“Things” by Lisel Mueller is a very simple poem with a very simple message. We as human beings need to find comfort in anything that isn’t remotely human even though it’s completely natural. With everything that we personify, a sense of pity comes with the reasons of why change things to the way they are now. We cannot accept things in their natural state. Mueller has deduced this message to the very core by making examples of everyday items we use. For example, we have the clock. We (as a society) have granted the clock with a face. That much is simple. However, Mueller uncovers that the unknown reason we give a clock a face because we can’t face time as a nameless foe. Time is both a blessing and a curse. We can have an abundance of time
In Tim Seibles' poem, The Case, he reviews the problematic situations of how white people are naturally born with an unfair privilege. Throughout the poem, he goes into detail about how colored people become uncomfortable when they realize that their skin color is different. Not only does it affect them in an everyday aspect, but also in emotional ways as well. He starts off with stating how white people are beautiful and continues on with how people enjoy their presence. Then he transitions into how people of color actually feel when they encounter a white person. After, he ends with the accusation of the white people in today's world that are still racist and hateful towards people of color.
The poem “Always Something More Beautiful” by Stephen Dunn is certainly about running a race, but the speaker is also arguing that pursuing something beautiful can help guide us through life. Through the title, we can see that we should constantly look for more beautiful things in life. The poem begins with the speaker describing his experience before a race. He uses words like “best” and “love.” The tone is extremely enthusiastic. In the first line, he talks about coming to the starting place. This can be a metaphor for beginning our lifelong journey. The speaker also implies that we need to approach it with a positive attitude. In the next few lines, the speaker indicates being tested in excellence
I would like to investigate the many struggles of women, whether it be race that differentiates them or an event that any woman could experience that brings them together. Beauty is not easily defined, and women everywhere struggle with not only pleasing the people around them, but themselves. Wanting to describes themselves and feel beautiful is one of the many struggles women experience throughout their lives. “Las Rubias” by Diana García from Fire and Ink represents a common example of what women of color experience while comparing themselves to the “beauty” of white women. The poem is divided into eight numbered sections, each containing their own experience or thought. This is effective because by the end of the poem, the reader has almost
Reading Thomas Lux’s poem, “A Little Tooth,” I can definitely understand what the author is saying. As a mother of a soon-to-be twelve-year-old, Thomas Lux’s poem shows parents how quickly children grow up and to never regret anything.
The death camp was a terrible place where people where killed. Hitler is who created the death camp for Jews. The death camp was used for extermination on Jews. This occurred on 1939 – 1945. The death camps were in the country of Europe. Hitler did all this because he didn’t like Jews and the religions. The book Night is a autobiography written by Elie Wiesel. The poem called First they came for the communist written by Martin Neimoller is a autobiography.
Lucille Clifton's poem "Move" deals specifically with an incident that occurred in Philadelphia on May 13, 1985. On that date, Mayor Wilson Goode, Philadelphia's first African American mayor, authorized the use of lethal force against fellow African Americans living at 6221 Osage Avenue. In her introduction to the poem, Clifton says that there had been complaints from neighbors, who were also African American, concerning the "Afrocentric back-to-nature" group that called itself "Move" and had its headquarters at this address (35). The members of this group wore their hair in dreadlocks and they all used their surname of "Africa." Clifton's poem suggests that it was these differences that cost the lives of eleven people, including children, and the loss of sixty-one homes, as authorities bombed the neighborhood rather than tolerate such diversity. In this poem, Clifton emphasizes the word "move," giving it a layered meaning that encompasses it not only as the name of the organization of the people who were bombed, but also as the imperative command to take action and "move" away from harm. Ultimately, however, the word becomes a command that is directed toward the African American major who caused the tragedy. Clifton points an accusing finger, saying that it is he that should "move" and not the people to whom he directed such violence.
The poem “To You” by Kenneth Koch is a romantic love poem that the persona uses to express his deep love to his love. The title of the poem “To You” further reveals how the persona treasures his love. He directly addresses her and showers her with deep and romantic emotional feelings. The poem is radiant and possesses high spirits as well as the rare moods in which inspiration, affection, and happiness are the same, since they reflect how you feel. At the end of the poem, there is unity between sunlight and the attention of the lover. This depicts the persona’s world. That is, the water that is heart is swimming in. this further portrays love to him, as a pathway and a necessity from which he derives his joy and happiness.
Australian poets Bruce Dawe and Gwen Harwood explore ideas and emotions in their poems through vivid and aural poetic techniques, the poets also use symbolism to allow the readers to relate to the text. In Dawes “Homecoming”, the poet explores the ideas in the text using language techniques such as irony, paradox and visual imagery to construct his attitude towards war and the effect. While in Gwen Harwood’s, “The violets”, she uses prevailing imagery and mood to emphasize fertility and growth. Contrastingly, In Bruce daws, “Life cycle”, the poet uses the idea of sport to symbolise and represent religion with the use of clichés and juxtaposition to convey his ideas of religion, myths and Christianity in the language use, similarly Harwood poem
During the process of growing up, we are taught to believe that life is relatively colorful and rich; however, if this view is right, how can we explain why literature illustrates the negative and painful feeling of life? Thus, sorrow is inescapable; as it increase one cannot hide it. From the moment we are born into the world, people suffer from different kinds of sorrow. Even though we believe there are so many happy things around us, these things are heartbreaking. The poems “Tips from My Father” by Carol Ann Davis, “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, and “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop convey the sorrow about growing up, about sorrowful pretending, and even about life itself.
It's about sunlight. It's about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do. It's about love and memory. It's about sorrow. It's about sisters who never write back and people who never listen.” -pg. 85
Over the course of the semester, we read several hybrid genre books and some with hybrid themes. For the topic of my personal narrative, I settled on a subject near to my heart, the prospect of summer. To establish my theme of a blissful summer surrounded by nature, I implemented several elements from parts I and II of Jean Toomer’s Cane, Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, and Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red.
The poems facilitate the investigation of human experience through illustrating life’s transience and the longevity of memory.
Li-Young Lee’s poem, A Story, explores a complex relationship between a father and his five year old son. Although the poem’s purpose is to elaborate on the complexity of the relationship and the father’s fear of disappointing his son, the main conflict that the father is faced with is not uncommon among parents. Lee is able to successfully portray the father’s paranoia and son’s innocence through the use of alternating point of view, stanza structure, and Biblical symbolism.
As the first poem in the book it sums up the primary focus of the works in its exploration of loss, grieving, and recovery. The questions posed about the nature of God become recurring themes in the following sections, especially One and Four. The symbolism includes the image of earthly possessions sprawled out like gangly dolls, a reference possibly meant to bring about a sense of nostalgia which this poem does quite well. The final lines cement the message that this is about loss and life, the idea that once something is lost, it can no longer belong to anyone anymore brings a sense...
I wish I could describe my first interaction with playing the saxophone as a glorious and life changing moment, but that would be a lie. In fact, I remember being disappointed that my arms weren’t long enough to hit all of the proper notes on the trombone slide. As soon as I accepted that I had no choice but to play the saxophone, I immediately did everything in my power to become the most technical, strongest player in the band, making music a competition like I have done with every aspect of my life for as long as I can remember. This trend continued throughout my elementary school, middle school, and early high school career, and it wasn’t until I entered the summer after my sophomore year of high school, that my opinion on the importance of music and playing music changed.