David Baker’s poem, “After”, is a relatable poem, especially for anyone that has sailed on the boat of anxiety. In the poem, Baker describes a life on a miserable island, that leads to a lost end of loneliness. It is comparable to the continuous back and forth motion of waves as they have the feeling of being alone. This poem portrays a theme of loneliness using imagery. Showing how being lonely leads to feeling lost, with a hunger of becoming sociable. In Baker’s poem, a key element that he uses is imagery, by using shadows to symbolize the feeling of being lonely. In the first stanza, shadows symbolize loneliness. Baker asks “How many shadows slipped along walls or whetted the leaves of century plants?”(Baker, 3 and 4). This is a very dark
In Tim Seibles' poem, The Case, he reviews the problematic situations of how white people are naturally born with an unfair privilege. Throughout the poem, he goes into detail about how colored people become uncomfortable when they realize that their skin color is different. Not only does it affect them in an everyday aspect, but also in emotional ways as well. He starts off with stating how white people are beautiful and continues on with how people enjoy their presence. Then he transitions into how people of color actually feel when they encounter a white person. After, he ends with the accusation of the white people in today's world that are still racist and hateful towards people of color.
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.
Lonely” is a poem about a kid having trouble living his life and he isolates himself from other people which makes his life harder. In this poem the author uses symbolism, a metaphor, and rhetorical questions to show how being isolated can make life more difficult. The author tells the audience that whenever anyone tries to isolates themselves there life gets harder for them.
was found guilty and hanged (Dieters, 2012). Seven years later, Fitzpatrick’s former roommate confessed to the murder on his deathbed. Residents of Detroit were outraged that an innocent man had been put to death. Then, two years following Fitzpatrick’s execution, another Detroit resident, Stephen Simmons, was tried and convicted of killing his pregnant wife during a drunken rage. His execution was made into an event resembling a carnival, complete with a band, local merchants selling their goods, and a seating section for spectators.. When asked if he had any last words, Simmons recited a poem. His “appeal to the heavens” shocked witnesses. The execution was called “cruel and vindictive” by onlookers. The result of these two cases was an
Loss and isolation are easy, yet difficult to write about. They are easy because every human being can empathize with loneliness. If someone denies this, they are lying because loneliness is a common feeling, anyone can relate. It’s hard because we don’t discuss loneliness or loss publicly very often, and when we do, we forget about it quickly. These poems contrast each other by speaking of the different types of loneliness and isolation, distinguishing between the ones of loss, and isolation in a positive perspective.
Death is a topic heavily conveyed in "Before She Died" by Karen Chase; the title is hopeful in it's mention of a time before death, but the poem is not. The presence of autumn is made aware to us, 'all the leaves gone almost from the trees,' (Line 3/4). Autumn in poetry usually has to do with decline and tiredness, this evident with the speaker 'not walk[ing] briskly through [a] field' (Line 4) and having to '[Lean] on [the speaker's dog]' (Line 6/7) for support. Along with the speaker's dog being 'aged' (Line 6), the author conveys a cogitative and somber tone using dark imagery, the depressing 'blue' (Line 6) of the sky and a poisonous 'strand of hemlock' (Line 8) present. Time is a common theme, the speaker mentioning how 'finite these
Examining the differences and similarities of the two different applications of night as an image of loneliness, is a good way to determine what the overall feel of the poem is. When reading these works one must take the existing mold of an image and see if there are any dual meanings of why the author chose that particular concept. The use of an image as a literary devise allows the piece to touch its readers on a more personal level.
This poem Coffee Coloured fall under the category of being a sensory poem, as it is all about how people are seen for their skin and not actually how people are. this poem is from the point of view of an Aboriginal person who is complaining about how they are only seen for their sin and nothing other than it. This poem only had only stanza, has rhyming but is not constant throughout the poem and doesn’t have a clear pattern making this poem free verse. This poem uses rhyming and rhymes the last words on most of the sentences.
"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal [but] which the reader recognizes as his own." (Salvatore Quasimodo). There is something about the human spirit that causes us to rejoice in shared experience. We can connect on a deep level with our fellow man when we believe that somehow someone else understands us as they relate their own joys and hardships; and perhaps nowhere better is this relationship expressed than in that of the poet and his reader. For the current assignment I had the privilege (and challenge) of writing an imitation of William Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 87". This poem touched a place in my heart because I have actually given this sonnet to someone before as it then communicated my thoughts and feelings far better than I could. For this reason, Sonnet 87 was an easy choice for this project, although not quite so easy an undertaking as I endeavored to match Shakespeare’s structure and bring out his themes through similar word choice.
As people go through life they are hopeful for their dreams to come true, but a person can change based on a dream that is deferred. When a person’s dream is deferred they start to act differently. They make choices that not only affect themselves, but people they care about. Throughout a Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry illuminates the truth of Hughes’s poem. Langston Hughes poem reveals the determinacy of a dream deferred. Dreams that people have can be related back to the Maslow hierarchy, and they also reveal how possible dreams are for everyone in society. In the play a Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry demonstrates that people can respond differently to a dream deferred through her symbolism and characterization.
The article “Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth” and Shane Koyczan’s poem “To This Day” give different perspectives on bullying. While “To This Day” deals with bullying from remembered personal experience, “Bullying Behaviors” is more objective. The article “Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth” and Shane Koyczan’s poem “To This Day” both deal with bullying, and their different intended audience, connections, and backgrounds show bullying from different perspectives. “To This Day” more effectively sends a message to its audience about the horrors of bullying by putting the audience member in the place of the bullied.
These two pieces of literature cause the reader to grieve for the characters presented. The obvious suffering they endure when they fail to make anyone realize their pain, forces the reader to acknowledge their existence. As the poem so aptly expresses, "All the lonely people, Where do they all come from? All the lonely people, Where do they all belong?" (pg 425)
In the following passage, Graham interactions with his pupils are mellow, peaceful, and pleasant. As Graham states in passage three, “Before I begin with a poem, Graham said, if I might just talk about my hair a moment.” Of course, this displays Graham’s or Mr. Koglin’s personality toward the teenagers and how he lifts the spirits up in the class. Not to mention, Graham also deals with the less relaxed kids well by merely putting a hand in the air for silence.
‘The Falling Soldier’ is one of many poems by Duffy which deals with the subject of human mortality. Duffy expresses what could have been over a harsh reality; this is characteristic of her as also seen in ‘Last Post’ and ‘Passing Bells’ which both seem to be largely influenced by poet peer Wilfred Owen’s personal experiences of war. In the ‘The Falling Soldier’ Duffy paradoxically captures the essence of Robert Capa’s famous photograph of a man falling after being shot during the Spanish Civil War (1936). She employs the form of an impersonal narrative voice, using second person to question the possibilities, to explore the tragic and cyclical nature of war. The futile reality of war contrasts to her central theme in ‘The Bees’ anthology of bees symbolising the grace left in humanity.
As kids and even adults we have always heard ghost stories and knew that death was lurking around every corner. The poems’ I have chosen for this assignment are Spirts of the Dead, The Messenger, and The Ghost. Each of these poems had a common theme, death. These poets have created stories and ideas to give you nightmares! The devices used in these poems helped the reader understand, feel, and think about death and the afterlife in different perspectives. Devices such as figurative language and imagery make it easy for the poets to get inside the reader’s head and give them chills. To some these are just ghost stories, but to others these are works of pure beauty.