...Elements of “A Girl’s Garden” In “A Girl’s Garden” by Robert Frost, the theme expressed is the unique pleasure of a rural childhood, as well as the girl’s youthful exuberance about the garden she grew. The speaker is a neighbor of the girl, who is now an adult woman living in town. The speaker tells the story, attempting to convey the importance of the garden to the adult woman because of the joy she still takes in reminiscing about her experiences, regardless of the perceived success of her efforts. This is achieved by excellent use of tone, rhythm, and imagery. The tone of the poem is consistently light and pleasant. From the beginning the girl remembers the experience fondly, as shown in lines -4 “likes to tell how one spring when she was a girl on the farm, she did a childlike thing.” The poem goes on to describe how the young girl asked her father for a garden of her own. The father’s response of “Why not?” and decision to give her a small, walled-off piece of useless land, as well as his comments in lines 1-16 suggests that he was humoring her because he knew it would be quite an undertaking. In lines 7 � 40 “her crop was a miscellany when all was said and done, a little bit of everything, a great deal of none”, the text at first seems to change tones. Yet the speaker ends the poem by reiterating the woman’s pleasure of telling the story of when she was a “farmer”. When taken into context with the rest of the poem, the tone has not changed. Regardless of the outcome, the...
Words: 884 - Pages: 4
...seminar goes on. The prayer that was led by one of its member made the start of the seminar in good atmosphere. Even the singing of our national anthem was nice. The creativity of the group was shown with the way they arrange and decorated the rooms were the seminar was held. It was simple but very attractive to the eye of the audience. The only thing that I noticed that was quite not good was the seminar wasn’t smooth flowing. There are unwanted interruptions that cause the audience to wait. I commend the speakers for they did their best in leading the said seminar but I noticed that there were quite some time that they’ve forgotten the next thing to do that causes another delay to the continuity of the seminar. But if I will be asked if it was successful or not, for me it is definitely a successful one. The speaker has a good poise and I noticed that the audience really listened well unto what the speaker is saying. I also salute the group for having such a admirable speaker with her experience in the said field, she was able to discuss in a good way the experiences she had and the things we must consider before we decide to enter a certain field of nursing. I was amazed with how dedicated she was in her 17 years in the service. The seminar that the group conducted gave us the whole picture of what to expect if we enter military nursing. To end this, I commend the group for I know they have worked hard for this like how the other group did. TEAM= Together Everyone Achieves...
Words: 332 - Pages: 2
...My Lips Have Kissed” In the poem “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, there is a theme of loneliness and regret. The speaker is a woman looking back with melancholy reflection to the days of her youth when her life was full of hope and the promise of love. She remembers she once had lovers but she cannot recall them individually. Now she is alone left with only regret: for the unremembered faces of her past, for the passing of her youth, and for the loneliness of her life now. The speaker regrets her inability to remember “What lips [her] lips have kissed” (Line 1). No special man or moment comes to her mind. Her memories of her former glory days haunt her. Although she cannot recall any of her lovers in particular, she hears them as she listens to the rain; unclear faces in her mind like “ghosts…that tap and sigh / Upon the glass” (ll. 3-4). Her heart aches for the “unremembered lads” that had once shared her bed. (l.7). She regrets her youth is now behind her. She compares herself to the seasons with her youth as “summer” (l.13) which is warm and green. Now she is in the time of “winter” (l.9), stark, bleak, and dreary. Those days when she was young and carefree she thought would last forever; but looking back, they seemed to have lasted only “a little while”(14). The speaker is alone: “In winter stands the lonely tree” (l.9). She cannot remember “What loves have come and gone” (l.12). She did not find that one special person...
