The theme of sadness appears in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s ‘What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why’ and Matthew Dickman’s ‘Grief’, but the different literary devices used in each poems separates one from another. Millay’s poem talks about her awareness of losing memories of past lovers and moving toward a lonely person. Whereas Dickman’s poem is about the stages of battling with the grief toward his passed away closed ones. Edna St. Vincent Millay uses lots of metaphors, symbolization and create imageries to carry out her feelings. In contrasts, Dickman personifies his subject matter to present his emotions. In Millay’s poem, the idea of grief and sad can be discovered through the tone of the narrator and further strengthened by …show more content…
the poet’s use of figurative languages. The poem opens up with the narrator’s lost memories of past lovers, “I have forgotten, and what arms have lain/ Under my head till the morning;”. As the poem continues, words like “lonely”, “silent”, “quiet”, “pain” are used by the poet to convey the sadness. In addition to the word choices, figurative languages like metaphors, symbolization, and imageries are applied to bring the readers closer to the moments in between each line. “ … the rain/ Is full of ghosts tonight,” is a metaphor for the memories of narrator's past lovers. “... tap and sigh/ Upon the glass and listen for reply…” is another metaphor for the past memories that haunt her. In line 9, The “lonely tree” that stands alone in the winter symbolizes the narrator herself and the “birds” symbolizes narrator’s forgotten lovers. An imagery is created by these symbolizations and metaphors, a once lively tree now turns old and quiet, which reflects on the narrator’s personal feelings toward her forgotten good old times. Lastly, the poet ends with personifying summer and a metaphor for the happiness she once owns “I only know that summer sang in me /A little while, that in me sings no more.”. To be the only two lines in the poem where present tense is used, the two line can be interpreted as the current emotion state of the narrator: happiness no longer exists in her. On the other hand, Matthew Dickman portrays the idea of grief/sadness by personifying it into a purple gorilla.
The purple gorilla shapes play a big part in shaping the playful tone of the poem. A purple colored gorilla adds a comical vibe to the character. Additionally, the purple gorilla also represents how grief is unavoidable, when it comes, you “offer her what’s left of your dinner”, and even “make her a place to sit at the foot of your bed”(6). The interaction between the narrator and the purple gorilla is a metaphor of the narrator’s process of dealing with grief. “tells me to write down everyone I have ever known,/ and we separate them between the living and the dead/ so she can pick each name at random.”(17-20) shows how the narrator reminisces the loved ones that have already passed away. Then the narrator expresses the “romantic” feelings he has toward the purple gorilla, the poet uses this scene as a metaphor for his attempt to reconcile with grief. Grief refuses to reconcile. In the last few lines, “reading the name out loud, slowly,/ so I am aware of each syllable, each vowel/ wrapping around the bones like new muscle.”(42-44) the poet creates an imagery where the memories of his passed away closed ones are coming back again. Grief not only refuses to reconcile with the narrator but also brings him back to the starting point of the process of dealing with
grief. Even though both ‘What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why’ and ‘Grief’ share the same theme, the two poems are in many ways different from each other. In What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, the overall mood of the poem is depressing due to the melancholy tone all throughout the poem. The fixed sonnet structure makes the rhythm of the poem more fast-paced and formal when comparing to Grief. On the contrary, the purple gorilla and its interaction with the narrator is something more familiar to modern readers and gives a more relaxing vibe to it. The free-form structure of Grief allows the poet to slowly build up the emotions that he is trying to convey. Even though the poem is not as fast-paced, it still is able to grab audiences’ emotion through the various figurative language used by the poet. In both cases, the structures of both of the poems aid the delivery of the main ideas of each poem.
My initial response to the poem was a deep sense of empathy. This indicated to me the way the man’s body was treated after he had passed. I felt sorry for him as the poet created the strong feeling that he had a lonely life. It told us how his body became a part of the land and how he added something to the land around him after he died.
“Pass On” written by Michael Lee is a free verse poem informing readers on grief, which is one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome not only when losing a loved one, but also in life itself. “Pass On” successfully developed this topic through the setting of an unknown character who explains his or her experience of grief. Despite Lee never introducing this character, readers are given enough information to know how they are overcoming this difficult obstacle. In fact, this unknown character is most likely the writer himself, indirectly explaining his moments of grief. One important piece of information Lee provides is the fact that he has experienced loss twice, one with his grandfather and the other a friend who was murdered by the
Loss. Grief. Mourning. Anger. Disbelief. Emotions are in abundance when a loved one passes away. People need to find a way to cope with the situations and often need to express themselves by writing their feelings down in order to get them out. This is exactly what Paul Monette does in his book of poetry title “Love Alone” in remembrance of his companion Rog. Through writing his poetry Monette describes his emotions and the events that occurred during Rog’s battle with AIDS. By Monette’s transitioning through different emotions, the reader begins to understand the pain the author is dealt. Touching upon Kubler-Ross’ five stages of death including denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, Monette transitions to Rog’s decline in health. Using different fonts and no punctuation, the lines are interpreted by the reader using instincts to know when to begin and end a sentence. Evident in the poems “The Very Same”, “The Half-life”, and “Current Status”, Monette gives a description of loss that makes the reader tingle.
