Bryant went through many hard times throughout his life; from losing family members to being socially isolated. He lost many family members and close friends. The one death that hurt him the most was his father’s. Bryant’s father was a very important part of his life; his father taught him many things throughout his lifetime. His father submitted five of his poems into the North American Review, one of those were the first version of “Thanatopsis”. It is said that Bryant mourned his father’s death and that his death is what gave him the emotional passion to write with. As a child Bryant was forced to work on a farm, he spent most of his time outdoors. Due to being outdoors a majority of his life, Bryant was able to obtain his transcendental view of nature. Also, later on in Bryant’s life he wasn’t able to provide for his family and fill the role as father. Typically the role of a father is to be the bread winner of the family while taking care of the wife and children. Bryant lacked the necessary means in supplying his household’s income. This led Bryan to take a lot of desperate measures in order to provide for his family. A bad investment in a merchant ship landed him in “debtor’s prison”. Debtor’s prison is a prison specifically for people who cannot pay on the debt that they have collected. Death played a major role in Bryant’s life as well. He had to cope with the loss of so many family members due to the outbreak of typhoid fever. His experiences of death allowed him to write with different viewpoints of death. Bryant struggled with the thoughts of an “after life” that were related to God. As a young child, Bryant’s grandparents tried to instill their religious views in him. Through his writings Bryant portrayed his faith i... ... middle of paper ... ...e to expand his reading and became familiar with philosophical writers and British poets. Spanish was the next culture he immersed himself in. This immersion was made possible through a meeting with a famous Cuban poet. After this meeting Bryant began to learn the Spanish language and broaden his knowledge of Spanish Literature. He was soon fluent enough in the Spanish language that he was able to translate Spanish poems into English. Eventually Bryant’s own poems, “Thanatopsis” and “To A Waterfowl” were translated into Spanish and published in Spain. Bryant’s interest in the Spanish literature and the Spanish culture and history remained constant over many decades but was the most intense early in his career. Bryant’s interest in all of these different cultures and languages helped expand his knowledge and only made his writing better as he now had worldly views.
Alan Shapiro was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 18th, 1952. He is the son of Harold and Marilyn Shapiro. Growing up Shapiro was a part of a Jewish household. Shapiro received his education at Brandies University. While attending Brandies University he discovered that his one and only passion was for the astounding art of poetry and he found an escape from all the devastating disasters he encountered in his youth (Garbett). Shapiro is also now an educator at Stanford University and he has also worked at Northwestern University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As Shapiro conveys in many of his works after researching Shapiro’s life it is known Shapiro’s brother and sister both died of cancer while Shapiro was very young, and these events highly contribute to Shapiro’s work as a poet. The memoir that Shapiro wrote which was entitled Vigil is about the tragic death of his sister due to the unfortunate events of being diagnosed with breast cancer. As it is well known Shapiro’s poems are very tragic and sorrowfully oriented it is no fault to say that different people happen to react and cope with death in different ways and Shapiro expresses his sadnes...
It both shows the author’s knowledge of the Spanish language as well as providing evidence to the fact that English is not the author’s only language. “Spanish seemed the language of home” demonstrates the way the
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and
This blues poem discusses an incredibly sensitive topic: the death of Trethewey’s mother, who was murdered by her ex-husband when Trethewey was nineteen. Many of her poetry was inspired by the emotions following this event, and recounting memories made thereafter. “Graveyard Blues” details the funeral for Trethewey’s mother, a somber scene. The flowing words and repetition in the poem allow the reader to move quickly, the three-line stanzas grouping together moments. The poem begins with heavy lament, and the immediate movement of the dead away from the living, “Death stops the body’s work, the soul’s a journeyman [author emphasis]” (Tretheway 8, line 6). Like the epitaph from Wayfaring Stranger, Trethewey indicates that the dead depart the world of the living to some place mysterious, undefined. The living remain, and undertake a different journey, “The road going home was pocked with holes,/ That home-going road’s always full of holes” (Trethewey 8, line 10-11). Trethewey indicates that the mourning is incredibly difficult or “full of holes”, as she leaves the funeral and her mother to return home. ‘Home’ in this poem has become indicative of that which is not Trethewey’s mother, or that which is familiar and comfortable, in vast contrast to the definition of home implied in the
What is Waterfowl hunting? Not only is it hands down the most adrenaline pumping, heart racing outdoors sports, but also one of the top most adventurous outdoor experiences. Becoming a waterfowl hunter could be a life changing experience, showing one the great outdoors is an excellent way to relax and breath in the fresh air. A few steps an individual needs to take before going out and becoming a waterfowl pro. Waterfowl hunting will always remain on the top of the hunting food chain. Waterfowl hunting is a great hobby, and it is thrilling for the hunter to enjoy what nature has to offer the hunter. The three key aspects of waterfowl hunting are, scouting, preparing, and enjoying the hunt.
