Poetry Out Loud For my recitation I chose the poem, “Monstrance Man," by Ricardo Pau-Llosa. I selected this poem from the Poetry Out Loud archive because I liked the way it was structured and written. As I first skimmed the poem my understanding of it was shallow, but as I began to practice it I gained a deeper knowledge of its story and meaning. I realized the depth of the protagonist and how greatly I empathized with him. Specifically, I learned the definition of the term “Monstrance” and that The poem told the story of a man who is inhibited by language, and has never quite had the ability to articulate his thoughts and feeling through words. It is said that his family members have tried
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.
The first aspect of language, which he uses is metaphor in the beginning of the poem when he is describing the dwarf sitting outside the church. He uses metaphor as he says, “The dwarf with his hands on backwards Sat, slumped like a half – filled sack On tiny twisted legs from which Sawdust might run.” The metaphor here of the dwarf sitting like a ‘half filled sack’ is describing the dwarf and how he has a deformed body. He is being compared to looking like a sack, which is slumped and half empty. This is effective as it seems as though the dwarf cannot help himself
Currently in the United States, many of us are afraid of the future. There have been many recent events that have stirred up fear in this country, especially tensions regarding human rights. In Carolyn Forché’s “The Colonel,” the speaker tells us her story of when she had to deal with the mistreatment of others. The speaker is telling us her story of meeting the colonel to show us the horrible things that have happened in the fight for justice and to encourage us to speak up. She tells us this story because she does not want others to end up the way that the ears did. The speaker wants us to stay strong and fight for justice when we begin to live in a state of constant fear.
Who is the speaker of the poem? It is not the author necessarily. What can you tell about the speaker from the poem?
Like in the poem, illiteracy leaves a person vulnerable to be taken advantage of. This poor soul unknowingly signed away the rights to his own freedom by leaving his mark.
Since the character is illiterate, he has no ability to determine his true feelings for the loved one. Additionally, this use of repetitive words in the poem also shows the lack of diction by the character. When words are repeated, it typically tells someone that they are either confused or have a weak vocabulary. Since it is implied that the man had a small lexicon because of his illiteracy, the poem reveals his ideas in a simplistic and repetitive wording
Throughout the poem, there are multiple instances of the personification of body parts. These body parts are personified to participate in language related activities, thereby enhancing the significance of the word “language” to the poem. For example, in the first stanza of the poem, the phrase “Her lips and teeth negotiate” (Reibetanz 3) allows inhuman body parts to be humanized. Instead of the woman herself negotiating, the lips and teeth are performing the task on her behalf, whereas, normally the woman would be controlling her lips and teeth on her own. The personification is allowing the reader to visualize that the lips and teeth are taking control of the words the woman is speaking, therefore, using the theme of language to create an image in the reader’s mind. The use of body imagery continues in the second stanza when the poem states “…his hands, grasping/ the branching, transformational/ syntax and deep structure of/ a dialect…” (Reibetanz 9-12). This phrase expresses that the man’s hands are literally grabbing at developed sentences, relaying to the reader the image of a hand itself selecting words and placing them together to create the well-formed stanzas of the poem. In this instance, the language of the poem is being formed from body movements, creating a link between “language” and the body parts mentioned in the poem. Therefore, the word “language” is important to “Speech Therapy” due to the visualization of body parts in the poem and the language associated with
The poem “To You” by Kenneth Koch is a romantic love poem that the persona uses to express his deep love to his love. The title of the poem “To You” further reveals how the persona treasures his love. He directly addresses her and showers her with deep and romantic emotional feelings. The poem is radiant and possesses high spirits as well as the rare moods in which inspiration, affection, and happiness are the same, since they reflect how you feel. At the end of the poem, there is unity between sunlight and the attention of the lover. This depicts the persona’s world. That is, the water that is heart is swimming in. this further portrays love to him, as a pathway and a necessity from which he derives his joy and happiness.
In order to appreciate a poem properly, care must be taken to analyze and understand many different facets of the work. Poems are often very complex and require a great deal of thought in order to arrive at the intended meaning. At the very least, three particular items of information must be uncovered during the reading of poetry. An experienced reader of poetry will always determine the identity of the speaker, the occasion of the speech, and the central idea of the poem.
The first three lines of the poem talk about how man has no firm grip on language. It is clearly not a physical thing to be grasped, and it cannot be marked as such. There is an attachment between men and language, but it is not clear. This may be a statement on the many different languages humans speak. It may not be clear when a language has completely changed into something different, or when it is merely a different dialect. It is hard to tell where the boundaries are, which is why it is described as having no handles for men to take hold of and mark it with signs for its remembrance. These difficulties arise because exactly what makes a language is difficult to determine. Sometimes it can be...
in his poetry can be some what difficult to comprehend at times. Once it is
The theme of the poem is grieving the death of the man in a very unique way. The
As I read the poem, the first word that stood out to me was the labyrinth. Labyrinth caught my attention because it was an unknown word to me, but the meaning made me realize it can relate to life itself. This brings up the first figure of speech, metaphor. I would consider labyrinth a metaphor because labyrinth is used to describe life. Life is full of choices, struggles, and the unknown. It’s like being in a maze deciding what side to go, but you don’t know because you can’t see beyond the walls surrounding you. Using this word sets the tone; it lets you know how the speaker feels: lost and confused about life itself. Another figure of speech that I identified was contrast. On lines 3 and 5 the speaker is contrasting the left and the right
In “The Colossus” Plath expresses how the lost of her father effected the father- daughter relationship growing up. Plath’s father who was “absent”, emotionally affected her in many ways. His neglect was responsible for why they never had that father-daughter relationship, which is critical in the developmental stages of a young girl growing up. Rietz writes:
"The point of view which I am struggling to attack is perhaps related to the metaphysical theory of the substantial unity of the soul: for my meaning is, that the poet has, not a personality' to express, but a particular medium, which is only a medium and not a personality, in which impressions and experiences combine in peculiar and unexpected ways."