...In the poem “You Fit Into Me” by Margaret Atwood, Atwood creates a regretful tone with the use of repetition and simile. These devices generate the idea that one is not a bad person for letting a toxic person go. One does not deserve to be walked over and betrayed for the sake of “love.” The use of repetition in “You Fit Into Me” emphasizes the true meaning of these few, short lines. Atwood first repeats the title of the poem in the first line of the poem. She does this again by stating “like a hook,” and “a fish hook,” and another time when saying “into an eye,” and “an open eye.” Reiterating these lines makes the reader rethink their interpretation of the meaning. In my initial reading of this poem, I thought is was solely a positive poem; after reading it time and time again I realized that it has both and positive and negative connotation. The first two lines signify that these two lovers once fit perfectly together and complemented one another in their relationship. In the last two lines, Atwood portrays to us that the love that was once there, no longer is. A fish hook in an open eye wouldn’t particularly be a nice feeling, I think this shows that the two who once fit each other perfectly, now have a relationship...
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...I have read Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou. I enjoyed this poem. I think that it has a positive message, and people can relate to it. This poem is really pretty. The rhythm flows beautifully throughout the entire piece. I think this is a good poem for people who are not very familiar with poetry. The beat is easy to find, but it isn’t too simple. Many times, I have read poems in which I have difficulty finding the rhythm, or the rhythm isn’t consistent through the whole poem. I also like the way that the words sound like they belong there. The words rhyme, but they don’t feel like they are in the poem for that purpose only. I think that people sometimes put words into poems that don’t really fit that well. The words may finish the sentence properly, but they are not words that you would use every day. I think this takes away from a poem because it kind of makes you pause in the middle of the flow. I feel that this poem appeals very much to people who are not what our society calls beautiful. There are many wonderful people who don’t quite fit the standard of this MTV culture that we live in. People are so quick to judge others on their outward appearance that they don’t take the time to get to know the person inside. This poem sends the message that you can be confident in your self even if you are not a super model. I can personally relate to this poem in several ways. As you have probably noticed, I am not the best looking guy in the world. I do however have some very fine...
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...A Poem To Me ENG 125 Introduction to Literature Miranda Saake October 6, 2013 A Poem To Me The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about poems are two thing. 1. Something from a time when our language of English was hard for us to understand mainly the era of Shakespeare. 2. The way it rhymes all the way to the end with fun or unique words. Not all poems have this or even need to have this quality of them, but this is what I think when thinking of poems. I am doing this paper over the poem “Lady from Cork.” The author is anonyms for who is listed but I don’t think I would put my name to this poem myself, especially if it was about a relative or spouse. I like this poem because of some of the funny rhymes in it. Like I said before this fits into my idea of a poem and it has the comical aspect to give it the win over me. The language is very comical. When you read this it rhymes like a children’s poem made to make them laugh. It in a small ways makes fun of this possible imaginary woman, or just states the obvious. The tone in regards to this area is hard to figure out when given those two options. It just is not long enough to make the decision on that end. The content to this is something I can relate to and many other as well most likely. In a world when two thirds of us are overweight we all can see this woman in our heads. I personally stay fit, and don’t much like obese people. Yes it is horrible of me, but I cannot help it at all. So this poem puts...
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...Riasad Chowdhury ENG 112 Prof: Stephen Clark 12/17/2015 Daily Working Life Poems are short or long paragraphs written by poets to impact largely on people's way of thinking. Claude McKay is a poet whose most of the poems are not always happy poems but they do give a nudge to people to think about normal daily stuffs in a very different perspective. I have read his poem called "Enslaved" and I have never felt so sympathy about the slavery that the African American people had to go through and how they felt about it. Then it was his another poem "If We Must Die" and it was so much filled with sorrow. I am writing about Claude McKay's poem "The Tired Worker" which actually touched me greatly though it was nothing related to my life style but still I could relate my daily life style to it and that is how Claude McKay's poems can really affect people. The poet in the poem "The Tired Worker" kept a lack of details which allows the readers to reflect themselves in a focus way, he also used a developing tone and imagery to guide the readers to think of their own life. The poet kept a convinient lack of details in the poem to help the readers fit themselves anywhere in the poem. "O whisper, O my soul! The afternoon. Is waning into evening, whisper soft! Peace, O my rebel heart! for soon the moon. From out its misty veil will swing aloft!", these are the first four lines of the poem and it is about a persom who is eagerly comforting himself or herself that it will soon be...
