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Death theme in literature 123help
Themes about death
Themes about death
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Margaret Atwood uses literary techniques to reveal the theme of her poem, “Siren Song”. One literary technique used in the poem is allusion. An allusion is something that is hinted at but not explicitly mentioned. ….”the song nobody knows because anyone who has heard it is dead,”... Evidence from line 7 to line 9. This sentence is an example of allusion because Atwood is hinting at the fact that everyone who hears the song dies without mentioning it to the reader. Another allusion found in the poem starts on line 26 and ends on line 27. ….”it is a boring song but it works every time.” This sentence reveals that the whole poem, the whole song was a trick for you to listen and now you will die. There was no secret, it was just to make you curious
The language of the poem holds five of the eight languages to poetry. Allegory, personification, symbols, figures, and metaphors. In the beginning of the poem she uses Allegory, Personification and a metaphor. “Allegory- related symbols working together with characters, events, or settings representing ideas or moral qualities” (Sporre). Paula compares the silence in the air to describe how clear the air was. Going on to using personification and a metaphor, “Peaks rise above me like the Gods. That is where they live, the old people say.” Personification is the figure of speech in which abstract qualities, animals, or inanimate objects take into many forms of literature (Sporre). Metaphors, are figures of speech by which new implications are given to words. Metaphors are implied but not explicit comparisons (Sporre). She goes on to imply that the Gods lives above us in the peaks, that’s where the old people say that they live. Using Symbols, “Which is critical to poetry, which uses compressed language to express, and carry us into its meaning (Sporre).” Ending the first line she writes “I listen and I heard”. Going on to explain how she heard the voice in the wind and by giving us the emotion of that feeling set the understanding of what the poem was all about. Following the next line Paula uses a form of Imagery. A verbal representation of objects, feelings, or ideas can be literal or figurative. figurative imagery involves a change in
This can be seen in the fourth line, “very prickly, a penalty” as if words were a “black art” of mystery. In setting a secretive tone, the speaker makes it sound as if one needs to be careful with what they say. Another example of alliteration can be seen in the tenth line, where the speaker states, “strengths or squinched,” identifying those words as “peculiar.” Not only that, but the speaker would “squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well” in the “silent, startled” September. In the love for blackberries, the speaker also is displaying their love for learning and life with the use of the
The alliteration used is to emphasize rhythm in the poem. On the other hand, the poet also depicts a certain rhyme scheme across each stanza. For example, the first stanza has a rhyme scheme of this manner a, b, c, d, e, a. With this, the rhyme scheme depicted is an irregular manner. Hence, the poem does not have a regular rhythm. Moreover, the poet uses a specific deign of consonance, which is present in the poem (Ahmed & Ayesha, p. 11). The poet also uses the assonance style depicted in the seventh stanza, “Seven whole days I have not seen my beloved.” The letter ‘o’ has been repeated to create rhythm and to show despair in the poem. On the second last line of the seventh stanza, the poet uses the style of consonance, “If I hug her, she’ll drive illness from me. By this, the letter ‘l’ is repeated across the line. The poet’s aim of using this style of Consonance is to establish rhythm in the poem and add aural
lines two and three, the author makes an allusion to the Virgin Mary for visual imagery and
Poets Louise Gluck and Percy Bysshe Shelley use symbols and poetic techniques to convey themes of human experience such as death and haunting memories. In the poem, “Gretel in darkness,” Louise Gluck draws out a childhood fairytale and suffuses it with two fundamental human experiences: guilt and fear. In “Ozymandias”, Percy Bysshe Shelley discusses the idea that time and nature stop for no one. The poems reinforce the main themes through a variety of techniques. Louise Gluck’s, “Gretel in darkness” is a haunting poem about the horrors the speaker, Gretel, faces and tries so hard to forget.
The poems “Sea Rose” by H.D and “Vague Poem” by Elizabeth Bishop were both written by two women who took over the Victorian era. H.D’s works of writing were best known as experimental reflecting the themes of feminism and modernism from 1911-1961. While Bishop’s works possessed themes of longing to belong and grief. Both poems use imagery, which helps to make the poem more concrete for the reader. Using imagery helps to paint a picture with specific images, so we can understand it better and analyze it more. The poems “Sea Rose” and “Vague Poem” both use the metaphor of a rose to represent something that can harm you, even though it has beauty.
