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More handpicked essays just for you.
Influences on emotional expression
Effects of emotions
Differences in emotional expression
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The Sentiment, Mood, and Philosophy of The Best Slow Dancer
Feelings can twist reality in the most peculiar ways. Emotions push the mind to the most stunning conclusions, and stir within the soul the strangest storms. In fact, senses reach their peak in David Wagoner’s poetic work “The Best Slow Dancer”. In the poem, Wagoner brings out the height of sentiment through the eyes of a teenage boy at a school dance, who overcomes the teenage social hierarchy and his own fear to share in the longed-for dance with one special girl. All the while Wagoner takes his readers into depths of wafting dreaminess, romance, and intimacy they are projected through an unbroken flow of words uninterrupted by punctuation, rhythm, or strict lines.
“The Best Slow Dancer” portrays the mental state of a boy as he experiences a dance. It is a short dance, but one that seems to him prolonged for an eternity, the “three-second rule forever/ suspended”. The feelings that go through the youth’s soul range from extreme delight to just as extreme tension, and the reader may see them all exhibited in the lines of the poem. His surety when with the girl in his embrace is seen when his “countless feet light-footed sure to move as they wished wherever [they] might stagger without her”, but then he “tried…to tell her [he wasn’t] the worst one”, the worst of the boys, the one that she would not be seen dead with—which implies that he is fearful of the fact that she might reject him, “not waving a sister somebody else’s partner”. The full textual image demonstrates that the boy is with all his heart trying to impress the girl, and gets the dance with her against all odds of popularity and such, and then he treasures the experience, as he says to himself “remember” at the end.
All throughout “The Best Slow Dancer”, the key ingredient to the image within the reader’s mind is the mood set by the poem. The mood is mystical, quixotic, intimate, and continual. This state is accomplished by three techniques—poetic devices, turns of phrase, and contortion of syntax. The main pair of poetic devices that set up all these moods and humors simultaneously are enjambment and synecdoche. Enjambment is bizarre in this poetic work, especially in descriptions of physical setting or position, such as the setting of the dance, “in the school gym across the key through the glitter/ of mirrored light”, or the position of the main character with his “cheek against her temple, her ear just under/ that”.
The story explores many vital concepts accompanied by beautiful illustrations. I felt a strong sense of cultural understanding, spirituality and connection to family and land as though I was on this journey too. I could sense an underlying meaning in each dance, holding great importance to Bertie’s family and a strong connection to their culture. Pryor has attempted to fuse the then and now, by speaking of changes in the land, from a once spiritual gathering place, to a now busy town street where through food, they keep the culture alive (Pryor, 2010).
“Watch your tone young lady” a phrase known all too well to the American culture, whether it be from mom giving her children a lecture or on a television screen being spoken out by an actor. The tone of voice that one uses while speaking plays an extremely significant role in what the spoken words actually mean. Many times one can say one thing and mean another just from placing emphasis on a particular word. With tone of voice plays such a vital role in the meaning of a sentence it becomes clear that poetry, although often times found in books as written work, is meant to be read aloud; this was not all that clear to me until I attended my very first poetry reading. On November 10th Ramapo College welcomed the marvelous poet Mark Doty to its campus. Through Mark Doty’s reading of “House of Beauty” and “Theory of Marriage” it became clear that the use of emphasis and tone are vital characteristics that allows for the poet to challenge poetic traditions and conventions.
“The Dancer’s gift” is a love story between a young man and woman, Marcel and Samantha. But this novel was written not only to call feelings about love and passion; the main goal was to introduce students to sociological concepts. Overall, the book includes more than 180 sociological terms that flow with the story and closely connected to happening events. Marcel, a black man, arrives from Martinique (an island in the Caribbean Sea), and Samantha, a rich American girl, meet each other in college and fall in love. Both of them face obstacles in their lives: Marcel was grown up in a poor extended but a friendly family, while Samantha was a daughter of rich but divorced parents. Marcel comes to the U.S. to become a professional dancer, while Sam decided to become an attorney at law just like her father. Being lovers they decide to spend their Christmas holidays together and go to New York. Next holidays they go to Marcel’s homeland, Martinique, where they realize that there lives a woman who is pregnant by him. At that time all dreams of Sam just collapse due to this bitter disappointment, which becomes one of the reasons why they break up. Throughout the story, they both meet with numerous social issues such as education, marriage, gender issue, racism, deviance, divorce, religion, race and ethnicity. In this essay, the three main reasons why this novel is an effective tool for learning sociological concepts will be discussed.
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
While perusing through the aggregate of the ballad, the storyteller gives the onlooker clear indications of misery by means of perplexity, unobtrusive triggers, affection, memories, and the perspective of a mother. The speaker affirms for us the affection she has for her dead youngsters and the frightful memories, which uncover themselves throughout the methodology of anguish. Perusing the sonnet likewise uncovers the truth this by all account not the only abortion the speaker is composing of, ended up being a real supporter to the lamenting in the ballad. The ballad is an extraordinary read for any novice or anybody encountered with verse. With a mixture of subjects all around the sonnet, one may find that there is more than simply despondency, which shows itself in the work.
Movement then, is a complex issue in the Comedy. And yet, difficult as it is to unravel, it plays a crucial schematic and poetic role in the work. The dual relationship between the internal and external examples of motion increases the poetic and ideological intricacy of the eipc. Within the individual canti, movement is used as either a vehicle for punishment, penance or reward. This coupled with the drama and the implicit order of the overall structure creates the backdrop and props for a poetry and philosophy which can quite reasonably be labelled `divine'.
