...Reading response to a poem ENG 125 October 29, 2012 "My Papa's Waltz”, by Theodore Roethke, is a fascinating poem. It is one that provokes its reader to have different emotion and interpretation. “My Papa’s Waltz” was written in first person narrative and provides tons of rhythm and symbolism. This poem displays a moment in the life of a father and son. “My Papa’s Waltz” has a known rhythm that brings to mind the type of dance that is symbolized in the title. Recognizing the character was easy because the author used “I” for first person narrative which endorsed the reader to communicate to what Roethke, the author was intending for his reader to understand passionately. Roethke used the introduction of the poem to set the tone and setting for the story to follow. “The whiskey on your breath” was the first entry verse. Immediately, it reminded me of a familiar story my wife shares about her childhood. The method in which the poem is written opens the door of vagueness regarding the father true state of mind. The child's father appeared as being forceful to his son while the son is frightened by his father drunkenness. The author wanted his reader to understand that whatever the frame of mind a parent is in, they have all the power and the child has to obey. It is clear that the author wanted to provoke his reader with a bit of remembrance of truthfulness by constructing the poem in a first person narrative. The father also has power over his wife who does...
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...Essay Plan for ‘Mid Term Break’ by Seamus Heaney Choose a poem which creates a sad atmosphere. Say what the poem is about and go on to show what particular words or phrases help to create the atmosphere. REMEMBER TO: * Check your spelling * Use punctuation correctly * Say why you think the poem is sad * Use a variety of words WORDS YOU COULD USE TO HELP YOU ARE: Sad, unhappy, heartbroken, forlorn, grief-stricken, sorrowful, sombre, atmosphere Paragraph 1 – Introduction In this paragraph you should say: * Title of poem * Author * That it is a sad poem You could start like this; A poem I have read which has a sad atmosphere is...... The atmosphere is sad because... Paragraph 2 – Summary Paragraph In this paragraph you should briefly say what the poem is about, where it takes place, who the speaker in the poem is and why you think it is particularly sad. You could start like this: The poem is about a young boy going home because... Paragraph 3 and 4 In this paragraph you should say what images we see in the poem and why you think they are sad. You should use quotations in this paragraph. Images you should mention are: * His father crying * His mother not able to cry because she is angry * The baby laughing in a room full of sad people * His brother’s corpse * The flowers and candles * His brother’s small coffin You could start like this: There are many sad images in the poem...
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...The rhetorical purpose of the first 30 lines of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is that the poem conveys a purpose. The poem uses a boat load of alliteration in almost most of the first 30 lines. “So monstrous a mount, so mighty a man in the saddle”, is one fantastic alliteration that is used. The 18th line has the letter “M” repeated 4 times in a sentence, which makes it as alliteration. Another alliteration used in the poem is in line 12. “Now a thread of hair, now another thread of gold”. In the poem, in lines 20-24 is something called bob and wheel. Bob and wheel is basically just rhymes. “His eyes, like lightning, flashed, And it seemed to many a man, That any man who clashed With him would not long stand.” Flashed...
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...River” William Randolph Hearst uses rhyme scheme, alliteration, and imagery to illustrate his overall idea of the relationship between the cycle of life and the course of a river. He uses such devices to express the revolving cycles of a river and how its life span and rebirth correlates with life, death, and afterlife. The rhyme scheme the author creates in the poem has a rhythm which mimics the flow of life and a river. Throughout the poem Hearst describes the cycle of a river and then describes the cycle of life. He then incorporates a rhyme scheme which flows nonstop from start to finish. Within this scheme lies the evolving message in which Hearst is illustrating. The rhyme scheme also relates closely to the tone of the poem which is a peaceful calm tone following the movement of water into its rebirth and the transition of one’s life into the afterlife. Hearst creates the quotation “and the river flows to the sea, and the water again goes back in rain to the hills where is used to be” in order to demonstrate and clearly express the flow of a river to the sea using both rhyme scheme and tone. Lastly as Hearst’s message continues as does the rhyme scheme and tone seen in the words “till it reached the silent sea.” Hearst is comparing the river as is reaches “the silent sea” and life as it reaches the afterlife using the same tone and rhyme scheme as seen throughout the entire poem. Hearst uses several examples of alliteration throughout the poem closely relating to the analogy...
