Kelsey Pipkins Professor Neptune English 1B; M/W 12:30 17 November 2014 “The Cow” Poetry is, “literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm” (Poetry). Narrative poetry, one of the many forms, is poetry that tells a story. In Andrew Hudgins narrative poem, “The Cow,” he uses techniques such as verbal irony, symbolism, and rhyme in order to explain two different types of love; true love and materialistic love. In the first stanza, Hudgins portrays true love through affectionate wording, verbal irony, and symbolism. He uses symbolism in the first line using the word “red.” He says, “I love the red cow/with all of my heart,” which makes readers assume that his love for the cow was true since the color red often means true love (Hudgins 1-2). However, after reading the poem once, readers can see that the first line states that the boy does not love the cow itself but rather the meat it provides. The word “red” can then be symbolic of blood or flesh. This example is verbal irony in the sense that the wording says that the boy truly loves the cow but rather means a completely different kind of love; materialistic love. Within the second stanza, readers can easily see that the boys love towards the cow gradually changes from true love to materialistic love. The lines, …show more content…
First the boy showed the cow love and in return the cow provides for the boy. Then as the cow gets weak the boy mercilessly slaughters the cow for food. It is ironic because the boy nurtured the cow at first but ended up slaughtering it because it cannot produce any more milk. Even more ironic is the lines, “then slather her chops/with her own creamy butter” because it displays how sorrowful the life of a cow is (Hudgins 31-32). By using its own milk to make butter and then using the butter to flavor the steak is like saying the cow digs its own
In the fourth stanza, line one to three the female has an upper hand in this relationship. In line four to seven the male feels uplifted by the deeds of the female and chooses to change himself for the
This comforting role the cow plays in this story is like none other. It’s seen in each instance the cow appears to Chauntacleer. The cow somehow, without ever saying a word comforts a stuck up rooster like Chauntacleer. Her functions are simple, to be with the rooster in the quiet, to be with the rooster in spirit, and to be with the rooster in life. “He lay dazed, and then it was that the Dun Cow came to him” (Wangerin 139). The Dun Cow first came to Chauntacleer while he was alone in his coop dazed. She was with him in the quietness of his coop, laying with him and being there for him.
The first three stanzas of the poem focus on the content of the relationship and we see the content of it. However, there is a change. The sixth and seventh stanzas describe an event and its consequences.
The fifth stanza is about the family continuing on with there chores after the storm. Despite all that has happened the family still continues on, quite happily as a matter of fact; “Well pleased, (for when did farmer boy Count such a summons less than joy?)” This stanza also shows how God is good because even after the snowstorm the animals are all still alive.
tells us a story and has a regular rhyme scheme, it is a narrative and
Stafford uses these poetic devices in the poem plentiful times. One example of symbolism is the fawn of the dead doe. The fawn is the baby of the deer, but it also symbolizes nature and how it is getting dominated over technology. The car, which is a symbol of technology, is shown with some sort of supremacy with its ‘purring’ engine, lights ‘aimed ahead’, and exhaust ‘turning red’. Also, technology is the reason for the death of nature as the car is the reason for the doe’s death. Another example of symbolism in Stafford’s poem is Wilson River Road. A road’s connotation means a path of life and the narrator of the poem wants to choose the right path of life. However, making the wrong choice, ‘swerving’ off course, can “make more dead”. The final illustration of symbolism is the dark. The dark is a symbol of evil and it brings a feel as if something bad is going to happen. Stafford starts out the poem with the title, “Traveling Through the Dark”, which means how the narrator is on the path of darkness, which brings uncertainty in people’s lives. In addition to symbolism, word choice also helps readers to interpret words and phrases. One example of connotation and denotation is the phrase from line eighteen, “Pushed her over the edge”. The denotation of the phrase means the narrator pushes the dead carcass of the doe into the canyon. The connotation means that the decision of the narrator to roll the deer into the canyon pushed the narrator’s emotions over the edge. Another example of word choice is the word river in the last line of the poem. A river’s connotation also means a path of life as rivers hold water and water also represents life. The river might symbolize the new life of the deer and its fawn. Word choice and symbolism are two poetic devices that help to discover the meanings of words and phrases other than their literal
-Students will be able to identify the words from the story “The Cow Who Went Oink” by Bernard Most.
