In Joy Harjo’s poem Remember, a person is being instructed to remember a number of different things in his/her life. It contains twenty-eight lines, which lack rhyme and rhythm. Conceptually, however, the poem divides itself; when mentioning another else to remember, a new line starts, beginning with the word “remember.” The speaker within the poem sounds like an elderly person, perhaps a grandfather due to the in-depth statement about “[your mother's] life, her mother's, and hers” and the subtle statement that “[your father] is your life” (10-11). The listener is a young child, maybe the grandchild of the speaker. Remember distinctly projects a reminiscent tone. The diction throughout the poem is mostly neutral, using common terms to …show more content…
Imagery appears often, forcing the reader to remember as he/she reads. For example, mention of “the sun’s birth at dawn” makes the reader remember the beauty of the sun rising (5). Personification appears several times throughout the poem. While saying to remember the moon, the speaker also says to “know who she is,” giving the moon a gender (3). Later, Joy Harjo tells of plant and animal life and “their tribes, their families, and their histories,” again making these unfamiliar organisms more familiar and memorable (15-16). After that, the speaker instructs the listener to remember “[the wind’s] voice,” emphasizing the remembrance of something that is often overlooked (18). All of these personifications make non-human things more familiar, and thus, more likely to be remembered. The personifications also seem to represent Joy Harjo's Native American ancestry, thus allowing her to remember her own life in writing the poem. Remember also utilizes a number of similes. In the first one, the speaker says that “[your father] is your life,” reminding the listener that his/her father is part of the reason for their life (11). The speaker later compares plant and animal life to “alive poems” (17). This gives the impression that plants and animals, like poems, are often beautiful. At the end of the poem, the listener is told to remember the “dance that language is, that life is” (27). This
The title of this piece, “Remembered Morning,” establishes what the speaker describes in the stanzas that follow as memory; this fact implies many themes that accompany works concerning the past: nostalgia, regret, and romanticism, for instance. The title, therefore, provides a lens through which to view the speaker’s observations.
Early on, poetry was often used with rhyme to remember things more accurately, this still rings true today, even though its use is more often to entertain. However, although it appeals to both the young, in children's books, and the old, in a more sophisticated and complex form, people are bound to have different preferences towards the different styles of poetry. Dobson’s poetry covers a variation of styles that captivate different individuals. “Her Story” is a lengthy poem with shorter stanzas. It’s free verse structure and simplistic language and face value ideas might appeal better to a younger audience. This poem includes quotes with informal language that children or teens would better understand. It’s narrative-based style is easy to follow, and although the poem covers very basic concepts, it’s message is still communicated subliminally. This particular poem is interesting because it focusses on the universal experience of pain and it’s relation to time. Similar to this is “The Householder”, written in a cyclical style, opening with a “house” and ending with a “home”. With only three stanzas, it is
to the powerful imagery she weaves throughout the first half of the poem. In addition, Olds
The poem is gentle and nostalgic. It seeks not only to recreate the scene for the reader, but
Figurative Language in used throughout poems so the reader can develop a further understanding of the text. In “The Journey” the author uses rhythm and metaphors throughout the poem. “...as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of the clouds..”(25-27). The author compares the star burning to finding your voice. Rhythm also develops the theme of the poem because throughout the story rhythm is presented as happy showing growing up and changing for the better is necessary and cheerful. In “The Laughing Heart” the author uses imagery and metaphors to develop the theme throughout the book. “There is a light somewhere. It may not be much light but it beats the darkness”(5-7). Always find the good out of everything, even it
Paula Gunn Allen’s poem Recuerdo is a poem of a woman’s memory when she was a little girl. The title Recuerdo is in Spanish meaning “I remember.” While visiting the Mesa Mountain with her mother either for a picnic or to gather up wood, she experienced an uninviting voice in the wind. In her memory, she wasn’t clear of what she heard or what it meant by the sound that she did hear. She couldn’t believe that something was in the wind that just didn’t sit well with her. The voice brought terror and tears to her eyes. Freighting her so bad that she couldn’t ask for her mother’s comfort to explain what she heard. She just stood there and let her mind wonder. What could be the reason for the terror in the wind? But instead of asking questions about her fearful thoughts she just stood there in the cold trying to warm up next to the campfire. “I wanted to cling to my mother so she could comfort me. explain the sound and my fear, but I simply sat, frozen, trying to feel as warm as the campfire (Allen).” She continues the poem with saying that she has never gotten over the memory that stuck with her from the terrified winds that spoke to her on that cold
The words in this poem aren’t difficult to understand. There were two phrase in this poem which felt quite powerful. The phrase, “ This old yellow pair,” inspired quite distinctive imagery.The phrase, “ Rememberings, with twinklings and twinges,” it makes them sound like they were once similar to stars , bright, and gassy.Now they have their “twinkling” memories to think about, as they eat their dinner of beans.
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.
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
In the poem the author introduces an emotional appeal by stating, “Whimpering: its’ okay baby, please don’t cry. Don’t cry. Baby don’t cry. And he never cries again” (lines 31-33). In this quote the author is introducing the man going through an emotional childhood dealing with his mother coming home with torn clothing and he uses alcohol to cope with his pain. The author wants the reader to put themselves into the position of the man with a damaged mother who was no liable to care for her own son, so as he grew older he used alcohol to cure the heartache he was having to face. Although the author uses almost entirely an emotional appeal to this poem she uses an ethical appeal by stating, “Good-looking girl-woman taps this on her screen”(line 42). The author is describing the character as being attractive and female, while character description is a very important role to play in the use of the literary device imagery Harjo is using. Lastly, and the most uncommonly used appeal is the author’s logical appeal, “I don’t know exactly where I’m going; I only know where I’ve been,”(line 74). In this line Harjo is stating the facts of the character along with every other human logically not being able to predict the future but we know where we have been before. The author ends the poem with a balance of all emotional, ethical, and logical appeals by stating, “we will all find our way, no matter fire leaping through holes in jump time, no matter earthquake, or the breaking of love spilling over the drek of matter In the ether, stacking one burden Against the other. We have heartache.” (lines 79-83) The author uses an emotional appeal to allow the reader to feel the reality of many people feel the same heartache in many varying ways. The author uses an ethical appeal by describing all the different experiences the individual might have to face, we still face a
In the poem, Harjo portrays the importance of recalling the past to help shape one’s identity. She uses the repetition of the word “Remember” to remind that while the past may be history, it still is a defining factor in people’s lives (l. 1). This literary technique
The Joy Luck Club The Joy Luck Club movie, directed by Wayne Wang, portrays the lives of four mothers and daughters. The four mothers all shared hardships while being raised in China under the Chinese culture where they would either be submissive to a man or loose of hope. They later had to flee to America in the 1940’s to restore a better life. Unlike their daughters who have a better chance of happiness because they were raised in America, they pretty much became Americanized and not tied to their Chinese culture. But the mothers witnessed the same traits of their lives in their daughters, they decided to break the silence and share their stories.
This poem helps us to recognize and appreciate beauty through its dream sequence and symbolism. The poem opens with the Dreamer describing this
The poems facilitate the investigation of human experience through illustrating life’s transience and the longevity of memory.
... Therefore, instead of losing mental stability because of old memories, one should try to embrace sanity and perpetuate it in life. Moreover, the poem emulates society because people fantasize about looking a certain way and feeling a certain way; however, they are meddling with their natural beauty and sometimes end up looking worse than before. For instance, old men and women inject their faces to resemble those in their youth, but they worsen their mental and physical state by executing such actions. To conclude, one should embrace her appearance because aging is inevitable.