Remembering After Tragedies: The Names, By Billy Collins

583 Words2 Pages

Remembering After Tragedies After tragedy strikes people reflect on the importance of their own life and the importance of the lives of those surrounding them. The tragedy that occurred on September, eleventh is no different. There is no definition for a great poem but a good start is one that makes us reflect. The poem “The Names” by Billy Collins is an excellent poem that makes us consider the importance of our names, how we’ll be remembered, and our place in the world. Multiple questions arose after finishing this poem. First, how will I be remembered when I die? I started reflecting on this question by considering who I remember that has passed away. The very first name that came to mind was Albert Einstein. A brilliant man who is

Show More
Related

  • Nancy Cato's Poem 'The Dead Swagman'

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    My initial response to the poem was a deep sense of empathy. This indicated to me the way the man’s body was treated after he had passed. I felt sorry for him as the poet created the strong feeling that he had a lonely life. It told us how his body became a part of the land and how he added something to the land around him after he died.

    Read More

  • September Elegies By Randall Mann Literary Devices

    389 Words  | 1 Pages

    “September Elegies” is a poem written by an American poet Randall Mann in memory of Seth Walsh, Justin Aaberg, Billy Lucas, and Tyler Clementi. It articulates a gloomy story about four young boys who took their own lives by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. The memorialization is a reminder of how cruel our world can be and how bigotry and indifference destroy people’s lives. The poet reveres their memory by making use of various literary devices in order to transmit the pain the boys experienced.

    Read More

  • Epitaphs In Spoon River

    542 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everyone wonders what happens when you become deceased. What if you had the chance to write an epitaph for people to remember you by? Everyone in Spoon River had the opportunity to express their feelings, opinions, and views. In Spoon River Anthology, By Edgar Lee Masters: and my favorite life-themed epitaphs included, Lucinda Matlock, Griffy the Cooper, and Decan Taylor.

    Read More

  • Billy Collins Allusion

    539 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the poem “The Names”, Billy Collins elaborates names throughout the night. Collins is illustrating people that died in the tragedy of September 11, 2001. This poem is complex, which is illustrated through personification, allusion, and imagery.

    Read More

  • Education: The Key to Class Mobility and Success

    910 Words  | 2 Pages

    Education holds power over determining one’s class. Knowledge and refinement can set one individual apart from another who lacks the qualities of successful individuals. Finances and opportunities distinguish class meaning the lower class has difficulty in obtaining the same conditions of the upper class. Education ultimately dictates success and power in society. Education is taken for granted and should be recognized for the significance it possesses.

    Read More

  • Peace And Violence In Dudley Randall's Ballad Of Birmingham

    785 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, this whole poem has symbolic historic value because of its theme surrounding The Children’s March and The Birmingham Church Bombing. The author successfully brought the pain and impact the event made by taking Addie Mae Collins’ death. “He makes the sadness of an infamous tragedy vivid and heartfelt to everyone who reads it, whether they have connection to the tragedy or not.” (Devitt, 1) By approaching these

    Read More

  • The Irish Potato Famine and The Holocaust in Literature

    5650 Words  | 12 Pages

    Writers often use literature as a means of communicating traumatic events that occur in history, and such events are recorded by first-hand accounts as well as remembered by people far removed from the situation. Two traumatic events in history that are readily found in literature are The Irish Potato Famine and The Holocaust. A literary medium that has been used quite poignantly to convey trauma is poetry and the poetry from these two historical traumatic events is not difficult to find. Some wrote poetry to maintain their sanity as they experienced the traumatic event while others wrote after-the-fact as an outlet for emotional pain. Some wrote in remembrance of what they had lived through and so that others in succeeding generations could fathom even a glimpse of their traumatic experience. Another group of writers, far removed from the events, felt they had some light to shed on the subject. These people may be from a background similar to the victims or very learned on the matter surrounding it. A reader may wonder why poetry is such a viable option for conveying the trauma of so many people. Hilda Schiff writes, “the contemporaneous literature of any period of history is not only an integral part of that period, but it also allows us to understand historical events and experiences better than the bare facts alone can do because they enable us to absorb them inwardly” (xiv). The facts are raw and bare, like a skeleton. The literature and poetry add the skin and features to the bones to make the people and images they represent more realistic.

