Poet’s style A poem is usually developed by a certain method or a style that the poet uses to help the reader to understand the meaning of the poem. The poem Graded Paper written by the poet Mark Halliday, is about a teacher who is grading a student’s paper and giving feedback on it. In the poem the poet uses different techniques to support and develop the poem. In the poem, the teacher who is grading the paper uses special tone while grading the paper. The teacher is the poem uses a tone of caring and helpful to the student. Although, throughout the poem, the teacher gives negative comments to the student, at the end the teacher gives the student an A-. This is the irony that the poet uses in the poem. Another technique the author uses …show more content…
In the poem the teacher points out mistakes such as the student’s thinking, his style of writing the paper and his grammar errors. The teacher said, “there are spots/where your thinking becomes, for me, / alarmingly opaque, and you syntax/seems to jump backwards through unnecessary hoops,” (6-9). This instance shows the error the teacher found in the paper about how the student’s thinking was not straight and would jump backwards and forward throughout the poem. Another error that the teacher finds is when the teacher tells the student that he should have wrote the paper differently or said something else. The teacher said, “I’d have said it differently, / or rather, said something else” (17-18). This instance shows that the teacher is not happy about the way the student has written he paper and tells him that he should have wrote it differently. Another instance where the teacher finds mistake in the paper is when the teacher fixes the students semicolons mistake in the paper. The teacher says, “Please notice how I’ve repaired your/ use of semicolons.”(28).This instance shows that the teacher found a mistake of semicolons, which the student did not use correctly in the paper. However, even after finding all these mistakes the teacher gives A- as an overall grade to the student. This is an example of an irony that shows that the teacher not only gave negative comments to the student, but after giving negative comments …show more content…
In the poem, the poet uses symbolism to show how teacher was not actually grading the paper, but she was trying to see her inside the student. First instance which shows this is when the teacher tells the student that she would have wrote the paper differently. The teacher said, “I’d have said it differently, / or rather, said something else” (17-18). This shows that the teacher was not grading the student on his writing, but she was comparing him to herself, and she was trying to tell him that he should have written the way she writes. Another instance which shows symbolism is when the teacher tells the student that she would have quoted the context. The teacher says,” I would have quoted in this context” (24). This shows that not only she did not grade the student on his writing, but she is showing the way she would have written the paper. Another symbol that the poet uses to show that the teacher was not grading the paper, but was trying to see herself in the story is when after finding the mistakes, the teacher says that after all the student is not her and it is natural to have fault in his paper. The teacher said, “You are not/ me, finally, / and though this is an awkward problem, involving/ and inescapable fast that you are so young, so young/ it is also a delightful provocation” (34-38). This shows that the teacher is telling the student that because he is not her and he is very young, there are
With the use of irony and a free rhyme scheme, Collins’ poem vocalizes his opinion on how lying to children about significant facts can only serve to make them ignorant. The way he communicates this to us is by ironically emphasizing events by understating them. He shows how important an event is by mocking the teacher’s portrayal of the event. One example of how he does this is how the teacher tells his students that the ice age was just the “chilly age, a period of a million years when everyone had to wear sweaters.”(3-4). Collins does this several times with other important events in history, such as the Spanish Inquisition, where “[It] was nothing more than an outbreak of questions.”(7-8). The teacher’s interpretation of events, when compared to the actual events themselves creates a sense of unease, as the lies stray far away from what actually happened, and brings up the question of whether or not these lies should be told. Collins uses events that involve death and destruction to accentuate how big the contrast between the teacher’s explanation and reality is. After the class ends, the children leave the classroom to “torment the weak and the smart” (15-16), while the teacher is oblivious to it all. Note that Collins puts “and the smart” (16) on a separate line from “torment the weak” (15). The children in the class aren’t smart because they did not learn about the true events in history. This distinction emphasized the ignorance of the children. This contrasts with Wilbur’s poem, as the lie told there served to soothe a child’s fear, rather than breed ignorance. The rhyme scheme is different as well. Collins’ free rhyme scheme is used to create a sense of unease, whereas Wilbur’s rhyme scheme creates a child-like feeling to his poem. Unlike the parents in “A Barred Owl”, the teacher is portrayed as an ignorant man, unaware of what happens around
In Harrison Bergeron, the irony author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. uses is very apparent. Irony is a literary technique in which the opposite of what is meant is said or done, usually to a humorous effect. There are three types of irony used in this story; verbal, situational and dramatic. The most humorous use of verbal irony is when the narrator says “Hazel had a perfectly normal intelligence”. This is ironic because Hazel only has a twenty second memory, which is not that
