“Famous” is a 21 line poem that gabs about general everyday objects and their famous relationship to another subject. Naomi Shihab Nye composes this spontaneous, thoughtful, and conversational poetic piece that, in actuality, represents the meaning of fame - at its most basic level. It is almost a construct of perspective; the result of imbalances of power, fear, love, and tragedy (“Poem”). The fame of an object to its subject may not be the same in reverse, and may not exist at all outside of their relationship. For example, the bent photograph, bent because it is handled and looked at so often, is famous to its owner (Nye, 13&14). However, the subject may not even be aware of its existence. The dress shoe is famous to the floor, but the …show more content…
Difficult words - for the most part - are not present in this poem. However, the repetition of “famous” shows the reader the importance of fame in the objects Nye writes about. She is also using repetition of “famous” to show the reader that more than one thing on the earth is famous. Even the smallest objects being overlooked are famous in some way. It opens with a murky-like, fast rushing river overflowing with fish. This instantly creates a picture in the reader’s mind about what the beginning of the poem entitled. Next is the loud voice followed by a cat carefully curled up on the top of a fence, just a few feet from a little wooden birdhouse. Every line jumps to a new place, a place that’s overlooked in today’s society. These objects, to the audience, are deemed as everyday objects that we encounter on a daily basis. Whereas Nye is explaining in depth and forcing the reader to think - long and hard - at the simple things we often overlook: cats and boots and buttonholes. As we read, images pop into our head...on purpose. And fortunately, a large part of our day is involving the nature around us so Nye spends a majority of her poem devoting it to earth and everything on
The informal language and intimacy of the poem are two techniques the poet uses to convey his message to his audience. He speaks openly and simply, as if he is talking to a close friend. The language is full of slang, two-word sentences, and rambling thoughts; all of which are aspects of conversations between two people who know each other well. The fact that none of the lines ryhme adds to the idea of an ordinary conversation, because most people do not speak in verse. The tone of the poem is rambling and gives the impression that the speaker is thinking and jumping from one thought to the next very quickly. His outside actions of touching the wall and looking at all the names are causing him to react internally. He is remembering the past and is attempting to suppress the emotions that are rising within him.
The narrator is trapped by their past, and the poem describes it affecting their daily life. They have a black cat they are envious of, because the cat is carefree and does not make the same mistakes that the narrator does. “He refuses to be snared by a single love the way I did” (319). The narrator had gotten trapped by a love that went badly, and left them being broken from it. Their cat does not make this mistake, and is also carefree, “He leaps from the rooftop . . . doesn't dread crossing bridges or dark alleyways” (318). He just lives his life out and is not concerned about any sort of danger, and because of this the narrator is envious of the cat. They cannot act the same way as the cat does, they are too concerned about their life and what happens with it, “He doesn't cling to life as I do” (318). The narrator seems to be trapped by their past, and because of this, it affects the way they live now. They have shut themselves off purposefully, they let their past affect them this much, they corrupted themselves. They know this, and they wish they had not let it happen, this is why they envy their
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.
In a world where billionaires and celebrities can have more influence over the public than government, the word power has become interchangeable with success. Although many of us have fantasized of our lives if we were famous, the majority of the population have given up on the notion of becoming famous, and have become more realistic towards future dreams and desires. However, what qualities drive people of fame to do things that keep their name out in the eye of the public? People desire power. Genuine power is the ability to influence.
The first half of the poem creates a sense of place. The narrator invites us to go “through certain half-deserted streets” on an evening he has just compared to an unconscious patient (4). To think of an evening as a corpselike event is disturbing, but effective in that the daytime is the time of the living, and the night time is the time of the dead. He is anxious and apprehensive, and evokes a sense of debauchery and shadows. Lines 15-22 compare the night’s fog to the actions of a typical cat, making the reader sense the mystery of a dark, foggy night in a familiar, tangible way. One might suppose that “In the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo” refers to a room in a brothel, where the seedy women for hire talk about elevated art between Johns (13). The narrator creates a tension in the image of dark deserted streets and shady activities in the dark.
