Structure is used in many of Harwood’s poems to challenge the dominant perception of the happy, caring mother. In ‘Suburban sonnet,’ the structure is (obviously) the sonnet, two four line stanzas followed by a six-line stanza. This choice is deliberate as the traditional romanticised love poem jars against the reality presented in the poem. Similarly, ‘Burning Sappho’ challenges the dominant stereotypes of the time however, rather than a sonnet, the poem’s structure is also relevant to the poem’s criticisms, thus revealing a duality in the mother’s actions and inner thoughts. Throughout the day, the mother is constantly interrupted by her supposed ‘duties’ and ‘roles.’ “Scandals and Pregnancies” mediates that the women (a kind friend) talk, however the subject of the conversation presents a typecast of stereotypical gossip, therefore positioning the reader to perceive their conversation as lacking substance. In contrast to this stereotype however, the persona’s thoughts are deeply…
Discussion of the poems of Nancy Knapp, Nellie Clark, and Dora William from the book Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.…
Gwen Harwood, An Australian poet who, seems to develop an imaginative, rich form of poetry through the use of recurring themes, complex language techniques and even further through the use of sophisticated structures only seen in the most prestigious of poems in the modern era. Gwen Harwood has a tendency to write poetry that is significant in all eras, cultures and/or societies of the world as she captures, and develops them into a strong universal theme that recurs strongly. These themes seem to endure, and portray the human experience by relating these in forms that resonate through a range of various environments; these poems have an immense structural integrity. These themes are depicted powerfully in poems such as; Father and Child, Violets the 2 poems that I have chosen to discuss in this speech. In the Father and child, it has a unique structure of 2 parts; the 1st (Barn Owl) discusses her loss of innocence in the daughter’s perspective in the past, the second part (Nightfall) Being the downfall to her father, how he is put in an degenerative state, slowly falling to his demise. This is to do with Gwen accepting the inevitability of her father’s death. These 2 poems can be read symbiotically in a dual nature to provide further insight into both their poems, or separately as a poem. The language in the first poem is quite unique. It highlights the use of very simple words, with little complexity, this can be interpreted to show the innocence that the child still possesses, as children (better yet an innocent child) are meant to speak with less complexity than a full grown adult. These sentences also tend to be monosyllabic. ‘I knew my prize, who swooped home at this hour’ are all monosyllabic. As the poem continues, especially after the owl is shot, the child’s vocabulary seems to improve in complexity, losing its monosyllabic nature. This can symbolize the loss of innocence that the child had experienced by killing the owl senselessly. Gwen also uses many…
Brooks published her first poem in a children’s magazine at the age of thirteen. By the time she was sixteen, she had compiled a portfolio of around 75 published poems. At seventeen, she started submitting her work to “Lights and Shadows”, the poetry column of the Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper. Her poems, many published while she attended Wilson Junior College, ranged in style from traditional ballads and sonnets to poems using blues rhythms in free verse. Her characters were often drawn from the poor of the inner city. After failing to obtain a position with the Chicago Defender, Brooks took a series of secretarial jobs.…
Imagine being abused, hit, yelled at, and left alone without the most important feeling of love. Growing up without a shoulder to cry on or a hand to hold. How would these actions sculpt you as an individual? Would they compel you to do the same actions to your own loved ones, or show them love and compassion, which your life had lacked? Poets tend to write pieces of literature as reflections back on their personal lives, describing situations that stay afloat in their heads. Sharon Olds’ happened to be one of these poets, who expressed her upsetting past relationship with her father and current relationships with her children through these works of art. In Olds’ first poems, she…
The initial descriptions of setting and geography influence the purpose of any character, theme or symbol. In the book “A Lesson Before Dying” the courthouse and segregation along with syntactic balance patterns play an important role in influencing those three things…
