hard and you will receive you goals and never give up.
Both, the poem “Reluctance” by Robert Frost and “Time Does Not Bring Relief” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, revolved around the theme of lost love. Each poet used a similar array of poetic devices to express this theme. Visual imagery was one of the illustrative poetic devices used in the compositions. Another poetic device incorporated by both poets in order to convey the mood of the poems was personification. And by the same token, metaphors were also used to help express the gist of both poems. Ergo, similar poetic devices were used in both poems to communicate the theme of grieving the loss of a loved one.
It is said that Millay's later work is more of a mirror image of her life. This particular poem was written 1931, when she was thirty-nine. Unlike some of her earlier work this is not a humorous poem. It is very deep and meaningful.
The poem is divided not only into stanza, but also lines. Most of the separate lines connect to other lines. "Our want is just one of many in line of wants & the line of wants is ancillary to the line of needs/ people close to you are hungry & you have ignored it. People close to you have lost their jobs" (Williams lines 10-13). This is an example of two sentences from the poem that connect with each other. This quote is connected with a similar idea, that your desire is secondary to your needs. The structure of the poem is significant because emphasizes the main idea of the separated lines. " Which she has done, which is what it means to want, but not have/ in a city stacked with desire, to know that desire is our most ruinous trait," (Williams lines 7-8). This demonstrates that desires could ruin people; furthermore, people have more important needs that should come before anything else. The poem's structure is significant in understanding the central message because it emphasizes the needs that should come before your
Exploring Different Types of Love in Three Poems: A Woman to Her Lover, When We Two Parted and First Love
Relationships between two people can have a strong bond and through poetry can have an everlasting life. The relationship can be between a mother and a child, a man and a woman, or of one person reaching out to their love. No matter what kind of relationship there is, the bond between the two people is shown through literary devices to enhance the romantic impression upon the reader. Through Dudley Randall’s “Ballad of Birmingham,” Ben Jonson’s “To Celia,” and William Shakespeare’s “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” relationships are viewed as a powerful bond, an everlasting love, and even a romantic hymn.
Can a song be a poem? Many people have asked this question, and I may have found an answer. Words in poems go against the context of silence, whereas lyrics take place in the context of musical information: melody, rhythm, and instrumentation. I have found “Singles You Up’’ by Jordan Davis is a poem because of the imagery, rhyme, and thematic statement worded throughout the song. Many composers can recognize the essential qualities of language in poetry, applying it to their song lyrics; however, even as some song lyrics can become a poem when you take away the instrumentals, not all can be considered a poem.
When reading the title, we often associate a love song as something jaunty, pleasureable, and celebrating, or its other extreme, regretting, nostalgic, and full of pity for the singer’s troubles in love. With Williams the singer, the main idea revolves around the concept of an incomplete union in first person point of view, which makes the reading more personal as the reader is using I instead you or he. From this concept stem the ideas that this poem is about hopelessness or happiness, communal sex or masturbation. Delving into history, literary techniques, association with the author, and own opinion of it, there is easily more to it than meets the eye.
Dissecting love and marriage ideals is an impossible task because human actions in emotional situations often defy all logic. This has been proven again and again and is also corroborated by Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, that makes fun of the conventional beliefs about these relationships in the context of social classes and individual values such as bravery, morality, infidelity, and street smartness. Through the substance of the plots, styles of the narrators and the gap between the cherished and real values in The Knight’s Tale, and the Miller’s Tale, Chaucer highlights that human behavior in romantic relationships can be crazy, unpredictable and influenced by one’s social class setting, and therefore
He also tells the reader that he is 'deep in love' when in fact he
“Love Poem” is a twenty-four-line poem in six stanzas. The generic tittle is an accurate description of the poem; it is a clue that this may not be a traditional example of love poetry. Both poems have the same rhyme scheme because the second and fourth line of every stanza rhyme. However, “Magic of Love’ speaks of a general love bringing happiness, joy and comfort. While “Love Poem” is much more personal. The speaker talks of memories with his clumsy love. Both poems have a different point of view when it comes to love. In Ferrier’s poem, she describes love as something perfect, that fixes everything. However, in Frederick’s poem, he doesn’t speak about what the love does right but rather he talks
The three poets convey the feelings of seriousness, happiness, and failure. In the poem “Simile”, Scott Momaday explains how people and the actions we do are similar to animals in which the comparison was towards deer. In “Moon Rondeau” by Carl Sandburg he illustrates that working together in a relationship, you may be able to accomplish a task and generate a strong bond. In the final poem “Woman” by Nikki Giovanni she displays how one may want to grow and be someone special to your significant other but they may not care of what their other may want. The three poets are illustrating the theme of humans being similar to animals in which case they either work together or they just ignore each other within the literary similarities and differences of the three poems.