Apology For Want Summary

430 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: importance of love and friendship

Mary Jo Bang's Apology for Want

Quiet, unassuming, serene. These characteristics define the appearance of poet Mary Jo Bang. There is, however, another side to the humble St. Louis native which is not readily apparent by either her looks or her demeanor. Beneath her deceiving facade lies another person entirely, which only emerges through her poetic talents. Although she also read from her new manuscript which has not yet gone to print, Mary Jo Bang primarily read from her collection which won the Katherine Bakeless Nason poetry prize in 1996, entitled Apology for Want. According to Edward Hirsch "Apology for Want is, a...dark [and] unabashed apology for desire." But there's something more to her work than confessing the yearnings of humanity, no matter how tarnished they may be. Her work is very personal, yet it touches home, inspiring a feeling of understanding and enlightenment which is very hard to accomplish. …show more content…

She opens "Love is also fragment: the cheek of the moon's fat-boy face giving itself up to be kissed, the ingredient phrase, I can't live without you, the sum of the few words that truly invent themselves - You are." At first, the impression of the poem's direction and attitude seemed positive, inspiring the thought that love really is self-sufficient despite it's fragility. Even the title The Desert at Hand seems to imply a biblical simile, that love is a test which can both test and strengthen you, just as Jesus' 40 days in the desert was a time of great temptation and redemption for

Show More
Related

  • Havisham Duffy And Larkin: The Theme Of Disappointment In Love

    1945 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Havisham she portrays love as something that can almost break a person. For example the persona says she “spent days in bed cawing nooooo at the wall”. The use of the elongation of ‘no’ conveys the persona’s despair and sadness, as it has been used to express the dismay and sorrow of the persona. This is again reinforced by the elongation of ‘no’. being elongated it puts emphatic stress on the word, which strengthens the notion that the persona has been affected greatly by her disappointing love life. Furthermore, the use of the verb “cawing” links to a crow, which is symbolic for death and sometimes evil, so the fact the persona is “cawing” could mean that death has occurred, maybe in herself or the death of her love/love life. In addition this physical and detrimental effect of love is seen in the persona’s confusion “who did this to me”. This suggests that the persona has been dwelling on losing her love so long that she no longer knows who to blame. This identity crisis also shows that the persona needs someone to blame to start to feel some comfort in what has happened to her. Overall this creates sympathy for the persona through the use of Duffy’s bitter tones in this poem. This is strengthen by the fact that this woman has been affected in such a way by a disappointing love life that she is breaking down physically and mentally, which, again, creates sympathy for the persona and

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Heritage By Linda Hogan

    922 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this poem, there is a young woman and her loving mother discussing their heritage through their matrilineal side. The poem itself begins with what she will inherit from each family member starting with her mother. After discussing what she will inherit from each of her family members, the final lines of the poem reflect back to her mother in which she gave her advice on constantly moving and never having a home to call hers. For example, the woman describes how her father will give her “his brown eyes” (Line 7) and how her mother advised her to eat raw deer (Line 40). Perhaps the reader is suggesting that she is the only survivor of a tragedy and it is her heritage that keeps her going to keep safe. In the first two lines of the poem, she explains how the young woman will be taking the lines of her mother’s (Lines 1-2). This demonstrates further that she is physically worried about her features and emotionally worried about taking on the lineage of her heritage. Later, she remembered the years of when her mother baked the most wonderful food and did not want to forget the “smell of baking bread [that warmed] fined hairs in my nostrils” (Lines 3-4). Perhaps the young woman implies that she is restrained through her heritage to effectively move forward and become who she would like to be. When reading this poem, Native American heritage is an apparent theme through the lifestyle examples, the fact lineage is passed through woman, and problems Native Americans had faced while trying to be conquested by Americans. Overall, this poem portrays a confined, young woman trying to overcome her current obstacles in life by accepting her heritage and pursuing through her

    Read More

  • Wiccan Rede Analysis

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first line of the poem refers to following the idea of perfect love and perfect trust. This phrase has been around for awhile, original origins seem to be lost but it can be seen in an early version of Gerald Gardner’s early book of shadows as well as here itself in the wiccan rede. The phrase itself refers to being vulnerable, within a circle, with members of your coven. When you enter into a circle and perform magic you completely open yourself. This phrase means that you know everyone there with you is going to treat you with respect and not cause you any harm. This can also refer to putting your trust in your deity, humans are not perfect, we all will have times that we may misinterpret a situation but the divine is just that. You should

    Read More

  • Anne Bradstreet Analysis Essay

    1305 Words  | 3 Pages

    Anne Bradstreet can be considered as a strong-willed but sensitive Puritan woman. Her poetry includes a combination of sarcasm and dispute against certain issues involving the unequal rights between men and women, and sentimental writings about her own emotions. She mostly writes about her feelings towards events going on in her personal life and not so much about politics or social phenomena. She did not write so as to put on a show or to be socially correct, but about her genuine feelings. She writes about being a woman and all the things that come with it, family, love, sorrow and seeking equality. She also incorporates her religious beliefs strongly in her poem as a driving force to reconciliation between herself and God. Anne Bradstreet was an eloquent poet who was able to convey her innermost feelings to the reader through various techniques and diction.

    Read More

  • Love and Lust in Play-By-Play, Sex without Love, and Junior Year Abroad

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem goes on to tell of the women, who "...haven't put aside desire/ but sit at ease and in pleasure,/ watching the young men" (Murray 837). This work obviously shows how the women lust after the attractive young men, and clearly are not in love; any one of these men could have been replaced with another attractive man and would have m...

