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An Analysis of a Langston Hughes Poetry Essay
An Analysis of a Langston Hughes Poetry Essay
An Analysis of a Langston Hughes Poetry Essay
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The Hawk In The Rain, the first poem in Ted Hughes’s first book of poetry published in 1957, describes the struggle of man on the earth and “a binary opposition between earth and air (Easthope, 189)”. Many of hughes’s poems including The Hawk in the Rain stand for “an intense experience of an external object (Easthope, 189)”. As the narrator drags himself through the mud, he is subject to harsh weather, heavy rain, and the earth itself, which is compared to a grave, grimly observing that the mud might swallow him whole as the hawk soars above. The earth is personified in the metaphor comparing it to a mouth and the narrator’s description of himself as a “morsel.” The hawk in flight is immune to the struggle, yet the narrator perceives that it is watching as in the alliteration, “effortlessly at height hangs his still eye.” The narrator clearly covets the hawk’s steady vantage point and its will, he wants the capability and power that the hawk posses. The hawk represents the ideal of self-control for the graceless, stumbling and besieged narrator (Bentley, 15). He observers the...
The purpose of the poem was to express my interests of nature and how I felt and what I experienced when I was in the woods at that time. There’s also that life and death aspect in this poem, in which the bird has the lizard in his mouth and also by the word “fire”.
As a way to end his last stanza, the speaker creates an image that surpasses his experiences. When the flock rises, the speaker identifies it as a lady’s gray silk scarf, which the woman has at first chosen, then rejected. As the woman carelessly tosses the scarf toward the chair the casual billow fades from view, like the birds. The last image connects nature with a last object in the poet's
John Updike’s poem “The Great Scarf of Birds” expresses the varying emotions the narrator experiences as he witnesses certain events from nature. His narration of the birds throughout the poem acts as numerous forms of imagery and symbolism concerning him and his life, and this becomes a recollection of the varying emotional stances he comes to terms with that he has experienced in his life. These changes are so gradually and powerfully expressed because of a fluent use of diction and figurative language, specifically symbolism and simile, and aided by organization.
Foulcher’s Summer Rain represents a juxtaposed view of suburbia towards the natural environment throughout his poem, as he explains societies daily repetitive tasks. This idea is expressed through Foulcher’s use of simile, in the stanza “steam rising from ovens and showers like mist across a swampland.” This simile makes the comparison between average tasks completed in the urban world, such as cooking or showering to a natural situation such as a swampland, creating a feeling of bother and discomfort for the readers, as swamplands are generally humid, insect ridden and muddy. This effectively makes the readers feel this way, not of the swamplands that are compared, but of the tasks in the home that are conveyed. Similarly, Foulcher uses simile in “clutter on the highway like abacus beads. No one dares overtake,” to illustrate the lack of free will in society as abacus beads are on a set path, there is no freedom or individuality. This demonstrates how where everything is busy and cramped, there is no room in society to notice the small simplistic divinities in the natural world around them. The complexity and mundanity of society causes the simplistic beauties of nature to be
...veryone else. He wakes up every day ready to crow his symbol to bring on that day. In the poem he is ready to protect all the female chickens, from another cock that could be in there house. He is ready to battle to the death for what he thinks is his. In this poem he uses ridicule, when he is talking about the old man in a terminal ward, and he also uses connotations. Some example of connotations are when he uses words like; enraged, sullenly, savagery, unappeased and terminal.
In the poems "Hawk Roosting" written by Ted Hughes and "Golden Retrievals" written by Mark Doty, both poets compose their poems as speakers "talking" (thinking) through animals' point of views. Although both poems are written through an animal's eyes, both take on the world from very different views through their complex characterization of an egotistical hawk to a lighthearted golden retriever. Hughes and Doty portray their animals in a way that makes it seem like they feel that they're superior to humans (although in different manners) through the usages of alienated alliteration, inventive imagery, straightforward syntax, melodramatic metaphor, and perplex personification.
