The poem “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams is a note left by the speaker to someone telling them that they ate the plums they were saving for breakfast. We know the speaker wants to be forgiven for eating the plums by the way he uses “forgive” in the last sentence. The way he describes the plums “they were delicious so sweet and so cold,” he is telling of the experience of eating the plums. The speaker is apologizing for eating the plums, but as a consultation he describes how good they were. The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a story of a father and son and the night they danced around the house. He says “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy” tells us that the father has been drinking, “but
I hung on like death” could mean the “waltz” is actually a dance of stumbling around, which could be scaring the boy. While dancing they knock over the pans, annoying the mother. The speaker in this story is the son telling about the “waltz” he did with his father. The poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Own is about a war. The speaker in this poem describes a horrible moment during World War I. The speaker is one of the men in the platoon that is exhausted from a march, when the air is overtaken by a poison gas. He says “But someone still was yelling out and stumbling and flound’ring like a man in fire or lime. Dim, through the misty and think green light, as under a green sea, I saw him drowning,” he is describing to us watching through the lens of his mask watching as a man dies from the poison gas, as if he was drowning. He then tells us that in all his dreams he sees soldiers lunging towards him. The speaker then says if you had seen this and then dreamed about, this is not something you would want to share with children. “The old lie: Dulce ET Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori,” meaning “It is sweet and Honorable, to die for one’s country.”
My Papa’s Waltz has been compared to a generational litmus test. Depending on what generation the reader was born, could determine how the reader would interpret this poem. Each generation has its own views that have been developed in them for the language used to describe Papa in this poem. The whiskey on his breath and Papa’s hand beating on his head, both sound like a negative connotation. Depending on the experience of the reader, they can either be disturbed by these words or be drawn in closer to the poem. Theodore Roethke loved his father. Not only did he love him, but he idolized him and unfortunately lost him at an early age. This poem is a reflective memorial waltz written in iambic trimeter to honor his father and mother.
“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a poem that illustrates the love and bonding between a father and child through structure, figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and diction. The poem begins with lines making it seem negative, violent, and maybe even hate. However it was really his use of figurative language to show them bonding and having fun. In the first quatrain it says the father has whiskey breath, enough to make a child dizzy, so the child hangs on like “death”, because it was hard for him to waltz. At a first glance this may seem negative because of the whiskey and the author's choice of words like death. Although it is not negative. The father may have had a whiskey breath but it doesn't state he was drunk, and him hanging on like death may sound horrific, but he has to hold on to him so he is inescapable as death because it is
“My Papa 's Waltz”, by Theodore Roethke shows how important a young boys connection to his father really is. Every image in this poem shows overwhelming joy for the boy, whether it be spending time with the father or a late night wrestling session with each other. “Sonny’s blues”, by James Baldwin shows an untold brotherly love throughout each others lives. No matter how difficult the situation may be or how many fights they have, at the end of the day they both truly care about each other. The similarities with their love on both stories show that they always hang onto each other through thick and thin, both showing they cannot live in this world without each other. The differences with love on each other’s story shows a father-and-son bond,
“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke can be interpreted in a few different ways. The most obvious one being that he was dancing around with his father, having so much fun that he did not want to stop. His father is very drunk though, which leads us to believe that it is no just a fun story of him and his father dancing one night. What Roethke is really trying to show us, is the abusive relationship he had with his father.
Plato’s The Apology is a hand-written recording of Socrates’ speech made at the trial in which he is charged with not recognizing the “gods” that are recognized by the state. Therefore, he is corrupting the youth of Athens. Socrates' speech, however, does not really mean an "apology" in terms of the modern language. The name “Apology” is a Greek word for "apologia," which means “defense”. And so in The Apology, Socrates attempts to defend himself and certainly did not mean to apologize for what he believes.
