In the poem “What Are Years?”, Moore clearly expresses her perception of life.
Moore states that no one can truly understand the nature of their guilt or innocence. Everyone is “naked” to the dangers of existence. Moore defines courage as “resolute doubt,” having the ability, or the the "strength of spirit", to keep going even when defeated. To be strong, one must accept their own mortality. One must accept the reality of death and yet keep fighting to live. Although we are all imprisoned in a world of mortality, we must fight every day to give meaning to our life. We must live as if we were never going to die!
Moore begins the last stanza with an ambiguous “So”. Although one has a heightened awareness of mortality, one “behaves,” one keeps the ego disciplined. This is the same concept as that of the caged bird who, though held captive in a cruelly small space, continues to sing with all his heart. Despite the bird's lack of “satisfaction” because of his loss of flight and freedom, he knows “joy”.
While reading, I felt a sense of sadness for the caged bird, as its undeniable determination was persistent and valiant. Along with the message of the poem, I also appreciated Angelou’s unique sense of “unstructured verse” and her non-traditional poetic approach. It is clear that the caged bird represents African Americans and the free bird represents the white population, however, the poem is well written which sends this implied message of African-American suppression in a poetic, yet clear,
Speaking from his personal he experience, Kooser would have witnessed the natural phenomenon o early bird on his early morning walks during recovery. He uses imagery, metaphors, and syntax to convey the heaviness of the early morning and the bright energy of nature renewed each day. Kooser addresses the morning through the actions of the bird sounding early in the day. He relies heavily on imagery to create not only the mood of the morning, but also a picture of the simplicity of a chirping bird in relation to the complexity of a new day. Words in the first stanza such as “dark”, “raining hard”, and “cold” set the drab, somber tone of the ache of waking in the morning. This sadness is interrupted with the following stanza describing the “chirping” of the bird, a chirp that is “sweet” in tone but “sour” in its calling to rise. From the dismal description of the weather to the noting of the bird chirping, there is a tonal shift from somber to hopeful and reenergized, facilitated by the transition “and yet”. While the song of a bird may simply be a noise in nature, Kooser highlights the connection between the “early bird” song to the slow rise to being awake. To continue the imagery, Kooser also uses an extended metaphor to qualify the morning rising. The bird’s chirping, “hauling the heavy bucket of dawn”, allows one to take hope in the
In “To A Waterfowl” Bryant uses a bird as a symbol of hope for humanity. The bird helps humanity know that even though he has dark thoughts he will be okay in th...
The entire poem is based on powerful metaphors used to discuss the emotions and feelings through each of the stages. For example, she states “The very bird/grown taller as he sings, steels/ his form straight up. Though he is captive (20-22).” These lines demonstrate the stage of adulthood and the daily challenges that a person is faced with. The allusions in the poem enrich the meaning of the poem and force the reader to become more familiar with all of the meaning hidden behind the words. For example, she uses words such as innocence, imprisonment and captive to capture the feelings experienced in each of the stages.