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...in which a thing is referred to as being something that it resembles. For example, a fierce person can be referred to as a tiger or a lion. In this way, metaphors are used in poetry to explain and elucidate emotions, feelings, relationships other elements that could not be described in ordinary language. Poets also use metaphor as a way of explaining or referring to something in a brief but effective way. Metaphors have many uses within poems, making them have deeper meaning than what the surface words can convey. Imagery may sometimes be visualized through the use of metaphor. The effect this has on the reader is that it functions primarily to increase stylistic colorfulness and variety. There is not a rulebook for poetry claiming that poems must have metaphors in order to be considered “good”. Yet, we consistently see the use of metaphors in many of the poems that we read today. Poets gravitate towards using metaphors in their poems because it creates a new element of understanding that a simple statement could not do. For example, in the poem “Doesn’t he realize”, the narrator could have just stated that she should not have to be expected to bend completely to the will of her lover. However, by comparing herself to the seaweed the reader gets a much better picture of what the poet wants them to grasp. The “swaying kelp” not only is completely submissive to the seaweed gatherer, it cannot complain or stand up for itself at all; it’s a plant. The poet paints a clear picture that...
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...Ethnic Themes Skylar Bandalan September 25, 2013 Instructor Solomon One point to remember when writing a comparative paper is that you have to know the material of whatever it is that is being paralleled. The theme I chose to write about is Race and Ethnicity. I am familiar with the theme and I also feel strongly about it which leads me to believe that I can do the topics justice. I chose What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl by Patricia Smith and Child of The Americas written by Aurora Levin Morales. These two authors may not share the same ethnicity; Smith being African American and Morales being Puerto Rican but they have experienced similar internal fights; cultural and personal identity struggles coupled with the need for social acceptance in their worlds. I also felt a personal connection with it seeing as how I am a mix of ethnicities, from Hawaiian, to Filipino, to Caucasian. In this comparative paper, I will discuss the similarities that both authors wrote about as well as the differences. When looking into the theme these two poems share, we can expand our understanding and in some way, reflect on it personally as I have. Both Smith and Morales explain so beautifully in their poems how difficult it was to grow up as young women who were not of Caucasian descent. They both lived completely different lives yet their struggles were comparable because they both suffered racial discrimination and in their writing explained how hard it was to live with what was decided...
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...ideas in the poem? When I read “The Victims,” by Sharon Olds, the main ideas that came to my mind were vengeance, karma, and the effects of divorce on children and parents. The poem starts being written from a child’s perspective, and it ends with a grown up point of view. It seems that not only the child has suffered the father’s abuse, but the mother and siblings too. Throughout the poem, the children in that family are taught to hate their father while the mother takes everything away from him until he is reduce to be a beggar. The poem ends with the same person reflecting on who the real victims were in the story. 2) What about the structure/movements of the poem? The poem has two very well differentiated parts: the first part that is written in past tense, and the second part, which is written in present tense. The poem starts hating the father and being happy when the mother divorced him, and it ends feeling some kind of sympathy towards the father. The author accomplished this shift in the poem thanks to the descriptions and the change of tense, but most importantly, thanks to the comparison of the father to bums. Another thing that I noticed about this poem is that every phrase in each line is not complete; it’s like the author chose to cut the phrase to jump to the next line. I mean, the ideas and phrases in the poem are complete, but Olds cut them to create some kind of “mystery”. This resource or device made me want to continue reading the poem to get its entire...
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...How have the composers of the poems you will be discussing constructed their representations of women? Compare and contrast the themes and values represented in your two chosen poems. The representation of women have changed throughout the course of history. The Ruined Maid composed by Thomas Hardy and I Am Man-made by Susan Wicks both incorporate similar values of the submissive nature of women, yet do not fail to integrate two very different values of female sexuality and male dominance, respectively. With reference to two visual texts, both poems successfully assimilate various literary and visual techniques such as irony, repetition, lighting and tone of voice. “The Ruined Maid” is a dramatic dialogue composed by English poet Thomas Hardy, to reveal the submissive nature of women in the mid 19th century. The theme is exhibited through a verbal exchange between two characters, Melia and the farm maid. Hardy plays on the word ‘ruined’ and questions which woman’s reality is harsher and suggests the irony of moral rectitude. Hardy’s poem depicts women as weak individuals. Both women have experienced the hardships of poverty, however the protagonist, Melia, steps up to go beyond and seek a better new life. Hardy presents woman as submissive through the indication that the woman is the one who has to lost her dignity and resorts into the last situation a woman would ever dream of, prostitution. Female sexuality has also been exploited in a similar manner. Though she has...