The first poem, "My Papa's Waltz," by Theodore Roethke (Page 18) presents a clear picture of the young man's father, from line one. "Whiskey" on the father's breath is one of many clues in appearance that mold a rough image of this uneducated, blue-collar worker, possibly a European immigrant, as indicated by the "Waltz" in the title (Line 1). These traits are not necessarily related. They merely exist at once in the father's character. Additional signs of roughness are his hand, "battered on one knuckle"(11), and "a palm caked hard by dirt"(14). This is a man who has probably known only grueling labor. His few escapes likely consist of a drink or two when he gets home from a tough day and maybe something good on the radio. This idea of the father as an unrefined oaf is further reinforced by his actions. His missed steps injure the child's ear, while the father and son's "romping" causes the pans to slide "from the kitchen shelf"(6). As he "beat[s] time"(13) on the child's head we see very clearly that he is quite brutish and careless with the child, and oblivious to his environment. All these factors make the boy's mother very uncomfortable. We can see the disapproval in her countenance, which "could not unfrown itself"(8). She is obviously upset but, strangely, does nothing to interfere with the horseplay that grieves her. This suggests that the waltz is enjoyable for not only one, but both parties. One might wonder why it is that the boy so delights in these moments. This is obviously a crude, boorish man. He probably doesn't flush. He may even smell bad. Are these reasons to love one's father less? Certainly not in the eyes of a small boy. This young man's father may not be the most sensitive or perceptive man around, but he still seems to be a hero in the eyes of his son. Finally, the son recalls these words: "Then you waltzed me off to bed/ Still clinging to your shirt"(16). After reading this poem, it is clear just how unconditional a child's love is.
The Apology is regarding Socrates defense of himself at the time of his trial. Socrates, a wise philosopher is brought in the courtroom and the Athenian jury convicts him on corrupting the youth of Athens and not believing in God. The Oracle of Delphi pronounced Socrates to be the wisest of the Greeks and around the world. Socrates unconvinced, went around systematically to find someone wiser than himself, from poets, politicians, and craftsman.
My Papa’s Waltz presents a child’s telling of the waltz taking place between him and his father. As a verb, a waltz is “to move or walk in a lively and confident manner” (“Waltz”). The waltz described throughout the poem is quick and lively as the boy “hung on like death” (Roethke)
"My Papa 's Waltz," by Theodore Roethke 's, is a poem about a boy who expresses his affection for his father, but at the same time expresses a sense of danger that comes from the father. The poem appears to be a snapshot in time from a child’s memory. The uplifting experience is created through the father and son’s waltz while the father’s uncontrollable movements juxtaposes the menace of the drunken father.
film music. On the one side there are the purists, who cry foul at the piecing together of
The Apology is Plato's account of a speech given by Socrates to defend himself against charges of, “corrupting the young and not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other new spiritual things.” (Plato 24b) After being sentenced to death Socrates explains why he won't object his sentence. He says “To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils. And surely it is the most blameworthy ignorance to believe that one knows what one does not know.” (Plato 29) What he's saying is that death is neither a good or bad thing and that we have no way of knowing what death entails so to fear it is ignorant. I will use this paper to explain his reasoning for this belief and why that reasoning is false. I will also cite some reasons given in the article “Death” by Thomas Nagel.
Williams does away with traditional poetic structure in order to free the actual poetry inherent in the sounds and meanings of words. In his poetry, he offers a lesson in aesthetics regarding how to engage his poetry as a way of looking at reality. At the literal level, his poetry speaks self-reflexively about its significance: "It is hard to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there." His poetry attempts to re-engage people in reality. As he contends: "Anything is good material for poetry. Anything"(Paterson V). This belief is evidenced in a passage from "Two pendants: for the Ears":
He was sentenced to death and his last words were about accepting his “punishment” instead of trying to fight and deceive his way out of it. Three differences between The Prince and The Apology is the way the men believe one should act in times of desperation, how one should deceive, and how one appears to others.
In Apology, Socrates is talking to a jury of the men of Athens and speaks of his life as a philosopher, his pursuit of knowledge, and how it has caused him to be disliked by many others. In Apology, he explains that as a philosopher he seeks knowledge, and do that he asks many different people different questions. As a philosopher, he is not a craftsman or a poet, nor did he seek any compensation, as if he were offering wisdom. In his life as a philosopher he is poor, and does not seek pleasures or status, but he only seeks knowledge, and therefore he is the true embodiment of moderation.
William Blake was born on November 28, 1757. He was born in London(A,288). His father was James Blake, who had a shop near London for which he sold gloves and stockings. His father and mother, Catherine, had seven children, and sadly, two of them did not live.