Bob Dylan became the first ever musician to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in October 2016. Fifty-four years earlier, he wrote his first album to catch the public’s eye, titled. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. In this album, Dylan includes one of most notorious songs, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” This track is rich with strong imagery, creative with structure, and includes well-placed repetition. There are many components to Dylan’s writing that helps make this song a strong literary piece.
The first thing that Bob Dylan does very well in this song is using imagery. With only 9-15 syllables to use per each line, Dylan is forced to use very strong diction to create imagery within his listeners’ minds. Some of the phrases with the strongest
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He starts with the action word. Then, he chooses a subject. Finally, he describes something about the subject. Keeping this pattern relatively the same until the last stanza of the song, Dylan allows the listener to learn the pattern and then apply it to their own imagination as the song develops. He creates a structure for the mind to be creative and wander, and leaves it up to the listener to create whatever they may choose.
The next thing Bob Dylan does well is using structure creatively. The song consists of five stanzas in total. All the stanzas start off probing questions to presumably his two children, one boy, and one girl. This consistency helps create the story and structure for Dylan, as well as clearly dividing his different stanzas in the song. Now that he has clearly divided the stanzas, he makes the first-fourth stanzas very similar and only the last stanza to be of difference. The first-fourth stanza includes past descriptions of Dylan’s life, including:
(1) Where he has been
(2) What he has seen
(3) What he has
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The fifth stanza seems to serve as the next step in Dylan’s life, as he hopes his children will learn from his past and what he plans to do in his future. On a side note, Dylan also provides another interesting insight into the first-fourth stanza to serve to his children. His lesson is that places and sights can easily be lied about, whereas sounds and people are much more fruitful and wholesome. In the first two stanzas, many of Dylan’s claims are outlandish and foolish, such as, “I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,” and, “I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it.” However, the third and fourth stanza provide some more believable and analogy-like descriptions such as, “I heard the sound of a thunder that roared out a warnin’,” and, “I met a young child besides a dead pony.” Although there is not a obvious distinction between the first-second stanza and the third-fourth stanza, there is enough distinction to suggest that Dylan doesn’t trust places and sights as much as he trusts sounds and a person’s
The informal language and intimacy of the poem are two techniques the poet uses to convey his message to his audience. He speaks openly and simply, as if he is talking to a close friend. The language is full of slang, two-word sentences, and rambling thoughts; all of which are aspects of conversations between two people who know each other well. The fact that none of the lines ryhme adds to the idea of an ordinary conversation, because most people do not speak in verse. The tone of the poem is rambling and gives the impression that the speaker is thinking and jumping from one thought to the next very quickly.
E: In the line “I am, you are, we are Australian” (stanza 4,8,9 & 10) repetition is used to create a metaphor which highlights the song’s central message - no matter your background, all Australians work together to make Australia great. This can be seen as an expression of cultural inclusion. E: “The rivers when they run” (stanza 7) is an excellent example of personification and alliteration. The poet used this clever image to describe areas of Australia that are usually in drought, but in flood times they flow wildly and dangerously.
Dylan Thomas wrote the poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” It is about a son’s plea to his father who is approaching death. Two lines are repeated in the poem and addressed directly to the father. These lines structure the first stanza and collaborate as a couplet in the last. They are repeated a lot but each time, they have different meanings: statements, pleas, commands, or petitions. Repetition and rhyme scheme are parts of prosody in poetry. The rhyme scheme is built on two rhymes and forms of a pattern. The two rhymes are night and day and the pattern is aba, and in the last stanza, abaa. Even though the poem seems to have too much repetition, the fascinating imagery is more important and readers pay more attention to that instead.
The poet begins by describing the scene to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and elaborates on how the sky and the ground work in harmony. This is almost a story like layout with a beginning a complication and an ending. Thus the poem has a story like feel to it. At first it may not be clear why the poem is broken up into three- five line stanzas. The poet deliberately used this line stanzas as the most appropriate way to separate scenes and emotions to create a story like format.
