Unveiling In the poem “Unveiling” by Linda Pastan, the speaker's point of view is from an older woman who is walking through a cemetery and admiring her deceased family members. Pastan uses allusion, enjambment and imagery to display to the reader what the speaker is feeling and thinking, as she explores her family members’ graves. When I read this poem I felt the tone was very gloomy and somber, because the setting of the poem takes place in a cemetery. I also felt sad for the speaker because she felt “left out” as stated in line 15. I did find it peculiar that she used the word left out when referring to all of her family members dying. Pastan uses allusion when she refers to the “grown-up secret” said in line 16. What I think
as told from the point of view of a friend serving as pall bearer. The poem
The meaning of this poem is an epitaph of a dead woman narrating the story of her life from the other world. She tells a sad story of a tough life, but she does not for what has happened to complain. She remembers the dances of
In the poem Old Bones by Chloe Love, Love describes an ailing grandmother who succumbs to death. In the poem, the dominant image image is death and the overall metaphor is to not fight death when it’s your time for peace. Old Bones’ figurative language, juxtaposition of words, and rhythm help the reader to understand the dominant image, as well as the overall metaphor. Through these writing tools, readers are able to better understand the underlying message in the poem Old Bones by Chloe Love.
...this poem exemplifies a journey from innocence to reality over the course of many years. The poem is also the recognition that death is not an endpoint. The shock of death impacted the inexperienced young boy so greatly that he was caused to live an entire life through the eyes of an innocent ten-year-old who did not know of loving or mourning. Until his dream, the narrator was denying of death. One single experience, however supernatural as it may have been, exposed the man to reality and changed his views forever. The knowledge that life can be found within death caused the author to change. He was once unable to "forgive the sad or strange in beast or man," although now he begs for "death's pardon." This poem is the maturation of a close-minded young boy into a loving man. Whether this man can be redeemed from all that he lost in his life, it is unknown.
Overall I think this poem was sad as it made me feel sorry for the
...ttachment or emotion. Again, Heaney repeats the use of a discourse marker, to highlight how vividly he remembers the terrible time “Next morning, I went up into the room”. In contrast to the rest of the poem, Heaney finally writes more personally, beginning with the personal pronoun “I”. He describes his memory with an atmosphere that is soft and peaceful “Snowdrops and Candles soothed the bedside” as opposed to the harsh and angry adjectives previously used such as “stanched” and “crying”. With this, Heaney is becoming more and more intimate with his time alone with his brother’s body, and can finally get peace of mind about the death, but still finding the inevitable sadness one feels with the loss of a loved one “A four foot box, a foot for every year”, indirectly telling the reader how young his brother was, and describing that how unfortunate the death was.
In Natasha Trethewey’s poetry collection “Native Guard”, the reader is exposed to the story of Trethewey’s growing up in the southern United States and the tragedy which she encountered during her younger years, in addition to her experiences with prejudice. Throughout this work, Trethewey often refers to graves and provides compelling imagery regarding the burial of the dead. Within Trethewey’s work, the recurring imagery surrounding graves evolves from the graves simply serving as a personal reminder of the past to a statement on the collective memory of society and comments on what society chooses to remember and that which it chooses to let go of.
Death is painfully unpleasant for anyone who is approached with it. It can be difficult to comprehend and scary to live through, but just because death isn’t very well liked does not mean it doesn’t happen. In fact it happens every day through every hour; no rich, poor, healthy, or sick can escape it. The contemporary writer Amy Hempel gracefully writes about death between a friendship in her piece titled “In The Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried,” showing a relatable situation everyone will undergo at some point in their life. Hempel’s relatability to the subject of death and reactions, unique style of characterization, and rhythmic balance display the great qualities that make her work so rare; making it belong to the 21st century literary
Society has been placing unrealistic expectations on women throughout history. Women are expected to be “perfect” in everything they do. If they weren't “perfect” they would be criticized in almost every way, and they wouldn’t be accepted into society. Men have been given a higher value in society, while women are seen as inferior to men. Women are expected to care for the home and to be completely devoted to their husbands. Throughout history, women have been treated as second class citizens. One only has to look at any place and time to see how women are treated, and to see that society has not really changed even today. The poems “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, “Marks” by Linda Pastan, and “Suicide Note” by
Kneeling down, he runs a finger along one rose, the blossom still curling with life. Pale petals drenched in dew, leaves like wax, thorns jagged and defiant. His eyes search the grave for a trace of this new intruder. He is curious but miffed; he had believed himself to be the only visitor here. He felt a sense of belonging with the grave, as though his own name should be scrawled beneath that of the deceased.
Katherine Anne Porter is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist known for writing thought provoking stories of the human heart and nature around our lives through relatable everyday realities. Although the writer claims, “I do not believe in style. The style is you”, the structures of her works are very complex. In Porter’s short story, “The Grave”, two main characters are introduced as siblings named Miranda, 9, and Paul, 12. The encounters the children have with their findings in the old graveyard of the silver dove and gold ring come to mean much more than the reader realizes at first glance. Lacking the guidance of a mother figure, Miranda grows up in a male dominated
Your poem, Tears, Idle Tears, stood out to me and connected to me more than you will ever know. At first when I read this poem, I was confused about the meaning of the tears. Are they happy tears of memory, sad tears of loss, tears of frustration or confusion, or each of these in turn or together? That is when I realized that what you did in this poem was truly exceptional and showed your ability as a writer and poet. You were capable of capturing what it is like to lose someone close to you: the mixed emotions, the pain, the hardship of wanting to hold on to the pass versus moving on and letting go. It must have been even harder for you, knowing that the death of your friend led to some of your most infamous pieces of work, which were later collected and published as In Memoriam in 1850 and included ove...
This poem dramatizes the conflict of the regret and acrimony of a murder. The setting of the poem holds a valuable meaning because not only does it contain symbolization, it also contributes toward the dreary, sorrowful tone the poem is purposefully using. The poem titled “The Graveyard” by Nick Strong is literally about a graveyard that holds past events of disasters, heartbreak, and crime. There is a third-person speaker for this poem, and this is a smart decision made by Strong because the poem is regarding a graveyard and its description is quite detailed. It describes the setting and the events that took place from a third-person point of view; “A lone figure dressed in black/ Stands above an unnamed gravestone/
Emily Dickinson’s, “I felt a funeral in my brain” explains Dickinson’s deteriorating mental state, while also incorporating one of her most famous themes, death. Dickinson utilizes imagery, punctuation, and the extended metaphor of a funeral to explain the rites and the lingering aftermath of a funeral to showcase her insanity. Emily Dickinson’s poem “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain” explores the speaker’s declining mental health through the metaphorical use of the image of a funeral. (everyone)
“Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave” is the title as well as the question that the speaker repeatedly ask. In the title, the readers can hear her hopes of believing that someone is still remember and care for her. Consequently, love and affection can’t follow one to their grave, and discontinue as death come. The structure of the poem as a dialogue spices up the curiosity of the digger’s identity, as the poem led the readers through a series of downfalls. This satirical piece ironically portrays death in a negative aspect of being segregated and forgotten from the