Both “Requiem” by Anna Akhmatova and “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen” by Tadeuz Borowski, paint a picture of absolute terror and disparity during specific times in history; however, the two couldn’t be more different in terms of perspective and language used. In “Requiem”, Akhmatova’s words show that she is grounded, accepting, and sure of her predicament; yet she uses poetic language and descriptive imagery, giving her story a fantastical hue. Borowski however, uses a more straight forward approach in his story telling. That’s not to say that the language he uses isn’t beautiful, but it’s not lyrical or stylish. Yet, Borowski’s main character at one point questions his reality, making the two texts opposites in a multitude of ways. There’s no mistaking Akhmatova’s acceptance of the nightmare she lived throughout “Requiem”. She writes “No, not under the vault of alien skies, And not under the shelter of alien wings—I was with my people then, There, where my people, unfortunately were” (Akhmatova 568). The speaker, here, clues us in to the very real horrors her and …show more content…
The ordeal she has been facing has wiped away any trace of humanity, but to regain the sense of who she is she must “kill” the emotions and memories and says as much in the following lines; “And I’ve finally realized That I must give in, Overhearing myself Raving as if it were somebody else” (572). By the end of the poem, Akhmatova realizes a sense of community in their (hers and her people’s) shared suffering and she writes, “And I pray not for myself alone, But for all those who stood there with me In cruel cold, and in July’s heat, At that blind, red wall” (574). Yet for all her acceptance of the truth of the world around her, Akhmatova has a hard time describing it plainly; rather, the world she describes sounds like something that would only happen in her
This is shown through the tone changing from being disappointed and critical to acceptance and appreciative. The speaker’s friend, who after listening to the speaker’s complaints, says that it seems like she was “a child who had been wanted” (line 12). This statement resonates with the speaker and slowly begins to change her thinking. This is apparent from the following line where the speaker states that “I took the wine against my lips as if my mouth were moving along that valved wall in my mother's body” (line 13 to line 15). The speaker is imagining her mother’s experience while creating her and giving birth to her. In the next several lines the speakers describe what she sees. She expresses that she can see her mother as “she was bearing down, and then breathing from the mask, and then bearing down, pressing me out into the world” (line 15 to line 18). The speaker can finally understand that to her mother the world and life she currently lived weren't enough for her. The imagery in the final lines of this poem list all the things that weren’t enough for the mother. They express that “the moon, the sun, Orion cartwheeling across the dark, not the earth, the sea” (line 19 to 21) none of those things matter to the mother. The only thing that matter was giving birth and having her child. Only then will she be satisfied with her life and
The confronting theme of life is shown through poetic techniques in the poems, Pieta and November. The cycle of life is shown through Pietà and November in two different ways. The child’s life is unfortunately cut short as it, ‘only [lives] one day.’ Whilst in November, the subject of the poem is about a Grandmother who is at the end of the cycle of life. This is unlike the baby in Pietà who is not able to live, or have a chance of living a long life. This may cause the audience to ponder about the purpose of life. Armitage uses consonantal alliteration and visual imagery, in ‘sun spangles,’ to symbolise that, ‘the only thing you can get, out of this life,’ is the beautiful happy moments. This logic is true for many non-believers as the purpose of life is unknown to them and the only positive reason for life is by creating happy memories.In November,the last moments of life are shown through the enjambment and flow. The audience is involved with the journey of bringing the woman to the hospital as if you are, ‘with your grandma taking four short steps to [your] two.’ This is effective as the audience can put themselves in the place of the narrator in the story.This is unlike Pieta which is written in past tense and is not able to put themselves in the place of mother but the audience is more sympathetic towards the mother and her loss of her child.
The author tells us that there is no telling the story of something without knowing the inside. Stories on the outside may not indeed be the reality that is within. The tone and imagery of this poem had a great importance in sending this message to her readers. The glory and doom of this woman would not be able to obtain without its intimate tones ranging from flaunting to embarrassment depiction's of this woman's melancholy. Her glory rose and fell as shortly as her inner spirit did.
The poem's speaker mistreated,gloomy and being isolated. She is a person who loss and assimilation if not loose your self. “That this
In Budge Wilson’s, “Lyssanda’s Poem,” adversity is always present in Lyssandra’s life, which changes her spirit from happy and confident to cold and distant.
The speaker begins the poem an ethereal tone masking the violent nature of her subject matter. The poem is set in the Elysian Fields, a paradise where the souls of the heroic and virtuous were sent (cite). Through her use of the words “dreamed”, “sweet women”, “blossoms” and
The self- examination part of her religion part comes into play because this poem was very long and confusing; much like how I believed her life was. She had rheumatic fever and through out her life she suffered from periods of fatigue and faced death eight times by giving birth to eight children. I think that she wrote the poem to represent her life she felt that her life was very long and drawn out. She also saw that there were a l...