    Read More

  • Examples Of Distinctive Voices In Shawshank

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Anne Bradstreet: The Wife, the Woman And the Legendary Poet

    2441 Words  | 5 Pages

    Anne Bradstreet is considered by many experts to be the first English-speaking/writing American poet. Although arguments can be made that Phyllis Wheatley is indebted that title, the complexity, breadth, depth and ingenuity found in Bradstreet’s poetry is of such magnitude that she ranks among the top five poets, male or female, in American history. However, as with most issues, there is contention on both sides. “The question of Anne Bradstreet’s value as a poet has often receded behind the more certain fact of her value as a pioneer. This means that, while generations of students have read Anne Bradstreet’s work on the basis that she was the first American poet, and a woman at that, many have emerged from the experience unconvinced of her poetry’s intrinsic worth” (Hall 1).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of I Dreamed I Moved Among The Elysian Fields

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    The time that began the poem is completely shattered and served as a jolt of reality to the reader. Yet that raises a pertinent question: why is, in line 4, she is weaving a garland for “your living head”? In the 1930s, who would have perpetrated violent acts against women in the name of sexual gratification yet still hold expectations that women take care of them? By making men in general the placeholder for “you” in the poem, it creates a much stronger and universal statement about the sexual inequality women faced. She relates to women who have had “a god for [a] guest” yet it seems ironic because she is criticising the way these women have been treated (10). It could be argued, instead, that it is not that she sees men as gods, but that is the way they see themselves. Zeus was a god who ruled Olympus and felt entitled to any woman he wanted, immortal or otherwise. He encapsulates the societal mindset that men were dominant and women were there to benefit them. In all the allusions to the Greek myths, Zeus disguises himself in order to trick the women of his desires. The entitlement men felt towards women and their bodies was easily guised as the “social norm”. Embracing a wider meaning to “you” than just as a reference to a single person adds complexity to the poem; it creates a sense of universality. Not all women can identify with an act of violence

    Read More

  • The Poetry in Harlem Renaissance

    1966 Words  | 4 Pages

    Leonard, K. D. (2009). African American women poets and the power of the word. The Cambridge Companion to African American Women's Literature, 168-187.

    Read More

  • Marvel to His Mistress: Carpe Diem!

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the start, the first stanza of the poem is full of flattery. This is the appeal to pathos. The speaker is using the mistress's emotions and vanity to gain her attention. By complimenting her on her beauty and the kind of love she deserves, he's getting her attention. In this first stanza, the speaker claims to agree with the mistress - he says he knows waiting for love provides the best relationships. It feels quasi-Rogerian, as the man is giving credit to the woman's claim, he's trying to see her point of view, he's seemingly compliant. He appears to know what she wants and how she should be loved. This is the appeal to ethos. The speaker seems to understand how relationships work, how much time they can take, and the effort that should be put forth. The woman, if only reading stanza one, would think her and the speaker are in total agreement.

    Read More

  • Love In The Sonnet By Edna St. Vincent Millay

    973 Words  | 2 Pages

    In romantic words, the poet expresses how much she does think of love. She state it clear that she will not trade love for peace in times of anguish.

    Read More

  • Emotion in Emily Dickinson's “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun”

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...sed society with religious overtones throughout the poem, as though religion and God are placing pressure on her. The is a very deep poem that can be taken in may ways depending on the readers stature yet one thing is certain; this poem speaks on Woman’s Identity.

    Read More

  • Mary Robinson and Her Many Masks

    2501 Words  | 6 Pages

    Mary Robinson’s public image as an actress and at times transgressive female are inseparable from her identity as an author and poet. Having begun her public life as an actress, Robinson remained keenly conscious of the power of audience. She intentionally re-scripted her own past, using her lurid fame to launch her successful writing career. Written at the end of her life, The Haunted Beach represents a culmination of efforts to make a serious impact on the world of poetry. Among other daring moves, Robinson's poem effectively engages with a known poet, in its recognizable similarities to Coleridge's Rime, and makes a social commentary on a murder she witnessed. The poem’s vaguely defined relationship with audience mirrors Robinson’s own multiplicity in voice. Just as The Haunted Beach is told by an unidentified observer, ultimately Robinson’s own identity remains unknowable; at best she is a fusion of her many pseudonyms, stage characters, and ideas presented in her written works.

    Read More

  • Anne Bradstreet's Puritan Viewpoint in Her Poetry

    500 Words  | 1 Pages

    In all of Bradstreet’s works she is constantly expressing herself through her figurative language that whoever reads the poetry can’t help but sense the feelings through any piece. An...

    Read More

  • An Explication of Shakespeare’s “Let me not to the marriage of true minds”

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...hat the poet wants us to see this “doom” (12) as the biblical end of days. In this case, we see that love will last for the entire history of all creation. If this is the way we are meant to read it, we see that God and love stand together as the universe is undone. We could further see this as a statement of God being the perfection of love. Love is the conduit with which man can experience the purity of God. The poet concludes the poem in lines thirteen and fourteen saying “If this be error and upon me proved” and “I never writ, nor no man ever loved” (13 – 14). Here he is saying that if he is wrong we may consider him to have never existed at all. Since what we have of the poet is his writing, we know that he did exist and he seems to suggest that we would be better to ignore all he ever was if to us love does not have the power which he attributes it.

    Read More

More about Apology For Want Summary

Open Document