In the sonnet “VII” by Edna St. Vincent Millay and poem “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins, the poets use a variety of techniques to illustrate two different yet similar meanings. In VII Millay tells a story of depression using analogies of darkness, yet in Collins poem he uses quippy humor to accept his fate with resignation. Both poems are easily relatable and come thick with meaning. In “VII” by Edna St. Vincent Millay and “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins, both poets use literary devices to evoke feelings of sorrow and confusion that come with adaption. In “VII” confusion and sorrow consumes her life and diminishes whatever familiar things she thought she knew. In stanza eleven Millay writes “Surrounded by impenetrable gloom” (Millay, 11). …show more content…
Gloom in this quote means a state of depression, and impenetrable gloom means that her depression can not be penetrated. At this point in the poem she is at her lowest point, and in the following lines she states, “I pause; and feel, and hark, / Till I become accustomed to the dark” (Millay, 13-14). In these stanzas it shows that her depression is only able to be overcome once she accepts the darkness that weighs upon her. This transition is very hard for her, and that is evident in stanza fifteen when she states “I pause; and feel, and hark”. With this pausing, feeling and listening it seems as though she is hesitant about accepting the dark and depressed path she has become lost down. Her hesitation may also be a very important indicator that she may have wound up in this situation suddenly. It is clear at this point that her sorrow has fully engulfed her spirit, and she has accepted that. Earlier however her confusion is more dominant. In stanza five Millay writes “I turn away reluctant from your light” (Millay, 5). The illusion of light representing happiness shows that at one time she was not so weighed down with her sorrow. The turning “away reluctant from your light” also hints at …show more content…
Collins is a very clever poet, and this is evident in stanza eight and nine when he states “Kissed the names of the nine muses goodbye and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag” (Collins, 8-9). Collins example of “the quadratic equation pack its bag” is relatable to most people because they learn the equation in school and when they are done with school they quite literally pack their bags and forget about most of what they learned, like the quadratic equation. By using this easy example of forgetfulness it allows the reader to somewhat understand the confusion of once knowing something, and now not knowing that thing. Shortly prior to this quote Collins uses the analogy of retiring to a fishing village to as a clever way to integrate the acceptance of something as undesirable as loss of memory. Stanzas 5-7 read, ”one by one, the memories you used to harbor / decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain, / to a little fishing village where there are no phones” (Collins, 5-7). Collins use of personification to give memories human like characteristics causes the reader to connect to memories of the stereotype of men wishing to retire to a life of fishing away from the buzz of life. Retiring is a sign of old age however and with that comes degeneration of memory. He uses the allusion of a life with “no phones” meaning that the
In the passage from the novel LUCY, author Jamaica Kincaid dramatizes the forces of self and environment, through her character whose identity is challenged with a move. The new home provided all she needed, but it was all so many changes, she “didn’t want to take in anything else” (15-16). Her old “familiar and predictable past”(40) stayed behind her, and she now had to find who she was in her new life. Kincaid uses detail, metaphor, and tone in the passage to show her character’s internal struggle.
The Sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Love is Not All” demonstrates an unpleasant feeling about the knowledge of love with the impression to consider love as an unimportant element that is not worth dying for; the poem is a personal message addressing the intensity, importance, and transitory nature of love. The poet’s impression reflects her general point of view about love as portrayed in the title “Love is Not All.” However, the unfolding part of the poem reveals the sarcastic truth that love is important. The depiction of imagery in this poem insinuates a moaning and nagging experience; the negative and painful experience that people suffer because of an unimportant element that cannot supply the basic necessity of life: “Pinned down by pain and moaning for release / Or nagged by want past resolution’s power” (10-11).
The poem's speaker mistreated,gloomy and being isolated. She is a person who loss and assimilation if not loose your self. “That this
Both poems are set in the past, and both fathers are manual labourers, which the poets admired as a child. Both poems indicate intense change in their fathers lives, that affected the poet in a drastic way. Role reversal between father and son is evident, and a change of emotion is present. These are some of the re-occurring themes in both poems. Both poems in effect deal with the loss of a loved one; whether it be physically or mentally.
