The most important feature of Willis’ “Real Estate” is the tone of the poem, which expresses a plain easiness that both tells the poem’s “feel” as well as paints a gloomy image of the overall life on Earth. In a comfortable setting, the poem describes a man engaging in conversation with somebody talking about remembering how the old neighbor’s trees looked before starting to die. The speaker’s voice creates a tone of miserable hopelessness in which the traditional mood of the poem becomes more important than a simple chit-chat at the beginning of the poem. This chit-chat are simple, while the short conversation between these two people suggests that they are getting older and how the future does look very welcoming.
The vagueness of the scene,
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wherein we know nothing of the place, seems secondary to other considerations, most notably the symbol encountered in the poem and the worry direction it leads the speaker. By phrasing his thoughts about the trees and how when he was younger, they were younger, and now that he is getting older, the trees are getting older and even dying off. A reader can reflect upon this by the defeat and sadness in the speaker’s tone, suggesting that this is the first time he ever thought about death or at least the first time of being scared by death and how close he is to it now. Other expressions are just as telling in indicating the overall negative feel of the poem.
The narrator talks specifically about an oak tree, as if saying that even though the oak is very important to life, it will eventually start dying off. So too, when talking about the oak tree, he even mentions how when the cones fall down to the ground, mice even end there life because they fall with the cones. We must suspect that the comparison of the tree to himself, is that he looks at how he soon will not be able to have a great life and will not be able to do things like he normally would have been able to do in the past. The conversation, from the beginning of the poem, is very short and could indicate both of their sadness about what the future holds for them since they are getting older. Moreover, they both agree that it is another part of life and it is just like turning another page in a …show more content…
book. So it is that the humble occasions and friendly setting of these two conversing in a conversation, suggests that death is a negative part of life and should not be as scary as it really is. Once again, the simplicity of the language indicates this feeling. When he states that an oak tree cannot feast like they used to when they were new, but their roots are still good, he is implying that even though he cannot do some things, he is still the same guy but just needs a little extra time or help. After all, no specifics are available: why is he dying and why should we care? We remain all too familiar with the sadness of “death” of our loved ones, a depressing time and energy that is wasted from being depressed. Indeed, the speaker underscores this despair, who, as a wise observer gives more knowledge from talking about the tree that what we can actually see from the tree. How this information may be possible does not interest as readers, because we focus on the simplicity – the language, the setting, the unclear but freed conversation – and thus take for granted that the future must be very uncomfortable as these two talk about within their conversation. The last stanza serves as the key to the simple tone, which follows the lines after Spider. The speaker follows this seemingly hopeful image by creating it in an upside down triangle so the end of the stanza comes to a point. He does this to imply that when death occurs a spider, a tree, or even human will just become little points on pages. The feeling of despair suggests not only conclusiveness but injustice. How could these two having a simple conversation change how their future will end? How long will there future be and when will they receive their little point on a page? While all of these concerns seem essential, the tone of the poem remains simple. These two do not answer these questions, but we can assume that they understand that God controls the future and they cannot help with the planning of their death. To understand the tone’s importance in Willis’ poem, we note that if there was no plot, this poem would not have survive.
Indeed, there is no scene that we can actually tell what is time or place this is occurring at, except that these two people are looking at his neighbor’s lawn and that the spider dies when he is reading a book by the fire. In the poem, Real Estate, presents the speaker who might be understanding death through this idea,
In the course of the eighteenth century the soul loses its key status in the discourses on the human. Subsequently, however, it becomes an important aspect of literature, or, rather, literature begins to fulfil the soul's function of promising immortality. In a sense, one can say that once the immaterial soul is no longer attached to the human body it is attached to the body of the poetic text – most significantly in the form of the imagination. (Haekel, 681)
The speaker might have only found the courage to talk about death and feel comfortable with it by using and writing poetry to symbolize what he is actually feeling. If this is what the speaker found comfortable doing, he probably felt peaceful knowing that he was able to explain himself using this technique before he died so that his feelings were out in the open and were not burdening him
anymore.
The author illustrates the “dim, rundown apartment complex,” she walks in, hand and hand with her girlfriend. Using the terms “dim,” and “rundown” portrays the apartment complex as an unsafe, unclean environment; such an environment augments the violence the author anticipates. Continuing to develop a perilous backdrop for the narrative, the author describes the night sky “as the perfect glow that surrounded [them] moments before faded into dark blues and blacks, silently watching.” Descriptions of the dark, watching sky expand upon the eerie setting of the apartment complex by using personification to give the sky a looming, ominous quality. Such a foreboding sky, as well as the dingy apartment complex portrayed by the author, amplify the narrator’s fear of violence due to her sexuality and drive her terror throughout the climax of the
The tree “swings through another year of sun and leaping winds, of leaves and bounding fruit.” This sentence evokes images of happiness and serenity; however, it is in stark contrast with “month after month, the whip-crack of the mortgage.” The tone of this phrase is harsh and the onomatopoeia of a “whip crack” stirs up images of oppression. The final lines of the poem show the consequences that the family accepts by preserving the tree—their family heritage. When the speaker judges the tree by its cover she sees monetary value, but when she looks at the content in the book she find that it represents family. Even though times may be tough for the family, they are united by memories of their ancestors.
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.
The poem opens upon comparisons, with lines 3 through 8 reading, “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets/ of their branches. The maples/ were colored like apples,/part orange and red, part green./ The elms, already transparent trees,/ seemed swaying vases full of sky.” The narrator’s surroundings in this poem illustrate him; and the similes suggest that he is not himself, and instead he acts like others. Just as the maples are colored like apples, he
When you first read it, Theodore Roethke’s poem “Sale” seems like it is about a house that is empty and for sale. The metaphors, similes, connotation, and personification show the sadness of the house and the more important point. The poem is actually about the death of a grandfather and everything in the house seems to remind him of his grandfather and how his grandfather was an abusive man to him and the rest of his family. He is trying to let go lost memories.