The intimate encounter with death brings her depth of erroneous to the sanity realm. On the contrary of “First Fight, The Fiddle” where life is celebrated and cherished, despite all calamities transpired in life. No matter how hard the life could get, to any individual, any race, any society, life will prevail as always. Even in the most violent times, when hope has strayed, the will to survive
Using form, Wislawa Syzmborska conveys the message through a serious of parallelism, stanzas, and lines in her unconventional poem. Examples of parallelism are found in the 2nd and 3rd stanza where the poet is emphasizing “because” and “luckily” to show the reader that because of these situations the victim survived and that the victim was extremely lucky to have all these materials provided to hide and protect the victim which adds to the message. The poem begins with a breathless response to some disaster, as if the speaker is processing as we listen. Therefore, the mood is rushed and fast paced. The parallelism keeps the poem moving and at a quicker pace while sustaining the mood. The poem itself is in an unconventional form. With the different lined stanzas and different line lengths, she uses them to represent different situations and with the different situations and circumstances, it comes out to be successful, into a meaningful poem, which correlates to the whole message. With the different turns the victim took by chance, that person survived. Form is used, in this poem, to gather together ideas and unify the poem.
Akhmatova then alludes to an actual verse in the gospels by depicting Jesus as saying “Why hast thou forsaken me!” to describe how many people were feeling during Stalinist Russia (Requiem 171). The Russian people felt abandoned in life since religion was banned. This suppression of religion made it more difficult to cope with the misery that they were encountering since they had no hope for the future. Moreover, repetition of the phrase “weep not for me” is used to emphasize that Akhmatova had hope that her son would’ve been able to survive working in the gulag. Crucifixion later alludes to Mary Magdalene with the quote “Magdalena smote herself and wept” (Requiem 174). Magdalene was one Jesus’ most zealous followers and stayed with him until his crucifixion (Carroll 2). Her reaction to the death of Jesus is a metaphor as to how the Russian people often felt after the death of their loved ones in that they felt hopeless and suicidal. Jesus’ mother, who was deeply impacted by her son’s death, is introduced by saying “but there, where the mother stood silent, not one person dared to look” (Requiem 176-177).
of the difficulty in acceptance. In the first few stanzas the poet creates the impression that she
Szymborska is fighting against the idea of Death having power over humanity by providing reasons not to let Death win, such as, laughing at the banality of Death. It isn’t something to be feared or revered. Szymborska points out all of Death’s misses, then she points out the beautiful things in life that thumbs its nose at Death. In the final lines of the poem, Szymborska writes, “As far as you’ve come / can’t be undone” (47-48). Although, Death means life has come to an end, life’s journeys and memories can never be erased; they will always be remembered. Ultimately, Death is meaningless in life and humanity has the advantage on Death. Life will always be more powerful than
The poem says that "since feeling is first" (line 1) the one who pays attention to the meaning of things will never truly embrace. The poem states that it is better to be a fool, or to live by emotions while one is young. The narrator declares that his "blood approves" (line 7) showing that his heart approves of living by feeling, and that the fate of feeling enjoyment is better than one of "wisdom" (line 9) or learning. He tells his "lady" (line 10) not to cry, showing that he is speaking to her. He believes that she can make him feel better than anything he could think of, because her "eyelids" (line 12) say that they are "for each other" (line 13). Then, after all she's said and thought, his "lady" forgets the seriousness of thought and leans into the narrator's arms because life is not a "paragraph" (line 15), meaning that life is brief. The last line in the poem is a statement which means that death is no small thi...
The poet is almost pleading with himself to contain his anger and not to lash out in the line “Oh, I must search for wisdom every hour”. He needs to find the smart way to approach this hatred without violence. He emphasizes the physical pain this oppression is causing him “passion rends my vitals”. He feels his heart and organs are being torn apart by his anger. He also uses the words “sore” and “raw” to emphasize that the constant battle for equality is leaving him bruised, showing us the pain and suffering that is consuming him
... her true feelings with her sister, or talking to her husband or reaching out to other sources of help to address her marital repressed life, she would not have to dread living with her husband. “It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 262). Her meaning for life would not have to mean death to her husband. In conclusion, her lack of self assertion, courage and strong will to address her repressed life made her look at life and death in a different perspective. When in fact there is no need to die to experience liberation while she could have lived a full life to experience it with her husband by her side.