At Ithaca is a poem by Hilda Doolittle, who is more commonly referred to as H.D. It was first published in 1923. Doolittle was in a dark state when she wrote this poem. The poem’s surface seems as if she is only speaking of Homer’s The Odyssey; however, a deeper look into this poem reveals it is a cry for help. She reaches out to a past love to essentially save her from herself. In the first stanza, she describes the ocean going in and out which could be a symbol for the time passing. Her next line is “The sea takes on that desperate tone of dark that wives put on when all love is gone.” (Doolittle 1.5). This is about the darkness and grief she feels without her past love. Stanza two is all about her wanting to be saved or rather
In line five and six, the male feels so down and intimidated and could not do anything. In the third stanza, in line one to four we see that the male tries to change the present state but it does not seem to bear fruit. In line six and seven the female is still dominating the male.
In this stanza there is a question asked to the question reveals that the girl is puzzled about the lord is after her. This suggests that she is aware that he has different motives, rather than love and romance. This also shows that she knows the compliment is false and just a way of seducing her into bed. The second stanza is where the great lord isn’t so “great” anymore. He lured and tricked her into going to his palace home.
On the third stanza, she pretty much saying that it is not her fault that she had a abortion and she has no choice but to do it. “Since anyhow you are dead, Or rather, or instead, You were never made” (Gwendolyn Brooks) she making excuses of what she had done.
Towards the end of the passage, she describes how sometimes her family would make her so mad that she “longed to see them all dead at [her] feet” (64). Along with this, she uses a simile to describe how she wanted to leave her own life behind “as if it were an old garment never to be worn again” (67). These devices contrast with most of the passage in that they describe the narrator’s unhappiness with her old home, which she now longs so much to be back in. This challenges her sense of self because she feels discontent in both places, implying she is, metaphorically,
The poem by Sara Teasdale was written in 1920 and was about The Great War. The Great War is also known as World War One. The first three stanzas had a soft and peaceful tone about nature. The last three stanzas were darker and warlike. There is definitely a darker tone when you read the last three stanzas. The poem is basically saying that if humans were no longer on Earth nature wouldn’t know or care.
In the beginning, the speaker wants to be free of burdens, numb, and in peace. When speaking of these things, she does so in a very envious and coveting tone. For instance, near the beginning, the speaker says: “Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in. / I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly…I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions” (2-5). The lines have a very soothing, serene sense to it because of all the long vowels the speaker uses and because of all the assonance (of the o, e, and i sound) in it. These vowels cause the line to be read slowly and calmly. Moreover, she is specifically pointing this scene out to the reader by ordering them to “Look” at it (2). Clearly, what it embodies must be something rather important to her as this is the only time she asks the reader to do something. She seems wistful for the...
He begins with a shift, “ There they are, the moon’s young, trying/ Their wings.” (5-6), these lines make a shift because the tone before this line is more quiet and lonely, the tone after this line sounds more exciting. Then, he starts to talk about what he feels when he sees the birds, “There wings” here indicates the birds, and the birds is a metaphor that represents the inspiration in author’s life. “ young” and “trying” here allude to author himself, the author is trying to say that he is still young and he should still carry hope in his own darkness just like the birds. Right after that, he sees the woman, “ Between trees, a slender woman lifts up the lovely shadow of her face,” (7-8) the author uses “ slender” and “lovely” these two words to describe the “woman” which we can tell how excited the author is to see someone else show up in this lonely and dark field. This part might also allude to the author’s love or hope of his life. The author then uses “ and now she steps into the air, now she is gone/ Wholly, into the air.” (8-9) to finish the twist or climax of the poem, then again the tone turns into peaceful but more lonely. In this line, has a repetition of “O” sound, so it is an assonance, and the “O” sounds has a hallow feelings which express that the author is really sentimental when the women is gone. In the line 8-9, there is a repetition of “she”, it
There is also a sense of acuteness as the words in this stanza are short and sharp, and the lines clash and seem to contrast greatly. " Whispering by the shore" shows that water is a symbol of continuity as it occurs in a natural cycle, but the whispering could also be the sound of the sea as it travels up the shore. The end of this section makes me feel as if he is trying to preserve something with the "river mud" and "glazing the baked clay floor. " The fourth section, which includes four stanzas of three lines, whereas the third section included four-line stanzas and the second section included two-line stanzas, shows continuity once again, as if it's portraying the water's movement. "Moyola" is once again repeated, and "music" is also present, with "its own score and consort" being musical terms and giving the effect of harmony.
