The central theme of both the poems is old age. Sylvia Plath and Jenny
Joseph express their ideas of old age through the poems Mirror
Mirror and Warning
Introduction
The central theme of both the poems is old age. Sylvia Plath and Jenny
Joseph express their ideas of old age through the poems ‘Mirror’ and
‘Warning’. The intention of Sylvia Plath and Jenny Joseph are
different. The message they want to get through to us differs. Jenny
Joseph gearing us up towards old age through Warning and Sylvia Plath
making old age sound terrible in Mirror.
In the poem mirror, Sylvia Plath uses a lot of dull and negative words
making old age sound terrifying “darkness” “drowned” and “terrible”.
“Then she turns to those liars, the candles the moon” in this sentence
she refers to the candle or the moon being a liar putting a negative
image. Where as candles and moons are know to be a source of light
making it positive. However the poem is very complicated to understand
because it has a lot of hidden meanings. She use a lot of vivid
language and personification meaning bringing lifeless object to life,
for example when she says “ Now I’m a lake” first line second
paragraph. The lady also portrays her life to be like a non-living
thing mirror, lake. This is because she describes her life to be less
objective comparison to Warning. Here Jenny Joseph describes the lady
to be quite cheerful, happy, and looking forward to old age. There is
a rhythmic pattern in Warning. The repetition of the word ‘and’ and ‘
I shall’ goes on through out the whole poem. The word and suggest
Jenny Joseph is writing while she’s thinking, as she goes along
perhaps. This is telling the readers she is looking forward to her
future and old a...
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...tive, uglier.
The word terrible is used in both the poems. Mirror “Like a terrible
fish” giving it a negative image. And Warning “You can wear terrible
shirts and grow more fat” making it a positive word. The woman in
Mirror is dreading old age in fear of becoming uglier. And the woman
in warning looks forward to it believing that it is fun being old,
like having her youth back.
Conclusion
I think ‘Warning’ by Jenny Joseph is more successful in getting its
message across to the readers. Her message is that old age can be
really fun, and after reading the poem I believe so too. On the other
hand ‘Mirror’ by Sylvia Plath is also slightly effective but not as
much. Sylvia Plath is trying to say old age is something to dread
because of how you may look but no everything is about your
appearance. Overall Warning wins for being more effective and lively.
The poems that I will be using to address this issue are ‘The Echoing Green,’ ‘Nurses Song,’ from innocence and the ‘Nurses Song,’ from experience. ‘The Echoing green,’ is quite a positive poem. The image of the sun rising: ‘The sun does rise,’ on the first line symbolises new life beginning and immediately establishes a positive tone to the poem. In the second stanza Blake writes, ‘Such, such were the joys When we were all, girls and boys, In our youth time were seen On the echoing green.’ This image shows that the memories of the old people when they were children are of the ‘joys…
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”
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The poem “The Old Maid”, by Sara Teasdale, takes place on a sidewalk on Broadway. The speaker in the poem is a woman walking with who you can infer to be her fiancée and she is describing a brief encounter she had with another woman in the car driving by her. The speaker describes the woman as “The woman I might grow to be,” She then notices how her hair color “…was as mine” and how “Her eyes were strangely like my eyes”. However, despite all these similarities the woman’s hair compared to the speaker’s was “…dull and drew no light”. Her eyes also did not shine like the speaker’s. The speaker assumed that the reason for the woman’s frail appearance was because she had never had the opportunity to know what it was like to be in love. In the last stanza, the speaker no longer looks upon the old maid but to her lover and knows that even though they may look similar she will never be like her.
Atwood, Margaret. "Owl Song." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2015. [The poem is utilized to analyze and illustrate themes that can be juxtaposed to Sylvia Plath's poetry. In case themes, literary elements, and biographical elements are drawn together, then there is a commonality amongst eminent female writers. However, the use of the poems and comparisons is to find the underlying factor that traces these possible connections; in case it is not due to mental illness or embracement of death, then The Sylvia Plath Effect may be redrawn to a new possible hypothesis.]
