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Recommended: Analysis of the poem
The poem “One Today” by Richard Blanco has a variety of excellent vocabulary. Although there are a few words where I would have chosen a couple different paths that would make it more interesting. Maybe even flow a bit better. For starters in the beginning of the poem in the 3rd paragraph in the 4th line it says ‘…the “I have a dream” we all keep dreaming’ I believe that if we could replace the second “dream” with fantasizing it will leave more of a mystic and mysterious effect. The next word that I would change is in the 5th paragraph 3rd line and it is the word gorgeous. To me I don’t find the “honking of cabs” gorgeous. But I do find it pleasing, if I were to keep up with the positive tone of this poem. Words. They do have a big impact
“A Fire Truck” is a display of excellent poetry writing. Although a passing fire truck is a menial topic and the poem itself is brief, Richard Wilbur is able to brilliantly recreate this ordinary event through the use of rhythm, sounds and figurative language. The author captures, absorbs and retells this event in a way that the readers could almost physically experience the passing of a fire truck as did the speaker.
Kim Addonizio’s “First Poem for You” portrays a speaker who contemplates the state of their romantic relationship though reflections of their partner’s tattoos. Addressing their partner, the speaker ambivalence towards the merits of the relationship, the speaker unhappily remains with their partner. Through the usage of contrasting visual and kinesthetic imagery, the speaker revels the reasons of their inability to embrace the relationship and showcases the extent of their paralysis. Exploring this theme, the poem discusses how inner conflicts can be powerful paralyzers.
As one of America’s leading contemporary poet’s, Sharon Olds is known for the intense personal and emotional poetry that she writes. Her ability to intimately and graphically divulge details of her personal life allows readers to delve into the deepest parts of not only her mind, but of their own as well. Sharon Olds uses her writing to allow readers to experience the good and bad of life through her eyes, yet allows readers the interpretive freedom to define her works as they fit into their own lives. Olds’ ability to depict both wonderful and tragic events in stories such as “First Thanksgiving” and “Still Life in Landscape”with beautifully gruesome clarity allow readers a gritty real-life experience unlike any other.
In the slam poem, “To this day” by Shane Koyczan he writes a slam poem about kids who get bullied and how words actually can hurt people. Towards the end of the video, he starts portraying motivation and not kids being bullied, at this part, it shows a coffin chained up and pulled into the ground, but a fist triumphantly shoots out of the ground holding a broken chain and a banner spiraling around it saying, “THEY WERE WRONG”. Shane states, “because how can you hold your ground if everyone around you wants to bury you beneath it you have to believe that they were wrong” (Koyczan). This quote is giving you motivation, and inspiration to rise up above all the hate and all the bullies and tell them they were wrong. Because if you don’t
This poem is divided into six stanzas with four lines each. The poem opens with “When the black snake flashed on the morning road” (1-2). The narrator uses “when” to signify the beginning of the story and introduces the snake as the main character. Labeling the snake as “black” gives it a dark and sinister appeal. The word “flashed” is used to demonstrate how fast the snake moved, and how quickly this event occurred. “Morning” is applied to the time of day that this event occurred. The narrator sees the snake quickly flash across the road. This sets up the scene in our minds. The “truck could not swerve” (3) implies that this was an accidental death. The poet uses “truck” to suggest a big vehicle that is unable to make quick moves or sudden stops. The narrator sees the snake flash across the road, into the path of a big truck that is unable to stop or swerve. “Death, that is how it happens” (4). The word “death” is italicized, emphasizing its importance. The p...
