The poems Pietà by James McAuley and November by Simon Armitage are confrontational as they revolve around the theme of life. Life, death and grief are all something that every person will experience here on earth. Life… Death… Grief…The existing themes are already confronting but with the poets application of poetic techniques the two poems are able to be effective.
The confronting theme of life is shown through poetic techniques in the poems, Pieta and November. The cycle of life is shown through Pietà and November in two different ways. The child’s life is unfortunately cut short as it, ‘only [lives] one day.’ Whilst in November, the subject of the poem is about a Grandmother who is at the end of the cycle of life. This is unlike the baby in Pietà who is not able to live, or have a chance of living a long life. This may cause the audience to ponder about the purpose of life. Armitage uses consonantal alliteration and visual imagery, in ‘sun spangles,’ to symbolise that, ‘the only thing you can get, out of this life,’ is the beautiful happy moments. This logic is true for many non-believers as the purpose of life is unknown to them and the only positive reason for life is by creating happy memories.In November,the last moments of life are shown through the enjambment and flow. The audience is involved with the journey of bringing the woman to the hospital as if you are, ‘with your grandma taking four short steps to [your] two.’ This is effective as the audience can put themselves in the place of the narrator in the story.This is unlike Pieta which is written in past tense and is not able to put themselves in the place of mother but the audience is more sympathetic towards the mother and her loss of her child.
The theme of death ...
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...hild once. Pieta also uses repetition of ‘touch,’ and repeats ‘cannot’ to reiterate the inequitable death of the mother’s baby. As the mother is confusedand does not know how to react to this situation.Armitage uses structure to reflect the tone of the poem as it has five stanzas of three lines which have a depressing tone. The couplet at the end shows an elevated tone as the rest is in a depressed tone.In November it uses visual imagery to display the severity of grief, John and the narrator ‘numb [themselves] with alcohol to,’ to help them with their grief.
Pieta and Novemberare both different in the way they approach writing and how they illustrate life, death and grief through their poetry. Poetic techniques of symbolism, enjambment, alliteration and visual imagery are key techniques in the success of their poetry as they often provoke and confront the audience.
Perhaps some people’s first impression on Mona Van Duyn’s “Letters from a Father” is that its topic a cliché; since poems about death are not rare at all. However, Van Duyn’s unique interpretations and attitude towards her writing style, which are apart from other poets, shall also be discovered if one dwells on her poem. In the poem “Letters from a father”, it mainly portrays the daily life of a father, a mother and those feeders (birds). Throughout the poem, it may seem that it emphasizes the process of characters’ acceptance of birds and understanding on their daughter. Nevertheless, if we look deeper into the change in tones, repetitions and words use developed in the poem, it is arguable that the parent’s changes in acceptance of birds are in fact implying a mental process of bestirring from illnesses, which is most readers do not see. This is believed as an important interpretation since it reveals the poet’s attitude towards death, which underlie beneath the literal meaning of the poem.
The speakers and audience in poem are crucial elements of the poem and is also the case in these poems. In the poem Untitled, it can be argued that the poem is being written by Peter based on what his father might say to him...
This follows Rossetti’s value of acceptance of human mortality, as she understands “how long ago” their “love” was in the past but still desires them in her “dreams”. The use of personal language such as “my love” and imagery of “Speak low, lean low” give a feeling of intimacy that is missed by the narrator that endorsed Rossetti’s desire of a psychological need for love but also that the emotional nature of the poem is influenced by romanticism. The rhythmic imagery of the wording “pulse for pulse, breath for breath” is symbolic of a heartbeat showing the focus on the living memories rather than the bodily “death” of her lover. Rossetti uses the ideal of reliving her memories through her “dreams” as a Band-Aid approach as she has come to terms with the physical death of her lover but not the “death” of her “dream”. Christina portrays this attitude, as this could be seen as her coping mechanism for the deaths that occur in her life such as her father 's death which occurred the year she wrote the poem or could be seen symbolically as the death of her past
Sylvia Plath was known as an American Poet, Novelist and Shorty story writer. However, Plath lived a melancholic life. After Plath graduated from Smith College, Plath moved to Cambridge, England on a full scholarship. While Plath was Studying in England, she married Ted Hughes, an English poet. Shortly after, Plath returned to Massachusetts and began her first collection of poems, “Colossus”, which was published first in England and later the United States. Due to depression built up inside, Plath committed suicide leaving her family behind. Sylvia Plath was a gifted and troubled poet, known for the confessional style of her work, which is how “Mirror” came to be. Although this poem may seem like the reader is reading from first person point of view, there is a much deeper meaning behind Plath’s message throughout the poem. Plath uses several elements of terror and darkness to show change to the minds of the readers.