Death has feelings as much as any human, imagining, getting bored, distracted, and especially wondering (350, 243, 1, 375 respectively). Odd, one could say for an eternal metaphysical being. But then again, not that queer once having considered how Death spends his time. He is there at the dying of every light, that moment that the soul departs its physical shell, and sees the beauty or horror of that moment. Where to a human witnessing a death first hand (even on a much more detached level than our narrator) can easily be a life changing event, Death is forced to witness these passings for nearly every moment of his eternal life. Emotional overload or philosophical catalyst? Death gains his unique perspective on life through his many experiences with the slowly closing eyelids and muttered last words. Yet in this...
In the late eighteenth century arose in literature a period of social, political and religious confusion, the Romantic Movement, a movement that emphasized the emotional and the personal in reaction to classical values of order and objectivity. English poets like William Blake or Percy Bysshe Shelley seen themselves with the capacity of not only write about usual life, but also of man’s ultimate fate in an uncertain world. Furthermore, they all declared their belief in the natural goodness of man and his future. Mary Shelley is a good example, since she questioned the redemption through the union of the human consciousness with the supernatural. Even though this movement was well known, none of the British writers in fact acknowledged belonging to it; “.”1 But the main theme of assignment is the narrative voice in this Romantic works. The narrator is the person chosen by the author to tell the story to the readers. Traditionally, the person who narrated the tale was the author. But this was changing; the concept of unreliable narrator was starting to get used to provide the story with an atmosphere of suspense.
One primary element of death is the experience of dying. Many of of us are scared of the thought of death. When we stop and think about what death will be like, we wonder what it will feel like, will it be painful, will it be scary? In Emily Dickinson's poem Because I Could Not Stop for Death, she focuses on what the journey into her afterlife will be like. Dickinson uses the first person narrative to tell her encounter with death. The form that she uses throughout the poem helps to convey her message. The poem is written in five quatrains. Each stanza written in a quatrain is written so that the poem is easy to read. The first two lines of the poem, “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me;” (Clugston 2010), gives you a clear view of what the poems central theme is. Unlike most poems that are about death, Dickinson's attitu...
There is probably no one, among people, who has not considered death as a subject to think about or the events, people, and spirits that they would face after death. Also, since we were little kids we were asking our parents what death is and what is going to happen after we die. People have always linked death with fear, darkness, depression, and other negative feelings but not with Emily Dickinson, who was a reclusive poet from Massachusetts who was obsessed with death and dying in her tons of writings. She writes “Because I could not stop for Death” and in this particular poem she delivers a really different idea of death and the life after death. In the purpose of doing that, the speaker encounters death which was personalized to be in a form of gentleman suitor who comes to pick her up with his horse-drawn carriage for a unique death date that will last forever. In fact, she seems completely at ease with the gentleman. Additionally, their journey at the beginning seems pretty peaceful; as they pass through the town, she sees normal events such as children who are playing, fields of grain, and a sunset. After this, dusk takes place and the speakers gets chilly because she was not ready for this journey and she did not wear clothes that would make her feel warm. Consequently, readers get the idea that death is not a choice, so when it comes, that is it. Emily Dickinson, in her poem “Because I could not stop for Death,” uses personification, imagery, and style to deliver her positive and peaceful idea of death and life after death.
This poem was about very religious. In this poem she talks about her admiration of God and how she and all humans are humbled by God's creations. She says, "The higher on the glistening sun I gazed. Whose beams was shaded by the leafy tree; The more I looked, the ore I grew amazed, and softly said, 'What glory like to thee?' Soul of this world, this universe's eye, No wonder some made thee a deity; had I not better known, alas, the same had I". This quote means that a tree because of its beauty amazes her. Also, she is saying that the thing responsible for creating such a thing must just as beautiful if not the most beautiful on the earth.
Death is a controversial and sensitive subject. When discussing death, several questions come to mind about what happens in our afterlife, such as: where do you go and what do you see? Emily Dickinson is a poet who explores her curiosity of death and the afterlife through her creative writing ability. She displays different views on death by writing two contrasting poems: one of a softer side and another of a more ridged and scary side. When looking at dissimilar observations of death it can be seen how private and special it is; it is also understood that death is inevitable so coping with it can be taken in different ways. Emily Dickinson’s poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died” show both parallel and opposing views on death.
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.
Many people find it hard to imagine their death as there are so many questions to be answered-how will it happen, when, where and what comes next. The fact that our last days on Earth is unknown makes the topic of death a popular one for most poets who looks to seek out their own emotions. By them doing that it helps the reader make sense of their own emotions as well. In the two poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickenson and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, the poets are both capturing their emotion about death and the way that they accepted it. In Dickenson’s poem her feelings towards death are more passionate whereas in Dylan’s poem the feelings
Frost’s poem leaves the reader enlightened on the speaker’s outlook on death. “Ghost House” is an evolution through both the reader’s mood and the speaker’s tone surrounding death. Frost accomplishes this in his signature style and voice with clever word choice, from the morbid beginning to the accepting and almost willing end.
Emily Dickinson once said, “Dying is a wild night and a new road.” Some people welcome death with open arms while others cower in fear when confronted in the arms of death. Through the use of ambiguity, metaphors, personification and paradoxes Emily Dickinson still gives readers a sense of vagueness on how she feels about dying. Emily Dickinson inventively expresses the nature of death in the poems, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)”, “I Heard a fly Buzz—When I Died—(465)“ and “Because I could not stop for Death—(712)”.