The Vietnam Wall Poem

478 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Vietnam war memorial

In the poem the Vietnam wall by Alberto Rios the readers of the sentimental Harlem Jorine the author on a visit to the Vietnam war memorial,Also known as the Vietnam wall. The first thing the author does is describes firsthand how the wall affects the people who come and visit it in the emotional effect it has on everybody. he states the feelings and emotions of the visitors in many ways, such as; the way like cutting onions it brings water out of nowhere (Alberto Rios line 5). The Vietnam wall is a one stanza poem that portrays the emotion through being a picture poem. A picture poem is when the lines are written in space to resemblance something in this poem the words resemble the shape of the wall. The lines of the poem or short in the beginning longest in the middle and again short at the end, this not only …show more content…

The author also gives a sense of mystery and eeriness when he says that he stops to look at the names of his friends and then sees his own name. this line is open to many different opinions and can create a very interesting variety of thoughts. I believe that the author means that he sees a family member or past relatives name and this somehow makes him feel more connected to the wall. after he sees his name he stops and thinks and doesn't leave like he was going to before, he looks at the little kids and sees it they are acting differently. even the little children and teenage boys to visit the wall take it seriously, they don't play so he tricks or full around. Even though it's more common to find boys fooling around then being mature they behaved in a respectful manner. This shows that the Vietnam wall is a place where everybody is vulnerable to the emotional facts of a monument that represent so much pain, for so many the author, Alberto Rios make this clear when he writes men have cried at this wall. I have seen them (Rios line

Show More
Related

  • An Analysis of Komanuyakaa Facing It

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem's persona and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall depend on each other to express the poem's intention. The poem's intention is to show that war is lethal, less than gloriful, and extremely real. Although years have gone by, these recollections are still affecting how he lives. Simply standing in front of the wall reminds the speaker of all of this. The Veterans Memorial takes on a life of its own. While the speaker is in its presense, the wall controls him. It forces him to remember painful memories and even cry, something he promised himself he would not do. The persona in the poem reacts to the power the wall has and realizes that he must face his past and everything related to it, especially Vietnam.

    Read More

  • The Poem Where There's A Wall By Joy Kogawa

    255 Words  | 1 Pages

    The poem “Where There’s a Wall” by Joy Kogawa is an interesting poem. It talks a lot about walls and how you might get over, under, around, or through a wall. The title is used throughout the entire poem and each thought usually starts with the phrase “Where there’s a wall”.

    Read More

  • Working Together in Robert Frost's Mending Wall

    867 Words  | 2 Pages

    A great number of people might look at "Mending Wall" and see a simple poem about a simple aspect of life. If this is truly the case then why are so many drawn to the poem and what is found when more than a superficial look is spent on Robert Frost's work? The "Mending Wall" is an insightful look at social interactions as seen in the comparison of the repeated phrases and the traditional attitudes of the two farmers. The speaker believes, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall"(Stanford 1, 28). What sets this line apart from others?

    Read More

  • The Korean War Veterans Memorial

    1693 Words  | 4 Pages

    I saw that soldier’s faces were lit eerily in the dim light. The sculptures apparel seemed fitting due to the light rain that was falling at the memorial site. I noticed the wall glimmering as the raindrops slid down the glassy surface and fall into the wilting flowers while the images illuminated from the glare of rain and light. I felt this morbid and realistic presence of the soldiers and for a mere second felt the gloom and menace of the war they were in. I walked around the site to gather more information on what the memorial was dedicated to. I walked past the mural wall and as I did I paid particular attention to the various images of people and equipment on the wall. All of the facial expressions of the people on the wall gave the memorial a very real presence to it. I continued walking down the granite walk and I read it was the Korean War Veterans Memorial and immediately got the message the artists were trying to convey. It was very clear that they were showing the public that freedom is not free. The memorial symbolizes the soldiers that have fought for the freedom of others and it recognizes the importance of these actions and

    Read More

  • Bruce Weigl's Poems on the Vietnam War

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    To this day the Vietnam War is still considered to be one of the most devastating wars in history and has been a topic of resentment to the American culture thirty-three years after its end. For the American public it’s marked as being the point in history where distrust in our government was at an all-time high, mainly because most of the war’s carnage was witnessed on television for the first time. For all the bloodshed American and Vietnamese soldiers suffered through, the war has left a perpetual mark not only on the United States but ultimately has left a permanent scar on the soldiers who fought and managed to survive the war. Renowned war poet, Bruce Weigl, like most young American men during the time was only nineteen when he participated in the war and fought for three years. The traumatic experiences he faced in the war and post-service back home in the United States helped him develop a distinctively emotional and explicit poetry which dealt bluntly with the atrocious images of Vietnam. When being interviewed by fellow poet and student of his, David Keplinger, Bruce openly states that, ““…it did not occur to me to write poems about the war for a long time. It was not exactly that it had not occurred to me, but I questioned why anyone would want to read about the war because it was already terrible enough” (Keplinger 141). With his time after the war, Weigl obtained his PhD. at the University of Utah and also made stops at Oberlin College and the University of New Hampshire prior to that. Weigl’s encounter with the war has enabled him to depict graphic illustrations of it and that effect seems to plod into the present. His work is highly saturated in the brutalities of Vietnam War and echoes that very sentiment.