Alliteration is a key aspect to how the reader experiences the poem; it especially gives interest toward alliteration of the letter T. This alliteration begins in the very first line “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant-” (1.1). The alliteration on the T is used three times within the first line; however, it does not stop there. Dickinson uses the “T” sound to continually draw back to the theme of truth. Dickinson, through the use of two stanzas, four lines each, uses quite a distinct rhyme scheme to organize her poem. The second and fourth lines of each stanza are clearly examples of end rhyme, by using words such as “lies” (1.2) and “surprise” (1.4). However, every single line is not an example of end rhyme. The first and third lines rhyme words such as “slant” (1.1) and “delight” (1.3); which can be described as near rhymes for they give a small sensation of rhyming. This rhyming pattern continues for the second stanza as well. The sequence of rhyming is not arbitrarily put into practice, rather, it also adds on to the truth theme. The near rhymes Dickinson stresses to not tell the truth in its entirety, but rather, convey a little bit of truth. This is being directly compared to the almost rhyming sensatio...
The first literary device that can be found throughout the poem is couplet, which is when two lines in a stanza rhyme successfully. For instance, lines 1-2 state, “At midnight, in the month of June / I stand beneath the mystic moon.” This is evidence that couplet is being used as both June and moon rhyme, which can suggest that these details are important, thus leading the reader to become aware of the speaker’s thoughts and actions. Another example of this device can be found in lines 16-17, “All Beauty sleeps!—and lo! where lies / (Her casement open to the skies).” These lines not only successfully rhyme, but they also describe a woman who
Sylvia Plath uses a diverse array of stylistic devices in "Lady Lazarus," among them allusion,
Atwood writes “Siren Song” is written in free verse, thus enhances her main ideas. In a free verse poem, there is no rhyme or organized meter. However she has other organizing elements exist in order to strengthen the speaker in the poems ideas and main purpose of the poem. There are nine stanzas, in which each has three lines. The three lines appear to mirror the three sirens that are mentioned in the poem. The speaker is one, and then she says, “with these two feathery maniacs”(16), referring to the other sirens that accompany her singing. Moreover, enjambment plays a major role in this poem, because it drive the poem in significant moments. The speaker ends a stanza not fully completing her thought, making it so that the audience feels more
To begin, the poem, “Eve’s Apology,” uses many different poetic devices such as alliteration, assonance, rhyme scheme, and simile. The author uses a great number of alliteration, which is the repetition of constant sounds generally at the beginnings of words. Alliteration can be seen in the words “what” and “weakness” in line 3. Some more examples of alliteration throughout the poem are “subtle serpent’s” (23), “he had him” (24), and “with words which” (30). Assonance, the repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end with different consonant sounds, is another poetic device that the author uses greatly. Some examples of assonance are found in lines 10 “ The ‘p...
Edgar Allen Poe’s alliteration and repetition of words support the poem’s flow and musicality. Poe begins with the alliteration of the m sound in “merriment” and “melody” (3). The soft m sound, also known as a liquid consonant, helps to keep a quick and continuous pace for the poem. Similarly, the alliteration of the s sounds in sledges, silver, stars, and seem, emphasize the calming sounds of the bells (1-2, 6-7). The s sound helps express the soothing and comforting effects of the bells, essentially contributing to the merry tone of the poem. Furthermore, the alliteration of t...
Neruda’s use of alliteration in lines such as “something started in my soul, fever or forgotten wings,” and “planets, palpitating plantations, shadow perforated,” Neruda (1964) deeply impact the reader, only adding to the intensity of their meaning and keeping one’s attention focused on the depths to which this experience touched him. A brilliant style of writing, if you ask me. Assonance is also in this piece, found in lines such as the long “I” in the lines “deciphering that fire and I wrote the first faint line,” Neruda (1964). These literary tools among many others create such an seductive flow, the rhythm is smooth but the tone is so intense that the contrast creates the perfect image of what he is feeling and engrains those very same emotions with the reader as those who enter the world of Pablo Neruda read this
Some examples of figurative language use in this poem includes repetition, alliteration, exaggeration, hyperbole, imagery, and parallelism. The purpose of repetition in the poem is to strengthen the word phenomenal, in return associating the word with the author being a phenomenal woman. Some symbols in poem include the body shape of the model in the beginning of the poem. This represents how people would like women to be and appear. Her “mystery” represents beauty within women.