A Better Understanding of Misunderstanding People suffer in a variety of ways for a little of different reasons. Sometimes this suffering can go unnoticed or be misunderstood, because people don’t see or misinterpret the symptoms of suffering. The poems “Not Waving but Drowning”, by Stevie Smith, and “Richard Cory”, by Edwin Arlington Robinson, explore the idea of misunderstood suffering in very different ways. Although both poems are masterfully crafted, “Not Waving but Drowning” is more effective in its critique of how suffering is misjudged in its usage of structure and speaker as well as its language. Within the aforementioned poems specific linguistic choices were intentionally utilized to make the critique of misinterpreted suffering …show more content…
The sentences used by Smith range from 24-29 words. The sheer length of these sentences is not what makes them so effective. Smith utilizes these long sentences as well as drastic changes in speaker point of view within these long sentences to add an additional layer of confusion for the reader. A reader must first read these lengthy sentences as well as distinguish where the shift between speakers are. This detail adds another layer of complexity and confusion to the pome that highlights how easy it can be to misinterpret the distress of others. Smith presents this story to readers in a way that is anything but straight forward and requires careful reading and consideration to make sense of it. “ Oh, no no no, it was too cold always (Still the dead one lay moaning) I was much too far out all my life and not waving but drowning” (Smith 288 Lines 9-12) is a sentence that is constructed from 29 words and changes its speaker 3 times. The line nine is told from the point of view of a friend or on looker, while line ten is told from the point of view of a narrator, and lines eleven through twelve are said by the dead man. This very convoluted and complex writing style creates even more confusion in
Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, in their poems “We Real Cool” and “Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict”, are both alike in their idea of dealing with troubled youth. Brooks discusses in her poem “We Real Cool” rebellious pool-playing youth that “sing sin” (Line 5) and “thin gin.” (Line 6) The whole poem centers around disturbed youth. The narrator in Sonia Sanchez’s poem “Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict”, is also a disturbed young woman who is addicted to heroin, and seems to live a rather rebellious lifestyle. In addition, both of these poems use tone via word choice, sentence structure, and meter in order to vividly describe the scenarios in their poems, and to impact their reader. However, both poets use the literary elements mentioned above differently in their poems.
The metafictional devices in Larry Levis’ “The Poem You Asked For” are found in overt and subtle ways throughout the poem. The first metafictional device is the poem is about a character writing a poem. The narrator references the odious poem in every single stanza. Despite the narrator’s best efforts, the poem r...
A writer’s choice of nouns and verbs alters the feel and meaning of a poem. A prime expel of this fact is in the Crowder Collage literature book, on page even hundred seventy-three, more topics for writing, number two. I chose the poem “When the Time’s Toxins,” by Christian Wiman, for the exercise.
In the poem “Self-Pity’s Closet” by Michelle Boisseu, the speaker’s main conflict is self pity, and the author used diction and imagery to show the effects that the conflict has on the speaker. Phrases like “secret open wounds,” (3) show the effects with the word “secret” meaning pain that others are not noticing, which leads up to the speaker getting hurt, but no one indicating to notice it. Another effect is the speaker becoming more self concerning and thinking more about her negatives. This effect portrays through “night raining spears of stars,” (19) because night tends to be the time when people have the most thoughts about themselves and also the word “spears” make up an image of pain piercing through the speaker. “Tangy molasses of
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.
In her poem entitled “The Poet with His Face in His Hands,” Mary Oliver utilizes the voice of her work’s speaker to dismiss and belittle those poets who focus on their own misery in their writings. Although the poem models itself a scolding, Oliver wrote the work as a poem with the purpose of delivering an argument against the usage of depressing, personal subject matters for poetry. Oliver’s intention is to dissuade her fellow poets from promoting misery and personal mistakes in their works, and she accomplishes this task through her speaker’s diction and tone, the imagery, setting, and mood created within the content of the poem itself, and the incorporation of such persuasive structures as enjambment and juxtaposition to bolster the poem’s
On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
...to help express the theme of the poems by illustrating the role the subject matter played in the life of the persona during their grieving period. Furthermore, metaphors helped communicate the thoughts and feelings of the personas by providing the reader with insight into the relationships and emotions covert in the poem. All in all, the poetic devices incorporated in each individual poetic composition played vital roles in the emotional and dramatic impact of these poems. And who knows, the immaculate use of these fundamental literary devices could be the key to successful love poems all around the world.
The barbarous images illustrated in the poems of tortured souls were so harsh to picture and not even experience in real life. In the first poem “Strange Fruit,” we get this image of discrimination
“Nobody heard him, the dead man, / but still he lay moaning:” This is how many people go on through life. Many are dying inside but you would never know. It is possible for people to create masks to hide their emotions. Sometimes these masks are so deceptive that even close friends or family members cannot see through then until it is too late. In Stevie Smith’s poem, “Not Waving but Drowning” the writer effectively highlights how someone’s cry for help can be mistaken for joy. It is important for people to at least have someone who cares about them and knows them well enough to see when something is going wrong in their lives. This can often be the lifeline that saves one from drowning.
In the poem “Auschwitz” by Charles N. Whittaker, the poet uses figurative language such, as end- rhymes and a metaphor to convey a theme about death and losing hope/faith. In the poem, Whittaker uses this phrase “and the blue ink slabs a little harder on the skin/ above the veins in despair where murder let in”(Stanza 3 lines 1-2). Here, Whittaker addresses how “skin” and “in” rhyme at the end of the rhymes. To infer more, end-rhymes occur in the rhyming of the words at the end of the two or more lines of poetry. This connects to the theme of death because the blue inks may represent the blood of all the prisoners who are dying. This illustrates how death is represented when saying “murder” and “veins”. Another example is the metaphor used
Stirman, S. W. & Pennebaker, J. W. (2001): Word Use in the Poetry of Suicidal and Nonsuicidal Poets. Psychosomatic Medicine. 63, p. 517-522 � 2001 American Psychosomatic Society, Retrieved December 20, 2004 from http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/full/63/4/517
Stevie Smith’s poem Not Waving But Drowning, brings to light numerous parallels in the book and the play and it is alluded to several times. The play and the poem draw similar situation but towards the end leads into different endings. In the poem the man dies, this man we can associate with Sophie but in the book, we see that Sofie rescued, rescued by the man who was much farther out than her. This alludes to how in real life there are people who might be in more of a dire need, who are you can almost say “Much further out than you [think]”. Not Waving But Drowning embodies Bradie and Sofie’s situation, how Sofie struggles and Bradie struggle with depression, and how they connect and seek out each other’s help. Help they cannot give because
In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.
I found that throughout this poem there was much symbolism within it. Identifying that it was written in first person form showed that this poem relates to the author on a personal basis, and that it was probably written to symbolize his life. But when talking about people’s lives, you can conclude that people’s lives are generally and individually very diffe...