A vital poetic device in “Used Book Shop” are similes, as it helps describe something more clearly and creatively. The narrator in the poem thought that reading all the books in the shop was “...like eating popcorn,/it’s hard to stop.” The poet uses the simile to creatively show how addicted he or she was to reading books in the used bookshop. The store had “...folks, like cows/in grassy meadows,/stand and browse.” This simile is used to describe the customers and they way they are acting in the used bookshop, and I have a more clear visualization of the people in the store. The narrator thought a book “...was twice as much/as my new iPod.” Kennedy uses the simile to express the narrator’s enjoyment of the books he or she was reading, and can’t …show more content…
In the poem, Kennedy writes the following when the narrator finds “a book my dad/when he was in high school/had once had,” and “...was twice as much fun/as my new iPod” (107). The books the narrator reads in the bookshop are different from each other, as books are always different, and they all have unique ideas. Also, the poem quotes, “I even found/a book my dad/when he was in high school/had once had.” This assigned school book the narrator finds in the store holds memories of his or her father from when he was in school, and that the books from this store are very old-fashioned, hence the “used” in the title. Lastly, the narrator “...always get hooked/in this dusty shop.” The narrator is hooked with all of the books in the bookshop, getting very stimulated by the books he or she reads, and really enjoys being in the store in general. The books creates a major theme in the poem “Used Book Shop”, which is teaching. This is also an important theme in the poems The Floral Apron and Legacies, as the grandmother and older woman want to or are teaching the next generation about virtues or legacies. This theme is made in the poem by having books as a big part of it, as they usually have plenty of information in it to teach the people reading the book. Everybody should be able to read and learn, and unfortunately not all people are provided with books as some can’t afford or find
There are multiple examples of visual imagery in this poem. An example of a simile is “curled like a possum within the hollow trunk”. The effect this has is the way it creates an image for the reader to see how the man is sleeping. An example of personification is, “yet both belonged to the bush, and now are one”. The result this has is how it creates an emotion for the reader to feel
It shows that similes have to be compared universally so everyone can understand. This poem is a really funny read and I
A good example would be when the mother in the story talks about her life using a metaphor of a staircase. In the beginning of the poem, the mother says, "Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, [...] But all the time, I’se been a-climbin’ on" (Hughes lines 1-9). This metaphor describes the mother's life experience, the reader can infer was hard, but the nice part of this excerpt is the final lines, where the metaphor of continuing to climb on the staircase is used to symbolize the mother's goal to persevere, no matter how tough life gets because she believes her efforts will accomplish something good.
An example is, when Grummore makes reference to the heir the nurse tearfully said, “never had no hair. Anybody that studied the the loyal family knowed that.” This is funny because the nurse says hair instead of heir and loyal not royal.To support his purpose and tone, the author uses literary devices such as simile and personification. Simile uses like or as to compare unrelated items. When Kay was trying to convince Sir Ector to go to London, White uses the phrase “eyes like marbles” to describe Grummore’s eyes. He also uses simile during the scene where Merlin is giving up his position as tutor and is leaving the household. White describes Archimedes as “spinning like a top” when he disappears from Merlyn's shoulder. Also, in the scene where Wart pulled the sword from the stone, thousands
For example, He says “The barbed wire encircled us like a wall…”(11). He is trying to compare barbed wire to a wall. He wants us to imagine it was a wall and that's what it felt like for them but he always turned it into a positive because he felt they were now part of a small Jewish republic. In addition, He also said “Monday went down like a small summer cloud, like a dream in the first hours of dawn.”(18). He trying to tell us that monday felt short by describing what it literally felt like but it wasn’t actually. Emotions can get really high in times this and things start to feel different . Similes were a way for the author to express his feelings to the
The fear of reading literature and not being able to comprehend the ideas presented forces readers to create a deeper meaning through annotations, as expressed through Billy Collins’ use of comparative imagery and aggressive diction in “Marginalia” and “Introduction to Poetry.” Collins’ choice to
“He uses similes such as the breeze that ‘blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale frogs’ and that also made a shadow on the ‘wine-colored rug’ as ‘wind does on the sea’.”
