Clem Stark is an American poet that resides in Oregon. He is known as one of Oregon’s best poets. Stark is a construction worker at Oregon State University (AT OUR BEST Jesse Sowa). Stark is best known for his poetry that relates to everyday life practices. His poetry is carefully constructed with though out lines. The poem, Me and Maloney, is a direct reflection on Stark’s life. The poem is about Stark and his works in construction with his friend Maloney. The poem uses lines from Stark’s life to show everyday life experiences, “And I’m left with Maloney, - who likes to drink beer after work- and tell stories. - Construction stories. Ex-wife stories. Stories”. The poems theme is sorrowful. Stark reflects on a day of work and the after parts of work. The days for stark are repetitive, “I know what he means. I work- for Maloney Construction- When it rains we work in the rain. When it snows- we work in the snow- I am Maloney’s right hand man: - when he laughs I laugh too”. This poem shows how when you get in the groove of life and create a routine; it can become boring and bland. …show more content…
The poem is about Stark and his family dismantling their house. The poem starts off with the selling of common household items: lumbar, toilets, nails, kindling and French doors. It then proceeds to the demolition of the house first tearing off the roof and then they rest of the house. The theme of this poem is angry. Stark is angry that his house is being dismantled. Stark is also confused as to what will remain when his house is gone, “And when we are finished, - what will there be at Ninth and Van Buren? - A square bare of earth- where a house was. - Sidewalk. Foundation. Concrete stoop. - Two steps up- and you’re there.” This poem like many other poems by Stark is a snip-bit of Stark’s life that is relatable to many
The persona in the poem reacts to the power the wall has and realizes that he must face his past and everything related to it, especially Vietnam.
“I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all!”(199), these were the last words of Chris McCandless in a picture with him smiling and waving good-bye. Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer is an extension of an article first published in Outside magazine. In the book, Krakauer further explains the journey of Chris McCandless, while providing his own insight to provide the reader a better understanding of the McCandless reasoning. McCandless lived a nomadic life after he graduated from college, traveling from South Dakota to Mexico. However, his two year journey proved fatal when he took a trip to Alaska, his greatest undertaking. Among his remains several books were discovered, including a copy of Walden by Henry D. Thoreau
Another way this passage turns the mood of the poem is by using grouping and form to link the workers together, both in inference and appearance. Previously, each worker’s situation has been treated as an isolated story, literally separated from the others by a blank line. However, lines 85-97 are crowded together without spaces, suggesting unity by the very appearance of the lines. All of the grievances are briefly repeated, and then a sequence of "ands" binds the one-sentence recaps together. Yet in spite of this sense of solidarity, each person’s story is given its own sentence with a period boundary, subtly emphasizing their individual importance: solidarity is acceptable, but anonymity is not.
The first six lines of the poem highlight the incompetence of love when compared to the basic supplies for life. Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink And rise and sink and rise and sink again Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath, Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone; It is quite obvious that the narrator highlights everything that requires living in line 1 through 6. Line 1 depicts the deficiency of love as a thing that is not able to provide food as compared to “meat” (1): love cannot hydrate a man as signified by “drink” (1): love cannot refresh a man as signified by “slumber” (2): it does not offer shelter as signified by “a roof against the rain” (2): love cannot give a preserving “floating spar” to a man who is in peril (3): nor will love give air to a “thickened lung” (5): love cannot “set the fractured bone” (6). The narrator describes love as a worthless element in the first 6 lines, but line 7 and line 8 express a tremendous level of violence that people are willing to commit because of the lack of love: “ Yet many a man is making friends with death / Even as I speak, for lack of love alone” (7-8). Line 7 and line 8 is an evidence to prove that no matter what the poet says about love, people are willing to die for it because it is important.
Ethan already experiences repetition in his life, and now this new feeling with Mattie never occurs long enough for Ethan to taste a lasting change. Ethan can only begin to feel like a changed man when Mattie and him are out of the house, or when Zeena is out of town for medical reasons. Ethan feels he makes progress with Mattie, but his failure to solidify a relationship with her is another pattern in his life. As if Ethan’s life is not pitiful enough, he “is a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface” (Wharton 5). The description of Starkfield only amplifies the level of prevention that the setting and climate place on his relationship with Mattie.
At first glance the poem may appear to have no purpose other than the, describing the hash Australian outback, but the last two lines suggest some additional significance. The poet shows that this simple, pleasant memory and how it re-in-acts his childhood. The way in which the windmills squeaks and groans to bring water from the ground whereas during the period of rain they work in harmony, as the rain comes down.
