Both swallowed in their job, the janitor in “Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits” by Martin Espada and the secretary in “The Secretary Chant” by Marge Piercy feel unappreciated and lost as employees. Jorge is “outside…of [Americans] understanding” and The Secretary is lost in her work and compares herself to objects such as her “hips are a desk.” The employees from these poems have become hidden behind their duties and are slowly sinking into the unknown.…
When most people hear the word “Spring” they think of a typical Sleeping Beauty situation, the birds are chirping and the flowers are blooming. It is always a cheerful time coming out of winter, but for the narrator in Williams's Spring and All, spring is a dreadful time of sorrow and death. Gluck’s For Jane Meyers focuses on a more positive tone, describing a kid excited for the coming of spring so much than he could just die. These two poems use numerous instances of imagery to illustrate the worst and best qualities of spring. In Spring and All, the poem focuses on the dull, sluggish qualities of spring as it is arriving, and For Jane Meyers, holds the tone of spring as a beautiful and exciting.…
The main theme of Snowbound is that no-matter what happens, family will be there to help and comfort. This theme is demonstrated widely throughout the poem and even more so in the last stanza of this excerpt. Another, less prominent, theme of Snowbound is the meaning and involvement of God in the lives of people.…
“Slaveship,” by Lucille Clifton, is a free verse poem from the perspective of slaves that the white men capture and trade in the slave trade, forcing them to travel on the Middle Passage. Ironically, the ships bear the names of religious symbols and figures such as Jesus, Angel of God, and Grace of God (lines 14-15) even though the act of slavery is one of the most sinful systems in the eyes of these slaves and in the eyes of all decent human beings.…
A tattoo is like poetry, because there is always more to the story than what meets the eye! The sonnet “First Poem for You” by Kim Addonizio is a riveting piece of poetry that uses symbolization to help guide the readers to understand the emotions and feelings the woman has towards her partner. Visual and tactile imagery used within this poem helps readers interpret the meaning of the poem. The theme is longevity and the true meaning of a relationship. In Addonizio “First Poem for You,” Addonizio utilizes literary elements to develop the story and detail a fictional character that is in love with a man that has permanent tattoos. Upon analyzing the symbols, visual imagery and theme throughout this poem the readers will better comprehend the poem to its entirety; these elements symbolize permanence, which is the meaning of the entire poem.…
E. Cummings “in Just” is that once summer hits it feels like freedom for most people in that the children are playing. But there is always someone working even in the nice seasons of the year. As the balloon man is always whistling his tune as summer hits. As the children are playing hopscotch and other various celebrations and actions. Also the form of the poem got me a little confused because it is so loose and less restricted as the other poems maybe do to the freedom.…
This poem was published in 1978 by Joyce Carol Oates. I chose this poem because it very much speaks about the traditional roles of men and women, specifically towards married men and women. We can use Gender lens to further analyze the poem. In the 70’s, that was the time where women are fighting for their equal rights similar to men. Now if we compare women today from the 70’s, we can really see a very big difference of our roles nowadays. Before, women who are married are expected to just stay at home and men are expected to work, earn and feed the family. The author clearly showcased on her poem what women really feel as a full time mother. It seems nostalgic, but deep inside, there’s no sense of joy and contentment in what they do, “simple,…
Take a minute to imagine “Men looking like they had been/attacked repeatedly by a succession /of wild animals,” “never/ ending blasted field of corpses,” and “throats half gone, /eyes bleeding, raw meat heaped/ in piles.” These are the vividly, grotesque images Edward Mayes describes to readers in his poem, “University of Iowa Hospital, 1976.” Before even reading the poem, the title gave me a preconceived idea of what the poem might be about. “University of Iowa Hospital, 1976” describes what an extreme version of what I expected the poem to be about. The images I described above are just some of the horrifying scenes described by Mayes. This poem spoke to me about the pain and suffering patients endure while staying in a hospital (whether it be a mental hospital or a medical hospital) and the horrific images the staff see daily. Mayes uses several types of imagery and literary tropes in his poem to give readers an intense visual sensation as they read his poem. The visuals Mayes placed in my own mind while I read this poem were intensely real and stuck with me long after I studied the poem.…
In the song, “All That I Require” written by Radney Foster, the speaker conveys a theme of the political dangers of extremism and fascism. The line “I’ll make us strong again / you’ll sleep safely in your beds / I’ll reign down hell upon those dirty mongrels’ heads / And the blood of all your children is all that I require” directly correlates to pathos for the pity of the beliefs against previous fascists leaders like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini during WWII. Through this, he illustrates the errors on both sides of the arguments, making drama politically worse than it should be. One of the major literary devices used in the song is foreshadowing.…
The works we studied within Creative Writing were all helpful in creating my own works to submit to the class. Throughout all of the reading, many of the works inspired me in different ways, whether it was short story plot ideas or word usage in the poems. While crafting my work for the final portfolio, I reviewed many of the poems from our poetry packet in an effort to find inspiration and to create new interesting images. I took the most inspiration for my formal poem, which I found most difficult to write. One of the poems that was most useful to me was Jilly Dybka’s “Memphis, 1976.” Dybka’s poem follows the sestina form; I also wrote my last poem in this form, so it helped to follow the form by looking at her poem as an example. Dybka’s…
Whilst reading this poem, a feeling of unusual melancholy and normalcy arises from a point in time which should be a substantial amount more upbeat. During the summer, kids are off school and carefree mostly, but from the writer of this piece I feel strangely a dull sense of action. The entire poem is of one single day, start to finish. However, the title includes the entire summer, hinting to me that perhaps every day in this summer feels just like this one day repeated over, so that every day feels just like the rest.…
Why does music make us feel something ? Do they have a meaning, do they represent anything? Yes, songs could have very powerful meanings that could lead to something very special. Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield is a song about you being able to express yourself, live life to the fullest, do what your heart tells you because no one else can. Ya gotta be by Des’ree is a song about having the inner strength to figure out who you are, and how i’m stopping myself and thinking everyday how you gotta be something, You have to be cool and calm in one situation, and then you have to be bold and strong in another situation. These two songs could represent or mean something or its even giving a message to others to encourage them to do something that…
The one thing that family could respond to all negative attitudes toward them was bitterness and even this was prohibited.…
The first 3 lines says “you will never graduate from this dream of blue books.”(lines 1-3). There are some people that can study and when it is time to take the test, they pass it with flying colors. But, there are certain types of people that exams make them feel the anxiety that makes them dream about the failure. The person can study for as long as they want, but before they go to bed, they are thinking, “oh god, what am I going to do? I studied as much as I can and I still don’t remember anything. I don’t know if I am going to pass this test…
The atmosphere gives a hint to the audience on what to feel, if it is confusing the audience don’t know what emotion is trying to be shown, in a poem the atmosphere isn’t clear to understand whereas in a song it is. This can be seen in the song WIN by Brian McKnight, since the author sings his own work the author is able to give the feel he intended to do. The atmosphere which is created around this song gives the sense of determination and makes the audience feel really engaged. Whereas the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley doesn’t create the exact atmosphere for everyone. In fact it creates various atmosphere for different people. As everyone is different. The song is able to create the wanted atmosphere because the author sings his…