Temptation is not a new thing for most people. The song “Long Black Train” entertains the idea that there’s almost always temptation coming, which is often spread by the people who have given in to it. Because of this, one must always watch out for temptation, and look towards faith so that one can resist it. This resistance to temptation comes from the peace brought about through your faith. Through the Lord, one will be able to defy temptation and win their battle against it. Everyone needs to stay away from the train and all that is on it, so that there is no doubt in the heart about wanting to give into temptation. Temptation is a common thing for people to face, but individuals must still ignore the longing, even if everyone else is giving …show more content…
In addition to the symbolism of the train, it is also described to be black, a color which often has a connotation of evil and in this context can represent sinful things. An explicit example is where the poem states that it runs on “rails of sin” and “that devil’s drivin’ that long black train” (3,22). This can be related back to the theme, since the largest symbol in the poem represents temptation and words like “sin” and “devil” are not especially associated with turning to faith. Also, the train can be a motif, as it appears throughout the poem multiple times (1, 4, 8, 12-13, 16, 19-21). Having this symbol appear so frequently in the poem additionally reiterates the thought that temptation is a common thing. Another way that the train symbolism is important to the theme is that irony can also be found within it. The speaker says that “there is protection and there’s peace the same: burnin’ your ticket for that long black train,” (7-8). This is an example of situational irony since these lines can be interpreted to mean that by burning the ticket to the train of temptation that runs …show more content…
“Long Black Train” by Josh Turner reveals that while this happens to everyone, only those with faith are able to resist the temptation. This message is expressed through many different devices. A train is used to symbolize temptation, and is also a motif to remind the audience that temptation is a common thing. The metaphor that the train is like a beauty confirms the aforementioned symbolism. Connotations of colors show that temptation is evil and sinful and should be resisted, while situational irony is used to reinforce the theme and the religious aspects of it. The speaker also used personification to serve as a reminder that temptation is a shared experience, but without faith it cannot be overcome, but will rather be the overcomer. By using rhyme, the speaker audibly accentuates the appeal of temptation, as well as relates temptation with pain. With the help of a shift and caesura, the speaker declares that experiencing temptation is inevitable, however if you stand strong in your faith you will be able to resist
The first two lines of the poem set the mood of fear and gloom which is constant throughout the remainder of the poem. The word choice of "black" to describe the speaker's face can convey several messages (502). The most obvious meaning ...
Though the boys sing together, the words of the song have a different meaning for each. The train, which Wright mentions on several occasions, is a reminder of the trip they will all take to the afterlife. For everybody but Big Boy, this ascension to Glory comes sooner tha...
In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," by Jonathan Edwards, he utilizes similes, imagery, and repetitions to persuade his audience. The main purpose of his sermon reveals that he tries to make the experience of the devil and hell so real and frightening that people in the audience would change their lives. However, when he apply these types of rhetorical devices, he reveals a better understanding of what he says during his sermon.
Since a train is a mode of transportation, it can be equated to her love story, as she let herself get swept up off of her feet, but didn’t take into consideration the hurt she would bring herself in doing so. She ultimately falls to her death before being swept by a train, as her omen suggests. This element of suicide resents the ultimate figure of existentialism, as she proceeded in this regard as a way to overcome her tragic
The elements in the poem work very well together to help set the theme of this poem. The tone set the overall mood of the poem, so show that it was rushed but not in a chaotic way. The imagery helps to show us little details of the setting, which are very helpful. And finally, the figures of speech, help the reader to compare the scene to things they have experienced in their lifetime to fully understand the poem.
The devil tempted Tom to become a “slave trader,” but he would not accepted this offer so his other option was “open a broker’s shop” where he would “drive merchants to bankruptcy” (Irving). Tom fell into a trap, and from that moment hope was vanished and he was drawing close to his desire that would never come true. The ingenious blend of “seriocomic pathos” helps highlight the increase corruption of money distribution and reitterates the importance of Tom’s new life that was graciously given to him (Mintz). Tom “starved the horses” and the “ungreased wheels” squealed and growned it is as if you could hear “the souls of the poor debtors he was squeezing” (Irving). This is parallel to the first depression where people were in chaos and felt disconnected to the government and world. Through Irving’s simile, he comapres the “ungreased wheels” to “the souls of the poor he was squeezing” (Irving) which helps create a “vein of humor” (Mintz). Tom alwasy carried a Bible in his coat picket and desk, but one day he frogot his Bibles which were under his pocket and buried “under the mortage” he was soon to close. Th black man “whicked him like a child into the saddle” and they gaolloped away in the midst of a thunder storm (Irving). His minor sin of not carrying his Bible lead to his death where his hope for Kidd’s treasure was lost. It also shows how minor government spending could lead to a great amount of trouble like an economic depression. Irving’s ideal readers should make fun “at the fictional audience” who think that Tom was carried away to his “fate” in a “carriage driven by a black horse” (Piedmont-Marton). His “seriocomic pathos” makes this incident ironic because he sets it up in a serious tone, but has a dark sensor of humar that the reader should pick
An elegance in word choice that evokes a vivid image. It would take a quite a bit of this essay to completely analyze this essay, so to break it down very briefly. It portrays a positive image of blackness as opposed to darkness and the color black normally being connected with evil, sorrow, and negativity. The poem as a whole connects blackness with positivity through its use of intricate, beautiful words and images.
