‘The Choosing’ and ‘In Mrs Tilscher’s Class’ are both poems that revolve around the theme of growing up. Both Carol Ann Duffy and Liz Lochhead present growing up in a thoughtful manner, the speakers in these two poems seem to be neither upset nor ecstatic about growing up. The speakers were in the same position in that they appeared to not have any power over their own lives; the speaker in ‘The Choosing’ did not make the decision to be an academic, Mary didn’t have the choice to be a scholar, unlike her ‘best friend’, because when Mary grew up, she became a traditional woman, who was entirely dependant on her man. The speaker in Duffy’s poem ‘In Mrs Tilscher’s Class’ did not have a choice in whether she wanted to grow up or not therefore it was inevitable that she would grow up, as everything in nature either grows and develops or dies.
The girls in ‘The Choosing’ both begin in a very ordinary situation however, these friends unconsciously made their own decisions during school and oblivious to these choices made for them by their families, and they drifted apart and journeyed in opposite directions. Both of girls were as clever as each other, only Mary excelled in maths more than the main speaker, their paths cross ten years later, except their lives were completely different, and the question of “which is the better life?” is raised. When this poem was written, children would have accepted their parents making their decisions for them, although today, it would seem unfair and mean to have your parents dictating what you should and should not do.
‘In Mrs Tilscher’s Class’ is about a journey through primary school, the speaker of the poem sees school as a safe and secure environment for adventures and discovery. This poem has...
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... tell this because Mary’s father “contrasted strangely with the elegant greyhounds by his side”, greyhounds may look elegant, nevertheless, watching greyhound races were a pastime for people in the working classes in the era in which this poem was written. The theme of social class is weaved into the poem because even at the end, the speaker is wealthier than Mary since the speaker is winning prizes and is most likely a student at a university, which one has to pay for; however, Mary is reliant on her husband and is not earning money herself, “her arms around the full-shaped vase that is her body” meaning that she is pregnant, and the contrasting image of the speaker with her “arms full of books”, the repetition of “full of” foregrounds the importance of the contrasting lives in which both the girls lead, even though they were as equal and as ordinary as each other.
Often in life we are faced with two choices, one of which we have to pick. The decision can be life changing, so obviously one wants to choose the right path to go down. In Blanche Farley's The Lover Not Taken we see this same occurrence of a life changing decision. The poem takes Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken and puts a parodistic spin on it, making the poem's narrator choose both objects of her affection, instead of just one. She does, however, still travel the road not usually taken, risking it all for lust. This, along with the poem's many poetic elements, tells the reader to live their life to the fullest now, before it's too late and life has passed you by, leaving a trail of regrets.
The readers are apt to feel confused in the contrasting ways the woman in this poem has been depicted. The lady described in the poem leads to contrasting lives during the day and night. She is a normal girl in her Cadillac in the day while in her pink Mustang she is a prostitute driving on highways in the night. In the poem the imagery of body recurs frequently as “moving in the dust” and “every time she is touched”. The reference to woman’s body could possibly be the metaphor for the derogatory ways women’s labor, especially the physical labor is represented. The contrast between day and night possibly highlights the two contrasting ways the women are represented in society.
In both poems, certain details of the characters’ lives give the reader an impression that the women live pleasant, well-to-do lives, while others give an idea that the women are suffering; this contrast helps to depict the confusion and inner struggles the women are facing. Although they live lives of riches and glamour, they long for something that surpasses the material aspects of life, allowing them to experience freedom from their many social confinements as women. Lowell writes many details in "Patterns" that lead the reader to believe the woman described is upper class:
This shows the reader the creativeness in how she put together her chapbook. She did not stay in the conventional mode and snuck a subtle final poem into her piece of art. There were many times as I read through her words that I would utter to myself sounds of astonishment as I was taken aback by the brashness
The lady seems to be poor “suffering along in her broke shows” tells us that she has nothing and is worthless. Emotive language has been used to visually describe how she looks. “with a sack of bones on her back and a song in her brain” this expresses that she in a free, happy minded lady and doesn’t really take note of what she doesn’t have. " to feed the outlaws prowling about the Domain” This tell us that she most likely does this act of kindness very often, not having much at all and simple giving the outlaws something to feed on. “proudly they step up to meet her” Giving this visual effect makes us understand the power this lady has for these feral cats and to also see how much this lady means to this cats. “with love and power” - juxtaposition, again shows us the emotive language between the two this also means that she has a sense of power which she doesn’t have with the outer world. This perception of the lady is very different as to what how we see her. She is to be seen as a person who you wouldn’t want so associate with. Throughout the poem she has been moved from a princess to a queen with the development of metaphors. But to the cats she is the queen and this really depicts the distinctively visual. Douglas Stewart is seeing her as this queen who is celebrated and appreciated by the cats but this is not how she feels with society. With this connection between the cats, it gives us a deeper understanding of how to perceptions of each individual sees the world. Every individual has their own sense of views of the
The discussion of children and school also gives well meaning of an organized and well-balanced village the people have put together, one the average parent would want their children raised in. “They tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play, and their talk was still of the classroom and the teacher, of books and reprimands (p.445).” The thought of children playing also illustrates of a positive outlook for the rest of the story, a sense of happiness.