    Read More

  • The Reflection Of Empathy, By Stephen Dunn

    755 Words  | 2 Pages

    Though most have a desire to leave earth and enter eternal life peacefully, without any sorrow, the departure of a loved one can be despondent. Previously in 2011, my grandfather passed away due to heart failure. It was an arduous battle, not only for my grandfather, but also for the close knit family surrounding him. His battle with heart failure enabled me to create unforgettable memories with him, even in his final days. Laughing together, playing together and learning significant values about life together made me grow to become a more mature and wise person. Therefore, my personal experience is entwined with empathy because the death of my grandfather has made me realize how dismal it is to lose someone important. It also interplays with self-interest because I have grown as an individual to deal with the ache that is attached to losing a family member. It has helped me to realize how beautiful the gift of life is. Stephen Dunn, the poet behind Empathy and my story are connected because they both involve the feeling of empathy for others and the self-interest of an individual. They help us to grow and learn about ourselves and the emotions of

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Who Will Know Us? By Gary Soto

    1331 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, after further analyzing the poem one might be extremely intrigued by the message the speaker conveyed. The audience gets a sense of the setting being in a cold, dark, brooding place. The orator uses language such as, cold, bitter, snow, icy, and white. There is a play on words in the first stanza, eighth line, using the words “coal” and “cold”. Instead of saying “icy cold,” the orator states “icy coal.” At first glance the audience may feel as though someone is in dying in this poem. Comparing this to similar scenarios in films, where a lead beloved character experiences cold shivers as they get ready to pass to the great beyond. The title “Who Will Know Us?,” catches the reader 's attention because as humans, we wander the legacy and effect we will leave behind. It causes the reader to contemplate what happens after death, when the world you left behind ceases to remember you exist. The readers are left with the question of is there a really a “life after death.” There is also use of similes such as, “it is cold, bitter as a penny...with his loose buttons like heads of crucifies saints”(Soto). Nostalgia, a word some readers may not be familiar with is featured in this poem. Nostalgia is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. Personification plays an integral part on the voice in

    Read More

  • War In Brian Turner's 'Phantom Noise'

    896 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the times war has effected people immensely both physically and mentally. All people deal with their circumstances differently to help cope with what they dealing with. Whether it’s a fatality in the family, or post traumatic stress disorder most people find a way to heal from injury or emotional damage. In Brian Turners poem, “Phantom Noise,” he writes about the constant ringing he hears from the war he served in. The poem expresses that Turner seems to deal with his emotional damage by writing poetry about what he feels, hears, and sees during the time he spent in war and in civilian life. Even though Turner is no longer in war it still effects him greatly each day. The overall tone of the poem is very solemn and makes the reader

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: Living Through Tragedy

    580 Words  | 2 Pages

    For most people, becoming a parent is one of the greatest moments in their lives. I never understood the true meaning of love until I became a father. Little did I know; I would also learn the tragedy of loss.

    Read More

  • Literary Elements in Emily Bronte´s Poem Remembrance

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    Emily Bronte’s Remembrance is about one who is reminiscing a lost love who had died. It is an elegy poem which is “a poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is simply sad and thoughtful.” Remembrance is also a lyric poem in which “expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet.” The poem reflects the historical context of the 18th century and expresses the romanticism of the Victorian era. Bronte has influenced her 18th century audience and 21st century audience to connect to the tone and mood of the poem through the literary devices she has used, such as imagery and repetition. Through her use of these literary elements, Bronte has created a sense of heartache and remembrance for those who have experienced similar loss to the loss present in the poem. For me personally, these elements, along with the romanticism she has included, make me appreciate my life in that I have not yet experienced this heartache, and encourages me to realise how fortunate I am to have people in my life in which have a similar love for me as the speaker has for their lover.

    Read More

  • Love Poems

    2893 Words  | 6 Pages

    the poem but as we read the first line ‘Remember me’, we know that the

    Read More

  • Immortality and Symbolism in John Keat's Nightingale Ode

    541 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poet also shows nostalgia in this poem. Human cannot be immortal as nightingale is immortal in his poem. It seems a pain for humans to know that they shall die.

    Read More

  • William Wordsworth's Lucy Gray

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    Losing a loved one is one of the hardest experiences every person must go through. The experience does not end with the loss though, but begins with it. The loss of a dear person leads those left behind into a downward spiral of emotions and memories. A poem entitled “Lucy Gray” by William Wordsworth focuses on that loss and the emotions that follow it. By reading the poem one can objectively experience both the grief that Lucy Gray’s death brings on but also her parents’ acceptance of her death.

    Read More

More about Remembering After Tragedies: The Names, By Billy Collins

Open Document