This darkly satiric poem is about cultural imperialism. Dawe uses an extended metaphor: the mother is America and the child represents a younger, developing nation, which is slowly being imbued with American value systems. The figure of a mother becomes synonymous with the United States. Even this most basic of human relationships has been perverted by the consumer culture. The poem begins with the seemingly positive statement of fact 'She loves him ...’. The punctuation however creates a feeling of unease, that all is not as it seems, that there is a subtext that qualifies this apparently natural emotional attachment. From the outset it is established that the child has no real choice, that he must accept the 'beneficence of that motherhood', that the nature of relationships will always be one where the more powerful figure exerts control over the less developed, weaker being. The verb 'beamed' suggests powerful sunlight, the emotional power of the dominant person: the mother. The stanza concludes with a rhetorical question, as if undeniably the child must accept the mother's gift of love. Dawe then moves on to examine the nature of that form of maternal love. The second stanza deals with the way that the mother comforts the child, 'Shoosh ... shoosh ... whenever a vague passing spasm of loss troubles him'. The alliterative description of her 'fat friendly features' suggests comfort and warmth. In this world pain is repressed, real emotion pacified, in order to maintain the illusion that the world is perfect. One must not question the wisdom of the omnipotent mother figure. The phrase 'She loves him...' is repeated. This action of loving is seen as protecting, insulating the child. In much the same way our consumer cultur...
Before reading this poem, one might not be too intrigued by its title, but ...
Throughout our lives, each one of us will experience change. Either good or bad, one cannot deny the fact that change is innate for human beings. As life forcibly changes, one must leave behind the comfort and the joy in their past in order to face these changes. This idea is well portrayed in Billy Collins’s free verse poem “On Turning Ten.” Through appropriate poetic structure, well-structured theme, and literary devices such as similes, metaphors, and vivid imagery, the reader is able to perceive the sadness, pain and nostalgia of change as meant by Collins.
Helen of Troy, known as the most beautiful woman of ancient Greek culture, is the catalyst for the Trojan War. As such, she is the subject of both Edgar Allen Poe’s “To Helen” and H.D.’s “Helen”; however, their perceptions of Helen are opposites. Many poets and authors have written about Helen in regards to her beauty and her treacherous actions. There is a tremendous contrast between the views of Helen in both poems by Poe and Doolittle. The reader may ascertain the contrast in the speakers’ views of Helen through their incorporation of diction, imagery, and tone that help convey the meaning of the work.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy tells a story of a father and son fighting to live throughout their journey to the south during the apocalypse. Even though they face many obstacles along the way, the bond they share always keeps them fighting to survive. This deep story of the bond between father and child makes it easier to see what it means to be human. The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart contains poetry relating to this topic of what it means to be human as well. The Road helps to enhance the understanding of many of the poems from The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart including “With Kit, Age 7, At the Beach” and “Faith.” Even though the poems differ from The Road, the book helps by giving examples to explain the poems better, making the message behind them clearer.
Imagine yourself lying in the sun, feeling the warmth on your skin, when a cloud cover the sun and you feel the sudden coldness that you can seem to shake? The feeling is similar when you love someone very much but they don’t return the feeling. The band, 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS), in their song, If You Don’t Know, sings about how a singer is in love with a person. The person seems to not be sure if they are in love with the singer, and the the singer wishes for the person to let them go. The couple that 5SOS wrote about was in love at one time, but the person is slowly falling out of love with the singer.
Yolanda is a young girl from the Dominican Republic. She is not use to Americas antics of war and bombs. In the short story she accounts her first sight of snow for what she thought were bombs, "I looked out the window warily. All of my life i had heard about the hite crystals that fell out of American skies in the winter"(5). The way the poet decribes how Yolanda saw th ice fall out the sky lets us know that snow is something that is unfamiliar to her. Also the way she describes the new vocabulary, "nuclear bomb, radioactive fallout, bomb shelter" (2). This lets us know that the seeting takes place ina time of nuclear warefare and the country is in a state of emergence.
Moose wanted to carry the football so that he could be noticed, “ And dreamed of racing down the field with the ball in the end zone, while everyone in the bleachers screaming his name.”
I think that this poem has the capability of bringing attention to viewers of how far away all of us have drifted from nature. I think of last week when I visited Sioux Falls for the first time, I was truly shocked as I looked around and saw a large number of people so focused on their various versions of technology that they didn’t see Gods beauty passing by. I think this piece presents a challenging new idea that the simpler times are truly gone. I believe that it has become uncommon for people to seek out the sense of peace from nature that the author describes in this poem in today’s era. It is truly incredible to me how we can tread along in the mundaneness of life, and then suddenly an old thought is dragged from the dark recesses of our minds and becomes new again.
... poem, I thought it to be weak and nonsensical. However, now, it is easy to see the wisdom behind Drayton's words.