For the most part of the poem she states how she believes that it is Gods calling, [Then ta’en away unto eternity] but in other parts of the poem she eludes to the fact that she feels more like her granddaughter was stolen from her [or sigh thy days so soon were terminate]. One of the main beliefs in these times was that when someone died it was their time; God needed them and had a better plan. Both poets found peace in the idea that God had the children now and it was part of the plan, but are also deeply saddened and used poetry as a coping mechanism.
In the beginning of the poem, the lines that stood out to me were the one’s about the firefly turning into a bear. Then how the bear attacks her so she plays dead hoping the bear leaves her alone. Those are the dark days she says and I know that she is speaking the truth, for my depression is the exact same way.
The poem begins with the refrain, "Ah, look at all the lonely people." The same refrain is used to end the poem, making a complete circle. This creates, for the reader, a sense of loneliness about the poem as a whole. In the second stanza, Eleanor is introduced as a woman who cannot face the world as her self. She wears the “face that she keeps in a jar by the door.'; Literally this can be interpreted as makeup, but symbolically she is hiding her self.
First, the theme of the poem is the narrator’s coming of age and dreams. Based in lines nine through twelve it states,” […] I’d planned to inherit that blanket, how we used to wrap ourselves at play in its folds and be chieftains and princesses.” This statement examples the coming of age in the theme because the narrator is discussing that she will soon be at the age where she will be passed the blanket and then reminisces on her and her sister’s adolescents playing with the blanket. Also, in lines thirty-six through forty-three it states,” Perhaps under this quilt I’d dream of myself, of my childhood miracles […] Within the dream of myself perhaps I’d meet my son oy my other child, as yet unconceived.” These lines show the theme of dreams because when she is under this quilt, she wants to be able to dream of her childhood memories and dream of her future and want it holds just as her Meema dreamed under her blanket.
The author then turns into his second argument or tactic of urging that is less “genteel”(Evans) and “more graphic”(Evans), as he seems to become increasingly desperate. In the second stanza he is using fear, almost threatening her, as he portrays what would happen if they allowed time to run out. He warns “her beauty shall no more be found” and alludes to her dying a virgin. Certain necessity arises as he begins to relate death, ashes and worms to his loss of lust and time.
This is told to the audience through a poetic technique which is metaphor, like the other phrases exploring the idea of possibility found in the first and second stanza.The phrase “I’ve heard it in the chillest land - / and on the strongest sea” is the metaphor found in the third stanza. This metaphorical phrase is talking about hope and possibility at the same time. You can’t actually hear hope, but this metaphor is telling the audience that hope can happen in the “chillest land” and on the “strongest sea”. The “chillest land” and “strongest sea” if modernised, symbolises extreme adversity. Emily Dickinson, the poet, is telling the audience that a person going through extreme adversity can still find hope, a person going through extreme adversity can still find possibility that things will get better for them. This is what possibility can do, it can give people hope, people who may be going through tough circumstances. Possibility is capable of bringing hope to those stuck in a sticky situation, the audience is informed by that in a phrase with a deep meaning located in the third
The first sentence is interesting because it reminds me of when a very cold blast of air is blowing at you and usually people turn away from the wind but this shows the person turning towards the cold blasting air. I would guess that the second line represents day being happiness and night being well darkness, so it shows happiness at darknesses knees. But then the next line the sun, the center of light, so bright that there's no darkness but the sun does leave scars and the scars carved so they'll never go away. When I think of a single tree on a hill I think of loneliness the moon only