Let me start out this essay by saying: I hate this poem. Never, in my entire life, has a poem made me so angry, so frustrated, so The Ramones-esque. E. E. Cummings usually has a soothing effect on my soul, one which reminds me of the bitter way love can sting or how longing can make a man complete. Naturally, after fruitlessly searching through inappropriate Bukowski poems and skimming through Kerouac, Cummings seemed fit to suit my needs of a poem that “speaks to me.” Thus came “ygUDuh.” I couldn’t understand “ygUDuh” at first; the words were so completely foreign I had to watch a YouTube reading. After already aggravated by the strangeness of the poem, my anger grew as I read it over and over and finally understood it’s meaning. E. E. Cummings’s “ygUDuh” portrays bigotry in an ironic and infuriating way that intrigued me enough to do an essay. Possibly the prominent feature of “ygUDuh” is the dialect Cummings has written in. The poem is meant to be read in a New York accent, more specifically, a drunk New York accent. Cummings …show more content…
As they shout at each other about knowing and not understanding, they ignore the obvious fact they are lacking knowledge and understanding of the Japanese. In many ways, this poem can be related to 21st-century bigotry where people create an image of an enemy in their minds and refuse to let it change under any circumstance. It was in this way my heart hurt for the speakers of the poem who were hurt seeing their brothers and fathers and sons dying in a war and in need of someone to blame. In the very middle when one of the speakers shouts through the arguing shouting, “LISTEN, bud, LISTEN,” they forcefully state a solution: the Japanese must be “civilized.” Again, the same thing happens today. For example, those around the world have been hurt by Isis and prominent leader Donald Trump reasons above the arguing we ban all
Poetry is a very subjective art it is up to the authors to determine how they want to convey their message to the readers. Both Ezra Pound’s poem “In the Station Metro” and Emma LaRocque’s poem “The Red in Winter” use imagery, that is very subjective to interpretation, to convey their message in an economic manner. Pound’s artistic imagist poem shows that art isn’t just visual but it can also be portrayed through words alone; and that imagery is a powerful aspect of poetry. LaRaque’s however is focused on how images can portray political issues among differing cultures.
Poetry has a way of making us feel every range of emotion, in some cases better than other forms of entertainment. Unlike a novel, which gives a wide field of vision on any subject, poems have a more focused look mostly on the raw emotion of any one topic. Understanding poetry is an art onto itself, to be able to peel back the words and feel the emotions within them is truly its own work. Harder yet is the ability to dissect and explain these ideas to another person (in this case through an essay)and have them feel and see the poem and the topic it brings to light in the same way that you do. The poem that we will explore is powerful and thought provoking, because it brings the ugly subject of oppression to the front of your mind and forces you to engage in a conversation that you have no control over. It makes you feel hopeless and angry at the same time. In the poem Unwanted by Edward Field we are going to explore the parts of the poem but mainly we will
Sociologists often employ intersectionality theory to describe and explain facets of human interactions. This particular methodology operates on the notion that sociologically defining characteristics, such as that of race, gender, and class, are not independent of one another but function simultaneously to determine our individual social experiences. This is evident in poetry as well. The combination of one poet’s work that expresses issues on class with another poet’s work that voices issues on race, and so forth, can be analyzed through a literary lens, and collectively embody the sociological intersectionality theory.
Reading these poems is an incredible learning experience because it allows readers to view segregation through the eyes of someone most affected by it. In the U.S. History course I took I didn’t take away the details and specific examples I did from reading and researching Brooks’ work. For example, the history textbook only mentioned one specific person who was affected by segregation, that person was Rosa Parks. The example of Rosa Parks demonstrated just one isolated incident of how black people were punished if they disobeyed the laws of segregation. In contrast, Brooks’ work demonstrates the everyday lives of black people living with segregation, which provides a much different perspective than what people are used to. An example, of this would be in Brooks’ poem “Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat”. The speaker of this poem hired a black maid and referred to her as “it”(103). By not using the maid’s name or using the pronoun her, the speaker is dehumanizing the maid. This poem expresses to readers that white people thought that black people weren’t like them, that they weren’t even
A few cases in which this poem is particularly relevant in today’s society, apart from just the general hipster culture, is the fact that in many ways we’re faced with similar issues of social oppression of certain sects of the population, homophobia, discord amongst different cultures and excessive consumerism – all these being matters than Ginsberg felt strongly about and sought to fight against.
...in fact, seem insanely chaotic. Our mindless support of self-centred political systems, of abuse of fellow human beings of different nationalities - it may well have appeared quite insane to him. The poem, therefore, delivers a strong message of warning: we must develop a stronger awareness, a care of what is happening, lest we, the collective we - humanity, the 'Idiot', are left in the ruins of our effort, alone, forever.