poem. The tone used by each poet is critical because it indicates to the reader their
The poet expresses a lot of emotion through the imagery that she uses. At the beginning of her poem, we can see a silent frustration, as we read: “do not fool yourself that I have fallen off the face of the earth and/am just another statistical write-off.” She shares how frustrating it is to be ostracized in a class where no one understands her, or makes any attempt to do so, and expresses this through smooth sarcasm. In the education system, Cree students were always expected to drop out, so it made no difference when or how many did drop out, because it was assumed they would all drop out eventually. They assumed that it was either because the Cree people didn’t care about their schooling, or didn’t have the mental capacity to learn, so as a result the staff also failed to care. This naturally, did not make it easy for the Cree students who did care, and who did try their best, and the speaker was also one of these people. She indicates that she is very annoyed with the education system because of all the stereotyping that was happening between students and teachers alike, but also because the classes are extremely boring to her, for she
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”
Examples of the use of verbal irony is present in the pre-hook of the song:
The author, Arthur Cavanaugh, uses irony to reinforce the theme. An example of this is when Ms.Wilson tells the class that she will be absent and that they will have a substitute. Knowing this, Roger convinced his father to take him to the park, owing to the fact that in Roger’s mind, that homework would not be collected. After a day with Ms.Orville, however, Roger completed his nightly assignments forthwith after school. Even though Roger expected to enjoy an easy few days with a substitute, he got the most discipline he’s ever experienced.
In any discussion of poetry vs. prose worth it's stanzas, questions regarding such tools as meter, rhyme, and format must come into play. These are, after all, the most obvious distinguishing features of poetry, and they must certainly be key in determining the definition, and in fact nature, of poetry.
In conclusion, many examples are given throughout the novel that exemplifies all three types of irony: situational, verbal, and dramatic. There are many more examples, like Bernard wanting attention and John’s suicide. His suicide can be an example of irony, with the reader hoping that John (the revolutionist) might succeed, but John taking his own life. Irony plays a huge role in the book, pointing out that no society can be perfect and that some laws are broken by the creators themselves.
On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used as an effective literary device. Situational irony is used to show the reader that what is expected to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to clue the reader in on something that is happening that the characters in the story do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.
The playwright has done remarkable use of symbols, tensions, and irony. He uses all of these components to express the main theme of the play; the hopeful desire to change the present followed by unavoidable disappointments. All of the characters have dreams, which are destroyed by the harsh realities of the world. As the narrator admits in his opening of the play, "since I have a poet's weakness for symbols," is an expression of a particular theme, idea or character.
A second step in analyzing a poem is to identify the main idea or point of the poem. In “The Author to ...
Collins himself was the speaker and author of this poem. When learn that Collins himself was the author and speaker of the poem when he says, “I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide” (Collins, Billy). When Collins says I ask them, it shows that he is the author and speaker. An example that I find is the huge difference between the tone of the last two paragraphs between the rest of the paragraph. Collins uses a cheerful tone in his first five paragraphs of the poem when he is explaining how people should examine a poem, but then changes to an unpleasant tone when he starts explaining how people examine a poem. This poetic device helps us understand how Collins feels about how we examine a poem and how he really wants us to examine a poem. Another poetic device Collins used in his poem is metaphors. A good example of a metaphor is “walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch” (Collins, Billy). The reason that is a metaphor is because a poem is compared to a room. All the metaphors used throughout the poem helps us understand just how much Collins wants us to dive in deep and examine a poem to understand the meaning of the
Poetry is a form of written word which has experience created by sound and meaning. It integrates various elements: Imagery; a figurative language which prompts the reader as well as the listener of the poem to create mental images. Poetic choice of words; this is based on the sound that is, denotation and connotation. Denotation refers to the accurate meaning of the word while connotation refers to the intended meaning of a word. The sound is another element of poetry which about the rhyme; words that sound similar or exactly alike in the poem. It employs metaphor which expresses something new and meaning way by way of comparison on unlike things. The theme as the main element is the purpose of the poem. Poetry is tied as an art because of