The poem Sticks and Stones, Alexander Newlin is a poem that distributes many meaning and ways that words and phrases can hurt someone not physically but mentally. This poem shows that people such as bullies do not have to be physical with there attacks, they can attack mentally. For example, when a bully hits a kid or kicks someone they can have broken bones as used in the title, but this is different from that of a bully who attacks someone mentally like saying “Your mom” when someones mother has passed away or something of that nature. The focus of this essay is to show the meaning of this poem and mindset of a typical reader. Reading a poem like Sticks and Stones is extremely satisfying as a reader because it is easy to understand and presents the theme blatantly. The theme is that using objects such as sticks or fist may break ones bones physically but words and phrases should never …show more content…
The main one that catches a readers eye is a metaphor. A metaphor is basically two phrase mushed into one phrase that are not compatible. The whole poem is basically a metaphor for example in line 8 when it says “Words cause deaths that bullets never would.” This sentence is not physically possible but if one thinks about it figuratively then he/she see’s the real meaning. Saying something like “you stink” to someone who has no power or water or lives on the streets can cause that person to cry or even get physical depending on who that individual should be. Throughout the poem there are also some Hyperbole’s in which are not easily located but are seen of the reader takes the time to focus. An example of a hyperbole in this poem that is borderline metaphoric is “Words are eggshells that we walk on every day, But when they break so do we” This could be both but it is hard to tell if this is a line that is meant to be taken serious or just another silly
It shows that similes have to be compared universally so everyone can understand. This poem is a really funny read and I
The first aspect of language, which he uses is metaphor in the beginning of the poem when he is describing the dwarf sitting outside the church. He uses metaphor as he says, “The dwarf with his hands on backwards Sat, slumped like a half – filled sack On tiny twisted legs from which Sawdust might run.” The metaphor here of the dwarf sitting like a ‘half filled sack’ is describing the dwarf and how he has a deformed body. He is being compared to looking like a sack, which is slumped and half empty. This is effective as it seems as though the dwarf cannot help himself
In poetry, three things are used to help the reader understand the poem better. These things are syntax, imagery, and connotation.
One example of analyzing the poem is how the lines stop in random places. This can also be called, enjambment. The poem is describing a fight. When fights happen, they are fast and quick and intense, the author tries to recreate the chaos and speed of the fight by using enjambment. The second example of analyzing the poem is that the stanzas are broken up into four lines. The only lines that are not broken up into four lines are the last ones, which are broken up into couplets. The third example of analyzing this poem, is that there are a lot of metaphors that bring out the intense and vehement emotion, such as, “A wall of fire sethes…”. This brings out all the emotions in the air, and what the angry parents feel like, even though the author doesn’t say that they were mad, you can guess how much anger and tension is in the
The poet wrote in stanza two, “Poems hide. In the bottom of your shoes, they are sleeping. They are the shadows drifting across our ceilings the moment before we wake up.” A poem hiding, sleeping in the bottom of your shoe, and drifting across our ceilings are all examples of personification. This was not the only example of figurative language that was used in the poem. In the first stanza it says, “You can’t order a poem like you order a taco.” This is an example of a metaphor because the poet compares a poem to a taco using the word
The first literary device that can be found throughout the poem is couplet, which is when two lines in a stanza rhyme successfully. For instance, lines 1-2 state, “At midnight, in the month of June / I stand beneath the mystic moon.” This is evidence that couplet is being used as both June and moon rhyme, which can suggest that these details are important, thus leading the reader to become aware of the speaker’s thoughts and actions. Another example of this device can be found in lines 16-17, “All Beauty sleeps!—and lo! where lies / (Her casement open to the skies).” These lines not only successfully rhyme, but they also describe a woman who
Understanding and interpreting poetry is a learned skill that is unique to each individual. The meaning, tones, and significance of a poem can vary from person to person, as well as each time you read the same poem. Poems evoke emotions from the reader, and different moods can allow the same reader to interpret the poem’s meaning in a different light each time. In Billy Collins’s “Introduction to Poetry” the theme he utilizes is education; he seeks to educate others on how to read and interpret the meaning of a poem so that you can truly understand what the author was trying to emit onto the page. The entire poem is built upon irony; it is devoted to educate those reading the poem on how to read a poem properly, through the use of a poem.
Metaphor- There isn’t one line in this entire poem that isn’t a metaphor. I even think the whole poem is a metaphor. Implied metaphor- /When
Throughout history, poets had experimented with different forms of figurative language. Figurative language allows a poet to express his or her meaning within a poem. The beauty of using the various forms of figurative language is the ability to convey deep meaning in a condensed fashion. There are many different figures of speech that a poet can use such as: simile, paradox, metaphor, alliteration, and anaphora. These examples only represent a fraction of the different forms, but are amongst the most well-known. The use of anaphora in a poem, by a poet, is one of the best ways to apply weight or emphasis on a particular segment. Not only does an anaphora place emphasis, but it can also aid in setting the tone, or over all “feel” a reader receives from a poem. Poets such as Walt Whitman, Conrad Aiken, and Frances Osgood provide poems that show how the use of anaphora can effect unity, feeling, and structure of a poem.
4. The poem’s theme relates to the idea of death and mortality. It is pretty much everywhere and exists in everything. The depressing thing about it is that people seem to overlook it or choose to ignore it. It is a possibility that the event of death has become a thing to be unnoticed and a norm. They boy knew at least four deaths during that day and witnessed some sickly horrifying stuff about the animals in his neighborhood. Knowing that he and his brother played with the cat’s corpse is really disturbing. The arrogance and attitude of death is so casual that it becomes something that is overlooked.
These poems are not as complex when compared to other poems, and with that being said they do not take an abundance of inference to determine the theme of the poem. Because they are not as complex as others all 3 of these poems are capable of being paraphrased to better understand the main idea of the poem. When putting the poem into different words, one can
There are three main metaphors at the beginning of the poem. The first metaphor they list is “The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.” One more they list is “The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.” The last metaphor the poem uses in the first stanza “The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor.” These metaphors really help visualize the poem better.
It also uses humor by having similie`s like"the beating of the storm`s waves on a stern distance shore. The author wants the reader to feel emotions and excitment while reading his poem. Towards the end of the poem, It completly shifts from being excitment, peace, and then sadness, That is an example of irony. The author uses irony in the poem because he wants the reader to sense imagrey and feelings while reading.
Although this is a shorter poem, it surly contains many examples of figurative language. To restate, “Time had whittled down to mere hills,”(ln 2) which is an example of personification, considering that time can’t whittle, but it emphasises the fact that the stages of life, can alter the surroundings. Another main literary device that was used in the last two lines is a hyperbole, “A hundred strong men strained beneath his coffin/ When they bore him to his grave”(lns 12-13). This exaggerates how important, and meaningful the speaker’s father was to him, comparing it to the heaviness of his father, and how hundred strong men needed to lift his coffin, but truthfully hundred men are not needed to lift a coffin.
The first thing that strikes me about this poem is the structure. The poem is very ordered written with 4 lines a stanza and a total of 6 stanza’s. This looks like a professional poem created by an adult, showing experience right away. The syllables are normally 7 per line but there are exceptions to this rule as all of stanza 5 has 8 syllables a line. The first stanza and the last stanza are nearly the same apart from the last line of each differing by a word. This poem uses many poetic devices well to create a vivid picture in the readers mind. There are rhyming couplets, alliteration, repetition, rhetorical questions as well as many biblical and egotistical references to the artist and poet himself. Now we will look at the poems meanings.