In the poem “May” written by Bruce Weigl, the speaker has a sick, suffering dog named May. The speaker is taking May to the veterinarian to be put to sleep. The speaker is sad, but does not want May to suffer anymore. He/she lies into the May’s ear with comforting words as the veterinarian puts her to sleep, ending the pain and suffering.
The overall tone of the poem is somber. Weigl uses themes such as sadness and guilt to express the emotions of the May’s owner and the veterinarian. Weigl writes, “I cleaved to that smell / and lied into her ear / that it would be alright” (19-21). The speaker feels guilty because he/she is lying to the dog. The veterinarian was also sad about putting May down, “The veterinarian, whom I’d fought / about when
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Weigl uses the sense of sight to show the reader how sick May is, “she did not raise her eyes to meet me when I came in” (6); “about the size of her tumor and her age” (10); “and then the nurse shaved May’s skinny leg” (14). Typically, when a dog’s owner comes into the room, the dog would be excited and run to greet their owner. May is so sick and in so much pain, that she does not even lift her head to look at her owner when he/she came into the room. Weigl mentions the size of May’s tumor and how skinny her leg is and that gives the reader a visual picture of May’s suffering.
Weigl utilizes the sense of touching or feeling to convey to the reader the somber mood of the poem, “Shivering on the chrome table” (5); “she passed the needle to the doctor” (16); “only the weight of her in my arms” (28). When the reader reads these lines in the poem, they can feel what the characters feel. They can imagine May laying on the cold, chrome table shivering. They can imagine the nurse passing the needle to the doctor that ends May’s suffering. They can imagine May’s limp body in the arms of her owner once all the pain has left her
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May’s owner knew that she was suffering, “she did not raise her eyes to me when I came in” (6); “There were a few more words / about the size of her tumor and her age” (9-10). By putting May down, the speaker also suffered in return; he/she lost their dog. It was tough for the speaker to put May down. However, the speaker knew that May was suffering and wanted to bring an end to it, even if it meant that he/she had to suffer in return, “that it would only take a few minutes / as if that were not a long time” (25-26); “only the weight of her in my arms / and then on the world” (28-29). To the owner, those couple of minutes probably did not seem short, it probably seemed like a
Henry was an extremely lonely nine-year-old boy whose greatest wish was to get a dog. His parents were busy with their work most of the time and it seemed that Henry did not have any friends, perhaps because they moved so often. A dog would have provided Henry with unconditional love - something in short supply around his house - and would have been the perfect companion. The problem was, his parents did not want dog, which would have been another obligation and something else to take care of. As emotionally detached as his parents were, something else to take care of was just not desirable.
The speaker continues to take on the role of beggar as she imagines the Hound “sometimes – at your side to run”, but only “When you were willing” (11-12). Again, she is implying that the poem’s subject holds the power. The speaker does not want to irritate and exert her own sense of empowerment, so will only act when or if the subject is willing. The final lines bring the poem to a close by asking, “May it come – Tell Carlo – He’ll tell me!” (13-14). Carlo was the name of Emily Dickinson’s Newfoundland dog, which lived from 1850 to 1865 and was a gift from her father. The moniker Dickinson bestowed upon the dog was an allusion to St John River’s dog in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. (Lexicon). The speaker is suggesting that, perhaps, her dog might serve as an emissary between the she and the subject of the poem. This is an abrupt change in tone and may be a light-hearted acknowledgment of the juvenile outlook that the speaker has toward her beloved. Since she has yet to fully develop a stable sense of self, this contributes to the speaker’s underlying fear of
...om her mother and transported to a pet store where she was locked in a cage until she was purchased by my friend Hailey. I want you to think about her excitement to have a home and Hailey’s excitement to have a new pet to love. Now I want you to think about Hailey receiving the devastating news that her puppy had to be euthanized and Daisy’s fear as she was taken from her owner’s hands and put to death.
“Golden Retrievals” also can be seen as golden retriever, which is most likely the breed of the speaker; asks the reader to live life in the moment. Doty describes through images, slant rhymes, rhythm, and organization to enforce the tension of the poem between the speaker and the human. The tension of the poem lies in the merry tone of the personified dog, which lightens the morbid context, but it’s also seriously discusses grief through the humans sentimental
“The Pardon” is about a little boy (the persona) whose dog dies when the boy is ten years old. The dead dog was ignored by the boy for five days, and the boy feels guilty about that. This guilt follows the boy as he grows up, and in the poem, he confesses he still has nightmares about that sad time in his life. These nightmares cause the persona to become afraid and cry for his old dog.