The last poem “The Fish” illustrates the sorrow of life itself. The skin, the blood, the entrails, everything of the fish depicts vividly and dramatically. The poet seems to share the same pain with the fish observing the scene and enjoys the detail just like enjoying an artwork. The poet lets the fish go because she is totally touched by the process between life and death; she loves life but meanwhile, is deeply hurt by the life. In the poem, the fish has no fear towards her; the desire to life is in the moving and tragic details when faces the
In Breughel’s painting, “The Kermess”, all of the people that are dancing, do so around and around each other. The opening of Williams’s poem establishes the rhythm of the entire poem. In lines two and three, “the dancers go round, they go round and around”(Kennedy 234), Williams establishes a bouncing and circular motion in the poem. This bouncing and circular motion is also emphasized by the absence of line stops in the entire poem (Diggory 156). Every line continues to the next giving the poem the feeling of a circular motion. The open form of the poem helps to continue the bouncing rhythm throughout Williams’s entire work.
The constant rhythm throughout the poem gives it a light beat, like a waltz; the reader feels like s/he is dancing. The rhyme pattern of...
In the stage being the first stanza of the poem Child and Insect the reader meets a little boy who is excited and euphoric because he has managed to catch a grasshopper. The rhythm of the poem is very fast and lively. An evidence for that is the onomatopoeia “clockwork fizz” which describes the insect’s movements as sudden and quick, comparing its legs to the hands of a clock too. It also illustrates its desperate attempts to escape the small palm of the boy described by the opening line of the first stanza “He cannot hold his hand huge enough.” Furthermore, not only the grasshopper’s movements are swift but the boy’s motions as well, shown by the run on line “He races back, how quick he is, look”. This line further emphasizes the rhythm of the poem and the energetic mood it creates. The run on line could also be interpreted as a representation of the child’s speech which is cut and uneven because of his cheerfulness and need for a breath. Moreover, the word choices of the author particularly words such as “snatched”, “quick”, “look”, “sudden” help to reinf...
In the midst of the South Bronx’s structural decline and disregard from neighboring boroughs and politicians, cultures, traditions, lifestyles and music from the South Bronx’s diverse population merge to birth new artists and art forms. In the episode Raise Your Words, Not Your Voice, Baz Luhrmann’s visual design not only demonstrates the coming of age of six young people of color, but also the transformation of hip-hop and the South Bronx. Ezekiel "Zeke" Figuero, Shaolin Fantastic, Ra-Ra Kipling, Marcus “Dizzee” Kipling, Boo-Boo Kipling, and Mylene Cruz navigate gangs, politicians, and
The lively figures of speech in Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder” show his sensual delight in the little things in life. The oxymorons, animations, images, and paradox in this poem display the author’s enjoyment of true uniqueness. The animations in “Delight in Disorder” show how the speaker sees the clothing as having a will of it’s own that makes the outfit more “bewitch[ing]” (13). For example, the author cites a “tempestuous petticoat” and a “careless shoestring” as things that cause the woman’s dress to be unique and intriguing (9, 10). Through his use of the animation “tempestuous petticoat”, the author shows the reader that the petticoat not only flows freely and wildly, but the woman is also free and wild (9). The “careless shoestring” shows the how the disarray of the woman and her...
Razzle Dazzle: A Journey into Dance is a 2007 Australian Mockumentary directed by Darren Ashton. Featuring main actors including Ben Miller who starred as Mr. Jonathan, Kerry Armstrong who played Justine and Shayni Notelovitz as Tenille. The main genres of this movie are documentary, comedy and musical. This mockumentary takes the audience on a journey with Mr. Jonathon and Ms. Elizabeth’s dance groups as they battle for the top prize at a national dance competition in Australia. This film is a great film for family viewing. Although some jokes were hard to laugh at, there were many hilarious moments on screen.
The speaker begins by recalling Jane’s life in the world of the living with bittersweet images. First, the speaker zooms in on the vulnerability of Jane’s neck. The reader runs into the word “neckcurls” and immediately relates it back to Jane’s horse accident. The lack of vitality in the words “limp” and “damp” back up this idea. However, the poet describes the neckcurls as tendrils, like a living plant. Thus, it becomes clear to the reader that the speaker is recalling Jane’s soft hair near her neck. The poet relates images of Jane to images of nature to show how Jane is constantly on the speaker’s mind and how Jane is part of the speaker’s life. For instance, in line two, the speaker recalls Jane’s smile as a sidelong pickerel smile. The poet produces a rhythm to elongate these four words, painting the image of Jane’s awkward smile. Hence, parts of the natural world seem to remind the speaker of Jane. On the other hand, the poet creates energy in the poem when describing Jane’s “quick look.” The energy in Jane’s “quick look” reminds the speaker of the active and alive Jane. The speaker’s voice follows with grief since Jane now only remains as a memory in the speaker’s head. The poet creates emotion in the speaker’s voice by including several breaks in the subsequent lines. Additionally, the poet endeavors to bring characteristics of Jane back to life in this poem by intensifying
However, in this ballet concert, the choreographer had designed the scenes to be more like a comedy. The movement of the sisters are more amusing than cruel. For example, when they pulled each other for being eager to dance with the prince, or when they tried to hurt and bully the Cinderella, these movements are not that cruel but amusing. Even the stepmother was drunk and danced comically in the prom scene. Moreover, the movements of all the girls who wanted their feet to fit in to the ballet shoe which Cinderella had dropped in the prom are also very funny. These kinds of design successfully made the audience laugh out loud and without hurting the hearts of the little girls who went to see the performance with their