Though the poems “At the San Francisco Airport” and “To a Daughter Leaving Home” both deal with the issue of the speaker’s daughters leaving home to begin their adult lives and forge their own paths, the attitudes of the speakers could not be more contrasting. Between their divergent tone and language of the stanzas, the sound patterns, and drastically different use of imagery, each speaker’s willingness to let their daughter go is showcased.
Growing up is a challenge that every child has to face at some point in their lives. When a child grows up, he comes to the realization that the world isn’t a pretty place, and everything that seems perfect on top may hide a deeper, uglier truth right beneath the surface. A child loses his blissful naiveté and finally sees the world for what it truly is. First the child is hurt and terrified, but he eventually learns how to deal with the shocking revelation. Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a classic example of a Bildungsroman, or a literary genre that focuses on the protagonist’s psychological and moral growth. To Kill a Mockingbird describes two young children’s growth in a society where prejudice is the norm and radical views are frowned upon. These two children, Jem and Scout Finch, are forced to grow up much too quickly due to the jolting events they witness and the people they meet. Fortunately, Atticus Finch, their fair, wise, and levelheaded father, guide the children onto the correct paths in life and help them make sense of the complicated and hypocritical society they live in, Maycomb County, Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird marks the progress in these two children’s development as they face new experiences in life. The changes these children go through repeatedly reflect the central theme of the book: the innocence of good people destroyed; good and evil can coexist and things aren’t always what they appear to be.
Fulfilling the roles of both mother and breadwinner creates an assortment of reactions for the narrator. In the poem’s opening lines, she commences her day in the harried role as a mother, and with “too much to do,” (2) expresses her struggle with balancing priorities. After saying goodbye to her children she rushes out the door, transitioning from both, one role to the next, as well as, one emotion to another. As the day continues, when reflecting on
“Growing up” is a very broad term that is used without a true, consistent definition. In essence, it describes and encompasses themes of coming of age and the loss of innocence as a person moves from child to adult. In many respects, people view this change as a specific, pivotal moment in a person’s life, such as an eighteenth birthday, or the day a person leaves their parents’ house. This idea of having a crucial moment in life, which provides the open door into adulthood, is portrayed in many novels. It is easy to find a death that occurs, or a specific event that causes a character to “grow up” prematurely, but many times, contrary to most beliefs, that exact event is not the turn of the key leading through the doors to maturity. It is rather just a small push which starts a domino effect. This is the same scenario in the novel All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. This novel proves that loss of innocence is a learning process rather than the result of a
...parent-child relationship through the mother’s perspective. Hughes uses negative imagery, focused on light like ‘no light’ and ‘dark’, where the mother is begins by accepting the hardships of life instantly and trying to teach them. Although portrayed as a negative idea, it is also a positive as it is preparation, in contrast to Piano where Lawrence had to eventually face such hardships and due to his lack of preparation he was beaten easily. Hughes shows some methods of preparation in the poem through imperatives such as, ‘don’t turn your back’ where she is encouraging the child to always have faith and believe in himself-never giving up. Hughes follows an idea of an extended metaphor of life being a stair that is never ending in with obstacles trying to stop you, ‘splinters’, however as taught, you must keep going forward and have the will to beat the challenges.
While other writers use their poetry to decipher the meaning of life, Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea was busy writing about how to live it. Five of her poems, “Jupiter and the Farmer,” “The Tree,” “The Shepherd Piping to the Fishes,” “Love, Death, and Reputation,” and “There’s No To-Morrow,” convey strong messages to the reader about how to live their lives. In her poetry, Anne Finch uses anecdotes to help illustrate the validity of her statements, thereby providing the reader with a strong, meaningful, and important message about how life should be lived.
The decisions are made by his or herself. When faced with a choice one will contemplate the effects that the choice will have on his or her life and the others around them. The speaker states in line four, “he looked as far down each [road] as he could” (line 4). To make a wise and educated choice one must look at all the consequences that the choice will have on their life and how it effects future choices. Such as going to college, which will make the person more money in the end although making him or her poorer in the present. While not going to college will give him or her more money at the present but not as much later in life. “To where it bent in the undergrowth” (line 5). The speaker thinks about the choice in front of him or her for so long that they can see his or her children in the same position with a choice; and how the choice he makes now can have an effect on his or her child’s choice. “Then
In the poetry of William Blake and William Wordsworth, this difference between children and adults and their respective states of mind is articulated and developed. As a person ages, they move undeniably from childhood to adulthood, and their mentality moves with them. On the backs of Blake and Wordsworth, the reader is taken along this journey.
Growing up physically is never easy, but what can be even more difficult is growing up mentally. As a child you tend to look at the world in a very innocent way until you have experienced hurt or sadness. In the Poem “The River-Merchants Wife: A letter” by Ezra Pond’s the narrator of the poems childhood was cut short when she was married at a young age and was forced to mature and adapt to her new chapter in her life as a married woman. When some unforeseen circumstances come up in life it can pose some challenges that make growing up mentally very difficult. Growing up in Ezra Pond’s “The River-Merchants Wife: A letter” oversees more than just the physical aspects of growing older. The poem deals with a deeper meaning of growing up mentally at a faster pace than our bodies.