Comparing Ben Bertram’s [Response] and Kogawa’s Road Building by Pick Axe is an interesting exercise. There are two primary points of comparison : First, why did each author choose to use the form of poetry that they did, haiku for Bertram and blank verse for Kogawa; Secondly, what using that form of poetry accomplished for their poem. The reason that these poems should be read together is because Bertram raises several important questions about Kogawa’s writing that will help you to better understand Kogawa’s message.
The reason Bertram has chosen to write in haiku is quite simple: To prove that you can write in haiku and still get your message across. Bertram is questioning what seems to him to be an implicit contradiction in Kogawa’s Road Building by Pick-axe,“If you blame them so why adopt the form that they used to take everything” (Bertram, 10-12). He wants to know why Kogawa, in a poem about the loss of her Japanese heritage and the lack of respect for her culture the Canadian government showed, wrote in what Bertram sees as Canadian forms rather than Japanese ones. To prove to Kogawa that you can write in haiku and still get your message across, Bertram wrote his poem in it.
So why did Kogawa choose to write her poem in using traditional English forms? There are two main reasons. The first reason is exemplified by her line “my British British Columbia” (Kogawa, May 3 1981, 12-13), emphasis added. That sentence, the idea that that British Columbia is British and the Japanese Canadians do not matter, is Kogawa’s grievance concisely. Road Building is not a poem lamenting the loss of the past, but pointing out the ignorance of the British Canadians who put “Western Canada hatred due to racism” (9-10) as a newspaper headline thirty years later, as if they were just figuring it out. She has written it in English because her poem is trying to bring the ignorance of the English people to the spotlight and try to get them to fix it. She uses English and uses the traditional Western poetic form because, as she has already established, her audience is ignorant and she is trying to educate them. Using forms that they were unfamiliar with would just make it harder to get her message across.
The informal language and intimacy of the poem are two techniques the poet uses to convey his message to his audience. He speaks openly and simply, as if he is talking to a close friend. The language is full of slang, two-word sentences, and rambling thoughts; all of which are aspects of conversations between two people who know each other well. The fact that none of the lines ryhme adds to the idea of an ordinary conversation, because most people do not speak in verse. The tone of the poem is rambling and gives the impression that the speaker is thinking and jumping from one thought to the next very quickly.
For this final essay I selected three literary masterpieces namely the story titled “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, and two Emily Dickinson’s Poems: I heard a fly buzz and The heart asks for pleasure first. The following essay will explore these works in a greater detail focusing on the elements of literature, such as the theme, the character, settings and conflicts. It will find ways to connect, relate or compare one literary work to two others as well as it will analyze the specific element in the selections with some depth. The paper will support points with appropriate examples from the selections and explain how the examples support those points.
When you open up one of Lucille Clifton’s books of poetry, you will first notice her unique form. Her poems lack capitalization, punctuation, and many of her poems reject the normal etiquette for spacing. They are often described as “spare in form, deceptively simple in language, complex in ideas, and reflective of the commonplace” (Houston). The lack in form seems to be very significant because there are some poems where capitalization and punctuation are used. In Holladay’s Wild Blessings, it is suggested that “like the Beat poets, black activist poets were reacting against the political and literary establishment”(19). There is importance in the lack of form, but it seems that Clifton was not aiming to revolutionize, but merely make a point that the way the poem is written reflects her feelings on the subject.
middle of paper ... ... The significance lies in the possibility that with the different types of poetry in the narrative, the governor presents examples of the types of poems that should be written by different people coming from different classes. Looking back at the narratives and the significance of the poems in them, it is clear that many of the poems are inspired by nature around the authors. Also, the poems provide more of the voice of the authors instead of just the voice of the narrator and helps present the emotional tones of the characters in the narratives to the reader so that there can be more of a connection to it when it is being read.
Ellmann, Richard and O'Clair, Robert, ed. The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, Second Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.
3. Ellmann, Richard. Modern Poems: A Norton Introduction. p. 797-803. W.W. Norton and Company, 1973.
When examining the plot structure of the poem, a distinctive pattern emerges. The story is frequently interrupted with anecdotes that are either directly or indirectly related to current events. This often takes the form of recounting historical precedents as a way of contextualizing a character’s actions or, if the precedent is lacking, perhaps to note a deviation from tradition. For example, when Kiyomori resolves to move the capital to Fukuhara, the ch...
...ning." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 12th ed. Boston: Pearson, n.d. 1064-065. Print.
The introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins, encourages the reader to let the mind free and interpret the revelation of life experience through a spectrum of meanings for the true meaning lies in the heart of the poem not so much on the surface. Billy Collins while encourages the discovery of beauty in a poem, however Collins takes a darker tone when disappointed in the fact that the reader’s interest in what the poem can reveal.
Strand, Mark and Evan Boland. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New
After reading “ Breathe dust…” of Fred Wah, I was very impressed by the relationship between the form and the contents of this poem. In fact, I found the idea that the form, the structure of a sentence, can support and better explain the content of it very interesting. For example, the title, which refers to the first words of the poem, describes also the situation while we read this text; it gave me the feeling that the poem was one with the reader, as if he was part of the script.
The two works of focus are James Wright’s poem Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota, and Emily Dickinson’s poem I heard a Fly buzz-when I died. The formal features that will be used to analyze these works are the use of first person singular speaker, and content type. In addition, these two formal features work together to in each poem to clarify the illustration of the main idea. Interestingly, content type and first person singular speaker are used quite similarly in each work, but with their own small variations.
Form is often overlooked when analyzing a multitude features in a variety of literature. In “3 ways to speak English,” by Jamila Lyiscott, “The Dangers of Single Story,” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and “Mother Tongue,” by Amy Tan utilizes both form and content to bring unity into their writings. Throughout this essay, it will discuss the parallel relationship between form and content.
Selden, R., & Widdowson, P. (1993). A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory (3rd ed.). London and New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Turco, Lewis. The New Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics. Hanover: University Press of New England; 1986.