Fife’s poetry uses modern language with wording clearly understood by her audience. This approach of using simple, modern language gives the interpretation that Fife is wanting to attract a youth audience, or young adults to read her poetry. Strong imagism is a concept that is used in all three of the poems. This concept of imagism is used to make the reader feel empathy towards the characters within the poem as well as give the reader a vibrant image of what is happening to said characters. In her poem “This is not a Metaphor” it is said:
The speaker uses figurative language to compare a girl that he loves to the happiness of nature, and to state that he will make a special relationship end happily. Simile is a type of figurative language that compares two things using the words “like” or “as.” A simile in line five has a very powerful meaning: “Like everything that’s green, girl, I ne...
The poem opens upon comparisons, with lines 3 through 8 reading, “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets/ of their branches. The maples/ were colored like apples,/part orange and red, part green./ The elms, already transparent trees,/ seemed swaying vases full of sky.” The narrator’s surroundings in this poem illustrate him; and the similes suggest that he is not himself, and instead he acts like others. Just as the maples are colored like apples, he
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts by telling the reader the place, time and activity he is doing, stating that he saw something that he will always remember. His description of his view is explained through simile for example “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets of their branches” (Updike), captivating the reader’s attention
The speaker reflects on the teenage girl’s childhood as she recalls the girl played with “dolls that did pee-pee” (2). This childish description allows the speaker to explain the innocence of the little girl. As a result, the reader immediately feels connected to this cute and innocent young girl. However, the speaker’s diction evolves as the girl grew into a teenager as she proclaims: “She was healthy, tested intelligent, / possessed strong arms and back, / abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (7-9). The speaker applies polished language to illustrate the teen. This causes the reader not only to see the girl as an adult, but also to begin to grasp the importance of her situation. The speaker expresses what the bullies told this girl as she explains: “She was advised to play coy, / exhorted to come on hearty” (12-13). The sophisticated diction shifts towards the girl’s oppressors and their cruel demands of her. Because of this, the reader is aware of the extent of the girl’s abuse. The speaker utilizes an intriguing simile as she announces: “Her good nature wore out / like a fan belt” (15-16). The maturity of the speaker’s word choice becomes evident as she uses a simile a young reader would not understand. This keeps the mature reader focused and allows him to fully understand the somberness of this poem. The speaker concludes the poem as she depicts the teenage girl’s appearance at her funeral: “In the casket displayed on satin she lay / with the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on” (19-20). The speaker elects not to describe the dead girl in an unclear and ingenuous manner. Rather, she is very clear and
When writing poetry, there are many descriptive methods an author may employ to communicate an idea or concept to their audience. One of the more effective methods that authors often use is linking devices, such as metaphors and similes. Throughout “The Elder Sister,” Olds uses linking devices effectively in many ways. An effective image Olds uses is that of “the pressure of Mother’s muscles on her brain,” (5) providing a link to the mother’s expectations for her children. She also uses images of water and fluidity to demonstrate the natural progression of a child into womanhood. Another image is that of the speaker’s elder sister as a metaphorical shield, the one who protected her from the mental strain inflicted by their mother.
One way the Angelou grabs the attention of the reader is by using figurative language. She states that one of the listeners “cackled like a hen.” This is an example of a simile because she is comparing the listener’s laugh to a hen. At the beginning
With this being said Heaney uses similes and denotations throughout his poem to put in a sense of tone in the poem to help the readers get a better understanding of what the people were going through when they would see soldiers walking about. According to Dictionary.com (“Simile”, 2016). “A simile is a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared.” This is being used in line 18 where it says “standing there like youngsters” (Heaney, n.d.). This interprets how men working would pause and observe what was going on and the soldiers marching by just like kids would do when they see something remarkable. Heaney also uses Denotation. Which according to Dictionary.com, “Denotation is the explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it or suggested by it.” This is being showed in the poem throughout various lines. It’s being showed when he writes, “They would have heard the screaming, / Then heard it stop and had a view of us / In our gloves and aprons / coming down the hill” (lines 6-9), this evokes an image showing that what is being told and said is what is truly happening. That the soldiers were so close to them that they could hear the slightest scream of a pig being