Most of students who study literature have experienced a trouble when they understand poetry. There are many genres in literature; poem, novel, drama, myth and so on. Generally, people do not have a difficult comprehension of a variety of literary genres except poem. In case of poem, even people read a poem, they do not understand what that means perfectly. Because, unlike other genres of literature, poetry consists of short sentences. Some of poems are not made up of grammatically correct sentences. Also, poetry has implications. Sometimes, the words a poet use have a different meaning, unlike original meaning. A figure of speech helps expression of topic of a poem more effectually. Theme relates to a mood and is an important clue what the poet want to say. Both “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” and “Because I Not Stop for Death” have a theme of death. Compare and contrast the figure of speech and the theme of death in the poem Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” and Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could Not Stop for Death” in this research paper.
This poem is divided into six stanzas with four lines each. The poem opens with “When the black snake flashed on the morning road” (1-2). The narrator uses “when” to signify the beginning of the story and introduces the snake as the main character. Labeling the snake as “black” gives it a dark and sinister appeal. The word “flashed” is used to demonstrate how fast the snake moved, and how quickly this event occurred. “Morning” is applied to the time of day that this event occurred. The narrator sees the snake quickly flash across the road. This sets up the scene in our minds. The “truck could not swerve” (3) implies that this was an accidental death. The poet uses “truck” to suggest a big vehicle that is unable to make quick moves or sudden stops. The narrator sees the snake flash across the road, into the path of a big truck that is unable to stop or swerve. “Death, that is how it happens” (4). The word “death” is italicized, emphasizing its importance. The p...
Furthermore, the opening “I stand” sets e assertive tone in the [poem. The speaker never falters in presenting the complexity of her situation, as a woman, a black [person], and a slave. The tone set at the beginning also aid the audience to recognize that the speaker in the “white man’s violent system” is divided by women, and black by whites. The slave employs metaphors, which Barrett use to dramatized imprisonment behind a dark skin in a world where God’s work of creating black people has been cast away. To further illustrate this she described the bird as “ little dark bird”, she also describes the frogs and streams as “ dark frogs” and “ dark stream ripple” Through the use of her diction she convey to readers that in the natural world unlike the human one, there is no dark with bad and light with good, and no discrimination between black and white people.
The poem is launched by a protracted introduction during which the speaker indulges in descriptions of landscape and local color, deferring until the fifth stanza the substantive statement regarding what is happening to whom: "a bus journeys west." This initial postponement and the leisurely accumulation of apparently trivial but realistic detail contribute to the atmospheric build-up heralding the unique occurrence of the journey. That event will take place as late as the middle of the twenty-second stanza, in the last third of the text. It is only in retrospect that one realizes the full import of that happening, and it is only with the last line of the final stanza that the reader gains the necessary distance to grasp entirely the functional role of the earlier descriptive parts.
The playwright has done remarkable use of symbols, tensions, and irony. He uses all of these components to express the main theme of the play; the hopeful desire to change the present followed by unavoidable disappointments. All of the characters have dreams, which are destroyed by the harsh realities of the world. As the narrator admits in his opening of the play, "since I have a poet's weakness for symbols," is an expression of a particular theme, idea or character.
The two roads presented in this poem represent difficult decisions we are faced with in life. He uses the relationship between the paths and real life decisions throughout the whole poem. This is an example of extended metaphor, which is used to help the readers understand the analogy between the two. The man in the poem said: “long I stood” (3), which lets us know the decision was not made instantly. It was hard for the man to make a final judgment.
In the poem “A song of Despair” Pablo Neruda chronicles the reminiscence of a love between two characters, with the perspective of the speaker being shown in which the changes in their relationship from once fruitful to a now broken and finished past was shown. From this Neruda attempts to showcase the significance of contrasting imagery to demonstrate the Speaker’s various emotions felt throughout experience. This contrasting imagery specifically develops the reader’s understanding of abandonment, sadness, change, and memory. The significant features Neruda uses to accomplish this include: similes, nautical imagery, floral imagery, and apostrophe.
Through alliteration and imagery, Coleridge turns the words of the poem into a system of symbols that become unfixed to the reader. Coleridge uses alliteration throughout the poem, in which the reader “hovers” between imagination and reality. As the reader moves through the poem, they feel as if they are traveling along a river, “five miles meandering with a mazy motion” (25). The words become a symbol of a slow moving river and as the reader travels along the river, they are also traveling through each stanza. This creates a scene that the viewer can turn words into symbols while in reality they are just reading text. Coleridge is also able to illustrate a suspension of the mind through imagery; done so by producing images that are unfixed to the r...