Transition from childhood to adulthood is a major element in our lives and to many individuals this can be a daunting experience. The poem ‘Black Box’, by John McAuliffe, portrays this change from the perspective of an individual who is resistant to the development from childhood to maturity. This essay will critically examine the way this interpretation is formed by following the model established by I.A.Richards and critics of the New School. The aim of this model is to construct an understanding of a text “by isolating the text from history and context.” (Barry, 2009, p.15) In terms of poetry, the model focuses on the way literary techniques, structure and form contribute to the meaning of a poem. This essay is divided into three sections; in the first section I will focus on the way literary techniques, such as language, syntax and symbolism, enhance the meaning of the poem. The second section will assess the way the poet embodies transition in the structure of the poem. In the final section I will analyse how the form of the poem augments the speaker’s attitude to the issue of transition.
The poet employs the use of literary techniques to support the meaning of the poem. Such techniques include language, syntax and symbolism. The way language strengthens the subject of the poem is that the poet reveals the speakers attitude to transition through the use of concrete words. On a literal level, concrete poetry is when “the meaning or effect is conveyed...by visual means”. (Oxford Dictionaries, 2010) An example of this is in stanza two when the speaker mentions “the wet yard’s muddy gravel” (11). The gravel is wet and muddy possibly because of the rain or a liquid substance on the gravel. However, on a literal level the gravel...
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...nto practice to form the interpretation that the poem is about an individual who is resistant to the transition from childhood to adolescence. The model does provide the basic methods to devise an interpretation from a poem; however, this does not mean every interpretation will be the same. This is because the way an individual understands a poem will result in varied responses and interpretations. Therefore the model merely provides an outline as to what to consider when forming an interpretation.
Works Cited
Barry, P. (2009) Theory before ‘theory’ – liberal humanism. In: (3rd edn.) Beginning Theory: An introduction to literary and cultural theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press. P15.
Oxford Dictionaries (2010) concrete poetry. Available at: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/concrete%2Bpoetry?q=concrete+poetry (Accessed: 22nd December 2011)
The timeline carries on chronologically, the intense imagery exaggerated to allow the poem to mimic childlike mannerisms. This, subjectively, lets the reader experience the adventure through the young speaker’s eyes. The personification of “sunset”, (5) “shutters”, (8) “shadows”, (19) and “lamplights” (10) makes the world appear alive and allows nothing to be a passing detail, very akin to a child’s imagination. The sunset, alive as it may seem, ordinarily depicts a euphemism for death, similar to the image of the “shutters closing like the eyelids”
The fear of reading literature and not being able to comprehend the ideas presented forces readers to create a deeper meaning through annotations, as expressed through Billy Collins’ use of comparative imagery and aggressive diction in “Marginalia” and “Introduction to Poetry.” Collins’ choice to
When reading a story or a poem, readers tend to analyze, and develop their own opinions. Any content an author or poet produces is up to the reader to question, and identify what the story is trying to say. The point that I am stating is that, stories are like maps that we readers need to figure out. We have to find the starting point, and get to the destination of our conclusion, and the thoughts we have about the story or poem. In the stories that we have read so for throughout the semester, they all have different messages of what they are trying to convey to the reader in a way that can be relatable. Among all the author’s and poet’s works we have read, I have enjoyed Theodore Roethke’s poems. Roethke has developed poems that explore emotions that readers can relate to. I would like to explain and interpret the themes that Theodore Roethke expresses in the poems “My Papa’s Waltz”, “The Waking”, and “I Knew a Woman”.
The tone of Listening to grownups quarreling, has a completely different impact. When reading this poem, the reader has a more sad outlook on the thoughts of this author’s memories. Whitman uses ...
Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2009. Print.
The figurative language that she uses in this poem is assonance and alliteration. In line 10 “shanty-fied shotgun is an example of alliteration (two words with the same constant sound). “ In the first stanza where it talks about her skin tone, “light bright…white” (3-4) is an example of assonance because there’s a rhyme scheme in those
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
In Gwen Harwood’s poetry, the changes in an individual’s perspective and attitudes towards situations, surroundings and, therefore transformations in themselves, are brought on by external influences, usually in the form of a person or an event. These changes are either results of a dramatic realisation, as seen with shattering of a child’s hopes in The Glass Jar, or a melancholy and gradual process, where a series of not so obvious discoveries produces similar reformation. An example of the later case would be Nightfall, the second section of Father and Child, where the persona refers to her forty years of life causing “maturation”. For the most part these changes are not narrated directly but are represented by using dynamic language techniques to illustrate constant change in the universe of the poem.
One particularly useful cross-disciplinary element employed in concrete poetry is the use of space. The poetry of Emmett Williams, Seiichi Nikuni, and Ilse and Pierre Garnier in particular, make use of spatial relationships in their poetry. The use of space can be employed in place of traditional grammar and syntax to convey meaning in concrete poetry, particularly when the spatial position of one element is taken into consideration with other elements of the poem. Another element that may arise from these spatial relationships is a temporal aspect that all poetry employs, but which becomes uniquely meaningful in the context of the concrete poetry of the twentieth century. Without these relationships concrete poems may appear as crude distortions of words on a page, with no significant sense or meaning to communicate. Therefore, the temporal/spatial relationships between poetic elements become necessary tools which the reader needs in order to fully understand the linguistically driven meaning behind many concrete poems.
“Poe’s Theory of Poetry.” The Big Read. Handout One. N.d.. 16. Web. 19 April 2014.
In every poem, there are feelings and emotions that are brought forth in a very a few number of words. The three elements of a poem, speaker, imagery, and listener, help to make a poetic story. The speaker; the voice of the poem, conveys the feelings. Poetic words and metaphors create the imagery around the story. The way the poem is read and understood by the listener can have different meanings and effects on people. These aren’t always clearly defined. So how exactly does one understand a poem and the elements within it?
Billy Collins has used a specific metaphor, simile, rhyme and personification in his poem ‘Introduction to poetry’ in order to show how one should better understand a poem. This poem focused on what the poem actually mean and how a poem should be clearly understood. Throughout the poem, Billy Collins has presented a clear way of understanding the poem by using a very interesting imagery, symbolism, metaphor and a very sensitive sound. The words used in this poem are so powerful that the readers are convinced to think about the issue presented in the poem.
...e advancing through school while in the poem, the boy and his father are advancing through life. In ‘Freedom Writers’, the kids do not want an education because they feel it is irrelevant in their lives. They think that surviving until 18 years of age is an achievement. Their change of perspective is related to school and their lives. This is different from the poem in which the change of perspective is about the boy’s father. In ‘Freedom Writers’, the teacher brought about the kids’ change of perspectives, so it was induced. However, in the poem, time brought about the change, so it was inevitable.
looks at the time and how the poet's father has lack of control of the
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.