a young boy is ambivalent between hope and reality after merely picking berries. The poem "Blackberries" by Yusef Komunyakaa‚ published in 1992‚ illustrates the author’s childhood experience in a candid yet heartbreaking image. Komunyakaa frankly describes his struggle growing up; additionally during a specific day picking blackberries to raise money in hopes of a better future Komunyakaa is painfully reminded of his less fortunate beginnings. Through a series of allusions and metaphors‚ Komunyakaa’s
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Wojahan starts off his review by praising Yusef Komunyakaa as one of our period’s most significant and individual voices. He goes on to note that along with the realese of Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems Komunyakaa was also able to publish a book-length sequence entitled Talking Dirty to the Gods and how this simultaneous release is a true testament to how well respected Komunyakaas’ work is. Wojahan obviously holds Komunyakaas’ work in high regard himself stating that “In reading almost
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Professor Linda Cashman ENC1102 Sec. 45 March 22‚ 2014 Yusef Komunyakaa’s Facing It. Returning Vietnam veterans had an especially hard time reconnecting to the world upon their return home. Both their mental and physical stresses‚ compounded by the fact that there were a large number of people who chose to hate and beguile these men‚ caused them to be clinically depressed or even in some cases drove them to insanity. In Komunyakaa’s “Facing It”‚ we get an in depth look at the personal casualties
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The poem “Blackberries” is about a young man spending his day eating handfuls of blackberries. Narrator Yusef Komunyakaa paints a picture of the day. The perfect stains left from the juices of the berries‚ as well as concluding the day of picking wild blackberries by describing a memory of when he was younger. His fingers not only stained from the berries‚ also by the blood from picking the berries that were “too ripe to touch.” This poem is about forgiveness and the affects of how limbo can change
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In Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Facing It‚” the speaker encounters his grief at the Vietnam Memorial‚ undergoing confusing emotions from his experience of grief and loss at the war‚ but later realizes there is joy and harmony in living‚ appreciating the value of his own life [PrPP]. The first half of the poem demonstrates the speaker’s despair and confusion by visiting and reflecting on the wall from the memorial‚ the wall visually and physically representing the loss of his comrades. The poem opens with
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not easily forgotten by those involved‚ and are also things not easily understood by those not involved. It is impossible to truly understand the emotional toll that something as devastating as a war can have on a person. In the poem “Facing It” by Yusef Komunyakaa‚ it centers on an African American man who served in one of the most trying wars of all time‚ the Vietnam War‚ and is visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. In this poem‚ an understanding is gained of the unrelenting grief and emotional
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Facing It Outline Jackson G In the poem “Facing It”‚ the author Yusef Komunyakaa makes use of imagery‚ symbolism‚ and allusion to demonstrate the difficulty that veterans have dealing with the lingering emotional pain caused by war and how this causes them to have trouble facing reality. In the beginning of the poem‚ the author uses imagery coupled with allusion and symbolism to illustrate how the speaker is conflicted by and reflecting on the memory of the war. “My black face fades‚ hiding
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The Reflections of War In the poem‚ “Facing It‚” Komunyakaa uses his personal experience while visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial after surviving the Vietnam War and the mental affect of the reality that death has left. In the poem the author uses imagery to illustrate to the reader the feelings he experiences while dealing with the loss of his fellow comrades. “I go down the 58‚022 names‚ half-expecting to find my own in letters like smoke.”(14-16) While at the memorial he is reminded of
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Akeem Barnes Professor Fairey Personal Criticism 5-12-13 Facing it I stood nervously in front of my eighth grade English class praying that nobody would laugh at the poem I was about to read aloud. My peers were used to reading Langston Hughes‚ Edgar Allen Poe‚ or Maya Angelou‚ and I did not want to disappoint them by trying something new. The assignment given to our class was for everybody to choose a poem‚ read it aloud‚ and explain why it relates to them. How was I going
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On the outside of Yusef Komunyakaa’s "Thanks" is a very hopeless type of story about a young man in the Vietnam War who recounts events in which could have been his last. He gives thanks to certain objects‚ as if they were the reason that he did not in fact get shot‚ or that he didn’t trip over a landmine. The thanks he is giving could be interrupted as thanks to God for these objects‚ or a downright statement of a lack of god in his life or this war. Komunyakaa is making a statement about the war
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