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
In Langston Hughes’ poem, the author gives us vivid examples of how dreams get lost in the weariness of everyday life. The author uses words like dry, fester, rot, and stink, to give us a picture of how something that was originally intended for good, could end up in defeat. Throughout the play, I was able to feel how each character seemed to have their dreams that fell apart as the story went on. I believe the central theme of the play has everything to do with the pain each character goes thru after losing control of the plans they had in mind. I will attempt to break down each character’s dream and how they each fell apart as the play went on.
Through the use of narrative and metaphor, Terry Tempest Williams beautifully depicts her life story in a poetic memoir. She describes the daily struggles she faced with change in her family, while her mother battled with cancer that eventually led to her death. She also describes the fluctuating lake levels, and how they affected the birds that migrate in the area. Through her experiences with the birds she learns how to cope and accept her mother’s death. Eventually, she moves on with the birds and learns how to love and not be afraid of death.
The symbolism in the poem paints a ghastly picture of a man’s life, falling apart as he does his best, and worst, to keep it safe from himself. In lines 1 through 8 (stanza one), he gives a brief description of an incident in his life where things have gone wrong. “When the tiger approaches can the fast-fleeting hind/Repose trust in his footsteps of air?/No! Abandoned he sinks in a trance of despair,” He uses these lines to show the lack of control he has over his actions, how his will to change his circumstances has weakened. He is both the hind with the person he is tormenting, and the tiger that
In order for a person to really understand how Mr. Hughes’s life shaped his poetry, one must know all about his background. In this paper, I will write a short biography of Hughes’s life and tell how this helped accent his literary genius.
Hughes emphasizes his message consistently throughout this poem, weaving in the most important line in the middle and end of the poem. He is representing his people. African Americans have waited and been abused by society, and this deepened and weathered their souls over time, just as a river would become deepened and weathered. Hughes’ soul, the collective soul of African Americans, has become “deep like the rivers” (5). This simile speaks that the rivers are part of the body, and contribute to this immortality that Hughes is so desperate to achieve for his people. Rivers are the earthly symbols of eternity: deep, constant, mystifying.
Imagine, watching as humans greedily destroy nature just to satisfy their selfish desires. Imagine, hiding in the bushes while watching your fallen comrades being treated as if they were just another casualty in the war. As if their identities and sacrifice were insignificant and unnecessary because they died... The loss of identity and the human destruction of nature is highlighted in Kenneth Slessor’s poems Beach Burial and North Country. It is through these poems that Slessor uses a range of poetic techniques to bring images alive, permitting us to visualise scenes in our mind, which is why studying his poems would allow students to develop their understanding of poetic techniques and powerful ideas.
... Nature, including human beings, is `red in tooth and claw'; we are all `killers' in one way or another. Also, the fear which inhabits both human and snake (allowing us, generally, to avoid each other), and which acts as the catalyst for this poem, also precipitates retaliation. Instinct, it seems, won't be gainsaid by morality; as in war, our confrontation with Nature has its origins in some irrational `logic' of the soul. The intangibility of fear, as expressed in the imagery of the poem, is seen by the poet to spring from the same source as the snake, namely the earth - or, rather, what the earth symbolizes, our primitive past embedded in our subconsciouness. By revealing the kinship of feelings that permeates all Nature, Judith Wright universalises the experience of this poem.
The short story, “Cat in the Rain';, by Ernest Hemingway describes the stereotypical relationship between two married American tourists, one of whom is striving to recover a “poor kitty';. This seemingly mundane plot becomes symbolic and purposeful as the reader gazes beneath the surface to find the true intent of the short story. There are three characters in Hemingway’s story which help convey these meaningful analogies; in addition, the cat, the American woman, and the American man all represent something different in our present American society. The story is set in Europe and involves two foreigners for a special reason. They are isolated in a sense, forcing their true emotions and characteristics to shine ...