“Hawk Roosting” and “Golden Retrievals” show contrasting views of the world through an animal's perspective. The “hawk” looks upon the world as if it were his own, like a god, However, the “dog” sees life in the moment, and in a simplistic way. These two poems use poetic devices like contrasting tones, various diction, and vivid imagery. The tone in “Hawk Roosting” shows superiority. The whole story revolves around the hawk's arrogance, and how he believes everything belongs to him. The hawk states “I kill where I please because it is all mine.” which makes it seem like he created the world, as if he were a god. The tone in “Golden Retrievals” is happy and full of energy, because the dog is running spontaneously as if it were his last day on earth. The dog states “Balls and sticks capture my attention seconds at a time.” proving the dog is full of joy. Both of these poems are very different, yet they both show contrasting world views. The “hawk” represents people with high positions of power, like the president or people in the government. The “dog” represents simple, lower class people, like a farmer or even a person who leads a much simpler life than people in the upper class. The contrasting tones are important because it helps the reader understand the way these different animals portray people with different views of the world. …show more content…
The diction in “Golden Retrievals” is joyful. Simple words like “Fetch”, “Catch”, and “Oh joy” describes the dog being happy. The diction throughout the poem slows down and becomes a bit more complex with words like “unsnare” and “bronzy gong”. The various uses of diction throughout these poems are important because without them, the author could not describe the tense atmosphere of the two
Kelly, Joseph. The Seagull Reader Poems Second Edition. New York: W.W Norton and Company, 2001.
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
The poem had been one of the owner’s favorites and the house read it to her every night before bed. When the poem is read to the woman before bed, the house says, “There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, and swallows circling with their shimmering sound…” (4). This line from the poem read by the house describes the perfect image of nature and its purpose. The poem discusses different images and proves life’s beauty to its reader. Whoever was to read the poem is meant to recognize the significance of nature and its beauty, and how often it is overlooked. People expect nature to tend to their every need, when in fact, nature is in no debt to
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.
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.
Patrick Rosal’s poem, “BEAST,” is a unique poem that diverges from the archetypal model of poetry. Perhaps, to an untrained eye, it may seem like a poorly written poem, however, it is actually quite eloquently crafted. There are several elements that give it a deeper meaning that might be difficult to understand upon the first couple readings. The more the poem is read, the more obvious the elements become. Rosal’s consistency with his diction throughout the story, the first portion of the poem acting as a juxtaposition to the second, and connections with the poem, “How to Fall in Love With Your Father,” are combined perfectly to form this excellent piece of work.
In his poem “The Great Scarf of Birds”, John Updike uses a flock of birds to show that man can be uplifted by observing nature. Updike’s conclusion is lead up to with the beauty of autumn and what a binding spell it has on the two men playing golf. In Updike’s conclusion and throughout the poem, he uses metaphors, similes, and diction to show how nature mesmerizes humans.
When we read the title of the poem by Lucie Brock-Broido, our attention is interrupted by a little number ‘1’ on the tail of the word ‘Lion’. Instinctively we stop in our tracks and gaze down to the bottom of the page to the footnote, initially forgetting about the poem all-together and instead, focused on the tiny font that displays some added information. This text changes the way we look at “Self-Deliverance by Lion” by transporting us from poetic language to academic writing, by adding authenticity and authority to the poem, and by literally changing our focus from inside the poem to outside of it. I will explain the techniques that footnotes use to add to the meaning of the poem by comparing my interpretation of the poem before seeing the footnote and that upon reading the footnote in Vendler’s edition. This will aim to show that the poem is best suited without the footnote and that its presence deters from a more meaningful reading. Before that, however, I will examine the techniques of both the footnote and the poem in helping one work towards meaning.
By reading the first poem we can see that an eagle can suddenly change its personality without warning. As mentioned in Tennyson's "The Eagle", the bird is sitting atop of a mountain and then suddenly dives towards the water in search of prey. We are given a description of the eagle that allows us to see how calm he is, but at the same time there is a feel to the poem that he is soon going to go for the kill, such as the alliteration used in line one, where "He clasps the crag with crooked hands;" this statement gives us a feeling that not all is calm with the eagle, it seems increasingly more and more climatic. This poem shows us the very violent yet tactical sides of the eagle, we can not make out anything caring or loving about the eagle.
Although this poem is reverent to the yellow bird, it is undoubtedly about its death and burial; it is a poem about beauty that has been “extinguished”. The “electric, excited, murmurous”(36-38) bird whose beauty pertained to its “defiance”(54) was entrapped, restricted, forced to go against its natural ways. Even when Neruda mentions the beauty of the bird, he does not forget to attach the reminder that it no longer exists or that it was taken away from the bird. The characteristics, the “yellow flashes, the black lightning”(lines 10-11), that once made the bird one with nature were covered in dirt when it was buried. Readers can imagine not only the bird encaged and dead, but also the way Neruda associated its color and way of being to one of nature 's occurrences. So when the reader imagines the bird buried, they also see yellow and black lightning. And the inevitable noise and the feeling of fearful amazement that comes with it. The burial of a bird is also a reminder of the mood at people’s funerals. Moreover, many people keep birds as pets trapped in a small cage rather than let it be free where it 's supposed to be. Many times, the captors are aware of the cruelty but still wish to selfishly and without benefits hold on to their beauty and not let it go. Intertwined in
He sees how much an animal means to an individual, whether it be a cow to a farmer or a little poodle to an old lady. Each and every case is a brand new one. He feels for each and every animal, whether it is a bird or a horse.
about the animal in the poem and not how he thought of what to write
My Pre-Critical Response to Thomas Gray's "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes" is as follows: A cat was playing with a fish in the fish bowl. The cat fell in and then drowned because none cared enough to save her. When I take a second look, details of the setting and location; language usage and sentence patterns; tone and mood; deeper meanings to the poem can be found. The Formalistic and Dialogical Approaches can be used to find these deeper meanings.
In the poems “Hawk Roosting” and “Golden Retrievals,” Ted Hughes and Mark Doty, respectively, portray differing views of the world from the perspectives of two different animals. Hughes depicts a hawk as omnipotent, cunning, and calculating in its actions and motives; whereas Doty conveys the animal perspective through a golden retrieval depicted as carefree and joyful. Through utilization of poetic devices, both authors offer contrasting characterizations of the two animals and distinct perspectives of the world.
“Talking to Grief,” by Denise Levertov approaches the topic of grief by using a homeless dog as the primary symbol in which we see the dog make the transition from acceptance to becoming a permanent household member. The theme of the poem is the welcoming and acceptance of grief and viewing it as a friend rather than an enemy. The narrator gets the point across that grief is a misunderstood companion and sometimes needs to be present for the sake of healing.