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...who was inspired to write it after the death of his friend. It reminds us about how we are free and what people did so that we could live in a free country. In Canada, In Flanders Field is one of the nation’s best-known literary works. In this analysis, we will look at the different figures of speech, symbols, and the meters. In Flanders Field is written in the format of a French randeau. It is a lyric poem and consists of three stanzas with a total of 15 lines. One of the main literary devices that is in this poem is alliteration. Alliteration is the repetition of a constant sound. In this poem, there is repetition in lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 12. Some examples are: Flanders Fields, loved and were loved and now we lie, the larks still bravely singing fly. The author uses alliteration for different reasons. Alliteration creates rhythm in poetry. It sounds better and makes the poem flow. Also to make you remember. People remember alliteration phrases so easily. In line 13, there is an assonance in the poem. An assonance is a repetition of a vowel sound followed by a different consonant sound. The one in the poem is break, faith. These have the same sounding letters. Another literary device used is a metaphor. A metaphor is a comparison without using like or as. Line 12: The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die. The torch is being compared to the duty that the soldiers that have died are passing on to the living soldiers. Metaphors...
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...force would want to include both good and evil in this world. Another poetic device used in this poem is onomatopoeia. This is used when Blake writes the line “And when thy heart began to beat”. Since this poet used the word “beat” in context with the word “heart” you can imagine the sound of a heart beating while reading this poem, giving it a larger effect. Repetition is a large device used in this poem. In the first stanza the poet writes “What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” and this is repeated in the last stanza, with one word changed -could is changed to dare. He changes those two words to add to the intensity of this poem. By repeating these two lines, Blake is able to emphasize the theme of good and evil. Alliteration is also used as Blake often uses words with the letter “i”, and also the letter “r”. Overall, the poet William Blake successfully uses a number of literary devices to convey the theme of his poem of good and evil. This poem was fun to read and was easy to follow because of these...
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..."My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke is one of my favorite poems. It is one that gives each reader different emotion and interpretation. “My Papa’s Waltz” was written in a first person narrative and provides rhythm and symbolism. This poem displays a very relatable storey about the relationship between a son and his father. It has a known rhythm that brings to mind the type of dance that is symbolized in the title. Recognizing the character was easy because the author used “I” for first person narrative which helps the reader to communicate to what the author was intending his reader to understand. Roethke used the introduction of the poem to set the tone and setting for the story to follow. “The whiskey on your breath” Roethke T. (1942) was the first verse entry and immediately the reader can feel for the little boy thinking of what it would be like to have a drunken father. The method in which the poem is written opens the door of vagueness regarding the father’s state. The child's father was seen as being forceful to his son; while the son is frightened of his father drunkenness. The author wanted his reader to understand that whatever frame of mind a parent is in they have all the power and the child has to obey. It’s clear that the author wanted to provoke his reader with bit of remembrance of truthfulness by constructing the poem in first person narrative. The mention of the father and son romping around the room may seem rather harmless however the dance...
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...plotted in neat spaces where convenient. This makes the place unnatural because nature had been forced into a neat and orderly form. The grass is “discouraged” and clamped down so it can grow in the perfect way people want it to grow in. It does not reach its full potential; it is stifled by the grass cutter. Nature is not supposed to be like that, it should be wild and free. The place is quiet, “No shouting here, or shatter of glass” the absence of sound is unnatural and unhuman. These are people’s homes you would expect there to be laughing and talking but no, there is an absence of soul and possibility of noises that could be there. It is cold, heartless and quiet. Also the writer uses sibilance her, “shouting…shatter”, this use of alliteration creates a...
