Night Waitress by Lynda Hull is a poem that describes the feelings of a waitress that works the night shift of a diner
Reflection of “Night Waitress”
“Night Waitress” by Lynda Hull is a poem that describes the feelings of a waitress that works the night shift of a diner. The speaker obviously belongs to a lower social class, in the way of income and her occupation. Much like the character in this poem, the speaker in
“The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake works long, hard hours as a chimneysweeper. These two characters are both related in their ways of life and their classes in our society. They both make just enough money to get by and often think about what it would be like to be of a higher class.
In “Night Waitress” the
Poverty is often taxing to one’s life in multiple ways, some of which include mind taxation, stress taxation, emotional taxation and of course money taxation. Mother Theresa once said “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty”. How would you find time to look for the one that would make you feel special and wanted, while having to live in situation which doesn’t forgive free time? “Night Waitress” by Linda Hull is poem that looks at daily life of a waitress who struggles to answer just that question.
Nearly everyone has had that dreadful encounter with the last person they want to see in places like the supermarket, dry cleaners, or the movie theaters. What follows are a few awkward moments of strained conversation while one looks for signs of bitter regret in the eyes of his or her ex. Carolyn Krizer’s poem “Bitch” depicts such a meeting. The poem brings the reader to reality of what really goes on deep beyond conversation while seeing an ex. Through the use of personification, diction, and tone Kizer delineates the speaker’s struggle with feelings of animosity, repression, and desire for reconciliation.
following his religon. As he gets older he endures much pressure to follow the exact teachings of
Carolyn Forche’s “The Colonel” discusses the lack of value towards human life by totalitarian government and the United States’ stake in investigating these powers and challenging them. The speaker in this poem recounts his experience meeting the colonel to show the audience both the amount of presence of the United States in this foreign setting and the Colonel’s lack of regard toward human rights. Figurative language, such as similes, metaphors, and symbols, as well as the speaker’s first-person point of view descriptions reveal her experiences in El Salvador with a cruel military government. These elements in Forche’s poem successfully convey themes of oppression and cruelty, as well as heavy
The poem “In the kitchen” written by Penelope Shuttle shares with readers how difficult it may be for humans to mourn the loss of a loved one. The poem starts off with the speaker (Penelope) giving a few things around her kitchen human qualities, also known as personification. The author maintains a sad yet mellow tone throughout the entire poem. Almost like the author didn’t want anyone to feel the pain she was feeling, she simply wanted a way to express her feeling regarding the loss of her husband.
If this man wants to eat a cookie before dinner, he will eat the cookie simply because he chooses to. The cookie is irrelevant. He begins to form new values with his choice as the guiding force. No more blindly obeying codes previously laid down in the past, this man has see...
Connie Fife is a Saskatchewan, Cree poet who writes using her unique perspective, telling of her personal experiences and upbringing. This perspective is revealed to her audience through the poems “This is not a Metaphor”, “I Have Become so Many Mountains”, and “She Who Remembers” all of which present a direct relationship to her traditional background and culture (Rosen-Garten, Goldrick-Jones 1010). To show the relationship of her experiences through her poetry, Fife uses the form of dramatic monologue, as well as modern language and literal writing to display themes about racism presenting her traditional viewpoint to her audience.
Hillary R. Clinton once said that “There cannot be true democracy unless Women’s voices are heard” (conference in Vienna, Austria 1997). That very brilliant quote relates to a very strong woman by the name of Maya Angelou. Angelou is “America’s most visible black female autobiographer and speakers” (scholar Joanne M. Braxton). She is known for her speeches, poems, and books, but what stood out to me the most was her 1993 inauguration speech when Bill Clinton was sworn into the White House. Ironically, in her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” Maya Angelou uses clear rhetoric, prehistoric metaphoric images, and inspirational concepts to alert her audience to treat the world differently.
would set up recreation activities for her children and family get-togethers. As a maternal role
"A man has to make his own way, has to look after him self and family
The ship would take him and his crew to many places, mainly in Western Africa. Hughes was so excited to finally see Africa and to be apart of the culture there. When the ship finally reached shore, Hughes was disappointed. Thinking that Africa was actually pretty ridiculous with men walking around in white gowns, women showing their breast and little children running around naked. There were also many brothels there that Hughes described the setting as little African boys bringing the crew members to see ‘my sister, two shillings’. These brothels not only disgusted Hughes, but also disappointed him on how the Africans praised them. Hughes wrote in his journal, which is now protected at Yale University, calling them “vile houses of rotting
...y reality and the truth of his miserable and lonely existence becomes too much for him to bear.
struggling. This not only shows his hardships of attempting to be like his father, but
“Spinster” by Sylvia Plath is a poem that consists of a persona, who in other words serves as a “second self” for the author and conveys her innermost feelings. The poem was written in 1956, the same year as Plath’s marriage to Ted Hughes, who was also a poet. The title suggests that the persona is one who is not fond of marriage and the normal rituals of courtship as a spinster is an unmarried woman, typically an older woman who is beyond the usual age of marriage and may never marry. The persona of the poem is a woman who dislikes disorder and chaos and finds relationships to be as unpredictable as the season of spring, in which there is no sense of uniformity. In this poem, Plath not only uses a persona to disclose her feelings, but also juxtaposes the seasons and their order (or lack thereof) and relates them to the order that comes with solitude and the disorder that is attributed with relationships. She accomplishes this through her use of formal diction, which ties into both the meticulous structure and develops the visual imagery.
This is in such a tone, that it is suggesting that a higher being is