The opening poem brings up ideas of unfamiliarity and distance. Frank is confused with how his house has changed so much after he has come back from war, but in reality, he was only denying his past, deceiving himself. The lock and the key represent how even though Frank wants to get rid of his bad memories, they’ll always stay with him, just like how his past can never be erased. In contrast, at the end of the novel, the poem positively finishes the story, using words such as “strong,” “beautiful,” “alive and well.” It completely contrasts the beginning where darkness looms with the “shadow” of the house. Cee in the end, says the words “Let’s go home,” again emphasizing her pride for her home, Lotus. Also, the novel’s last word, “home” resolves the internal battle that has recurred throughout Cee’s and Frank’s
It describes how the conservative farmer follows traditions blindly and the isolated life followed by him. It reflects how people make physical barriers and that later in life come to their social life too. Where neighbor with pine tree, believes that this separation is needed as it is essential for their privacy and personal life. The poem explores a paradox in human nature. The first few lines reflect demolition of the wall, ?Something there is that doesn?t reflect love a wall? this reflects that nature itself does not like separation. The "something" referring to the intangible sense of social interaction. Furthermore "that sends the frozen-ground-swell under it" refers to Frost or to the author. Although the narrator does not want the wall, ironically, the mending of the wall brings the neighbors together and literally builds their friendship. An additional irony of the poem is that the only time these two neighbors sees each other is when they both mend the wall. The narrator sees the stubbornness in his neighbor, and uses the simile 'like an old-stone savage' to compare him to a stone-age man who 'moves in darkness', that is, set in his ways, and who is unlikely to change his views.
The structure of the poem is that of a free verse. In the 1970s, free verse was considered a rebellion against traditional poetry, you could say it was out of the norm. The use of this poem has a fascinating underlying meaning. Rich may have used this form for an explicit reason, and that is to rebel against the patriarchal society that she, and all women, are trapped in. Rich is rebelling against not only traditional poets and authors of her time, but of the society that she is a part of, and against the group of ‘others’ that she and many women have been placed in.
In the first line a question is asked: "I have to say poetry and is that nothing and am I saying it?" The second line is simply a paraphrase of the first question. The poet wants to know if writing poetry is worth anything, or if it is "nothing." The poem explores and wanders while developing the entire theme until the opening question is answered by the final couplet. The first two lines are followed by two more corresponding lines. Lines 3-4 state that the author has nothing, but that he has poetry to say and he must say it. To summarize the first quatrain, the author asks what the meaning of poetry is, but before he has answered his initial question, he continues by explaining that, regardless of his condition, or the meaning of poetry, he has something he must say through poetry.
Emphasized by romanticism of the 18th century, the changing of the seasons has been associated with a shift in mood, emotion, and even perspective. Spring blooms and summer warmth can be resembled by life, flowers, and joy while cool autumn and stark winter symbolize slowing down, isolation, and bleakness. Setting can often affect how one perceives the world around them, so an eternal winter can have negative impacts on his awareness. In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, the stagnation of Starkfield’s landscape suggests that those who have been in the town for “too many winters” are not uncommon, as the location acts as a prison for its inhabitants (Wharton 5). Ethan’s warped emotional
The poem itself is a technique Robert Frost uses to convey his ideas. Behind the literal representation of building walls, there is a deeper metaphoric meaning, which reflects people's attitudes towards others. It reflects the social barriers people build, to provide a sense of personal security and comfort, in the belief that barriers are a source of protection which will make people less vulnerable to their fears. Robert Frost's ideas are communicated strongly through the perspective of the narrator in the poem, the 'I' voice, who questions the need for barriers. The use of conversation and the thoughts of the narrator reflect the poet's own thoughts. In line thirty to line thirty-five, the narrator questions the purpose of a wall. He has an open disposition and does not understand the need to 'wall in' or 'wall out' anything or anyone.
This is an interesting attribute to the poem because generally, poetry and prose are consistent with a sole point of view. The author starts the poem with the word, “We” indicating first person point of view. This helps connect the author with the reader being together in a “long line,” (line 1). This puts the reader with the author, giving them the idea of what it is like to stand and wait, exhausted and “shifting from one foot to another,” (line 7). This makes the reader feel that exhaustion and feel in that moment as well. When Levine uses second person point of view to also bring the reader into the story, so that the reader can experience and feel the same things that the author does. Levine wants the reader to know that work is about waiting, and how “you” are waiting too. It is intended to give the reader a look into how work is about sacrificing a social life and interaction with loved ones to succeed at school, work, and be able to sleep at
If the poem had a lighthearted tone, then it would fail to create a connection with the readers because individuals can generally relate to literature if there is a cost at stake or emotions in play. In this particular case, the narrator is deciding between two paths at the crossroads. Perhaps the usage of “I” in the poem sheds lights on the experience of making a choice, rather than simply the ultimate outcome of that choice. Due to the literary devices Frost employs throughout the poem, the choices that are made throughout life are emphasized as being of the utmost importance because individuals are later able to reflect on those choices and know that the “path less traveled by” has made all the difference
Frost begins the poem by relating the damage that has been inflicted upon the wall. The stunning image of the force "that sends the frozen-ground-swell under it and spills the upper boulders in the sun, and makes gaps even two can pass abreast" shows us that something natural, beautiful, and perhaps divine is taking place (2-4). From the very beginning he suggests that living without the wall is something positive. As the poem continues, we are introduced to two farmers engaged in the annual task of making repairs to the stone wall which separates their properties. In lines 14-17, Frost gives us the description of the neighbors meeting to walk the line, each picking up and r...