Words: 452 - Pages: 2
...deal with stress, grief, loss, risk, and other difficulties. The reader is able to see that something throughout the marriage wasn’t good by interpreting line 12 "And by the fire and smoke of our nights", which shows they didn’t have peaceful nights. In line one “You thought I was that type”, the speaker is saying that someone took the wrong perception of her character by basing it off of things that wasn’t true ending up taking her for someone she really wasn’t. In line two “that you could forget me”, the speaker is saying that they couldn’t ever forget her since they made up their own view of what role she played in their life. In line three “and that I’d plead and weep and throw myself”, the speaker is saying that she tried to do everything she could think of to make herself be the one for this person but nothing would work so in result she was in sorrow. In line four, “under the hooves of a bay mare”, the speaker is saying that she would try to hide herself from all the pain she had the best way she could. In the next stanza the speaker goes on to explain what she needed and wanted to do in the situation throughout the poem. In line five, “or that I’d ask the sorcerers”, the speaker is saying that she didn’t know the answers to the questions she had so she would ask someone who is believed or claims to have magical...
Words: 679 - Pages: 3
...How does Aaron Hill use memory to combine generalised moralising with personalised lament in the poem in list B? Use close reading to support your points. In the poem ‘Alone, in an Inn, at Southampton’, by Aaron Hill, the speaker recounts the memories he once shared with his wife whilst staying in a room at a guesthouse before her death. He is now writing as a widower in the same room twenty years later and he expresses his feelings of anguish by projecting specific memories of his wife on to objects within the room, before going on to make broad statements on morality and the vices of life. The poem could be said to be split into three parts, the first section being the speakers lament for his wife, the second section outlining his now changed philosophical outlook on life, and the third detailing his resolution which concludes the poem. This essay aims to show, through close reading, how the protagonist of the poem combines his personal memories and feelings of sorrow with his own general moralising about life’s hardships. The first section of the poem begins as a simple lament, as the speaker remembers his wife and the happiness she brought him and contrasts it with the emptiness and loneliness which he feels now in her absence: “Twenty lost years have stoln their hours away, Since, in this inn, ev’n in this room, I lay: How chang’d! what then was rapture, fire, and air, Seems now sad silence all, and blanc despair!” In the opening lines, Hill describes...
Words: 2168 - Pages: 9
...written by Elizabeth Bishop about her own story when she catches a huge fish while she is in a rented boat. After she catches the fish, she holds it up half out of the water. The fish looks pretty ugly, tired, and old with “shapes like full-blown roses, stained and lost through age” (lines 14-15). Algae is growing on it, and she realizes that the fish has five fishing hooks with the lines still partially attached hanging from its jaw. The speaker start to think how tough this fish must be and how much the fish probably fought through his life to survive. She begins to respect the fish. The story takes a final turn when she lets the fish go. The Theme of the poem is that great lessons can be learned from simple situations in life like a normal day fishing in the ocean. At first the speaker says “I caught a tremendous fish” (1). That is a simple description, then the speaker gives some detail about the fish and how it looks “his brown skin hung like strips like ancient wall-paper”. At this point, the fish is nothing special. After that, the speaker begins to examine the fish more closely, and she imagines the inside of the fish “dramatic reds and blacks,”(30) and a “pink swim-bladder.”(32) The fact that she is using her imagination in connection with the fish implied that the fish has a meaning behind simply being caught. The narrator learned from the persistence and dedication that the fish has. The fish has been caught five time as his fishing hooks shows, and he has survived....
Words: 825 - Pages: 4
...exploited based on her gender is the essay’s central irony. Brand offers a narrative structure that allows the reader to empathize with the speaker—to experience an emotional response that reflects that of the speaker. She accomplishes this response by withholding information until a crucial moment, by varying sentence length and control to reflect emotions, and by repeating certain images throughout the essay. [Thesis statement] Brand opens her essay by outlining the series of events that lead her to seek employment at an office on Keele Street in Toronto. She recounts how she secures—by telephone—an interview for the following day; she then recounts her careful preparations for the interview and her arrival at the office on the day of the interview. Suddenly—and apparently inexplicably—she is told that the job no longer exists. Just as it dawns on the speaker that the reason she is unacceptable for the position is her race, it also dawns on the reader. Brand, with careful rhetorical manipulation of structure, mimics the speaker’s epiphany in the reader by withholding the information that the speaker is black. [Topic sentence] Indeed, the first mention of the speaker’s race comes after her rejection as she makes her escape and laughs “that laughter that Black people get, derisive and self-derisive” (74). Before the non-interview, the speaker sees herself as neutral in terms of race (interestingly, not in...
