Billy Collin’s “Lanyard”: A Reader’s Response The Lanyard written by Billy Collin’s describes a memory of childhood gift made, while he was at camp. Also shows mother’s unconditional love for their kids. It is an interesting poem. Mom’s play main role in our life. There are two opinions in this poem. One is that an adult opinion and the other is a child opinion. The author begins his writing looks around the room, he found a word Lanyard from the dictionary, he recalls his back. While he was at camp, he made lot of Lanyard for his mom. As a child, he gives her Lanyard as a gift for her. “learning how to braid long thin plastic strips/ Into a lanyard, a gift for my mother”. We think that Lanyard would make mom happy. I remember when I was
kid I like to sing for my parents, I feel like it makes them happy. I think that that this is could be a gift for them. Of course, it makes them happy. We thought that at some point that we can repay our mothers. The writer listed what his mother did for him, “clothing and a good education” to a “breathing body and a beating heart”. “Here are thousands of meals” and “She nursed me in many a sick room”. As an adult, we understand that parenting is priceless. We could not repay for mom’s sacrifice. When we grownup we understand and learn to appreciate and that the worth of this innocent gift can only show so much, enough to show and teach that admiration and gratitude is something that has a greater value rather than the material itself, and at the end the author clearly shows that it's the thought that counts. The conclusion idea of the poem reflects there is no way repaid mother’s dedication “you can never repay your mother”. Mom love is priceless. Mom did not expect us to pay them as far as we love them from our heart. I believe that the most wonderful gift for our parents is our heart. Most parents accept the lanyard with happiness and appreciation.
Currently in the United States, many of us are afraid of the future. There have been many recent events that have stirred up fear in this country, especially tensions regarding human rights. In Carolyn Forché’s “The Colonel,” the speaker tells us her story of when she had to deal with the mistreatment of others. The speaker is telling us her story of meeting the colonel to show us the horrible things that have happened in the fight for justice and to encourage us to speak up. She tells us this story because she does not want others to end up the way that the ears did. The speaker wants us to stay strong and fight for justice when we begin to live in a state of constant fear.
As depicted in the poem "Kicking the Habit", The role of the English language in the life of the writer, Lawson Fusao Inada, is heavily inherent. As articulated between the lines 4 and 9, English is not just solely a linguistic device to the author, but heightened to a point where he considers it rather as a paradigm or state of mind. To the author, English is the most commonly trodden path when it comes to being human, it represents conformity, mutual assurance and understanding within the population. Something of which he admits to doing before pulling off the highway road.
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.
In “Useless Boys” the writer, Barry Dempster, creates a strong feeling of disappointment and shame in himself and society as he looks back on his youth to when him and a friend made a promise to each other to “not be like their fathers”. Dempster expresses a sort of disgust for the capitalist society his world seems to be built around, a life where even if you’re doing something you initially enjoyed you end up feeling trapped in it. The poem is a reflective piece, where he thinks back on how he truly believed he would end up happy if he chose a different path than that of his parents. The author uses simple diction and syntax, but it’s evident that each idea has a much deeper meaning, which assisted in setting a reflective/introspective mood.
... attempts to change the way Mama and Maggie perceive tradition by using the quilts as a wall display. Mama refuses to allow it, Dee was offered the quilts when she was in college and didn’t want them at that time. Mama gives the quilts to Maggie as her wedding gift to be used every day as they were intended, knowing how much Maggie appreciates them. I agree with Mama and Maggie for keeping family memories and objects in daily use. It is important to maintain your family history in your everyday life to preserve those special memories.
poem.” (pg 454) . The unique type of poems Collins produces is welcoming to any reader. In the poem The Lanyard, Collins discusses the impossibility of fully repaying mother figure for all of their sacrifices by writing, “She nursed me in many a sick room/lifted teaspoons of medicine to my lips/set cold facecloths on my forehead/then led me out into the airy light/and taught me to walk and swim and I in turn presented her with a lanyard./"Here are thousands of meals" she said,/"and here is clothing and a good education."/"And here is your lanyard," I replied,/"which I made with a little help from a counselor." Nearly everyone has a mother and can resonate this poem without trouble.
Mama is hoping that Maggie will use the quilt as a practical everyday item. She sees the quilts for their functional use that they were made to use in everyday life. Meanwhile, Dee finds this absurd. She thinks they are too valuable and priceless to be using as everyday necessities. Instead she will hang them. These two ideas of how to use the quilts are in complete contrast of one another. Mama finds them practical, Dee finds them fashiona...
In the poem "Shoelace" the author is simply describing the minor setbacks of life that eventually suck you in and make you feel helpless, driving him straight to his breaking point. He talks about little issues that arise in our everyday lives such as a toilet chain no longer working, 9 day rains, and a toothache. He uses the "broken shoelace" as a metaphor for a persons breaking point. I think the author is just saying that we all get knocked down sometimes, a lot more than we want to admit. He say's that these minor setbacks "can kill quicker than cancer" and at times it defiantly feels that way. He ends the poem with "so be careful when you bend over". By this I think the poet is saying life's going to kick you in the butt anytime you give
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.
Quilts symbolize a family’s heritage. Maggie adheres the tradition by learning how to quilt from her grandmother and by sewing her own quilts. Maggie also puts her grandmother’s quilts into everyday use. Therefore, when Dee covets the family’s heirloom, wanting to take her grandmother’s hand-stitched quilts away for decoration, Mama gives the quilts to Maggie. Mama believes that Maggie will continually engage with and build upon the family’s history by using the quilts daily rather than distance herself from
Making difficult decisions show up in life more often than realized. These choices can alter a person’s life in good and bad ways. “The Bicycle” by Jillian Horton is a story that focuses on a young talented pianist named Hannah. Throughout the story Hannah deals with the strict teachings of her Tante Rose, which leads her to make ironic decisions. Similarly, in the story “Lather and Nothing Else” by Hernando Tellez, the barber undergoes a dilemma in which he must consider his moral values before making his final decision. Both stories have a protagonist that face conflicts which lead to difficult decision making, and in the end leads the characters to discover themselves. In both stories the authors use the literary devices theme, irony and symbolism to compare and contrast the main ideas.
This is shown when the poem says “He’s broken every human law.” This quote from the poem hints that while Macavity breaks the laws humans set. It can be interrupted that maybe he is following the laws that the cats abide by. Macavity has stolen from people breaking the laws that all humans are expected to follow.
The author uses imagery, contrasting diction, tones, and symbols in the poem to show two very different sides of the parent-child relationship. The poem’s theme is that even though parents and teenagers may have their disagreements, there is still an underlying love that binds the family together and helps them bridge their gap that is between them.
The short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker follows a myriad of women all of whom are connected by their ties of kindred, however differ by their identity and connection to the infamous quilts. The quilts,as clarified in “Everyday Use”, contains patches of clothing worn by generations of their family. The story grazes over Mama, Dee and Maggie’s special connection to the quilts. In “Everyday Use”, Alice Walker illuminates how the quilts are inherently symbolic of their heritage. In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, each woman’s particular connection to the quilts suggests that females are instrumental in preserving and handing down a family’s history.
Males face many challenges in today's world due to their gender. Males have a standard that is set by society and are pressured to follow in these foot steps. For the males that don’t fit the role of society’s “standards”, they are ridiculed and looked down upon. In the story of the “War Prayer”, we see these exact same problems. As the young soldiers are leaving for war, the town is gathering around them for support. A few males that were against the war in the story, faced a lot of hatred from other people. The story states, “The half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning for their personal safety’s sake they quickly shrank out of sight