Throughout his villanelle, “Saturday at the Border,” Hayden Carruth continuously mentions the “death-knell” (Carruth 3) to reveal his aged narrator’s anticipation of his upcoming death. The poem written in conversation with Carruth’s villanelle, “Monday at the River,” assures the narrator that despite his age, he still possesses the expertise to write a well structured poem. Additionally, the poem offers Carruth’s narrator a different attitude with which to approach his writing, as well as his death, to alleviate his feelings of distress and encourage him to write with confidence.
Time is endlessly flowing by and its unwanted yet pending arrival of death is noted in the two poems “When I Have Fears,” by John Keats and “Mezzo Cammin,” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Keats speaks with no energy; only an elegiac tone of euphoric sounds wondering if his life ends early with his never attained fame. He mentions never finding a “fair creature” (9) of his own, only experiencing unrequited love and feeling a deep loss of youth’s passion. Though melancholy, “Mezzo Cammin,” takes a more conversational tone as Longfellow faces what is commonly known as a midlife crisis. The two poems progressions contrast as Keats blames his sorrow for his lack of expression while Longfellow looks at life’s failures as passions never pursued. In spite of this contrast, both finish with similar references to death. The comparable rhyme and rhythm of both poems shows how both men safely followed a practiced path, never straying for any spontaneous chances. The ending tones evoking death ultimately reveal their indications towards it quickly advancing before accomplish...
In “The Despairing Lover” William Walsh sets out the poem like a story with a beginning a middle and an end. This narrative structure of the poem gives the poem three clear stages this making the poem clearer to the reader and enables the poets written words to portray his ideas with the poem. In the first stanza William Walsh is seen to be in ‘anguish’ over his loss of his lover. However in the second stanza his mood swings to being just unhappy to suicidal, “it’s torment projecting and sadly reflecting’. This also shows how the poet William
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
At a glance, the poem seems simplistic – a detailed observance of nature followed by an invitation to wash a “dear friend’s” hair. Yet this short poem highlights Bishop’s best poetic qualities, including her deliberate choice in diction, and her emotional restraint. Bishop progresses along with the reader to unfold the feelings of both sadness and joy involved in loving a person that will eventually age and pass away. The poem focuses on the intersection of love and death, an intersection that goes beyond gender and sexuality to make a far-reaching statement about the nature of being
I will discuss the similarities by which these poems explore themes of death and violence through the language, structure and imagery used. In some of the poems I will explore the characters’ motivation for targeting their anger and need to kill towards individuals they know personally whereas others take out their frustration on innocent strangers. On the other hand, the remaining poems I will consider view death in a completely different way by exploring the raw emotions that come with losing a loved one.
During the early seventeenth century, poets were able to mourn the loss of a child publicly by writing elegies, or poems to lament the deceased. Katherine Philips and Ben Jonson were two poets who wrote the popular poems “On the Death of My Dearest Child, Hector Philips”, “On My First Son”, and “On My First Daughter” respectively. Although Philips and Jonson’s elegies contain obvious similarities, the differences between “On the Death of My Dearest Child” and “On My First Son” specifically are pronounced. The emotions displayed in the elegies are very distinct when considering the sex of the poet. The grief shown by a mother and father is a major theme when comparing the approach of mourning in the two elegies.
The speaker started the poem by desiring the privilege of death through the use of similes, metaphors, and several other forms of language. As the events progress, the speaker gradually changes their mind because of the many complications that death evokes. The speaker is discontent because of human nature; the searching for something better, although there is none. The use of language throughout this poem emphasized these emotions, and allowed the reader the opportunity to understand what the speaker felt.
The Themes of Loss and Loneliness in Hardy's Poetry Introduction = == == == ==
In the poem “A song of Despair” Pablo Neruda chronicles the reminiscence of a love between two characters, with the perspective of the speaker being shown in which the changes in their relationship from once fruitful to a now broken and finished past was shown. From this Neruda attempts to showcase the significance of contrasting imagery to demonstrate the Speaker’s various emotions felt throughout experience. This contrasting imagery specifically develops the reader’s understanding of abandonment, sadness, change, and memory. The significant features Neruda uses to accomplish this include: similes, nautical imagery, floral imagery, and apostrophe.
The character of this poem, right from the beginning feels a sadness that comes from the inner struggle between what society depicts as "should" and what a person really feels, "I feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll,/ yes, yes, we know that we can jest,/ we know we, we know that we can smile!/ But there's a something in this breast/ to which thy light words bring no rest." (3-7) There is the beginning sense here that he is starting to see conflict within himself, first characterized by his emotions.
Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden is a short poem that illustrates the emotions that he is dealing with after the love of his life passes away. The tone of this piece evokes feelings that will differ depending on the reader; therefore, the meaning of this poem is not in any way one-dimensional, resulting in inevitable ambiguity . In order to evoke emotion from his audience, Auden uses a series of different poetic devices to express the sadness and despair of losing a loved one. This poem isn’t necessarily about finding meaning or coming to some overwhelming realization, but rather about feeling emotions and understanding the pain that the speaker is experiencing. Through the use of poetic devices such as an elegy, hyperboles, imagery, metaphors, and alliterations as well as end-rhyme, Auden has created a powerful poem that accurately depicts the emotions a person will often feel when the love of their live has passed away.