In both Silent Dancing by Judith Ortiz Cofer and Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon, there is a feeling of liminality since both authors are never permanently in one spot. Ada Limon explained it best in an interview on her collection of poems when she said, "It is so hard to love a place that's temporary." As a college student stuck between my hometown, and a city where my heart will never belong to, I understand this state. I understand the feeling of never settling in, of never truly being in love with the noise of it all. There's a line in Limon's poem "State Bird" that truly captured this feeling for me. Confession: I did not want to live here, Not among the goldenrod, wild onions, Or the dropseed. That line said everything
Erdrich, Louise. “Captivity,” in Kelly, Joseph ed. The Seagull Reader: Poems. Norton and Company: New York, 2001.
Paul Laurence Dunbar depicts this idea in his well-known poem “Sympathy” (one of my favorite poems!), describing a caged bird that longs for freedom. Dunbar establishes his knowledge of the bird’s feelings, his desire for freedom (his motive of rebellion). Dunbar draws empathy from the audience as he describes the bird’s integrity in the descriptive lines: “I know why the caged bird beats his wing Till its blood is red on the cruel bars.” The caged bird goes to a dangerous extent to be heard, as he bleeds on his prison bars, for he is willing to do anything for his freedom— this shows his integrity and confidence in his values. Dunbar finishes off the poem with powerful lines: “But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core, But a plea that upward heaven he flings— I know why the caged bird sings!” The caged bird is depicted as battered, bruised, and beaten from his violent rebellion— praying as his last chance of freedom. The bird’s belief in its virtuous rebellion justifies the revolt, as we see the bird’s constant persistency, even as the mutiny is demoted to prayer.
A Comparison of Dance Macabre and Night On A Bare Mountain Programme Music is a piece of music which can describe something. It has many advantages in a way because you could be looking at an image or words I.e. (a poem) and it can instantly interpret through the various types of musical instruments (Strings, Percussion, Woodwind & Brass) what you are reading or looking at. This can be done by varying the usage of tempo, rhythm, pitch, melody, accompaniment, & dynamics etc. You may find that the sound an instrument creates can effect the way we feel. An example :a flute could be classed as harmonious because the flute plays a high-pitched note that can give the effect of cheeriness.
The governmental leaders of the United States of America began implementing Indian policies from its inception. As Euro-Americans they expected all non-whites in the U.S. to assimilate into a Euro-American (Christian) lifestyle, without reciprocation or sympathy to the traditions and history of our native people. Our founding fathers and subsequent leaders of the United States at varying times have used suppression, segregation, aggression, and assimilation to manage what they perceived as an Indian problem, and civilize them. The native peoples of North America have responded to these actions by, at times, complying with the U.S. government and allowing themselves to be relocated to other areas of the country leaving behind their ancestral
The title poem, "Angle of Geese," shows how Momaday employs sensory experience as an integral part of the message, not just as ornament. In the first part of the poem, Momaday relates his reactions to the funeral of a ...
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”.
John Updike’s poem “The Great Scarf of Birds” expresses the varying emotions the narrator experiences as he witnesses certain events from nature. His narration of the birds throughout the poem acts as numerous forms of imagery and symbolism concerning him and his life, and this becomes a recollection of the varying emotional stances he comes to terms with that he has experienced in his life. These changes are so gradually and powerfully expressed because of a fluent use of diction and figurative language, specifically symbolism and simile, and aided by organization.