The poem begins with a childlike tone, misleading the reader on the upcoming subject matter. The first line echoes a nursery rhyme, feeling like a charm against some brooding curse. “You do not do, you do not do/ anymore black shoe” (lines 1-2). Metaphorically, the shoe is a trap, smothering the foot. The adjective “black” suggests the idea of death, thus it can relate to a coffin. The speaker feels a submissiveness and entrapment by her father. In an attempt to rid herself of the restriction in her own life, she must destroy the memory of her father. “Daddy, I have to kill you” (line 3). However, the description of the father as “marble-heavy” and “ghastly statue” reveals the ambivalence of her attitude, for he is also associated with the beauty of the sea. The speaker reacts with hate to her father who had made her suffer by dying at such a point in her development.
The next theme used by the author to inspire a feeling of despair in this story is the randomness of persecution. By making the villagers draw these slips of paper once a year would provoke a feeling of hopelessness. Because they know that no matter what they do one day they may be subjected to this brutal death. And it woul...
The last poem “The Fish” illustrates the sorrow of life itself. The skin, the blood, the entrails, everything of the fish depicts vividly and dramatically. The poet seems to share the same pain with the fish observing the scene and enjoys the detail just like enjoying an artwork. The poet lets the fish go because she is totally touched by the process between life and death; she loves life but meanwhile, is deeply hurt by the life. In the poem, the fish has no fear towards her; the desire to life is in the moving and tragic details when faces the
As the first poem in the book it sums up the primary focus of the works in its exploration of loss, grieving, and recovery. The questions posed about the nature of God become recurring themes in the following sections, especially One and Four. The symbolism includes the image of earthly possessions sprawled out like gangly dolls, a reference possibly meant to bring about a sense of nostalgia which this poem does quite well. The final lines cement the message that this is about loss and life, the idea that once something is lost, it can no longer belong to anyone anymore brings a sense...
Helen of Troy, known as the most beautiful woman of ancient Greek culture, is the catalyst for the Trojan War. As such, she is the subject of both Edgar Allen Poe’s “To Helen” and H.D.’s “Helen”; however, their perceptions of Helen are opposites. Many poets and authors have written about Helen in regards to her beauty and her treacherous actions. There is a tremendous contrast between the views of Helen in both poems by Poe and Doolittle. The reader may ascertain the contrast in the speakers’ views of Helen through their incorporation of diction, imagery, and tone that help convey the meaning of the work.
No poet does a better job of stressing the abruptness of death as Frost in his poem, “Out, out –”. Death is the one of the more central themes among most works of art and normally befalls on the speaker’s loved one. In this case, “Out, out –” is about an innocent boy who accidentally severs his hand with a buzz saw; the entire scene and the family’s reactions described by an observer. Throughout the poem, Frost finds creative ways to intensify the boy’s death and readers may wonder why he focuses on such a heavy and distressing issue. Every verse builds up upon one another, sometimes enjambed together with a variety of figurative language, until the boy succumbs to his injury. By combining an irregular form of iambic pentameter with dark symbolism, Frost captures the inevitability of death and its cruel, unpredictable appearances.
The first half of the poems’ images are of life, coming of age, and death.
The poem “The Onset” presents a meditation of the realities of life and death through the change of seasons, coldness and warmth, revealing several basic conceptual metaphors that acquire subsequent logical characteristics: LIFE IS SPRING (LIFE IS HEAT), DEATH IS WINTER (DEATH IS COLDNESS), DEATH IS SLEEP (DEATH IS NIGHT). These conceptual metaphors are interconnected because they have emerged from the same experimental basis, together they build up the image scheme of Life and
Contemporary female poets are a very powerful group of female poets that with their poems shows major events and issues in society. Contemporary female poets usually all have an underlying theme of politics, women rights, life events, and sexuality. Contemporary means living or occurring at the same time and some contemporary female poets are, Adrienne Rich, Nikki Giovanni, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Adrienne Rich, Nikki Giovanni, and Gwendolyn Brooks were all writing in the late 1900s. The Women Rights movement and the Civil Rights movement were two events that occurred during the time of the late 1900s. These two movements was heavily incorporated in each Brooks’, Rich’s, and Giovanni’s life and influenced their writings. Each of these women put their personal feelings about political issues in their poems, which makes the theme of their work politics. The theme of these three women work is different aspects of politics, such as women empowerment and women rights, and racial pride. “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” by Adrienne Rich, “Nikki-Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni, and “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks are the three poems that each represent the theme of politics regarding women rights and empowerment, and racial pride.
The speaker started the poem by desiring the privilege of death through the use of similes, metaphors, and several other forms of language. As the events progress, the speaker gradually changes their mind because of the many complications that death evokes. The speaker is discontent because of human nature; the searching for something better, although there is none. The use of language throughout this poem emphasized these emotions, and allowed the reader the opportunity to understand what the speaker felt.
The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.