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Robert frost contributions to poetry
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As most books do, Madeleine L'Engle’s The Arm of the Starfish has many recurring themes. Similar to books, other forms of stories also contain these themes. This includes movies, music, plays, and poetry. After analyzing Robert Frost’s poem, Two Tramps in Mud Time, I picked up on a few themes that correspond with with the story line of The Arm of the Starfish. Themes are important to recognize in stories because it deepens the reader’s understanding of the emotions within the story.The three main themes I came across between this book, and poem were trust, business, and choosing between good and evil.
The first theme I recognized was choosing between good and evil. This is a theme that can particularly connect to the reader, because it’s
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something we all encounter on a daily basis. The fifth stanza of Two Tramps in Mud Time, says “...The grip of earth on outspread feet, the life of muscles rocking soft, and smooth and moist in vernal heart”. This line could be interpreted to saying you need to be strong to make big decisions. Adam needs to not only trust O’Keefe, but also himself. He needs to be firm in his choice, despite the distractions around him. We see the way Adam interacts with Kali in a more loving way, being that they like each other. This makes it difficult for Adam to be strong with his gut choice because it will go against her, possibly putting Kali in danger. At this point, he doesn't know that Kali is acting against him. Adam needed to keep perspective of the consequences his actions may result in. This theme, choosing between good and evil, is important to keep in mind while reading The Arm of the Starfish because Adam is constantly being pressured to make the best possible decisions with the limited time and background knowledge he has. A line from the second stanza of Two Tramps in Mud Time also says, “...You're one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, a cloud comes over the sunlit arch, a wind comes off a frozen peak, and you're two months back in the middle of March”. These lines really put you in Adam’s perspective. Time is moving so quickly, with so many interfering problems. He has to make quick, wise decisions. When making these choices, he has to not only be able to recognize good and evil, but to have a general idea in mind of what the consequences to his actions may be. The next theme I picked up on was business.
This may seem minor and obvious, but it does play an important role in both the book, and the poem. The first stanza of Two Tramps in Mud Time says, “I knew pretty well what he had in mind, he wanted to take my job for pay”. In the poem, two tramps are trying to take advantage of the narrator by taking his job, so they can get paid. In the book, both sides, O’Keefe’s and the Cutter’s, are trying to take advantage of Adam by manipulating him to get him to work for them. In the beginning of the book, Adam originally went to Portugal to work for O’Keefe. After he met Kali in the airport, and she told him to watch out for O’Keefe, he wondered if it was really safe. After hearing both sides of the story, and figuring out that O’Keefe was his safest bet, he discovers he made the right choice. O’Keefe’s regeneration experiment wasn’t just a hobby, he was using it for a good cause. He was trying to see if humans could regenerate limbs just as starfish could, since he discovered something humans and starfish have in common. If the experiment had gotten into the wrong hands, like Typhoon Cutter’s, he could have abused the science of the experiment. This theme is important because it displays the main scenario of the story. Adam first got into this ordeal by an invite to work in O’Keefe's …show more content…
lab. The final, and main theme I found was trust.
The second stanza of Two Tramps in Mud Time says, “That day, giving a loose my soul, I spent on the unimportant wood”. This line tells that the narrator is recognizing they are wasting their time with strangers. In The arm of the Starfish, with limited time and trust, Adam needed to decide which of the sides would be considered a waste of his time, due to lack of trust or importance. The poem also had an interesting part in stanza four. It said, “The lurking frost in the earth beneath, that will steal forth after the sun is set, and show on the water its crystal teeth”. I interpreted this as saying that after you get on someone’s “good side” , and your friendship is warm, it’s easy for that person’s dark side to emerge. Adam was smart, recognizing that Kali could’ve potentially be playing him. Adam pretended as if he were totally on her side, despite that fact that he actually still was rushing on her. Little did Kali know, O’Keefe had told Adam what she could’ve been planning. Kali then turned on Adam, as if i would be a total shock to him. The last line of this stanza said, “...and show on the water its crystal teeth”. This goes to say that beneath somones still surface, they can have an entirely different character with different intentions. Trust is a huge theme of this book, if not the single most important. Trust is used to portray how Adam interacts with different characters, and what he bases his quick decisions off
of. After reading and annotating my thoughts on Robert Frost’s Two Tramps in Mud Time, and Madeleine L'Engle’s The Arm of the Starfish, I’ve discovered that choosing between good and evil, business, and trust are the main themes of this book. Whether it be a song you hear in the car, or a movie you watch, there are themes to every form of storytelling. Without themes, stories wouldn’t have a clear way of embracing emotion to captivate the reader.