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...“You’re seventeen and you think you’re special”. When you think of being Seventeen you think about how you’re on the cusp of being an adult. “The age between getting your driver’s license and being able to buy cigarettes” But at the same time life can still be very mystifying, without a doubt you’ll have questions about who you are and what the meaning of life is. “Seventeen” by Kristy Swartout is a poem about what a confusing time it can be when you’re seventeen. In the following I will specifically discuss the influence of peer pressure and questions that religion can bring to a young person as well as my response to the poem. “Image is important” says Swartout as it is with most teenagers, she wants to “fit in” so she begins to experiment with smoking along with her friends, but she’s not sure that she even likes smoking. She thinks in order to fit in with her peer group she must be like them or resemble them enough to be accepted. She talks about going to church and listening to the priest talk about someone named Jesus and God; she wonders “why are there starving children in Africa” if there is a God. She imagines if there is a God would He or She care what she wore to church? Her mother reminds her that church is not a fashion show, but then why does she spend twenty hours in her bedroom closet contemplating on what to wear to church? Swartout writes about her science class and how you would never raise your hand because “Mrs. Murphy would realize you had potential”....
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...jealousy in the poem 'the laboratory' and 'Othello' Jealousy is described as someone who is showing envy usually of someone because of their achievements or advantages, jealousy plays a major role in both Othello and the laboratory. throughout the both of them jealousy is used for destructive purposes only. as an audience we are led to feel that both jealousies are motivated not by hatred but by the passion for one another, crazy as that may seem. Shakespeare uses jealousy as a central theme throughout the play, without this aggressive and destructive emotion, there would be no solid plot. Shakespeare often refers to jealousy as a devouring emotion "Beware, my lord of jealousy! it is the green eyed monster which doth mock, the meat it feeds on" this fits extremely well with Iago's description of Othello being "beaten up with passion". This suggests exactly how strong Othello's monumental jealousy really is, once Othello becomes aware that his wife is unfaithful, Iago continues to feed his jealousy which causes Othello to indeed behave like a monster. however, its dramatic irony that Iago says this to Othello. the audience knows that Iago is perhaps the one "eaten up" with jealousy and Othello is none the wiser he holds; the form of personal and professional jealousy. The jealousy that is portrayed in 'Othello' is very similar to the one portrayed in Browning's poem The Laboratory, it explores the theme of relationship but through jealousy, the speaker of the poem is full of...
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...the two poems What it’s like to be a black girl by Patricia Smith and Child of the Americas by Aurora Levins Morales. These two poems are written from a women’s perspective about how racial discrimination is perceived in America. Racism is no longer just a black and white my paper will show how these two pieces showed how cultures are subjected to discrimination. The title of these two poems catch my attention one being I am a black girl and two I am a child of America. I too have faced some challenges that are discussed in these poems. In a country that was founded and built on immigrants society makes a big deal about a person’s race and culture. Why does race matter? Does it make you a better person? Does it make you prettier? Sadly our society has placed into the heads of young women that pretty means lighter skin. That being pretty gives you an easier life. The authors of these two poems are African American and Puerto Rican and they have both faced forms of racial discrimination. In America girls were raised that Caucasian was the accepted race. “It’s dropping food coloring in your eyes to make them blue and suffering their burn in silence (Smith)”. A line for What it’s like to be a black girl is a clear example of how bad this little black girl wanted to be Caucasian. Society places this stigma that you have to change things about yourself to be accepted. In Child of the America the line ‘I am new. History made me,” is a very powerful line in this poem to me. Here...