Oppression, a poem by Jimmy Baca, is a vivid display of the illusory power of oppression and what it does to one’s stance of life. In the first stanza, the poet refers to oppression as inflicting continuous pain to someone, such that he would feel that he were being continuously “trampled over”. This clearly indicates that the poet feels oppression is an external action which is recurring and painful to one. In addition, he says that oppression is dependent on a crucial factor: strength. One can infer that imbalance of strength leads to oppression, and thus the oppressed has no power against the oppressor. He also indicates that he believes an oppressor tends to be emotionless, and therefore sheds no tears, as the author describes. Concluding
In her poem entitled “The Poet with His Face in His Hands,” Mary Oliver utilizes the voice of her work’s speaker to dismiss and belittle those poets who focus on their own misery in their writings. Although the poem models itself a scolding, Oliver wrote the work as a poem with the purpose of delivering an argument against the usage of depressing, personal subject matters for poetry. Oliver’s intention is to dissuade her fellow poets from promoting misery and personal mistakes in their works, and she accomplishes this task through her speaker’s diction and tone, the imagery, setting, and mood created within the content of the poem itself, and the incorporation of such persuasive structures as enjambment and juxtaposition to bolster the poem’s
“Power” is an outcry at what is going on and has been going on with the African American peoples throughout the last four-hundred years: “they had dragged her 4´10´´ black woman’s frame/over the hot coals of four centuries of white male approval” (35,36). The lack of rhyme scheme is the vent of the outrage of the speaker. When we are mad (as mad as this speaker is), things become jumbled. We do not think in a normal way. Things that are usually normal are not so normal. The speaker is only consumed by the anger built up inside of it, and we see that by some of the things that it says, and by the overall construction of its poem. The difference of the structures of the stanzas is another thing that denotes this `action´ of anger, and the thought that the speaker is consumed by its anger and showing it. The speaker, in its state of anger, is not thinking of how many lines it is putting into each stanza. The poem is also thought about , but the words are spilling out of the speaker’s mouth in an anger ridden breakdown.
The popular American Poet, Billy Collins, is playing a significant role in the evolution of poetry. His writing style evokes an array of emotions for the reader. Every stanza in his poetry passes the satirical standard that he generated for himself over his career. Collins swiftly captivates his readers through his diverse use of figurative language. More specifically, his use of vivid imagery paired with humorous personification and extended metaphors create his unique style of satirical poetry. This developed form of writing appeals to a large crowd of people because the generally accessible topics that he discusses are fairly easy to resonate for the common man. However, his poetry offers an interesting perspective on what otherwise would be simplistic ideas. The main themes and concepts that are being presented in each of his writings are revered and coveted by the general population. An appealing aspect of his writing is his ability to directly convey the main idea within the poem. As a result, the reader can understand the meaning of his work with ease. The typical beginning of his work gives the reader a slight taste of what is to come. Billy Collins’ unique writing style and various trademarks directly influenced by his ability to propagate an array of emotions for the reader, his humorous tone, and the accessibility of the topics he describes within his poetry.
Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.
... him due to our own biases. Instead, we should contribute more time and effort to observe carefully before judging someone. Moreover, it also applies to the secondary school’s education system that students only learn through repeatedly memorizing by heart, without thorough understanding. In fact, this poem sheds some light on how we see things; thus, interpret things, introducing the importance of experience.” (Yau)
...ites a short 33-line poem that simply shows the barriers between races in the time period when racism was still openly practiced through segregation and discrimination. The poem captures the African American tenant’s frustrations towards the landlord as well as the racism shown by the landlord. The poem is a great illustration of the time period, and it shows how relevant discrimination was in everyday life in the nineteen-forties. It is important for the author to use the selected literary devices to help better illustrate his point. Each literary device in the poem helps exemplify the author’s intent: to increase awareness of the racism in the society in the time period.
Whether the reader sees the satire or not depends on the reader themselves. Those who see this poem may not realize they're guilty of believing that the love and patience in stanza one exists. The presentation of this argument works because it seems sweet at first glance, logical when looked at again, and satirical when looked at against the views of the society.
We want “poem that kill”. Here Baraka is using Synecdoche a figurative form to refer to human (black) “stinking whores” he want the reader to know that poem become a powerful and important object so he can use to teach a lesson to the enemy. Moreover, here he writes about his wish to have “poems that wrestle cops into alleys/ /and take their weapons, leaving them dead with tongues pulled out and sent to Ireland”. Author wishes they could undo the role of power so African- Americans take control over the white and black and those from the other side of the world can return to their country where they belong so we can have some kind of peace right here. If only they can reverse that power, it would be a much easier for us. In addition, it sounds like an imaginary fiction of the African-Americans uprising. Baraka says “Knockoff poems for dope selling wops or slick half white//politicians Airplane poems, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….tuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuh rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr… Setting fire and death to whities ass”. Right there the author is referring to enemy as whities that letting them know black people do care, by using weak syllable follow by a strong syllable that is the way Amiri is using an imaginary gun to kill his enemy. He is also telling the white audience, I dare you to try to comprehend it. He used the words as gun to shoot somebody or the enemy. Well words can be hurtful when you take into