    Read More

  • The Vietnam War Memorial

    566 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Vietnam War Memorial has reduced some of the toughest, proudest, and most disciplined in the world to tears. For when a veteran returns to the wall, he may recognize a few members of a platoon that he spent a few of his best years with, and what is left of that man? The other effect of the wall is that if a veteran recognizes a single name, that one name will carry a story, a legacy, and a history with him.

    Read More

  • A Wall In-Between

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...hysical object of the wall and the clothing connect to the emotional separation of the multiple characters by the fear and barriers set by the Gilead government. The fear and barriers come from the Harvard wall an image depicted by Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale. The Novel additionally utilizes the image of the wall to show the physical and emotional boundaries it creates within its characters. Borders are created throughout the novel, through clothing, through fear and through people.

    Read More

  • Maya Lin Vietnam Vets War Memorial Analysis

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    The memorial is the center of a whirlwind of fear, sorrow, agony, and then after experiencing the overwhelming emotions, end up leaving with the feeling of acceptance, this forced confrontation is a demonstration of the core ideas implied with the design of the wall, imposing, defiant, and unforgettable. The memorial ends up forcing a person to understand and accept the situation. This idea is supported by Maya Lin herself who states “it is up to each individual to come to terms with this

    Read More

  • Analysis of Mending Wall by Robert Frost

    398 Words  | 1 Pages

    It describes how the conservative farmer follows traditions blindly and the isolated life followed by him. It reflects how people overcome physical barriers and that later in life come to their social life too. Where a neighbor with a pine tree, believes that this separation is needed as it is essential for their privacy and personal life. The poem explores a paradox in human nature. The first few lines reflect demolition of the wall,?Something there is that doesn?t reflect love a wall?

    Read More

  • The Falling Soldier Poem Analysis

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    ‘The Falling Soldier’ is one of many poems by Duffy which deals with the subject of human mortality. Duffy expresses what could have been over a harsh reality; this is characteristic of her as also seen in ‘Last Post’ and ‘Passing Bells’ which both seem to be largely influenced by poet peer Wilfred Owen’s personal experiences of war. In the ‘The Falling Soldier’ Duffy paradoxically captures the essence of Robert Capa’s famous photograph of a man falling after being shot during the Spanish Civil War (1936). She employs the form of an impersonal narrative voice, using second person to question the possibilities, to explore the tragic and cyclical nature of war. The futile reality of war contrasts to her central theme in ‘The Bees’ anthology of bees symbolising the grace left in humanity.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Robert Frost's Mending Wall

    1175 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem itself is a technique Robert Frost uses to convey his ideas. Behind the literal representation of building walls, there is a deeper metaphoric meaning, which reflects people's attitudes towards others. It reflects the social barriers people build, to provide a sense of personal security and comfort, in the belief that barriers are a source of protection, which will make people ...

    Read More

  • Anthem for Doomed Youth and Facing It

    1226 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... The wall represents an oxymoron that is unshakable and holds the spirits of the fallen. The imagery of: “names shimmer on a woman’s blouse but when she walks away the names stay on the wall” shows the names trying to escape from granite confines (19-21). “In the black mirror a woman’s trying to erase names: No, she is brushing a boy’s hair” (29-31). We see the urgency of the poet to escape and hope for fewer monuments on the wall. The use of devices boosts the effects of the poem.

    Read More

  • The Hidden Meaning of Robert Frost's Mending Wall

    435 Words  | 1 Pages

    "Mending Wall" is a poem written by the poet Robert Frost. The poem describes two neighbors who repair a fence between their estates. It is, however, obvious that this situation is a metaphor for the relationship between two people. The wall is the manifestation of the emotional barricade that separates them. In this situation the "I" voice wants to tear down this barricade while his "neighbor" wants to keep it.

    Read More

  • Borders and Walls in Humanity

    2340 Words  | 5 Pages

    When a wall is encountered literally and physically, there are many different ways in which a person can react to the situation. One group of people would generally just find a way over or around the obstacle. While some other people might pursue a way directly through the wall. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but they both exist as outcomes to the same dilemma. The basic wall has been around with humans for as long as the discovery of masonry has been around. Robert Frost’s poem Mending Wall is one such example of how a wall can have conflicting properties of human interaction. The neighbor in the poem says that “fences make good neighbors” and that the two neighbors involved with the wall rebuild it each spring and they enjoy fixing the wall with each other. The poem just helps illustrate that walls are an important factor in human activities. Walls are not limited to any specific culture or region and still they continue to be built over time.

    Read More

  • Walls Placed on Relationships in Mending Wall by Robert Frost

    846 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the poem "Mending Wall," Robert Frost utilizes the literary devices of imagery, meter, and symbolism to demonstrate the rational and irrational boundaries or metaphoric "walls" humans place on their relationships with others. The precise images, such as the depiction of the mending-time ritual and the dynamic description of his "old-stone savage armed" neighbor, serve to enhance our enjoyment as well as our understanding of the poem (40). The poem is written in blank verse (iambic pentameter); the form that most closely resembles everyday English. Frost deliberately employs this direct, conversational, and easy to understand style of meter which appears simple on the surface. Although symbolism is used throughout, the three most significant symbols are: the wall, his neighbor, and Frost himself as the speaker. Analyzing each of these devices as well as how they harmonize with one another is necessary in order to appreciate what Frost was revealing about human behavior.

    Read More

More about The Vietnam Wall Poem

Open Document