Two kinds is a fictional story written by the Chinese-American author Amy Tan. She was born in Oakland California. In this story, the writer explains the conflict and the problem of the mother-daughter relationships and also reveals about American life and the American dream. In this story, Nikon is shown as the main protagonist and the whole story is all about the writers feeling towards event during her childhood. The author also tries to explain the mother-daughter relationship and reveals the generational gap in between the mother and daughter. The author also illustrates the feeling of the children when their parents try to force them to be obedient rather than following their path. According to writer's mother everybody can…
To start off,the main symbolism in the poem was the house itself, I think it is portraying that not all homes were meant for warm smiles, love and laughter; sometimes it could be filled with abuse, tears, fights, and even deaths. In the 15th stanza it says “ The house divided against itself, which to me, represents an abusive-family relationship. Also, the significance of the home is made up of negative memories, in which it impacted a strong emotions, etc. Over all, the house symbolizes a schizophrenic's head and the fighting family represents the internal conflict that goes on inside.…
The novel, A Lesson before Dying, was written by Ernest J. Gaines in 1993. Gaines was born on the River Lake plantation in Louisiana, where he was raised by his aunt, Miss Augusteen Jefferson. Racism was prevalent shown by the whites-only libraries in Louisiana. After 15 years of living in Louisiana, Gaines moved to California, although he states Louisiana never left him. California had libraries available for the blacks also. In California, he lived with his mother and which inspired him to the point of writing about six novels and scores of short stories. In 1953, Gaines was drafted into the Army, and he later went on to study creative writing at Stanford University. While in the library, Gaines…
Out of four authors, T.S. Elliot, Robert penn Warren, Rita Dove, and Allen Ginsberg, the voices of the poets are very distinct and different from each other. I feel that all of their influences in life influences their art. Naturally, everyone's life view affects everything they do. It's interesting to see how life's events and people's interests influences what they write.…
Margaret not only writes novels but also expresses her feelings and views through poems. Most of her poems reflect a lot of dismay and loss, which is connected to the death of her father and “the realization of her mortality” ("Margaret Atwood," Poetry Foundation).…
I want to discuss poetry by Rita Dove; her poetry is called “Daystar”. The poetry is all about that she wants to find some peace time for herself. Rita poetry remind me of my life and how there are so much responsibly that we both have to do. She mentioned in her poetry “she wanted a little room for thinking but she saw diapers steaming on the line, a doll slumped behind the door.” When I come home from work I sometime what to come home to a quiet place, but instead when I enter into my house and all I can see are dishes need to be washing, clothes need to wash or put up, and most importantly getting my lesson done.…
Saying Sylvia Plath was a troubled woman would be an understatement. She was a dark poet, who attempted suicide many times, was hospitalized in a mental institution, was divorced with two children, and wrote confessional poems about fetuses, reflection, duality, and a female perspective on life. Putting her head in an oven and suffocating was probably the happiest moment in her life, considering she had wanted to die since her early twenties. However, one thing that was somewhat consistent throughout her depressing poetry would be the theme of the female perspective. The poems selected for analysis and comparison are, ”A Life”(1960),”You’re”(1960), “Mirror” (1961), “The Courage of Shutting-Up” (1962) and finally, “Kindness” (1963). All five of these previously discussed poems have some sort of female perspective associated with them, and that commonality is the focus point of this essay.…
The poet that I have chosen to do is Rita Dove. In her newest collection of poems, Sonata Mulattica, there were many to choose from. However the two that I wanted to look deeper into were Exit and Golden Oldie. In both poems she is able to convey strong emotions in the characters she described.…
In “Loose Ends,” Rita Dove’s main focus is to help explain why sometimes life has many loose ends. Dove starts off by explaining that when her daughter would come home from school she would not have much to say, usually one word answers. It did not matter what the question was, “How was school?” Her daughter would then answer, “Fine.” For whatever reason her daughter did not feel the need to give a long sophisticated answer for something so boring as school. However when Dove asked her daughter about “MathNet” or the gossip on “Lois and Clark” her daughter would go into great detail.…