In the poem “Dark August” by Derek Walcott, the author uses a dark and heavy-hearted tone to describe a rainy day. The title compliments the gloomy tone. Walcott creates imagery in this metaphor to compare the sights of a rainy day to the object of his love. The descriptions of the bad weather are comparisons of negative feelings within a relationship. His medium diction and word choices make the poem personal and intimate. There is a small change to a lighter mood towards the end of the poem as Walcott describes the sun emerging. By Walcott’s use of figurative language, it is evident that the rainy days are symbolic for the rough times in a relationship.
In the first stanza, Walcott uses alliteration. “So much rain, so much like the swollen sky” (1) has a repetitive S constant sound. Walcott’s refers to his “sister” (his love) as the “sun.” The sun symbolizes life, brightness or happiness. This is very important when considering how the sun adds brightness to our days. It can be inferred that his “sister” gives him life or brings him happiness. Walcott proceeds by illustrating how dark the rainy day had become. “My sister the sun, broods in her yellow room and won’t come out” (3), tells the reader that the sun is hidden from sight and will not reveal itself. The narrator evokes a sense of patience as waits for her to come out.
Walcott’s uses several types of imagery. “The mountains fume like a kettle” (4-5) or “the air with gossiping mosquitoes” (14) are an example of visual imagery. They represent the mugginess in the aura of a rainy day. “Even if thunder falls like a crash of plates from the sky” is an example of auditory imagery. Thunder and plates crashing are very loud noises. Walcott’s states that despite the intense th...
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...himself and not know it. This line stimulates curiosity in the readers. Walcott’s continues with a more sentimental tone. “I would have learnt to love the black days like bright ones, the black rain, the white hills” (22-23) implies that if the narrator’s love was not limited, he would be able to love the good and bad days.
The author concludes the poem with “when I loved only my happiness and you.” (24) His ultimate choice of a selfless tone alludes that the narrator has learned a lesson in love and relationships. There will be rainy days but we must not lose hope. We have to learn to appreciate these bad days and deal with them for the one we love. The experiences of these sad and dark days result in a deeper strength of love with each other. In this poem, Walcott provides the readers with an understanding of what is means and takes to be in love and acceptance.
The poem opens upon comparisons, with lines 3 through 8 reading, “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets/ of their branches. The maples/ were colored like apples,/part orange and red, part green./ The elms, already transparent trees,/ seemed swaying vases full of sky.” The narrator’s surroundings in this poem illustrate him; and the similes suggest that he is not himself, and instead he acts like others. Just as the maples are colored like apples, he
The speaker’s rocky encounter with her ex-lover is captured through personification, diction, and tone. Overall, the poem recaps the inner conflicts that the speak endures while speaking to her ex-lover. She ponders through stages of the past and present. Memories of how they were together and the present and how she feels about him. Never once did she broadcast her emotions towards him, demonstrating the strong facade on the outside, but the crumbling structure on the inside.
The first two lines of the poem set the mood of fear and gloom which is constant throughout the remainder of the poem. The word choice of "black" to describe the speaker's face can convey several messages (502). The most obvious meaning ...
Part II: Explication The title of the poem “Love is Not All” asserts the impression that suggests the unimportant of love to its reader at first. However, the ending of the poem reveals the ironic truth that love is worthwhile. Millay’s intention is not to confuse readers by using a title that forcefully disrespects love. However, she projects the title of the poem to ascertain the grounds for her argument that love is important.
trauma can have on someone, even in adulthood. The speaker of the poem invokes sadness and
Throughout the lives of most people on the planet, there comes a time when there may be a loss of love, hope or remembrance in our lives. These troublesome times in our lives can be the hardest things we go through. Without love or hope, what is there to live for? Some see that the loss of hope and love means the end, these people being pessimistic, while others can see that even though they feel at a loss of love and hope that one day again they will feel love and have that sense of hope, these people are optimistic. These feelings that all of us had, have been around since the dawn of many. Throughout the centuries, the expression of these feelings has made their ways into literature, novels, plays, poems, and recently movies. The qualities of love, hope, and remembrance can be seen in Emily Bronte’s and Thomas Hardy’s poems of “Remembrance” “Darkling Thrush” and “Ah, Are you Digging on my Grave?”
“Love Poem With Toast” by Miller Williams introduces the effect our desires have in our daily lives in order to “move, as we call it, forward” (11). Miller Williams also conveys this message accompanied with a darker meaning; though these desires make up a large part of our lives, in the end none of it will matter because we leave the world the same way we enter it, with nothing. Despite this message being carried out, it is still a love poem at the surface, but it is not about a person confessing their love, rather pretending to love, and continuing to live with this self-conflict about choosing to be in a frigid relationship over not being in one at all. It is interesting how Miller rhythmically categorizes his message throughout the poem;
The sun has been an endless source of inspiration, both physical and spiritual, throughout the ages. For its light, warmth, and the essential role it has played in the maintenance of the fragile balance of life on earth, the sun has been honored and celebrated in most of the world's religions. While the regeneration of light is constant, the relative length of time between the rising and setting of the sun is affected by the changing of the seasons. Hippocrates postulated centuries ago that these changing patterns of light and dark might cause mood changes (9). Seasonal downward mood changes of late fall and winter have been the subject of many sorrowful turn-of-the-century poems of lost love and empty souls. For some, however, “the relationship between darkness and despair is more than metaphoric (6).
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.
In “A Rainy Morning” by Ted Kooser, we get a lot of imagery, as well as figures of speech, specifically metaphors. This poem through the use of an extended metaphor helps us to see life and our everyday actions into a new perspective. Here we will examine the poem’s language and imagery to help understand what the theme of “A Rainy Morning” is.
Sappho, who is very well the speaker and author of the poem, clearly recognizes the substantial impact that love creates in relation to the amount of happiness people experience. Those who are successful in the game love, whether it be by giving it or receiving it, are far happier than those who confront despair and rejection. Finding love means finding the acceptance, companionship, and most of all, happiness that everyone strives to receive in their lifetime. As a result, love becomes a weapon for power, superiority, and control.
Love is the greatest gift that God has bestowed upon mankind. Defining love is different for every culture, race, and religion. Walt Whitman’s love is ever changing for anyone who tries to love him or understand his work. Love can be broken down into a multitude of emotions, and feelings towards someone or some object. In order to find love that is searched for, preparations must be made to allow the full experience of Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand by Walt Whitman to be pious. Walt Whitman’s poem is devoted to the fullness of love, and a description of fantasy and reality. A journey to find love starts with knowledge that both participants are willing, and able to consummate their love in judgment under God. Time is the greatest accomplice to justify the energy and sacrifice needed to start developing the ingredients needed for love to grow. Each stanza is a new ingredient to add to the next stanza. Over time, this addition of each stanza will eventually lead to a conclusion. A conclusion that love is ever changing, and people must either change along with love or never know the miracle of love.
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
For those who disagree, it also appears to be about a lover who perceives the world through love which he finds in sunlight.
The poem’s diction seems to be focused on describing summer and nature in general. The speaker focuses on describing summer and how it compares to his lover. The majority of description is focused on nature which just emphasizes the role that it has in the poem and in the speaker’s life as well.