Mays, Kelly J. ""Puppy"" The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Frost begins the poem by describing a young boy cutting some wood using a "buzz-saw." The setting is Vermont and the time is late afternoon. The sun is setting and the boy's sister calls he and the other workers to come for "Supper." As the boy hears its dinnertime, he gets excited and cuts his hand on accident. Immediately realizing that the doctor might amputate his hand, he asks his sister to make sure that it does not happen. By the time the doctor arrives, it is too late and the boy's hand is already lost. When the doctor gives him anaesthetic, he falls asleep and never wakes up again. The last sentence of the poem, "since they (the boys family and the doctor) were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" shows how although the boys death is tragic, people move on with their life in a way conveying the idea that people only care for themselves.
In his narrative poem, Frost starts a tense conversation between the man and the wife whose first child had died recently. Not only is there dissonance between the couple,but also a major communication conflict between the husband and the wife. As the poem opens, the wife is standing at the top of a staircase looking at her child’s grave through the window. Her husband is at the bottom of the stairs (“He saw her from the bottom of the stairs” l.1), and he does not understand what she is looking at or why she has suddenly become so distressed. The wife resents her husband’s obliviousness and attempts to leave the house. The husband begs her to stay and talk to him about what she feels. Husband does not understand why the wife is angry with him for manifesting his grief in a different way. Inconsolable, the wife lashes out at him, convinced of his indifference toward their dead child. The husband accepts her anger, but the separation between them remains. The wife leaves the house as husband angrily threatens to drag her back by force.
A magnificent creature that just want to feel simple things like freedom, be social, a caress. In this poem I can appreciate the suffering of a creature in captivity whose desire is to experience such elementary things as being the companion of a human and give his love, feeling a touch, a little affection and attention; things that should not be denied to any living creature. This poem is a desperate cry for freedom and what for me are the basic rights of any household animals, such as dogs. Once again I will use some of my work during this course to better explain the feelings of this animal in captivity that only wanted to feel
The poem, “After Great Pain”, by Emily Dickinson, is one that conveys an inner struggle of emotion and the process that a person goes through after experiencing suffering or pain. Through this poem, Dickinson utilizes physical reactions to allude to the emotional pain that can make people feel numb and empty. Included in this poem is an array of literary devices, such as oxymorons, similes, and personification. These devices help show how death and grief can be confronted, whether it be by giving into the pain or by regaining emotional strength, letting go, and moving on with life. As we work on the project, we discuss multiple aspects of the poem and how the structure and diction alludes the meaning of the poem.
I found that throughout this poem there was much symbolism within it. Identifying that it was written in first person form showed that this poem relates to the author on a personal basis, and that it was probably written to symbolize his life. But when talking about people’s lives, you can conclude that people’s lives are generally and individually very diffe...
... was meant to serve as insight as to how Brooks used the tone to create a mood that was inconsistent with an overlying theme of self-pity. She has a way with words, and I feel that this ballad is very representative of her skill as a writer.
Not too long ago, Ms. Morris’s beloved dog, Hattie, had 5 puppies. Everyone in town thought the puppies were boring and ugly. Their eyes were closed, made a little movement, and didn’t make any noise. Nobody thought the dogs were cute, and nobody wanted them.
Hughes’ systematic hawk makes Doty’s golden retrieval seem very much lost and distracted as each day passes. The hawk would like nothing more than to fly alone and dictate the universe, whereas the dog simply travels with his master as nothing more than a companion. The hawk recognizes the world around him with a callous superciliousness and deliberate approach for the future while the dog lives in the present and concentrates on the small, but valuable things in life. Both animals live their lives differently and individually as humans do. The utilization of an animal’s point of view is accomplished completely in both poems as the poets connect the animals’ thought processes to that of the human race.
“Now suppose you had a little colt, and you were your own mother to that little colt… And all of the sudden that same little colt went and died… You’d be sorry, wouldn’t you?” When dealing with death, an individual is encompassed with all kinds of feelings and emotions. Depression, denial, and guilt are all the components of mourning through death. This quote, relates to the thought that everything one experiences is associated with their environment. Iona and the mare experience two different environments. For Iona, it’s adjusting to a life without his son. The little mare lives a life away from the farms in a gloomy city. Iona places the little mare in a similar scenario he’s in, as if she can respond. Although she can’t, the horse’s compassion is visible once again. “The little mare munches, listens, and breathers on her master’s hands.” The healing power of the mare was the key to easing Iona’s suffering. When Iona couldn’t find a sense of closure through the communication with human beings he finally opens his eyes to realize the one listener he had, was his little white mare. He pours his sorrows out to her and not only did she show compassion by hearing his every word, she physically comforts him. The little breath on his hand represents the transfer of warmth from the mare to Iona on a cold winter day. Even though she’s restricted to what she can do, at the end