Krysten Hill’s dynamic performance of her original poetry was inspiring. Before watching Hill perform her poetry, I thought poetry was a whole bunch of rhyming words jotted down on a piece of paper. Hill has completely changed my definition and feelings about poetry. While watching and listening to Hill’s poems, I was transported back in time to when the poems were taking place. When Hill read her poem about her mother I could picture the hospital room and a woman struggling with her decision to put her daughter up for adoption. Her choice of descriptions made the poems moving. While watching Hill perform, I did not see or hear many emotions, but when carefully listening a floodgate of emotions was opened. Her word choice was impeccable, which
Being treated equally, and having equal rights, as others, was a constant struggle during the 18 and 1900’s for people of color. There was no valid reason as of why they were being oppressed, resulting in riots, battling for justice. In”Caged Bird,” a poem by Maya Angelou, she creates a scene in which one bird is free, soaring wherever the bird wishes, happily. Whie another bird is caged, miserable, with clipped wing, tied up. In addition, written in “Sympathy,” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, another highly meaningful poem, there is a single bird, that also is trapped, crying out for help due to it feeling depressed, and constantly beating itself up. Although, the bird in “Sympathy” and “Caged Bird” can both symbolize a variety of things, depending
Halloween and the Day of the Dead are both two very important holidays to two very different cultures; one Spanish, the other American. Things that may include these differences are food, religions, and skeletons. Even those these two holidays are just as different as their cultures, somethings are similar as well.
“When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be.” Poetry for Students. Eds. Marie Rose Napierkowski and Mary K. Ruby. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. 294-306. Print.
Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved swims like a garden pond full of minnows with thoughts and memories of days gone by. Each memory is like a drop of water, and when one person brings up enough drops, a trickle of a stream is formed. The trickles make their way down the shallow slopes and inclines, pushing leaves, twigs, and other barriers out of the way, leaving small bits of themselves behind so their paths can be traced again. There is a point, a vertex, a lair, where many peoples streams unite in a valley, in the heart of a pebble lined brook, and it is here that their trickles of days gone by fuse with each other, and float hand in hand until they ultimately settle to form the backyard pond.
“...I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,- When he beats his bars and would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core, But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings- I know why the caged bird sings!” ―Paul Laurence Dunbar” like how birds are caged they were not given the freedom like how a black man is longing for freedom in a racist white society. He starts off describing the pure and good of this universe the nature of our sun and the grass that waves in the wind and the river that flows, but he is that bird in that cage viewing the world but not experiencing the good parts, because he was taken that freedom and looked upon as an animal. As the poem goes on its his own pain suffering and trapped from what he longs for, he beats his wings he wishes so badly to be free the way a bird would feel locked up. As he beats the bars mad hating life left with bruises, he sings to the heavens getting his joy and glee. His prayers and seeing a view of the universe that no white man could at the time. that keeps him humble to understand the little things that aren't so little after all. He knows the feeling of the bird in that cage who sings because he is that black man in society who prays. Paul Laurence Dunbar is remembered for his Writing career, Works of poetry and Legacy and honors.
In Kew Gardens, Virginia Woolf takes advantage of the liminal quality of the short story in order to highlight the suspended world that she creates in the garden. For Woolf, the lyrical short story’s subversion of traditional narrative structure allows her to focus on creating a world rather than a plot. Further, the short story creates a liminal space by the very nature of its form. Caught in a space where it is not considered a poem or a novel, the short story exists as undefined. The liminality of the short story, however, is both liberating and restricting. Woolf explores this feature in order to suggest the unsustainable nature of Kew Gardens. While Woolf utilizes the form of the short story to create a liminal, impressionistic space that eradicates the boundaries between human and nature, she also uses the transitory quality of the short story to suggest that such a space can only exist for a short duration due to the restrictions of the imposing outside world.
What do you feel when you see a sunset? Warm, happy, amazed, awe-inspired? The sun rose yesterday, and will again tomorrow, and will again the day after that, it’s not as if the sunrise is a miraculous event, yet the emotions are visceral. It’s beautiful, and this strikes a deep, primal chord inside. John Berger attempts to unravel this mysterious attraction to beauty in his essay, “The White Bird”. The white bird in question is a small, wooden carving of a white bird, hung in the kitchens of certain cultures that experience long winters, such as the Haute Savoie region in France. According to Berger, the birds are an attempt to hold onto the fleeting beauty of nature, and a reminder of the spring to come. “Nature is energy and struggle. It