Words: 1250 - Pages: 5
...The Power of Words “To This Day” is an animated poem released on YouTube in February of 2013 written and spoken by Shane Koyczan. The purpose of the poem is to bitterly contradict the statement: “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Because of the overwhelming popular response, and hauntingly beautiful message: Koyczan was chosen to read the poem and show the film at the 2013 March TED conference in California. Koyczan’s purpose is to inform individuals of the countless hurdles bullying and simple words can create for an individual in their present and future. He uses Pathos to create a dramatic and heartfelt tone in order to convey to his audience the lasting effect words can have. Koyczan opens his poem by exhibiting the claim that role models actively push children to make decisions about their future, but relentlessly never support their choices. He remarks in regards to his own aspirations as a child with a paradox, “I've been shot down so many times, I get altitude sickness just from standing up for myself. But that's what we were told. "Stand up for yourself." And that's hard to do if you don't know who you are.” This contradiction successfully grabs the audience’s attention to consider Koyczan’s opinion. He appeals to the despondent, yet humorous thoughts that his audience likely experienced in childhood by exercising familiar scenarios and juxtaposing humor such as: shaving now is a chore, but when one was young, it was something one...
Words: 672 - Pages: 3
...Harlem’s social injustices There are many similar but different views on Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die.” Many have noticed that Claude wrote this poem in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, using an iambic pentameter and ending it with a couplet as well as including imagery. The speaker is a sort of leader, calling out to others to overcome the “common foe” and live and die with meaning and bravery. The theme is honor, the speaker says “if we must die, O let us nobly die” (McKay 514), encouraging the audience to go forth and fight what is holding them back. Honor is earned, a privilege that is only obtained when effort is put towards it. The poem hints towards racial prejudice which had been a social issue during the time of the Harlem Renaissance....
Words: 876 - Pages: 4
...In the poem “Richard Cory” written by Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory is portrayed as a great man, and everyone thinks he is such a well put together person who has his life together. When he walks the streets down town, we get to hear the poorer peoples’ perspective on their idea of him. They elaborate about how everything from his actions to his looks are appealing. Throughout the poem it seems like he has the perfect life because of how the lower class of people talk about him, but in the end we discover that he commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. After reading this poem, you realize that there are many themes portrayed and each consisting of significant value. For example, one of the main themes that we see is that you cannot assume certain aspects of a person just off of their looks. The less fortunate people, or as said in the poem, “people on the pavement” (Robinson, 851), only went off of what they saw on the outside to make the conclusion that he had his whole life together. None of the people knew that Richard was really an unhappy person. From my perspective, I would say that Richard was depressed, but none of the poorer people noticed this because they only knew him from how he was on the outside. Richard Cory was great at covering up his true feelings. The poorer people explain that, “In fine, we thought he was everything / To make us wish that we were in his place” (Robinson, 851). Others wanted to be him when he did not want to be himself at...
Words: 732 - Pages: 3
...Everyday life can be boring and drab but every once in awhile someone will come along and share their talents with others for their amusement. In “Juggler”, Richard Wilbur’s imagery, syntax, and tone conveys the speaker’s amazement towards the juggler. This reveals the speaker’s appreciation of others. The authors use of imagery displays the speakers encapsulated feeling of the moment. Throughout the play there are many descriptions of loud cheers and faultless motions. “Wheel on his wheeling hands… grazing his finger ends.” This conveys the ease and fluidness of the jugglers actions. This ease astounds the speaker who states, “It takes a sky-blue juggler with five red balls to shake our gravity up.” This portrays how appreciative the speaker...