To that end, the overall structure of the poem has relied heavily on both enjambment and juxtaposition to establish and maintain the contrast. At first read, the impact of enjambment is easily lost, but upon closer inspection, the significant created through each interruption becomes evident. Notably, every usage of enjambment, which occurs at the end of nearly every line, emphasizes an idea, whether it be the person at fault for “your / mistakes” (1-2) or the truth that “the world / doesn’t need” (2-3) a poet’s misery. Another instance of enjambment serves to transition the poem’s focus from the first poet to the thrush, emphasizing how, even as the poet “[drips] with despair all afternoon,” the thrush, “still, / on a green branch… [sings] / of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything” (14-18). In this case, the effect created by the enjambment of “still” emphasizes the juxtaposition of the two scenes. The desired effect, of course, is to depict the songbird as the better of the two, and, to that end, the structure fulfills its purpose
Marianne Moore was born on November 15, 1887 in Kirkwood, Missouri. Her father, who was an engineer, suffered a mental breakdown before her birth and was hospitalized before she could meet him. Moore lived with her mother, her brother, and her grandfather in Missouri until her grandfather’s death in 1894. Moore’s mother moved the family briefly to Pittsburgh and then to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Moore attended Metzger Institute through high school and then enrolled at Bryn Mawr College in 1905. At Bryn Mawr Moore she published poems in two of the school’s literary magazines: Tipyn O’Bob and the Lantern. She majored in history, law, and politics, and graduated in 1909. After graduating Moore took secretarial courses at Carlisle Commercial College and then taught bookkeeping, stenography, typing, commercial English, and law. [i]
Initially, the poem appears to be about an observer forming a connection with a blackbird that he encounters many times. Then the reader realizes that the poem is by Stevens and something else must be going on- and they are correct. In order to see the entire picture, it is very important to look at the bits and pieces that create it. The meaning of each individual part, the setting, the usage of literary devices such as distinct symbolism, and versatile thematic messages are all very important in creating a clear understanding. The path has been laid out, now it is time to shred this work into pieces!
In the poem “Sympathy” the author explains why the caged bird sings, this is said many times through the poem. The caged bird attempts to get out of his cage, he doesn’t stop trying to escape. “I know why the caged bird beats his wing Till it’s blood is red on the cruel bars; For he must fly back to his perch and cling When he fain would
Furthermore, Oliver clearly demonstrates the point that you do not have to follow society’s rules to be happy in her poem, “Wild Geese,” by using free form structure for a poem that does not rhyme. Many poems rhyme. By not rhyming or following a set structure, Oliver demonstrates that the poem does not need to follow the normal requirements for a poem to have meaning. The poem begins with a bold statement: “You do not have to be good.” The first line does not have a rhythm or pattern, which further demonstrates the further delineation from the status quo of poetry in this poem. The difference in structure between this poem and many others helps to set the poem and its message apart fro...
The Poem titled “A Kite is a victim” written by Leonard Cohen contains multiple tropes. Through my own analysis I propose that the author’s central focus concerns life. Cohen discusses the relationships and accomplishes that we make throughout our lifetimes. In my opinion, the kite is a metaphor for the essence of life and living. Each of the four stanzas in the poem begins with a trope. In every case the tenor is the kite. These tropes will be analyzed with regard to the central theme of the poem.
The speaker admits to not knowing whether or not the bird is happy, however, or from wherever it receives its joy. He compares the skylark to different living objects in nature (poets, a maiden, worms, and roses), that specific love, pain, and sorrow. None of them, however, has the communicative ability of the singing bird. The writer hopes to find out concerning the realm of spirit from the bird, plainly asking to show him however it manages to continue on with its “rapture so divine” while not ever wavering in pain or sorrow. Even the happiest of human songs, sort of a wedding song (“Chorus hymeneal”), doesn't compare to the song of a skylark.
The final stanza of the poem concludes that God’s compassion for the human being, his creation, has the power to rid us of our suffering. God will not desert us, and will in fact “sit by us and moan” when we suffer.
As pains and sufferings are the part and parcel of man's life,therefore,to forget his personal sorrows. He indulges in the world of natural beauty. As in the "ode to Nightingale", Nightingale and he becomes one, his soul sings in the bird which is the symbol of joy. The song of the bird transfers him into the world of imagination and he forgets his peronal sorrows in the happy world of the nightingale:
bird as the metaphor of the poem to get the message of the poem across
...er readers. Dickinson’s use of literary devices and her creativity enables her to imaginatively describe the beauty and grace from a simple and familiar observation. It is through her use of tone, imagery, and sound that she exploits a keen sense of respect for at the very least the little bird, if not also nature itself. Dickinson recreates and expresses the magnificence and smoothness of the bird soaring across the sky. She uses tone to create the mood to emphasize the theme. She uses sound and imagery to not only tell the reader about the awesome flight of the bird, but to help the reader experience and connect to the little bird and nature in hope that they too will learn to respect nature.