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People become inspired from all sorts of unique things from a play or a quote to a book of poems. Julia Alvarez’s “On Not Shoplifting Louise Bogan’s The Blue Estuaries” conveys the speaker’s discoveries and the passion and inspiration they created through the use of tone, imagery, similes, and alliteration.
In the first and second stanzas, the speaker appears captivated by the discovery of a new genre and a new author. When the speaker discovers the poetry section amongst an assortment of meaningless gossip magazines and “reference tomes” they become enlightened and drawn to them. The line “no blurbs by the big boys on back” (line 3), utilizes alliteration to reveal the differences between what she is used to reading and the new book she had
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The speaker illustrates her poor state and questions whether or not to shoplift the book to keep the work that has inspired her to unimaginable measures. This feeling is conveyed through the writing “I had no money, no one was looking./ The swan posed on the cover,/ their question-mark necks arced/ over the dark waters./ I was asking them what to do” (lines 40-44). This element of confusion strengthens the tone of passion and reveals how deeply the book has affected her. The moral battle the speaker goes through depicts the strong, positive, inspired feeling they wanted to hold on to; to “own [that] moment” (line38). Ultimately, the speaker replaced the novel which portrays her discovery of who she was and who she was capable of being. The simile: “I held the book closed before me/ as if it were something else,/ a mirror reflecting back/ someone I was becoming” (lines 46-49) convey’s her discovery of herself and the her will power to become a more disciplined individual. It also illustrates the strength she has found from the discovery of this book and the passion it
...He is still anchored to his past and transmits the message that one makes their own choices and should be satisfied with their lives. Moreover, the story shows that one should not be extremely rigid and refuse to change their beliefs and that people should be willing to adapt to new customs in order to prevent isolation. Lastly, reader is able to understand that sacrifice is an important part of life and that nothing can be achieved without it. Boats are often used as symbols to represent a journey through life, and like a captain of a boat which is setting sail, the narrator feels that his journey is only just beginning and realizes that everyone is in charge of their own life. Despite the wind that can sometimes blow feverishly and the waves that may slow the journey, the boat should not change its course and is ultimately responsible for completing its voyage.
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
Throughout the poem, Boland utilizes imagery to help the reader understand her point. “Our lives with oversights—living by the lights of the loafs left by the cash register” with this quote, the reader should be able to understand a side of a woman’s world and what she had to go through just to purchase washing powder. “…The washing powder paid for and wrapped, the wash left wet.” By providing the reader with these quotes, it gives him/her an image of how complex it was to
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
. This story embodies how the author saw her experiences that she had lived through.
Imagery returns once more, allowing the reader to sense the nerves that were beginning to affect the narrator; preparing them for a suspenseful turning point. The turning point that follows had been the revelation of the narrator’s thoughts about stealing the book- which may have been why she must’ve lost her doubts prior. The narrator could not bring herself to steal the book, but was not ready to forget her special moment; looking to the book for an
This is an odd little book, but a very important one nonetheless. The story it tells is something like an extended parablethe style is plain, the characters are nearly stick figures, the story itself is contrived. And yet ... and yet, the story is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking because the historical trend it describes is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking.
As the first poem in the book it sums up the primary focus of the works in its exploration of loss, grieving, and recovery. The questions posed about the nature of God become recurring themes in the following sections, especially One and Four. The symbolism includes the image of earthly possessions sprawled out like gangly dolls, a reference possibly meant to bring about a sense of nostalgia which this poem does quite well. The final lines cement the message that this is about loss and life, the idea that once something is lost, it can no longer belong to anyone anymore brings a sense...
In Sara Teasdale’s poem “Barter” life is personified as a salesman who is trying to sell the reader all of the “…beautiful and splendid things” it has to offer. Throughout the poem the speaker uses imagery to further convince the reader of all they have to offer. Broken up into 3 stanza’s the first two stanza’s use imagery to show the reader all that life has to offer, with the final stanza using imagery to persuade to the reader to take all of the wonderful things it has to offer and to embrace them fully and to never take these wonderful things for granted.
The speaker opens up the poem by speaking in first person and saying “In the privacy of my mind/ I give vent to rage, lies, / envy, and vices of every kind”. (1-3) The speaker’s mind is like a safe haven and she can go there to be free and private with her thoughts without anyone knowing her true identity, almost as if she is trying to hide from the public’s eye. In the second tercet she mentions that she is filled with joy and is safe because the forbidden part of her nature is explored and no one can see or knows. In Duality the speaker also mentions that her mind is a wall that conceals her. This statement represents the speaker’s secrecy to keep her thoughts guarded and protected. Throughout the poem the speaker goes back and forth contradicting her façade with her inner thoughts. This technique makes the reader not only confused about the true identity of the speaker but also hungry for more information as the character in the poem isn’t thoroughly revealed and brought to light. The lack of information from the speaker and the nature of her thoughts can make her seem as a dishonest and evil
The author applies sight and personification to accentuate the mirror’s roles. The declaimer of the poem says “I am silver and exact [and] whatever I see I swallow” (1, 20). The purpose of these devices is to convey the position of the mirror in the poem. As an inanimate object, the mirror is incapable of consuming anything but the appearances of entities. Furthermore, the glass’ role accentuates an inner mirror, the human mirror which does not forget instances of misery and contentment. According to Freedman, the mimicking image emulated by the mirror elicits “… a look for oneself inside” as observed from the life of the elderly woman in the sonnet (153). Moreover, as the woman looks into the lake, she commemorates her appealing and attractive and pleasant figure as a young girl. As time passes, the inevitability of old age knocks on the door of the woman, readily waiting to change the sterling rapturous lady perceived by many. One’s appearance can change; it is up to an individual to embrace it or reject it.
The entire story was a symbol of Needy’s life. The setting in the story was symbolic to the way Needy was feeling. Needy’s life was diminishing right before his eyes, and he did not realize it. The different changes in the story represented how much Needy’s life had gradually changed over time. By reading the story the reader can tell that Needy was in a state of denial.
Through metaphors, the speaker proclaims of her longing to be one with the sea. As she notices The mermaids in the basement,(3) and frigates- in the upper floor,(5) it seems as though she is associating these particular daydreams with her house. She becomes entranced with these spectacles and starts to contemplate suicide.
To begin, the episodic shifts in scenes in this ballad enhance the speaker’s emotional confusion. Almost every stanza has its own time and place in the speaker’s memory, which sparks different emotions with each. For example, the first stanza is her memory of herself at her house and it has a mocking, carefree mood. She says, “I cut my lungs with laughter,” meaning that...
Although the mirror revels reality the women still clings to objects that blind her from the truth. In the second stanza, the phase "Then she turn to those liars, the candles or the moon" shows that the woman is attempting to hide her flaws behind the darkness. It is very ...