The presence of the two cats in the tale allows the narrator to see himself for who he truly is. In the beginning the narrator explains that his “tenderness of heart made him the jest of his companions”. (251) He also speaks of his love for animals that has remained with him from childhood into manhood. However, Poe contradicts this description of the narrator when he seems to become annoyed with the cat that he claims to love so much. While under the influence of alcohol the narrator is “fancied that the cat avoided his presence”(250) and as a result decides to brutally attack the cat. This black cat symbolizes the cruelty received by slaves from whites. The narrator not only “deliberately cuts one of the cats eyes from the sockets” (250) but he also goes on to hang the cat. Once the narrator successfully hangs the cat the tale begins to take a very dark and gothic-like turn. The racism and guilt of the narrator continues to haunt him once he has killed the black cat. Th...
“Its deserted streets are a potent symbol of man and nature 's indifference to the individual. The insistence of the narrator on his own self-identity is in part an act of defiance against a constructed, industrial world that has no place for him in its order” (Bolton). As the poem continues on, the narrator becomes aware of his own consciousness as he comes faces nature and society during his walk. He embraces nature with the rain, dark and moon but he also reinforces his alienation from society as he ignores the watchman and receives no hope of cries for him. The societal ignorance enforces our belief that he is lonely on this gloomy night. “When he passes a night watchman, another walker in the city with whom the speaker might presumably have some bond, he confesses, ‘I… dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.’ Likewise, when he hears a voice in the distance, he stops in his tracks--only to realize that the voice is not meant "to call me back or say goodbye" (Bolton). The two times he had a chance to interact with the community, either he showed no interest in speaking or the cry wasn’t meant for him. These two interactions emphasize his loneliness with the
This technique is called sibilance, the ‘s’ sound at the end of these words makes the reader slow down when they read the poem. Nye did this on purpose, she wanted the reader to read the poem slowly, so they could digest what she is saying. Each stanza forms a new example of how the speaker feels and wants to be. In line 7, “The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.”, the cheek is the first thing a tear lands on. When the tear “briefly” hits the cheek, it is almost as if it was a relief to the cheek because that person is letting out their emotions. The cheek depends on the tear, whether it be for a sad, happy, angry moment it will always be there. In lines 8-9, “The idea you carry close to your bosom is famous to your bosom.”, the bosom is another word for a woman's chest or you can say her heart. If someone has an idea they have had for a long time it will be in their heart and they will stop at nothing to keep it there because it is the most important thing a person has. “The boot is famous to the earth, more famous than the dress shoe” when a person wears boots it usually means that they are doing things outside and are actually interacting with the earth. All of these examples of objects being ‘famous’, expands the definition of the word itself. Usually, when a person thinks of famous they think of the glitz and glam. Most people do not think about the word famous being
B: Paul McCartney Is Esquire’s August Cover Star Fame is something that many human beings throughout the ages have desired. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to achieve a considerable amount of fame, and it is usually only the best of the best, who achieve it. One of them is the former Beatle Paul McCartney, who has earned his fame by being a pioneer of and icon for British rock and pop music, and his fame has stretched over sev-eral decades. However, fame is able to change people and their personalities.
Throughout his poems he used many things to really make you visualize what was going
this poem. I believe it is mainly what the poem is about. To make the
Consequently, fame works in a multiplicity of ways, where wealth and status is acquired through fate, a higher being. Nevertheless, fame is also unstable and can also be taken away by the goddess of
jealous of the cat. From the poem it tells us that the boy is insecure
The image of the cat clawing at the reeds stands out the most. A person reading this poem can envision the cat clawing the reeds and screaming as the young boys hold it under the water bringing the cat closer and closer to death with each passing moment. The purpose that the young girl tries to explain is that she understands the way young boys are and that they do not love anything.
Many people wish that they can be rich or famous; some of them wish they can be both. Being rich is not the same as being famous; they each have a different meaning in many aspects. The society refers to a person with money as a rich person, and to a person who is widely known as a famous person. Some people get confused between the two terms, because nowadays, most people get famous because they are rich, but that should not be the case.