Explore how two of the poems you have studied deal with the theme of looking back on a relationship The two poems I have chosen to explain are Piano by D H Lawrence and In Mrs Tilchers Class by Carol Ann Duffy I have chosen these two. poems because they both tell us about the same sort of memory, i.e. of a good time in their childhood. Moving on to the mood of the poem. Both poems are very emotional and Although they are both happy memories, the emotions vary, for example. in Piano the poem is very sad and nostalgic 'till the heart of me.
First Love is about a shy guy who apparently has seen a girl to which
Poetry "should be a shock to the senses. It should also hurt" Anne Sexton believed (Baym 2703), and evidence of this maxim's implications echoes loudly through the writing of Sexton as well as through the work of her friend and contemporary Sylvia Plath.
wisdom Do you think that is true of the poems of Frost and the other
Comparing two poems - Binsey Poplar by Hopkins and I wandered lonely as a cloud' by Wordsworth. Compare the two poems and comment on: - The overall feelings of the poem - How they use language effectively - What the poems suggest about the characters of the authors. The two poems 'Binsey Poplars' by Hopkins and 'I wandered lonely as a cloud' by Wordsworth both contain very strong, emotive feelings.
Sylvia Plath's "Mirror," shows a truly thoughtful look into the different sights and feelings a mirror would have if it were a live conscious being, unable to lie. By showing the thoughts and emotions that a mirror would emit, Plath makes you look inward towards how you present yourself not only to your mirror but also to yourself. This is an eye-opening poem because of its truthful descriptions of the relationship between the inner feelings of people and how their outward appearances that they portray of themselves affect them in and out of the public realm. Examples of this are put throughout the poem "Mirror," and can be found in just about every line of the poem.
... Therefore, instead of losing mental stability because of old memories, one should try to embrace sanity and perpetuate it in life. Moreover, the poem emulates society because people fantasize about looking a certain way and feeling a certain way; however, they are meddling with their natural beauty and sometimes end up looking worse than before. For instance, old men and women inject their faces to resemble those in their youth, but they worsen their mental and physical state by executing such actions. To conclude, one should embrace her appearance because aging is inevitable.
“Spinster” by Sylvia Plath is a poem that consists of a persona, who in other words serves as a “second self” for the author and conveys her innermost feelings. The poem was written in 1956, the same year as Plath’s marriage to Ted Hughes, who was also a poet. The title suggests that the persona is one who is not fond of marriage and the normal rituals of courtship as a spinster is an unmarried woman, typically an older woman who is beyond the usual age of marriage and may never marry. The persona of the poem is a woman who dislikes disorder and chaos and finds relationships to be as unpredictable as the season of spring, in which there is no sense of uniformity. In this poem, Plath not only uses a persona to disclose her feelings, but also juxtaposes the seasons and their order (or lack thereof) and relates them to the order that comes with solitude and the disorder that is attributed with relationships. She accomplishes this through her use of formal diction, which ties into both the meticulous structure and develops the visual imagery.
The poem ‘Carpenter’s Complaint’ by Edward Baugh was about a carpenter who wanted to build a coffin for his friend; however, the son of the dead man ‘maaga-foot bwoy’ wanted another man, Mr. Belnavis, to build his father a fancier and nicer coffin. He was very mad because he built his friend’s house, but not his coffin. The carpenter described Mr. Belnavis as a ‘big-belly crook who don’t know him arse from a chisel’, and who only got the job to make the coffin because he was a big-shot. We knew that he was in a bar because of line 11 ‘Fix we a nex’ one, Miss Fergie’. He praised his friend’s ability to drink, and be able to stand up straight and walk home ‘cool, cool, cool’. The carpenter would have built the coffin for free because the man was his friend. He believed that university turned the ‘maaga-foot bwoy’ fool, and it burnt him badly.
In this essay I will be arguing how Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou similar writing styles affected their community and brought to light a positive way of thinking. Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, and novelist from Missouri. Hughes played an influential role in the Harlem Renaissance era. Hughes was known for being conscious and it echoed in his work. He used music as well as imagery to tell the world the struggles that African-Americans endure in their era. Hughes poems told stories that were relatable and reflected his community. Maya Angelou was an American poet, actress, civil rights activist, along with many other things. As a civil rights activist, Angelou worked alongside with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and