From this, Sappho shows that it may not be the best way but an affective way to handle pain in a vengeful manner. She expresses how she sees and handles pain in such a depressing way and from that pain comes motivation for revenge. Sappho is able to get the relief and satisfaction from causing the source of her pain an equal amount of suffering she has gone through. In this poem, Sappho is not asking for pity, but making a statement of how she gets over an emotional injury through physical movement. The title “In My Pain” explains how she speaks of her pain, but also what is behind it.
Tone in Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus" In “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath, the speaker’s tone is revealed through many different poetic aspects. Throughout her writing, the speaker’s attitude towards death appears to be happy but, when looking more closely at Plath’s use of poetic devices her attitude is bitter. Shown mainly through the diction, images, sounds and repetition, this depressing tone emphasizes the speaker’s feelings about death. First, diction or word choice used throughout this poem depicts apart the meaning and stresses the tone. Next, the images used to describe the speaker’s experiences with death shows the emotions and thoughts that go through the speaker’s mind concerning death.
The key is to hear not only what is being said but also how it is being said.” (Kennedy and Gioia) Her use of several styles of irony help with the tone she is trying to convey. She uses the word hate when it has the ability to actually mean it’s opposite, love. It clearly makes a difference in what the speaker was saying and how people may react to it when exchanging those words. She uses the repetition of the words hate, you, and my which add emotion and emphasize her personal deep down feelings. Without her use of sarcasm this poem would have been good but not great.
The repetition of words such as pure, seduce, adultery, American, and Abell help to guide the reader’s emotions and thoughts about Hester and her sin. When Lawrence describes her, his critical diction is revealed by mocking her as an “A. Adulteressl Abell Abell Abell Admireabel” (Lawrence 22). These words emphasize the negative and evil faces of Hester Prynne and associates herself as a person not commendable. This proves to be more effective because the repetition of these words establish an emotional interaction with the readers while also sending many reminders of the words and their pessimistic connotations.
Loneliness is one of those emotions that writers tend to favor because it explores the darker part of the human soul and allows room for growth and improvement in characters. The use of loneliness as an overall theme is thoroughly expressed in Elisavietta Ritchie’s poem “Sorting Laundry”, Willa Cather’s novel My Ántonia, Arthur Miller’s drama Death of a Salesman, and Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story “Interpreter of Maladies”. In each piece of literature, the writers explore the depth that loneliness has to offer as an emotion while their characters explore the various ways to handle that same depth. In the poem “Sorting Laundry” by Elisavietta Ritchie, loneliness is established through the theme that oftentimes, in order to avoid feeling lonely, one will hold onto that which is no longer there. Although the persona never actually experiences true loneliness, she still fears of waking up to an “empty side of the bed” (line 51) where her lover normally lies.
One fact that is interesting is how Joan Halifax explains those previously mentioned “those eyes and hands” which were fierce and wrathful were used tenderly and wisely as well. She describes of people who have those characteristics would “touch” other’s lives for the better when she gave many emotionally touching examples. She mentions stories of kindness or how women, an old man, etc. kindly care for ugly people who others would run away from due to victim’s disgusting appearance. The reason why Joan Halifax mentioned this is because those caretakers are able to see clearly in to victim’s nature of suffering as their own.
Also, the nature of the poem confuses her idea that to men there is the good and bad woman this is because this poem is suggested to be aimed at shakespeares dark lady and at first glance you may assume that this means she would fall into the trope of the bad women. However the love the reader feels for the women is deep and true, going beyond physical appearance and this links closer to the trope of the good women. This suggests that the idea of the good and bad women is not as clear cut and Shakespeare plays with this idea. Through his description he paints an almost revolting image of the female, an example of this being "If her hair be wires, black wires grow on her head." This clever simile creates the impression that she is unkempt and we get almost hag like connotations from this description.
By using quick and abrupt sounds ‘Bones’, ‘sudden shock’ and ‘bruise’ aggression is shown through her writing making it seem as if the abuse is happening as you read the poem. This suggests to us that when we open ourselves up to love we open ourselves up to hurt. The portrayal of love is shown very differently in ‘Where we belong, A duet’. Through Maya Angelou’s description she creates images of loneliness and distraction. This is very different to ‘A kind of love some say’ when it presents a fine line between love and hate, ‘Hate often is confused’.
These elements all combine to enhance the theme of the poem. In contrast Marvell in To His Coy Mistress uses tone, figurative language and rhythm to give a completely different effect on the reader. The scornful, jeering manner of Sonnet X is replaced with the passionate and endearing spirit of an ardent lover. The figurative language used on the 'coy' mistress stirs the emotions and shocks the senses of the reader, allowing the increased intensity of the poem as it progresses to make the poem more effective. The substantial difference between the two poems with regards to their approach of death is the influence of how the poets themselves view death.
Vulnerability is the ability to be open to hurt, pain, and suffering or appear as you are. I believe the scariest thing about being vulnerable is that once you are vulnerable with someone you do not know what they will do. People are uncomfortable not knowing the future, we strive to know every little detail. However, being vulnerable leaves one at a state of not knowing what will happen. This is why people hate and even fear being vulnerable.