The poem, “The Blackboard” by W.S. Merwin, the speaker reflects on his childhood and compares his fading memories to the erasing of a blackboard. Through the use of the title extended metaphor of “The Blackboard”, descriptive imagery that evokes memories of childhood, and an enjambment, stream of consciousness form, W.S. Merwin conveys the feeling of confusion as he searches his memory and recounts the loss of his father. The poem’s title “The Blackboard” as well as its other associations become a central metaphor throughout the piece. The speaker states that “my father is a blackboard” (line 4), equating the memory of his father to a piece of school equipment that has just erased. The lack of permanence that exists with a blackboard can …show more content…
Early on, he portrays of the speaker standing with his back to the blackboard and “holding the old worn gray felt eraser” (6). The idea of the speaker facing away from the freshly erased board suggests a sense of denial and refusal to come to terms with realities of his past. The old, worn eraser makes it seem as though the familiar environment has changed and aged from when the speaker formed these memories of childhood that this “late dream” (3-4) is being drawn from and possibly indicates that the speaker, too, has aged. When the speaker describes the “cloud of white dust” (10) that forms from clapping the erasers, the vivid image allows the reader to visualize the speaker’s confusion. The line conjures the image of the speaker surrounded by a haze or a fog, both which hold associations to feelings of dissociation and being removed. The comparison of the cloud to a “thin ghost” (11) also holds obvious connections to the concept of death, allowing for a visual interpretation of the speaker feeling left behind by his father. Overall, Merwin’s use of imagery to more clearly envision the situation the speaker is describing himself in and thus gain a deeper understanding for his
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 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 ... ...
In “Nightmare” from Out of the Dust, Billie Joe wakes up from a nightmare, trembling in fear from a nightmare about the dust storms and her inability to play the piano. The poem is filled with symbolism, used to build up anxiety and uncertainty, and for Hesse to elaborate on her thoughts. “Through a howling dust storm, my lowered face was scrubbed raw by dirt and wind” dramatically demonstrates a mood of panic and distress. As the suspense builds, Hesse uses imagery to exhibit uneasiness and describe the situation even further, “dust crept inside my ears, up my nose, down my throat.” Many instances of figures of speech are used, such as similes, personification, and metaphors. After trudging through the dust, not caring about anything but
In my mind, the piling on of more and more oil stick pigment as the text continues vertically down the canvas is symbolic of the gradual building up of ideas and words which are trapped inside the narrator because he is afraid to express them. As his silence and fear of self-expression continues, the ideas because so tightly packed together that he cannot separate them, like the barely readable black text surrounded by black pigment.
Under the orders of her husband, the narrator is moved to a house far from society in the country, where she is locked into an upstairs room. This environment serves not as an inspiration for mental health, but as an element of repression. The locked door and barred windows serve to physically restrain her: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.” The narrator is affected not only by the physical restraints but also by being exposed to the room’s yellow wallpaper which is dreadful and fosters only negative creativity. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.”
Another emotion portrayed through the narrators language is disappointment. The center of the work is where the story takes a deep turn downward - and the black cloud presents itself. Mr. DonLeavy's presence was insult enough, but to say he was "glad to be here to see the work going on just as it was in the other schools" (838)...
...the chaos against which that pattern was conceived” (580). Here, the narrator is describing the process of discovering himself. Conceiving “a plan of living” (580) does not come independently; this plan must be patterned to succeed where a former plan had failed. In other words, the narrator must use the symbols of his old life—the contents of his briefcase—as the chaos against which a new pattern of living may be conceived. Therefore, it is only after the narrator shakes “off the old skin” (581), that he can declare that “the hibernation is over” (581). To leave the hole, to return to the world, the narrator has to learn from the objects who he is not; he had to realize “there is a death in the smell of spring” (580). To be reborn, as things do in springtime, something else must die; to emerge anew, the Invisible Man must leave behind the ashes of his former self.
Just as the surroundings would seem different through color slides, he asks the readers to see the world from diverse viewpoints while reading and writing poems. Moreover, by listening to the poem’s hive, dropping a mouse, and walking inside its room, Collins encourages readers to discover the concealed depth of poetry. He comments that the readers should enjoy the poem in a way they would like to water ski.... ... middle of paper ... ...
In the opening line of the novel, the narrator provides a vivid description of the his decaying surroundings:
Allusion first helped describe the ironic aspects of the poem by focusing on the odd setting of the poem. Collins description of the speaker’s town shares many traits of a regular town, but also incorporates traits from a school environment. The following lines will help explain the setting and how it relates to a school environment. The first example of this is shown in lines four through six; “I can see it nestled in a paper landscape, chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard” (Collins). In these lines Collins describes the physical setting outside. Paper landscape is being compared to actual grass landscape outside. Chalk dust is white and powdery, as is fresh snow falling from the sky. And black boards are dark and cold, as are dark nights when the sun goes down. Chalk, paper, and black boards are all found in a school environment, and each one of these aspects help bring the setting to life in the readers mind. The reader can relate to what they are picturing as they continue reading the poem. Th...
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.
...ttachment or emotion. Again, Heaney repeats the use of a discourse marker, to highlight how vividly he remembers the terrible time “Next morning, I went up into the room”. In contrast to the rest of the poem, Heaney finally writes more personally, beginning with the personal pronoun “I”. He describes his memory with an atmosphere that is soft and peaceful “Snowdrops and Candles soothed the bedside” as opposed to the harsh and angry adjectives previously used such as “stanched” and “crying”. With this, Heaney is becoming more and more intimate with his time alone with his brother’s body, and can finally get peace of mind about the death, but still finding the inevitable sadness one feels with the loss of a loved one “A four foot box, a foot for every year”, indirectly telling the reader how young his brother was, and describing that how unfortunate the death was.
Frost’s poem leaves the reader enlightened on the speaker’s outlook on death. “Ghost House” is an evolution through both the reader’s mood and the speaker’s tone surrounding death. Frost accomplishes this in his signature style and voice with clever word choice, from the morbid beginning to the accepting and almost willing end.
He creates a suffocating atmosphere mirroring the characters feeling: “crowding in on her thick and fast”, “The passage of an old woman with ophthalmia and a disease of the skin distracted her from her
It is this moment of recollection that he wonders about the contrast between the world of shadows and the world of the Ideal. It is in this moment of wonder that man struggles to reach the world of Forms through the use of reason. Anything that does not serve reason is the enemy of man. Given this, it is only logical that poetry should be eradicated from society. Poetry shifts man’s focus away from reason by presenting man with imitations of objects from the concrete world.
The poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is about the poet’s mental journey in nature where he remembers the daffodils that give him joy when he is lonely and bored. The poet is overwhelmed by nature’s beauty where he thought of it while lying alone on his couch. The poem shows the relationship between nature and the poet, and how nature’s motion and beauty influences the poet’s feelings and behaviors for the good. Moreover, the process that the speaker goes through is recollected that shows that he isolated from society, and is mentally in nature while he is physically lying on his couch. Therefore, William Wordsworth uses figurative language and syntax and form throughout the poem to express to the readers the peace and beauty of nature, and to symbolize the adventures that occurred in his mental journey.