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...women as the weaker sex.' How far do you agree with this statement? Carol Ann Duffy's 'Anne Hathaway' calls into question whether or not Carol Ann Duffy is challenging the stereotypical ideas of women as the weaker sex. In this essay I will be analysing Duffy's 'Anne Hathaway' and making my own assumption as to whether or not Carol Ann Duffy challenges stereotypes or not. Carol Ann Duffy uses 'Anne Hathaway' to challenge the stereotypical themes that have been picked out by female literary critics, these themes are: the immoral and dangerous seductress, the eternally dissatisfied shrew, the cute but essentially helpless woman, and the unworldly, self-sacrificing angel. In Duffy's poem, Anne Hathaway doesn't fit into any of the stereotypes of a woman. In the Elizabethan times, the husband owned all possessions, which included the wife and all possessions that she held dear to her, in other words, the husband had complete control over the wife and the household. Duffy's poem 'Anne Hathaway' doesn't challenge the stereotypical ideas of women as the weaker sex, as Shakespeare has to bequeath their marital bed to Hathaway, for her to cherish - “Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed...” The husband owning the wife's possessions and herself, is stereotypical of the male patriarchy that was around in the Elizabethan times, that with standing, the same patriarchy can be found in today's society within some cultures, and so Duffy's poem 'Anne Hathaway' doesn't challenge the...
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...Compare the way love is represented in ‘Ghazal’ with one other poem ‘Love’ can be defined as a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection to something or someone. Poe believed that all good literature must create a unity of effect on the reader and this effect must reveal truth or evoke emotions. His work is admired as an excellent example of how a short story can produce an effect on the reader; much like how ‘Ghazal’ and ‘Hour’ produce an effect of love and pathos towards the characters. The poems ‘Ghazal’ by Mimi Khalvati and ‘Hour’ by Carol Ann Duffy are similar in many ways. Firstly, the structures of both include couplets; however ‘Hour’ is in a sonnet form with 3 quatrains and a couplet to finish, and ‘Ghazal’ has 10 couplets. This shows the reader immediately that both poems are of the theme of love. Also, this type of structure links to Shakespeare’s sonnets, as they have a similar, if not the same, structure. Additionally, the form of poetry that ‘Ghazal’ is one that is traditionally sung and deals with unattainable love. This form dates back to 7th century Arabia. Secondly, in the poem ‘Hour’ the poet presents love with the description of ‘time’s beggar’. The love talked about in this poem appears to be personified as a beggar. This may suggest that love wants more time to be with their other half. In addition, the poet redefines wealth as love and time rather than as money and gold. Carol Ann Duffy uses two fairytales, ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Rumplestiltskin’...
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...1) Drew Gardner’s poetry was very much connected to the usage of the internet in the form of google searches. You see how he ca then use the words that come up in the searches and paste them together in order to form a coherent poem. One example of this was through one of the shorter poems he had where initially he talks about how “the prices of drugs are too high”. Later on, through a series of combinations of words, he is able to finish talking about it saying how he is going to have to pay them in Hamburger Helper. This is a type of transition you would not see in normal type of poetry, even in Julie Patton’s poem, you do not see such a sporadic change in subject as much Gardner’s. This makes the poems unique and through random additions of words like that you find some type of hidden message and also sometimes a comedic jab. 2)...
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...(1968) is a wonderful narrative poem about a man far from home. It describes his loneliness and how homesick he is. It reminds us all to think about what we really do in life and how far we travel away from the things that really matter. As someone grows older and gains more life experience, they realize how much they may have given up and how much they would like to go back to that life. In this poem, you read about a young boy who becomes a man. Through his life of hardships, he realizes he wants to go home. He is done “fighting” so to speak. In that moment, the reader then gets to see his transformation into a man ready to cut his losses and go home. One of the most engaging parts of this narrative is the imagery used. Simon writes, “When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy, In the company of strangers, In the quiet of the railway station, running scared…” (Simon, 1968). The amount of detail you can visualize from lines like these really make the entire poem fit together. The reason this poem is great is also the amount of ways someone can relate to it. Everyone can remember being young and frustrated with their life; wanting to just get away from everything they know. Then when the time comes and they figure out how good things probably were, they want to go back to it. It shows the influence we all have over ourselves and our own conscience. People usually learn the hard way when it’s a good time to walk away. In “The Boxer”, you realize, yourself, when that...
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