Turtles Hatching
The poem Mark O’Connor wrote “Turtles Hatching” at a time in his life when was closely studying nature.
In this poem Mark O’Connor closely observes turtles hatching and contemplates the ritual that turtles share with the beach. This poem also has close connotations to life cycle and family.
Mark O’Connor begins the poem with one single line which emphasis the information that he is giving the reader. The continuation of this line from the rest of the poem to the next without a pause creates an urgency, which is used to emphasis the situation.
In the second stanza Mark O’Connor sets the scene as the turtles, “break through to twilight.”
The poet uses imperatives and personification of the elements in the line, “Downhill, fast; when you hit water, swim.” This technique is used to let the reader into the turtle’s head so they can feel the instinct that is overcoming them.
The poet uses lining in this poem to create stresses on words at the beginning of lines such as, ‘last, will be picked’. Creating a new line between last and will creates a tone of finality, which is associated with last.
In the second stanza Mark O’Connor sums up the odds for the turtles notifying the reader of the terrible fact that only one in a hundred will survive. This is used as a shock treatment towards the reader, which makes this figure stand out even more.
Mark O’Connor uses an extended metaphor that begins in the second stanza and returns again in the fourth. This technique is used to create a special prominence on the line “high-revving toys”.
In the forth stanza the poet uses hyperboles like “castles and every hole an abyss,” to create vivid visual imagery emphasising the peril of the turtles situation.
“Scrambling, sand, scrabbling, slime, sculling and sand pools” are examples of alliteration, which slows down the line when spoken.
In this poem there are military contexts like “death lane” which portray through visual imagery images such as trench fighting.
In the sixth stanza Mark O’Connor creates contrast between reality and the minds of the turtles, the line, “Caught in cracks” shows how they think they’re safe when really they’re not.
Throughout this poem Mark O’Connor reinforces a biological imperative, which is shown through words such as, oceans, limbs and nature. This is used to create a friendly and informative tone.
The seventh stanza is suddenly written as though a human voice has suddenly taken over and began reading the poem.
From the very first word of the poem, there is a command coming from an unnamed speaker. This establishes a sense of authority and gives the speaker a dominant position where they are dictating the poem to the reader rather than a collaborative interacti...
Kinnell picks a certain style to write his poem. Of all the forms, he chooses to write The Bear with as little words as possible. Through this method, the poet manages to incorporate that like the verses of the poem, life is short. Also, Kinnell makes his poem more realistic by putting us in the driver’s seat. He writes the poem in first person, constantly using the word “I”. First person perspective allows the reader to connect faster than a third person would. We begin to picture our self in the situation and allow our imagination to think like the hunter. By using enjambment, repetition, and short phrases he keeps the poem spontaneous. This allows the reader to quickly visualize events in the poem to help show events that happened within the poem, but not in too much detail that our interest is lost. For example, in the first four lines the poet writes, “In l...
The turtle appears throughout giving the contextual symbolism of the struggles of the Joad family’s survival during the family’s travels to the west and new life. The turtle’s travels alongside the highway on the hot pavement and survives an attack by a driver who purposely swerved to hit the turtle, “And now a light truck approached, and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it. His front wheel struck the edge of the shell, flipped the turtle like a tiddly-wonk, spun it like a coin, and rolled it off the highway. The truck went back on its course along the right side”
...otter, disturbing high pitched sounf of the oystercatcher, the cormorant, and the heron all connote the idea of an overwhelming chaotic nature of the world. The first two lines of the second stanza justify this view because we find that the speaker has gone through a personal experience of facing death. However, in the majority of the second stanza, the speaker finds a more peaceful underlying order in the next few images he sees. The butterfly, a couple quietly speaking, and the soothing warmth of nature all appeal to an underlying order, filled with peacefulness and serenity. From the different perspectives of a single experience of the speaker, the author is able to create a world where although chaos can be present through personal experience, the underlying order is still intact, as long as one is able to look at it from a more calm and peaceful vantage point.
Animals and objects often function as a stand in for human kind, especially in literature. Authors’ repeatedly use them to draw reference and explain different characteristics, emotion, and situations of inhumanity. In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck used the turtle to illiterate the journey of a lot of people during the 1930’s to 1940’s. During the period the dust bowl, a series of relentless wind storms and drought, was caused by improper methods of farming that would help prevent erosion. Families were compelled to leave their farms to find work because of the drought and dust storms had left many homeless. Many people experienced the pain of their mortgages foreclosed by banks. Families would pack up the automobiles and head across the country. As the automobile transformed into a more accessible form of transportation it became a saving grace for many of the agricultural farm workers in search a new beginning. The turtle and the automobile both literally and figuratively crossed paths and had a small but somewhat significant impact on each other.
The first words of the book convey a parrot that spoke “a language which nobody understood”, and Edna’s husband “had the privilege of quitting [the parrot] when [it] ceased to be entertaining” (11). In the same light, Edna speaks of and wishes for a life that nobody apprehends. Her husband also possesses the moral, objectifying liberty to quiet Edna when she did not provide leisure, as one can turn off a song once it grows into a tedious nuisance. A further exemplification comes about when Old Monsieur Farival, a man, “insisted upon having [a] bird. . . consigned to regions of darkness” due to its shrieking outside (42). As a repercussion, the parrot “offered no more interruption to the entertainment” (42). The recurrence of the parrot evolves Edna’s state of stagnance as a consequence of being put to a halt by others despite her endeavor of breaking free. Ultimately, as Edna edges out towards the water to her death, a bird is depicted with “a broken wing” and is “beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water” (159). This recurrence parallels the beaten bird to a suffering Edna. She has “despondency [that] came upon her there in the wakeful night” that never alleviates (159). Dejection is put to action when Edna wanders out into the water, “the shore. . . far behind her” (159). Motif of birds articulates her suicide by its association with
In this poem called “Creatures” by the author Billy Collins there are three examples of figurative language helps convey the meaning that the author Billy Collins is conveying. The three examples of figurative language that the author Billy Collins uses are a metaphor, enjambment, and imagery. These three examples of figurative language help illustrate Billy Collins” theme in this poem called “Creatures” that he is writing because these three examples of figurative language help emphasize the theme of the poem. These three examples help emphasize this poem called “Creatures” meaning because it makes the theme of this poem have a deeper meaning. The theme of the author Billy Collins poem called “Creatures” is that the reader has to imagine
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Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
In the first stanza, Connelly sets up the extended metaphor that compares swimming in the ocean to life. There exists a reality
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