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Shakespeare's dramatic irony
Essay on the meaning of dramatic irony
Essay on the meaning of dramatic irony
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In the poem “Have a Nice Day,” the author Spike Milligan, humorously delivers his overall theme of staying positive no matter what happens around you. The poem is about three people, the narrator, a man who is drowning, and a man who is sick and waiting for his doctor. The narrator watches a man who is drowning out at sea call to a man on shore for help. The man on shore says that he cannot help him because he has a medical condition and is waiting on shore for his doctor to come. Eventually the man in the sea drowns and the man waiting for his doctor dies from his condition before help arrives. The narrator then cheerful summarizes that apart from witnessing the two men die, and a fire in his apartment, he has had a very nice day. Milligan …show more content…
The most obvious literary device used to lighten the tone is rhyming. When the story is approaching its climax, the man in the ocean hears the sick man say “I suddenly feel quite ill” (Milligan 14), he replies that the sick man should “breathe deeply and lie quiet still” (Milligan 15). Ordinarily a man who feels he is about to pass away from his sickness is no joking matter, however the rhyming takes off a most of the pressure and tension that the reader would normally feel in this situation. Milligan also uses alliteration to soften the emotional impact of the normally downcast lines in his poem. The man who is drowning asks the man on shore to help, however the man says that he has to wait for his doctor to arrive. The person in the sea questions how long until the doctor comes, the sickly man tells him soon, but “till then try staying afloat” (Milligan 10). When reading that specific line of the poem, the reader shifts his focus to the alliteration instead of the deeper meaning of the same line. If there wasn’t an alliteration in the line, then the attention would be to the fact that if the man in the sea cannot calm himself down and stay afloat for a few more minutes, his death is almost guaranteed. Without these poetic devices the poem’s tone and mood would drastically change from lighthearted
Examining the literary terms used in this poem, one should mention alliteration first. It is used in the following line: “There are those who suffer in plain sight, / there are those who suffer in private” (line 1-2). Another literary device,
In Brian Turner’s poem “Jundee Ameriki” (American soldier), he gives gruesome details of a situation that triggered posttraumatic stress disorder in a soldier of war. The poem, written in 2009, addresses a suicide bombing which occurred during the War on Iraq in November of 2005. At first the poem shares the events of his doctor’s visit. While getting the shrapnel fragments removed, the soldier is quickly reminded of the horrific events that led to the injury. The poem then begins to describe the emotional effects of posttraumatic stress disorder. The narrator uses symbolism and the structure of the poem to demonstrate how the emotional pain of posttraumatic stress disorder is much greater than the physical pain it causes (even if the emotional
A poem which evokes a mood of pity in the reader is “Assisi” by Norman MacCaig. In this poem, MacCaig recounts an experience that shaped his own life while visiting the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi in Assisi, Italy. While the church is known for it’s outstanding beauty and priceless artwork, the poet discovers a beggar with severe physical disabilities begging outside the church. MacCaig then exposes the irony of the church constructed to celebrate a man devoted to poor, is now a symbol of hypocrisy. Instead of being a lasting monument to the original and noble philosophies of St Francis. Norman MacCaig evinces pity within us by effectively applying techniques such as vivid imagery, emotive word choice and contrast.
For example, the poem is set up to be more like a story since it has no stanzas but it does still flow like a poem. "Turn On a Light" also uses a lot of repetition to represent importance. For example he uses the word "granddad" eight times. "... constantly how my granddad had..." His repetition of this word lets you know how relevant this man was at the time. He also negative words like screaming and kicking to show how much he loathed the monsters. An example, "... 'cause I was
The poem is notable for Hayden's characteristically accurate evocation of imagery. Just like his other poems, Hayden’s imagery in this poem is very vivid. The reader is able to imagine or see these images in their inner minds. Thus, the diver “sank through easeful/azure/swiftly descended/free falling, weightless/plunged” he described the diver’s carefree attitude and relaxed attitude as he dove into the sea. Thrilled and enchanted by what he sees in the wrecked ship, he lingers for more than intended. When he was brought to the reality of the danger he was in, he, “...in languid/frenzy strove/began the measured
These poems represent the idea of allusion by symbolizing the need for poetry. For example in sentence 9 of Introduction to Poetry he uses allusion to demonstrate there is a dream or accomplishment he wants to do with "his students". In sentences 16-19 of Trouble with poetry, he also uses allusion because it looks like he has an idea in mind and has plans set ahead.
The setting of the poem is a day at the ocean with the family that goes terribly awry. This could be considered an example of irony, in that one would normally view a day at the beach as a happy and carefree time. In “Feared Drowned,” Olds paints a very different scenario, using dark imagery to create the setting: “…suit black as seaweed / Rocks sticks out near shore like heads.” The poem illuminates moments of intense fear, anxiety and the element of a foreseen sense of doom. Written as a direct, free-style verse using the first-person narrative, the poem opens with the narrator suspecting that her husband may have drowned. When Olds writes in her opening line: “Suddenly nobody knows where you are,” this signals to the reader that we are with the narrator as she makes this fearful discovery.
The structure of the poem created a hasty way of reading long passages with a few amount of periods, causing the reader to gasp for air as if the reader was the character, running to see her dad one last time. It would of have been ironic if the reader had lots of stops and times to get air.
...ion of the situation to the Ancient Mariner. Moreover, the way in which the dialogue is presented, makes the structure seems more of a script of a play. The structure of the poem is a key characteristic in displaying the theme, for by telling the story as a personal experience, it helps the reader understand the moral and theme intended as a warning to people.
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
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
Poems are typically written in a distinctive way to convey a specific message to the reader. The words or diction construct a poem by depicting ideas, feelings, setting, and characters. Therefore, a poet must chose his/her words with great care to create the appropriate message and to allow the reader to comprehend the general meaning. Thomas Hardy composed The Man He Killed, a poem demonstrating the effect war has upon soldiers and how war changes friend into a foe. The informal diction used by Hardy adds to the general meaning and impact of the poem. Idiom, specific and concrete words, and rhyming are all combined to form the diction of the poem, which enhance the impact and focus of the ideas and emotions.
Towards the beginning of the poem, the author Jungmin used an aggrieved and ambivalent tone throughout the story to make the reader have sympathy for the speaker. She successfully creates this tone by using words such as sinking, wrong, clumsy, alien. These words from the poem are very relatable to people in real life when they are in a dark spot in their life, thus making them feel sympathy for the speaker in the poem. By creating this common place between the reader and
The most relevant technique that MacNeice uses is the irregular structure of the poem. Although it is presented as a prayer, the subject matter is contrasted to be vulgar, morbid and violent, heightening the effect all the more. The varied length of the stanzas and lines is a mere reflection of the chaos in the world. The deterioration of humanity is effectively brought out through the cascading lines in the poem – we are left with the feeling that with every second that pas...
Through alliteration and imagery, Coleridge turns the words of the poem into a system of symbols that become unfixed to the reader. Coleridge uses alliteration throughout the poem, in which the reader “hovers” between imagination and reality. As the reader moves through the poem, they feel as if they are traveling along a river, “five miles meandering with a mazy motion” (25). The words become a symbol of a slow moving river and as the reader travels along the river, they are also traveling through each stanza. This creates a scene that the viewer can turn words into symbols while in reality they are just reading text. Coleridge is also able to illustrate a suspension of the mind through imagery; done so by producing images that are unfixed to the r...