When first reading, the reader is met with a dedication before the story begins, “To Bob Dylan.” Though it seems like a silly dedication by a simple fan of his work, it is actually apparent once reading the story that the influence of Bob Dylan added an extra layer. Joyce Carol Oates in an interview with the Wall Street Journal said, “The beauty of the song is that you can never quite comprehend it. His character serves as a reminder that as humans reality is inevitable no matter how much we attempt to deny it.
Today, the most difficult day in my family’s life, we gather to say farewell to our son, brother, fiancé and friend. To those of you here and elsewhere who know Dylan you already are aware of the type of person he was and these words you will hear are already in your memory. To those who were not as fortunate, these words will give you a sense of the type of man he was and as an ideal for which we should strive. My son has been often described as a gentle soul. He was pure of heart and had great sensitivity for the world around him. He had a way with people that made them feel comfortable around him and infected others to gravitate toward him. Dylan exuded kindness and pulled generosity and altruism out from everyone he touched. He was everyone's best friend.
The title has one line, representing the son’s age as one and the first stanza has two lines, representing the son’s age as two – this continues until stanza five when the child is five. At the age of five, the son “waits in [his father’s] lap” (3) and awaits a new story; this is when the father realizes that he is unable to come up with a new story and begins to fear his son’s disappointment. The following stanza has four lines, representing how the father wishes to go back to a time where he was able to entertain the son with the “alligator story” or the “angel story” (13) without the sons desire for something new. The final stanza has five lines, this is because it is the reality which the father has to face because his son will not ‘become younger’ or interested again in the stories that he has heard before. The structure of the poem expresses the complexity of the internal struggle of the father to fill his son’s desire as he reaches an age in which stories that he has already heard do not entertain him through the purposefully structured stanzas that represent the son’s growth along with the father’s wish to go back rather than
Although this section is the easiest to read, it sets up the action and requires the most "reading between the lines" to follow along with the quick and meaningful happenings. Millay begins her poem by describing, in first person, the limitations of her world as a child. She links herself to these nature images and wonders about what the world is like beyond the islands and mountains. The initial language and writing style hint at a child-like theme used in this section. This device invites the reader to sit back and enjoy the poem without the pressure to understand complex words and structure.
he stands as a legend. But he knows there is more to it than just
Music has been around since the very beginning of time. The human body flows in a rhythmic syncopation. Music is used to change one’s mood and to inspire those who open their minds. It has the potential to cure diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. Humans, of every culture and society, function with a type of rhythmic music. As humans, we are hard wired to respond to music (Mannes). The human brain responds to music in such a way that the brain becomes more open to new rhythms, ideas, and values. Music has the power to take over the human body. This makes it easier to overcome conflict and change the ideals of somebody while using music (The Power of Music).
Along with the imagery we get from the title, there is a lot of imagery within this poem. Let us start with the first three lines:
The third stanza is a second and different refrain. This refrain occurs in every other stanza. It acts as a divider between the stanzas dealing with a specific character. In the fourth stanza, Father McKenzie is introduced to the reader. He is described as a materialistic man whose life has no meaning.
Trodden with the cattle’s feet” which would be one of the worst things to happen in the world to anything and yet this Clod of Clay manages to find the best out of his life under cow’s feet. Considering this the first stanza sort of gives you a summary of what is going to be told about the Clod of Clay. Just explaining what William Blake said in the first stanza is that love doesn’...
Dylan Thomas was born in 1914 of intellectual parents both being literature professors. Long before he could read, his father would recite poetry from classic authors. Many of his poems can be traced to the illustrated style of D.H Lawrence. The imagery he provides of disparity and death in many of his poems. In the span of Dylan’s life, he witnessed both Great Wars. The first war may have been the main topic of discussion by his parents at childhood. And later at service in the air defense over London. Because of his determined health Thomas was not able to enroll in an active combat role during World War II. Thomas life’s experiences played a major role in influencing his writing...
“The Voice of the Rain” by Walt Whitman and “The Grass so little has to