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Tones in poetry
Analysing tone in poetry
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Tone is an important aspect of literature and families. Just like in literature tone creates the context in families which shapes the world that they live in and determines how what is said will be received. Seamus Heaney's poem “Mother of the Groom” and Robert Hayden's Poem “These Winter Sundays” are all about families and the type of life that a family has to live in that they created for themselves. In these poems the tone is exploited brilliantly to convey the familial theme of the poems and to give the themes more intensity. These poems use the same type of language and theme to create a tone full of regret and loss. The tone in both of these poems are one of loss and regret. In Heaney's poem the mother is watching her son get married and start a new life with another woman as the main woman in his life. He has grown up and in her mind he is replacing her. The mother is remembering raising her son while watching him being taken away from her. As she is sitting there she is regretting just letting her son go and hoping for a future where her son is hers again. Even if it means ...
Both poems are set in the past, and both fathers are manual labourers, which the poets admired as a child. Both poems indicate intense change in their fathers lives, that affected the poet in a drastic way. Role reversal between father and son is evident, and a change of emotion is present. These are some of the re-occurring themes in both poems. Both poems in effect deal with the loss of a loved one; whether it be physically or mentally.
Presentation of Family Relationships in Carol Anne Duffy's Poem Before You Were Mine and in One Poem by Simon Armitage
“Abandoned Farmhouse” and “Ode to Family Photographs” both capture the theme, essence of family. However, one poem highlights turbulent times and the other emphasizes flaws that add to the memory of family in a positive way. The mood of “Abandoned Farmhouse” is dark and lonesome, whereas the mood of “Ode to Family Photographs” is fatuous and nostalgic. Each poem shows evidence of a mood which contributes to the overall meaning of the poem.
While most of us think back to memories of our childhood and our relationships with our parents, we all have what he would call defining moments in our views of motherhood or fatherhood. It is clearly evident that both Theodore Roethke and Robert Hayden have much to say about the roles of fathers in their two poems as well. While the relationships with their fathers differ somewhat, both men are thinking back to a defining moment in their childhood and remembering it with a poem. "My Papa's Waltz" and "Those Winter Sundays" both give the reader a snapshot view of one defining moment in their childhood, and these moments speak about the way these children view their fathers. Told now years later, they understand even more about these moments.
“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, “My Father as a Guitar” by Martin Espada, and “Digging” by Seamus Heaney are three poems that look into the past of the authors and dig up memories of the authors fathers. The poems contain similar conflicts, settings, and themes that are essential in helping the reader understand the heartfelt feelings the authors have for their fathers. With the authors of the three poems all living the gust of their life in the 1900’s, their biographical will be similar and easier to connect with each other.
For my poetry paper I chose to examine poetry from the family album. The family album stood out to me significantly because I thoroughly enjoyed all of the poems because I had a personal connection with it. Family has always been an important part of my life and I think this particular album speaks volume. This album has many levels to it, some deeper than others. I feel that from reading poetry, it expands our ability to think and form ideas that we would have not thought about before. Poetry gives readers the ability to make connections on a deeper level and see things from a different perspective. The two poems that spoke to me in this album specifically were “Those Winter Sundays” By Robert Hayden and “Begotten” by Andrew Hudgins. These two poems are both similar because they are from a son’s point of view, talking about their parent(s). “Those Winter Sundays” was one of my all-time favorite poems from this album because it shows a hard working father who is dedicated to his family, but does not get any recognition for his hard work.
Family bonds are very important which can determine the ability for a family to get along. They can be between a mother and son, a father and son, or even a whole entire family itself. To some people anything can happen between them and their family relationship and they will get over it, but to others they may hold resentment. Throughout the poems Those Winter Sundays, My Papa’s Waltz, and The Ballad of Birmingham family bonds are tested greatly. In Those Winter Sundays the relationship being shown is between the father and son, with the way the son treats his father. My Papa’s Waltz shows the relationship between a father and son as well, but the son is being beaten by his father. In The Ballad of Birmingham the relationship shown is between
The poem “Those Winter Sundays” displays a past relationship between a child and his father. Hayden makes use of past tense phrases such as “I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking” (6) to show the readers that the child is remembering certain events that took place in the past. Although the child’s father did not openly express his love towards him when he was growing up, the child now feels a great amount of guilt for never thanking his father for all the things he actually did for him and his family. This poem proves that love can come in more than one form, and it is not always a completely obvious act.
Indeed, the satirical tone of this poem suggests that the speaker is somewhat critical of his father. The whiskey smell, the roughness, the inconsiderate and reckless actions are under scrutiny. The mother's frowning countenance suggests she too is rather unhappy with the scene. However, the winning tone of the poem is the light and comical one.
Through representational or direct language, this is particularly clear from the way they both convey the same idea that it is common to have to live with regret as you cannot change the past. The last words or intellectual conclusion of each poem serve as the most prominent example for readers to see how both poems convey this. Firstly, “Mother Who Gave Me Life’s” intellectual conclusion is “As darkness falls on my father’s house”. This passage exemplifies how the mother moves on to heaven at the poem's the end. The poem's final line, which depicts the mother's passing, illustrates how, in addition to acknowledging the loss of their mother, the persona now has to acknowledge their regrets, accepting that they will always have to live with some form of regret as they are unable to change what has occurred.
During the early seventeenth century, poets were able to mourn the loss of a child publicly by writing elegies, or poems to lament the deceased. Katherine Philips and Ben Jonson were two poets who wrote the popular poems “On the Death of My Dearest Child, Hector Philips”, “On My First Son”, and “On My First Daughter” respectively. Although Philips and Jonson’s elegies contain obvious similarities, the differences between “On the Death of My Dearest Child” and “On My First Son” specifically are pronounced. The emotions displayed in the elegies are very distinct when considering the sex of the poet. The grief shown by a mother and father is a major theme when comparing the approach of mourning in the two elegies.
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.
Many writers use powerful words to portray powerful messages. Whether a writer’s choice of diction is cheerful, bitter, or in Robert Hayden’s case in his poem “Those Winter Sundays,” dismal and painful, it is the diction that formulates the tone of the piece. It is the diction which Hayden so properly places that allows us to read the poem and picture the cold tension of his foster home, and envision the barren home where his poem’s inspiration comes from. Hayden’s tumultuous childhood, along with the unorthodox relationships with his biological parents and foster parents help him to create the strong diction that permeates the dismal tone of “Those Winter Sundays.” Hayden’s ability to both overcome his tribulations and generate enough courage
Robert Hayden recovered what had been lost of the African American experience in the following poems: “Middle Passage”, Homage to the Empress of the Blues”, and “Those Winter Sundays”. In his poem “Middle Passage” Hayden talks about the suffering and the desire of restoration in African Americans through the experience they endured. Hayden uses his poems as a way to communicate his experience and escape what is happening around him the best he can. “I cannot sleep, for I am sick with fear, but writing eases fear a little” (Hayden, 1962, p. 2373), he cannot get away from what is happening around him, and he cannot ignore the pain that is so familiar, but he is able to escape to his own mind.
The question merits consideration because ‘Follower’ and ‘Praise Song’ both consider parent-child relationships from different cultural perspectives, in similar and different ways. In this essay, I will examine the various ways in which parent-child relationships are presented in these poems. Firstly, I will look at how strength, security, admiration and a sense of inferiority inspiring aspiration are conveyed in ‘Follower’. Secondly, I will explore how Nichols discusses the similar themes of protectiveness, nourishment and nurturing, but in different ways and against the backdrop of a different culture, in ‘Praise Song’. Seamus Heaney presents the child’s father in ‘Follower’ as a source of strength.