In the first stanza, she describes the ocean going in and out which could be a symbol for the time passing. Her next line is “The sea takes on that desperate tone of dark that wives put on when all love is gone.” (Doolittle 1.5). This is about the darkness and grief she feels without her past love. Stanza two is all about her wanting to be saved or rather
The speaker begins the poem an ethereal tone masking the violent nature of her subject matter. The poem is set in the Elysian Fields, a paradise where the souls of the heroic and virtuous were sent (cite). Through her use of the words “dreamed”, “sweet women”, “blossoms” and
The short stories “The Ninny” by Anton Chekov and “Mrs. Bertha Flowers” by Maya Angelou both have similar themes that explore power and privilege. Both stories explore the theme of power and privilege because there are characters who have power and privilege and characters who do not, the benefit and usefulness of having power and privilege, and both stories teach a similar lesson.
“It was a large, beautiful room, rich and picturesque in the soft, dim light which the maid had turned low. She went and stood at an open window and looked out upon the deep tangle of the garden below. All the mystery and witchery of the night seemed to have gathered there amid the perfumes and the dusky and tortuous outlines of flowers and foliage. She was seeking herself and finding herself in just such sweet half-darkness which met her moods. But the voices were not soothing that came to her from the darkness and the sky above and the stars. They jeered and sounded mourning notes without promise, devoid even of hope. She turned back into the room and began to walk to and fro, down its whole length, without stopping, without resting. She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her. Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the glittering circlet.
This essay is anchored on the goal of looking closer and scrutinizing the said poem. It is divided into subheadings for the discussion of the analysis of each of the poem’s stanzas.
In Millay’s poem, the idea of grief and sad can be discovered through the tone of the narrator and further strengthened by
The poems facilitate the investigation of human experience through illustrating life’s transience and the longevity of memory.
What struck me about these two poems in particular is the universal truths they reveal, firstly in “The Eye,” how one learns to hate, and then resent and in “A Poem to my Husband from My Father’s Daughter,” how a woman come to terms with her father’s legacy.
Although the imagery in each poem is distinct, the similarity of message in both poems is evident. The poems are similar in that the narrator’s lives are empty and contain no passion for pursuing anything. The ideas reflected in these poems are seen even today, in such things as listless living and job-related apathy. Both poems suggest that a life where dreams of meaningless things are pursued will end without purpose or significance.
Both, the poem “Reluctance” by Robert Frost and “Time Does Not Bring Relief” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, revolved around the theme of lost love. Each poet used a similar array of poetic devices to express this theme. Visual imagery was one of the illustrative poetic devices used in the compositions. Another poetic device incorporated by both poets in order to convey the mood of the poems was personification. And by the same token, metaphors were also used to help express the gist of both poems. Ergo, similar poetic devices were used in both poems to communicate the theme of grieving the loss of a loved one.
Language plays a crucial role in helping a poet get his point across and this can be seen used be all the poems to help them explore the theme of death with the reader. This includes the formal, brutal and emotive language that Chinua Achebe uses in “mother in a refugee camp.” This can be seen when Achebe says, “The air was heavy with odor of diarrhea, of unwashed children with washed out ribs” this is very brutal and the is no holding back with the use of a euphemism or a simile as seen in the other poems but he would rather invite the reader to uses their senses to get a vivid description of what the refugee camp is like and how life is like while living there. On top of that the juxtaposition of the polar opposites “unwashed” and “washed” allows for the emphasis of each respective word, which allows for the reader to realize the difference and contrast in their respective societies. For the reader these two words would usually be used in alternate with “washed” being used to describe the “children” and “unwashed” to describe the “ribs” but the society portrayed in this poem it’s the complete opposite. With “remember” Christina Rosetti uses a formal, descriptive and old-fashioned type of writing with a romantic element to it. This is very successful with this sonnet due to the fact that it helps get her point about death across to the reader more easily. The romantic side of the language can be seen when the poet says, “When you can no more hold me by the hand.” This shows us the intimacy that the character had with the person she loves and it includes the physical approach of holding hands. To show us the more descriptive and old fashion tone we can look at when then poet says, “For if darkness and corruption leave a vestige of...