In classic, down-to-earth fashion, the dog in “Golden Retrievals” just wants to play. It takes great joy in a “thrillingly dead thing” (6) and “sniff[s] the wind” (4) in search of fun. Still, it wants one more thing: for its owner to share in the joy. For the dog, each moment is the best; for the owner, no moment engages like the past. Thus the poem follows the dog’s thoughts, comparing the dog’s sporadic energy to the owner’s sullen lethargy. In that way, Doty writes his poem through the narrative of a dog, utilizing stream of conscious and structure to convey a sense of playfulness that highlights the importance of living in the moment.
The poem’s organization into stanzas mimics the dog’s train of thought. Each break between stanzas occurs
…show more content…
The dog’s thoughts are interrupted by punctuation like dashes, colons, and parentheses. These interrupt the poem’s flow, mimicking the interruptions in thought created by stanza breaks. The dog finds a “[b]unny, tumbling leaf, a squirrel who’s -oh joy- actually scared”(4). The repeated commas reveal how dog is always thinking about something new as it lists item after item, jumping from attraction to attraction. Furthermore, It uses dashes, exclaiming “oh joy”, to generate a sense of excitement. For the dog who never dwells on anything, everything, be it a leaf or a squirrel, is exciting. Thus Doty suggests that living in the moment makes life enjoyable. This playfulness is furthered when the dog says its work is “to unsnare time’s warp (and woof!)” (11). The parentheses indicate an interruption in the dog’s thoughts. This interruption reveals how the dog does not dwelling on anything for too long, and therefore lives in the moment. With this in mind, The “woof” interrupts the otherwise serious task of saving its owner from “time’s warp”, and therefore gives the poem a lighthearted mood. The dog finds happiness by not dwelling on the past, staying lighthearted even in hard
Both poems use repetition of phrases and anaphora to establish a pace for the speaker’s voice. The repeating syllables provide a pseudo-break in
In Tim Seibles' poem, The Case, he reviews the problematic situations of how white people are naturally born with an unfair privilege. Throughout the poem, he goes into detail about how colored people become uncomfortable when they realize that their skin color is different. Not only does it affect them in an everyday aspect, but also in emotional ways as well. He starts off with stating how white people are beautiful and continues on with how people enjoy their presence. Then he transitions into how people of color actually feel when they encounter a white person. After, he ends with the accusation of the white people in today's world that are still racist and hateful towards people of color.
First of alll, the poem is divided into nine stanzas, where each one has four lines. In addition to that, one can spot a few enjambements for instance (l.9-10). This stylistic device has the function to support the flow of the poem. Furthermore, it is crucial to take a look at the choice of words, when analysing the language.
The poem “Always Something More Beautiful” by Stephen Dunn is certainly about running a race, but the speaker is also arguing that pursuing something beautiful can help guide us through life. Through the title, we can see that we should constantly look for more beautiful things in life. The poem begins with the speaker describing his experience before a race. He uses words like “best” and “love.” The tone is extremely enthusiastic. In the first line, he talks about coming to the starting place. This can be a metaphor for beginning our lifelong journey. The speaker also implies that we need to approach it with a positive attitude. In the next few lines, the speaker indicates being tested in excellence
Each stanza is composed of words that present a logical flow of growth through the entire poem. The words in the poem do not rhyme and the lines are different lengths.
Some people never get satisfied with what they have. In the stories, "Amir", and, "Gold Mountain Poems", The life lesson is to be happy for what you have. In both stories the main characters are immigrants coming to America. In the story, Amir just moved here from India and is upset with the people. In the poem the speaker is taken to an immigrant island instead of being released to go live in America. In both stories they are grateful for what they have.
The poet begins by describing the scene to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and elaborates on how the sky and the ground work in harmony. This is almost a story like layout with a beginning a complication and an ending. Thus the poem has a story like feel to it. At first it may not be clear why the poem is broken up into three- five line stanzas. The poet deliberately used this line stanzas as the most appropriate way to separate scenes and emotions to create a story like format.
Mark Doty’s poem, “Golden Retrievals” describes the thoughts of a dog who’s merry tone contrasts with the human’s sentimental view towards life. The poem is in a form of a Shakespearean sonnet, but uses slant rhymes to further portray the speaker is a canine. Doty uses images, rhythm, rhyme, and organization to encourage the tension between the speaker and the human.
... happier humans may feel. Hughes' Hawk views the world in a way that he is the center of all creations and that he is the one that would prevail through all troubles. Doty's Dog views the world in the present, never looking toward the past or future living in the moment. Both poets convey their speakers in different scenarios and different viewpoints, but in general both hawk and dog sees the world through their eyes as if they're both of better-quality than humans. The techniques both poets presents helps shape these speakers as egocentric (hawk) and carefree (dog) showing the perspectives each holds dearly to the Earth. In my analysis, [H]ughes' [H]awk in "Hawk Roosting" and [D]oty's [D]og in "Golden Retrievals" were really written in their point of views of the world and conveying their own personalities within a poem only to be swathed under stanzas and a title.
In the poem Reunion by Carolyn Forché, she does an excellent job of including line breaks to make a meaningful impact. I noticed that the poet’s use of “half-commas” as referenced in the book helps show the reader where there’s an emphasis. For example, in the poem stanza, “later, the tongues swishing in my dress, some yours, some left by other men.” The punctuation here aids in presenting the words in an exciting way as “some left by other men” was not what I expected after the pause.
Did I Miss Anything? is a poem written by a Canadian poet and academic Tom Wayman. Being a teacher, he creates a piece of literature, where he considers the answers given by a teacher on one and the same question asked by a student, who frequently misses a class. So, there are two speakers present in it – a teacher and a student. The first one is fully presented in the poem and the second one exists only in the title of it. The speakers immediately place the reader in the appropriate setting, where the actions of a poem take place – a regular classroom. Moreover, the speakers unfolds the main theme of the poem – a hardship of being a teacher, the importance of education and laziness, indifference and careless attitudes of a student towards studying.
This poem is broken up into three stanzas with each stanza containing six lines and within each line, eight syllables. With a set structure such as this, the poem is more organized and better understood by the reader.
the poem keep the reader in tune with the flow of the poem. In this
In relation to structure and style, the poem contains six stanzas of varying lengths. The first, second, and fourth stanzas
Each of the seven stanzas in the poem are made up of twelve lines that allow the reader to understand and follow along while reading the poem. In this particular poem the way that the stanzas are arranged make an important contribution, because without the arrangement of the stanzas the reader may not be capable of grasping the poem mentally. “Tinkle homeward thro’ the twilight, stray or stop/ As they crop” (Browning). In the poem the reader is able to identify a pattern between the lines; the first line is long while the second line is short and this can be seen from the beginning of the poem to the end of the poem. Alternation between a long line and a short line help the reader keep up with the poem and maintain the rhythm when reading not only mentally but also physically. The reader can also observe that the lines are arranged to where the last word of two lines rhyme, “But he looked upon the city, every side, / Far and wide” (Browning). The use of this technique contributes to the formation of the rhythm while at the same time making the poem catchy. Rhythm can be identified by the reader as a result of the line alternations. The rhythm of the poem contributes to th...