The first stanza describes the depth of despair that the speaker is feeling, without further explanation on its causes. The short length of the lines add a sense of incompleteness and hesitance the speaker feels towards his/ her emotions. This is successful in sparking the interest of the readers, as it makes the readers wonder about the events that lead to these emotions. The second and third stanza describe the agony the speaker is in, and the long lines work to add a sense of longing and the outpouring emotion the speaker is struggling with. The last stanza, again structured with short lines, finally reveals the speaker 's innermost desire to "make love" to the person the speaker is in love
“A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself” this quote by E.M. Forster alludes to the concept of metafiction in poetry as a whole. According to the Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms, “Metafiction is a kind of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction…[M]etafiction does not let the readers forget they are reading a work of fiction.” Some common metafictive strategies include a story about someone writing a story, a piece of fiction that references specific conventions of a story, or characters that are aware they are in a story or work of fiction. The poems, “Functional Poem by Mark Halliday and “The Poem You Asked For” by Larry Levis, embody various conceptions metafiction.
In "The Cowboy and His Cow" speech, Edward Abbey delivered a furious talk based on his personal experience.Abbey began by talking about the childhood dream of becoming a cowboy, so consistently I expected him to write about how and why the cowboy is a child's legendary hero and how a child idolizes them for all the kindness they appear to do. Instead, Abbey began tearing down the praised cowboy by making the people realize the issues that the cowboys and their cattle have brought.
This is because he is faced with a difficult situation when his daughter refuses to eat meat. He is convincing her to eat meat to gain strength and grow healthy, like the other children at the same age. An aspect of mothering is also observed when he tries to feed his daughter. Despite his efforts, she spits the meat out and instead of becoming angry and reprimanding her, as a father would, he resorts to continue begging her to eat her food.
In the poem, Huswifery, by Edward Taylor, a very severe shift seems to take place. The poem begins with an analogy between the writer and a spinning wheel. However, at the end of the poem suddenly he is no longer the spinning wheel, he is now a man wearing the cloth that was spun by the spinning wheel. How could the main analogy of the poem shift so drastically? Actually, upon closer inspection, the shift does not seem so bizarre. The main idea of the poem is followed through from beginning to end. It is the story of a man who is truly devoted to the Lord and how his relationship with the Lord evolves from the point where he is seeking God in his life to the point where he has found him and become a changed man. As the man changes, the analogy within the poem must naturally evolve to keep up with his changes.
"The thing could barely stand." ("The Bull Calf" line 1). The calf is referred to as a thing not an animal or creature. This is the way the author blocks emotion. The first line in the first stanza is a contradiction from the rest of the stanza because the rest of it has a positive attitude and the first sentence shows that the animal is weak. The third and the fourth line show the glory of the animal by hinting to royalty. The last line in the first stanza helps to back this information up by pointing to Richard the second. In the fifth line the narrator uses thee word us this connects him to the event. "The fierce sunlight tugging the maize from the ground" ("The Bull Calf" line 6). This is imagery, the sunlight showing promise and hope, maize is yellow this refers us back to the sun through the similar color. The last line refers to Richard the second this makes the poem flow better into the next stanza, Richard the second was lowered from his rank much like the calf is going to be.
In the first stanza he is focusing very much on the sense of taste and
Nonetheless, a different approach is taken as the first stanza introduces ‘the lost company’ which could quite well represent lost ideals or values that once offered what was a company of lovers, which has now become short-term relationships. This emphasis goes on to describe, with passion, the joining of ‘hands together in the night’ of those “who sought many things, throw all away for this one thing, one only” – love.