One example of the theme occurs when the author first introduces the story. “But the summer I was 9 years old, the town I had always loved morphed into a beautifully heartbreaking and complicated place.” (pg. 1). The author is saying that the year she turned nine, she found out something about her town that broke her heart and changed the way she saw it. This quote is important because it supports the theme. It shows that now she is older she has learned something about her town that made her wiser than when she was younger. She is now more informed because the new information changed her and caused her to begin to mature.
In fact, the fish story has become a metaphor reflecting the technique used by Finney for expressing the difficult thing beautifully, to compress a poem choosing what should be kept in a poem and what should be thrown away (Finney, “Interview with: Nikky Finney”), to express whatever difficult feelings she has without much noise or rage. Finney sees activism as a basic part of her work.
The documentary Blackfish by Gabriela Cowperthwaite is a gripping documentary about orca whales in captivity at SeaWorld and other sea parks around the world that shows the disturbing effects that can be caused from having these animals in a place where they shouldn’t be.
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts by telling the reader the place, time and activity he is doing, stating that he saw something that he will always remember. His description of his view is explained through simile for example “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets of their branches” (Updike), captivating the reader’s attention
My theme from the novel is nothing gold can stay which means that you cannot live for a long time or you
Even though the implied themes are inherently the same, the stated themes are very
In the first stanza, we do notice the total chaos in this experience. Although the first phrase might imply a peaceful event, the subject matter is about something quite chaotic in nature – the dead other. This image ruins the idea of a peaceful morning, strolling on the beach while looking for rocks. The death of an animal is, in fact, natural. However, it’s rotting and its “scent of savage/valediction,” (line 2-3) both accentuate how chaotic its death is to the peacefulness of this experience.
develop an overall theme of good and evil in the story and to create a
themes, however, this one stuck out the most to me. Throughout the entire time of the boys
A poem without any complications can force an author to say more with much less. Although that may sound quite cliché, it rings true when one examines “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop. Elizabeth’s Bishop’s poem is on an exceedingly straightforward topic about the act of catching a fish. However, her ability to utilize thematic elements such as figurative language, imagery and tone allows for “The Fish” to be about something greater. These three elements weave themselves together to create a work of art that goes beyond its simple subject.
The poet uses examples of imagery in this poem. The poet uses a simile in the first line of the first stanza to start off the poem. The simile she uses is ''the skin cracks like a pod''. The opening of the poem gives a clear message that something is severely wrong. A pod cracks with barely any resistance so the comparison to the skin is a unreserved statement outlining how easily the skin is. There is obviously a drought or a vast undersupply of water. The opening surprises the reader and gives an indication of what is to come. The poet uses a short and abrupt line which is effective
There are many themes that occur and can be interpreted differently throughout the novel. The three main themes that stand out most are healing, communication, and relationships.
There is also a sense of acuteness as the words in this stanza are short and sharp, and the lines clash and seem to contrast greatly. " Whispering by the shore" shows that water is a symbol of continuity as it occurs in a natural cycle, but the whispering could also be the sound of the sea as it travels up the shore. The end of this section makes me feel as if he is trying to preserve something with the "river mud" and "glazing the baked clay floor. " The fourth section, which includes four stanzas of three lines, whereas the third section included four-line stanzas and the second section included two-line stanzas, shows continuity once again, as if it's portraying the water's movement. "Moyola" is once again repeated, and "music" is also present, with "its own score and consort" being musical terms and giving the effect of harmony.
In the poem “Two tramps in Mud Time the speaker of the story showed his character by expressing his thoughts, his actions, and his interaction with others. The speaker is a passionate person who loves his job greatly, but “Tramps” want to take his job for pay. He works because he loves his job and the other people work only for the money.
For an abundance of authors, the driving force that aids them in creation of a novel is the theme or number of themes implemented throughout the novel. Often times the author doesn’t consciously identify the theme they’re trying to present. Usually a theme is a concept, principle or belief that is significant to an author. Not only does the theme create the backbone of the story, but it also guides the author by controlling the events that happen in a story, what emotions are dispersed, what are the actions of characters, and what emotions are presented within each environment to engage the readers in many