His ungratefulness as a child has now emerged on him, leaving the speaker ashamed of taking his father’s hard work for granted. In this poem he writes, “…fearing the chronic angers of that house//Speaking indifferently to him/who had driven out the cold…” (Hayden, 17). When he quotes “fearing chronic angers”, the speaker refers to his view of life as a child, and how he interpreted his father’s agony and self-sacrifice as anger towards him. With an apathetic and cold attitude that accompanied his youth, he did not recognize the love that his father had for him. Hayden also writes, “What did I know, What did I know…” (Hayden 17). Repeating this rhetorical question twice it is obvious that the speaker, now as an adult, feels deep remorse over the way he had treated his father. With a matured mind, Hayden came to the realization that love comes in all shapes and forms, and his father’s love was shown through his selfless
Phil Jackson is a well-known man in the basketball world, as a championship coach and leader. Not only for his knowledge of basketball was he considered great, it was also for his use of alternative spiritual methods to assist his coaching. Through his Naturalist and Pantheist worldview he left a legacy of a role model. Phil Jackson’s views about the nature of God, career, and family are ultimately shaped by his worldview of Naturalism and Pantheism. Comparing my worldview of Christianity to Phil Jackson’s nature of God, career, and family, we will determine whether the role model status is relevant to how I perceived a role model.
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.
Metaphor is an underlying element used in this memoir to depict the relationship between family and nature, and the profound understanding of oneself, through the sequence of life and death, and the rebirth that proceeds. Using metaphoric references, Williams explores the continual unpredictab...
I have elected to analyze seven poems spoken by a child to its parent. Despite a wide variety of sentiments, all share one theme: the deep and complicated love between child and parent.
Poems are often designed to express deep feelings and thoughts about a particular theme. In Theodore Roethke’s poem, My Papa’s Waltz, and Ruth Whitman’s poem, Listening to grownups quarreling, the theme of childhood is conveyed through their details, although we can neither see a face nor hear a voice. These poems are very much alike in their ideas of how their memories pertain to the attitudes of their childhood; however, the wording and tones of the two poems are distinct in how they present their memories. The two poems can be compared and contrasted through the author’s use of tone, imagery, and recollection of events; which illustrate each author’s memories of childhood.
During the process of growing up, we are taught to believe that life is relatively colorful and rich; however, if this view is right, how can we explain why literature illustrates the negative and painful feeling of life? Thus, sorrow is inescapable; as it increase one cannot hide it. From the moment we are born into the world, people suffer from different kinds of sorrow. Even though we believe there are so many happy things around us, these things are heartbreaking. The poems “Tips from My Father” by Carol Ann Davis, “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, and “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop convey the sorrow about growing up, about sorrowful pretending, and even about life itself.
From an early age Jones was exposed to religion, specifically the Pentecostal sect of Christianity. With no father figure to look up to he turned to the pastors in his church for a role model. Watching the local pastors speak moved Jones; he id...
World-renowned poet, Jupiter Hammon, was born into a family of slaves. A farmer in New York owned Jupiter and several generations of his family. His mother, fortunately, could read and write and she passed her skills onto Jupiter. Jupiter wrote many poems about his life of slavery. He wrote about the struggles he went through and his strong Christian faith. In 1760 he became the first African American published writer in America. Today his poems give us insight to see how African American faith evolved into what it is today, and how their circumstances shaped their beliefs.
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.