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...Ozmandias 1. What kind of man was the Pharaoh Ozymandias, do you think? Quote from the poem to substantiate your answer. I think that Pharaoh Ozymandias was a strong and powerful ruler in this “ancient land” that the traveler refers to. The phrase “sneer of cold command” suggests he was a dictator and ruled with fear and not well liked by the people he ruled over. In line 11, the plural is used for the word “works”, this suggesting that the king must have had plenty, so thus very wealthy. He also is portrayed at being very arrogant and vain in line 11 “Look at my works, ye mighty, and despair!” where is boasting about his works and telling everyone to look at them and see how mighty he is. Although the inscription at the foot of the statue reveals to us who this poem is about, it also shows his idea of his own power calling himself “king of kings”. 2. The poet takes great care to describe, in lines 4 and 5, the ‘passions’ of Ozymandias that are ‘stamped on these lifeless things’ (line 7). What is the effect of the juxtaposition of ‘passions’ and ‘lifeless’? What is Shelley suggesting about human ambition? The passions of Ozymandias that are described in lines 4 and 5 “frown, wrinkled lip and sneer” show the type of leader he was that put fear into those he ruled and looked at his subjects as if they were unworthy. And then the use of the phase “stamped on these lifeless things” is saying that those passions is all that is left behind on the statue. The...
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...Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker The poem Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker is about appreciating the smalls of life and not taking anything that god has given you for granted. To portray this message Dharker uses many poetic devices such as personification, onomatopoeia, alliteration, imagery, symbolism, rhyme and many more. There are many places where Imtiaz Dharker uses onomatopoeia to describe the scene of the poem but for one instance she uses it in lines 3-4 she says, "There never is enough water. Imagine the drip of it". The poem is set in third world countries where the everyday resources we have aren't found over there. Using the word drip helps emphasize how little water there is over there. There is so little water over there that you can hear just the one drop that drips out of the village pump every now and then reminding them of how little they have of there most important life line. In addition there is alliteration used in the poem. "Butts in, with pots , brass, copper, aluminum", the repeating "s" sound we hear comes out as the hissing sound that is heard during a hot summer day. It helps readers think about the scorching hot weather they go through year round that leaves their thirst permanently unquenched. To aid in making a clear statement the poet uses a simile. Dharker uses skin to symbolize how the land looks like. In line two she says, "the skin cracks like a pod". The land is so dry that it is cracking and that only happens in extreme cases such as droughts...
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...Unseen Analysis on the poem ‘Lament’ The poem ‘Lament’ can be seen as a series of things, which the poet is grieving for as a result of the destruction of war. The poem begins every stanza with the word “For” in order to suggest all the things, which the poet thinks the reader should feel sorrowful towards. The poem has a regular structure and comprises seven stanzas, all of which are three lines long. This regular structure allows the poet to explore specific things, in each stanza, which he believes are being impact upon by the destruction of war and the pollution it causes. Each line of the poem is end stopped and this disciplined form can be seen as paradoxical with the almost dystopian level of destruction, which is being described. The first stanza of the poem begins with the word “For,” in order to suggest the things, which the poet believes the reader should be lamenting for. The use of the present participle of the word “pulsing,” conveys to the reader a sense of the desperation of the turtle, by suggesting the energy with which it searches for a breeding ground. The personification of the word “burden,” suggests the distressing reality of the experience for the turtle, as she searches for a breading ground. The visual image of eggs laid in their “nest of sickness,” conveys a juxtaposition in the vitality and life fullness suggested by “eggs,” in contrast with the word “sickness,” which alludes to the unhealthiness of the turtle’s environment. Structurally...
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...stanzas, the author ends them with the line, “Rode the six hundred” (Tennyson) however this changes in stanzas four, five and six. In stanza four Tennyson writes, “Not the six hundred,” and in five “Left of the six hundred.” The author then changes the line to say, “Noble six hundred” to finish the poem. He does this to emphasize the story of the six hundred throughout the battle and although there were six hundred men, he writes about them as if they are one. Like a body listens to the commands of the brain, the six hundred men move together following the orders of their leader, never questioning, just doing as they are told. Throughout the poem, Tennyson uses three different types of figurative language: imagery, personification, and alliteration. Tennyson uses imagery to help the reader create a picture in their mind of the war. The author begins with the first two lines “Half a league, half a league/Half a league onward,” (Tennyson) which, according to Laurence Mazzeno, these lines “mimic the sound of the charge” when the horses are galloping into the valley (Mazzeno “The Charge of the Light Brigade”). Tennyson then describes the horrific battle by stating that the soldiers are riding “Into the valley of death” (Tennyson) one of the most dangerous places a man could be. There the cannons “volleyed and thundered” (Tennyson) surrounding the soldiers from every angle, leaving nowhere for them to go but to stay and fight. The soldiers have to “charge for the guns” (Tennyson) but...