Words: 318 - Pages: 2
...In line three, Dickenson describes Death’s carriage as holding “just Ourselves,” although in line four, she adds—almost hastily—“and Immortality.” By accepting Death’s carriage ride, it seems as though the narrator has accepted a sort of inevitability in allowing herself to die. Death, though, appears to be a very solitary transition as the narrator claims that it was “just” herself and Death in the carriage. In the fourth line, the narrator adds, almost as an afterthought, “And Immortality—.” Syntactically, it would appear as though line four is meant to suggest that a third person or object is also present in Death’s carriage. Perhaps the idea of “Immortality” in death is such a weighty concept that its presence takes on an almost corporeal form in the way death has. Moreover, Dickenson establishes an interesting juxtaposition of ideas by suggesting that the death of the narrator results in immortality—i.e., that which is not subject to death. In the same way that the narrator, when living, was subject to the strictures of time, she is again subject to its enormity and infinitude of time in death. Dickenson expands upon her theme of time in the second stanza. The first line is a composite of two independent clauses separated by an em dash, again suggesting a sort of dry quality to the narrator’s observations. She does not offer any judgment to the fact that they drove slowly. She simply states it as a fact and adds the following line as if only to explain it. Here, by adding...
Words: 489 - Pages: 2
...In the poem ‘In the Folk Museum’ Peter Skrzynecki recalls feelings of alienation and cultural isolation as he reminisces on his experiences in his poem ‘In the Folk Museum’ and expresses his failure to connect to Australia's rural history and heritage. The composer is unable to relate to the memorabilia within the museum, and as a result, his presence in the museum lacks purpose and becomes meaningless. The atmosphere is introduced with "the absence of voices" creating a sense of silence and stillness suggesting the persona is deserted within the "darkness" of the museum. The rambling listing of displayed items in "machinery, clothes, transport, a Victorian Bedroom" suggests a lack of engagement and appreciation of objects of cultural importance....
Words: 351 - Pages: 2
...Have you ever attend any talk that requires ones to speak in front of hundreds or maybe thousands of audience? Of course the answer is yes, right? What do you think about the speaker? How does he or she speak? Interesting? Not interesting? Did you being attentive? If not, why? Do we have to put the blame on the speaker for not being good enough as a public speaker? A boring speaker will definitely causes a boring speech. Thus, what does it takes for one to be a good speaker? What must you have to be a good speaker? I am here to write and to tell you the secrets to be an interesting public speaker as it will ensure you are delivering presentations that will influence, inspire, and make a meaningful impact on your audience. Do you think that being a public speaker is only about reading notes or points from your flash cards? If it is as easy as that, I would just call my 7 years old sister to present with her flash cards. One must know that, to be an effective speaker, you must first understand who you are as a speaker and as a person. What are your strongest interpersonal qualities? Do you have good interpersonal skills? How do you best connect with others? What qualities do you need to work on? The most effective speakers are constantly working to capitalize on their strengths whether that’s great storytelling or a talent for getting the audience to participate and even to improve upon their weaknesses. Tapping into your most powerful interpersonal qualities is an excellent way...
Words: 277 - Pages: 2
...begins, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both, And be one traveler, long I stood, And looked down one as far as I could, To where it bent in the undergrowth;” Clearly the speaker is faced with a decision. He is out for a morning walk in the autumn woods when he comes to a fork in the road. He stops and contemplates which road to take, looking down one road as far as he can see. The second stanza reads, “Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there, Had worn them really about the same,” The speaker thinks long and hard about which road is the right one for him to take; expressing his indecisiveness and the importance of making the right choice for himself. He decides to take the road that looked as if it had been less traveled but, upon further evaluation he realizes that both roads are “about the same.” In the third stanza the speaker continues to speculate the differences between the two roads. He notices that both roads are covered with freshly fallen leaves and look as if they have not been traveled, “And both that morning equally lay, in leaves no step had trodden black.” He is sorry he cannot take both roads. Therefore, the speaker claims that he will come back and take the other road another day but, then he comes to the realization that he will never get to experience where the other road leads. He realizes that life sometimes gets...
Words: 319 - Pages: 2