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...The Tyger, written in 1974, is one of both simplicity and mystery. Within this poem written by old English William Blake, there are 13 full questions within this short 24 line work. Though many literary analysts have attempted to forge a meaning from this work, not one theme has a more correct stance than any of the others. One clear symbol within the piece is the Tyger, who represents some form of evil entity, quite possibly Satan himself. One possibility for the theme is that the poet is questioning why God would create such an evil being. This can be exemplified in the first stanza and last stanzas, where the word “could” is changed to “dare”, implying a fear of such haunting creature. The questions themselves can be considered sound devices, as they cause the piece to be written in a fragment-type state, as the only constant in this piece is its meter. The poem has a great flow, with there being approximately two strong syllables per line, for example, in line 13: "What the hammer? What the chain?”, where the two heavy syllables are “hammer” and “chain”. This creates a sense of strength halfway through each line, and at the end of each, and gives it a great sense of metric value. There are very few metric variations within the piece, with the only apparent one being the variation in line 19: “Did he smile his work to see? “. This gives the work a sense of superficiality and lack of depth due to its consistency. At some points in the poem it takes on a hymn-like quality...
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...it. It depicts different parts each time you emphasize certain parts, and get different meanings each time. Teasdale is saying in “Barter,” you should give all your worthless possessions for the beauty or loveliness for nature. “For one white singing hour of peace / Count many a year of strife well lost.’ Means spending one hour in the beauty of nature can take away one year of anger and pain. Teasdale uses poetic devices to give deeper meaning to her words. Her rhyme scheme is ABCBDD AEFEGG HIJIKK. It is considered to be an end rhyme. “Life has liveliness to sell” has three poetic devices in one single line. The line is repeated at the beginning of the second stanza which is called a repetition, and it also contains a euphony and alliteration. A simile is used in the line, “Music like a curve of gold.” She uses personification of the fire in the line ‘…Soaring fire that sways and sings.’ These poetic devices give the poem a feeling of life. One can imagine the fire swaying and crackling as it burns. The feeling of peace and serenity is meant to persuade the reader to enjoy those little details in the fire. Teasdale also states the “…children's faces looking up.” In this line, Teasdale is talking about the innocence and purity of the young children. To them, the...
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...Priscilla Camarena Intro to Poetry Essay #1 When envisioning winter Sunday memories of hot cocoa, snowmen, and Christmas appear. However Robert Hayden’s poem Those Winter Sundays is quite the opposite. In fact it illustrates the lack of relationship between a father and son. It is through Hayden’s usage of techniques imagery and diction which allows for the regret and sense of loss felt by the narrator. Hayden’s subtlety in the poem forces it to be carefully read so that the reader may reflect on the misunderstandings of their own relationship with their parent. The first line provides a hint to the reader on who the narrator is, “Sundays too my father…” this can possibly be a father reminiscing. An adult is reminiscing on the strenuous relationship he had with his father. It can be inferred that the narrator is a male due to the narrator’s shoes being “polished.” Only men during those this period polished their shoes. “Speaking indifferently to him,” reflects a sense of male pride that may be impeding the development of their relationship. Sunday and the “polished good shoes,” can represent the Sabbath or the Catholic Church. It can even allude to the relationship between God and his son Jesus Christ who happens to be born during winter. The difficulty in Jesus Christ understanding the methods of his Father, God. Another allusion that can be made is through the word “chronic” that can represent the revolt between Zeus and his father Cronus. A tone of remorse and regret...
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