Thesis: Sharing the feeling of grief and regret, the poems are also alike in the way that both poets use the poetic devices personification, syntax and gloomy images to express their outlook on life.
Topic Sentence 1: John Keats and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow both use personification to convey the world as full of opportunity and yet they are full of regrets.
-When I have Fears: "night's starr'd face" -the world is beautiful and is full of opportunities missed
-Mezzo Cammin 1: "I see the Past; Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights" - looking back on the past, thinking of regrets
Topic Sentence 2: The syntax in both poems is very structured and each poem has a very prominent rhyme scheme.
-Each stanza has for lines
-When I have Fears: ABAB rhyme scheme
-Mezzo Cammin 1: ABBA rhyme scheme
Topic Sentence 3: The authors use powerful images of the world around them to create a greater contrast between the possibilities of the world and the regrets and disappointment they feel now.
-When I have Fears: "then on the shore; Of the world I stand alone, and think; Till love and fame to nothingness do sink." -image of speaker 'sinking' in regret and doubt
-Mezzo Cammin 1: "A city in the twilight dim and vast,; With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights,-" -The speaker is looking back on the world that he is leaving behind
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
How to Spook an Elephant
You must be silent. Take small steps and approach with
Caution. bigger, Bigger, BIGGER.
Grab the squirmy creature from your pocket and bite your tongue. You are in control, you can do this. Bend back at the waist and inch under, one step at a time, the enormous grey body that hangs above you
Is still. You must be too.
Head towards the back end and plug your nose. Using the two tails, tie a knot. No, not a knot. A bow, be swift and soft and invisible.
With one big slap to the rear, take off running. If you are able to avoid the crushing feet of the enemy give yourself,
A swift pat on the back.
Wash your hands.
Caution. bigger, Bigger, BIGGER.
Grab the squirmy creature from your pocket and bite your tongue. You are in control, you can do this. Bend back at the waist and inch under, one step at a time, the enormous grey body that hangs above you
Is still. You must be too.
Head towards the back end and plug your nose. Using the two tails, tie a knot. No, not a knot. A bow, be swift and soft and invisible.
With one big slap to the rear, take off running. If you are able to avoid the crushing feet of the enemy give yourself,
A swift pat on the back.
Wash your hands.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke: Response
The poet, Theodore Roethke, develops the ironic tone through the use of structure, poetic devices, characterization and sickening images masked under a joyful dance in the poem My Papa’s Waltz. The poem is made up of a strict and definite structure which classifies the events within the poem as normal and ordinary. It flows like the dance that covers the pain of a broken family beneath and helps the son get through them to refer to something as horrific as a waltz that is “not easy.” An event so extreme as abusing a child should appear disorganized and chaotic, but as it appears quite normal in this poem contributes to the upsetting tone.
Further supporting the idea that the beatings are ordinary in that family are the poetic devices Roethke uses. The phrase “beat time on my head” initially refers to the counting of music when dancing but the underlying meaning of the word ‘beat’ actually refers to the physical abuse the speaker endures from his father. The simile that the boy “hung on like death” exposes the brutalities of abuse and readers are able to feel for the speaker.
The characterization of the father “caked hard by dirt” with “whisky on [his] breath” from the speakers view helps to portray his father as a dirty drunk in order to grab the readers empathy. Worse yet, the description of his mother, whose facial expression “could not unfrown itself” contributes to the ordinary tone as she appears to be weak and sad but has given up on trying to stop the beatings. The images that Roethke creates with her use of poetic devices and characterization are very disturbing and would give any reader goose bumps. Readers are able to feel the pain the boy endures throughout this poem through images such as “[his] right ear scraped a buckle” and are able to hear the beatings as “[they] romped” around together as the “pans slid from the kitchen shelf.”
This poem is so graphic and sickening that it draws readers in and with its pains of abuse masked under the image of ordinary, the uneasy tone explores the possibilities of realities hidden among family through structure, poetic devices, characterization and images.
Further supporting the idea that the beatings are ordinary in that family are the poetic devices Roethke uses. The phrase “beat time on my head” initially refers to the counting of music when dancing but the underlying meaning of the word ‘beat’ actually refers to the physical abuse the speaker endures from his father. The simile that the boy “hung on like death” exposes the brutalities of abuse and readers are able to feel for the speaker.
The characterization of the father “caked hard by dirt” with “whisky on [his] breath” from the speakers view helps to portray his father as a dirty drunk in order to grab the readers empathy. Worse yet, the description of his mother, whose facial expression “could not unfrown itself” contributes to the ordinary tone as she appears to be weak and sad but has given up on trying to stop the beatings. The images that Roethke creates with her use of poetic devices and characterization are very disturbing and would give any reader goose bumps. Readers are able to feel the pain the boy endures throughout this poem through images such as “[his] right ear scraped a buckle” and are able to hear the beatings as “[they] romped” around together as the “pans slid from the kitchen shelf.”
This poem is so graphic and sickening that it draws readers in and with its pains of abuse masked under the image of ordinary, the uneasy tone explores the possibilities of realities hidden among family through structure, poetic devices, characterization and images.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Losing Grip
Two by two they pass.
Faces unknown, full of purpose.
Surrounding me, Consuming me.
I am lost. In a world of darkness, it is unrecognizable.
Losing feeling, losing will, losing grip, I fall;
Into this world,
Where I do not belong,
I do not understand,
I cannot feel.
I am alone in this chaos,
others roaming like robots,
Empty, Heartless, Destructive.
I am lost.
Faces unknown, full of purpose.
Surrounding me, Consuming me.
I am lost. In a world of darkness, it is unrecognizable.
Losing feeling, losing will, losing grip, I fall;
Into this world,
Where I do not belong,
I do not understand,
I cannot feel.
I am alone in this chaos,
others roaming like robots,
Empty, Heartless, Destructive.
I am lost.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
The Golf Links
The Golf Links
The golf link lie so near the mill
That almost every day
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play.
1. Is this brief poem satiric? Does it contain any verbal irony or is the poet making a matter-of-fact statement in words that mean just what they say?.
This poem is satiric as it was written in the time before child labour was illegal and although today, children are thought to be free to play and men are to work and earn a living, it was very different back then. To have the children stuck inside working for little or no pay is ironic as they are now sheltered from suffering such hardships. I believe that the use of the word ‘lie’ in the first line is verbally ironic because to lie is a form of relaxing and supports the contrast between the golf link and the mill.
2. This poem dates before the enactment of legislation against child labour. Is it still a good poem or is it out of date?
I think it is still a good poem as it reminds people of the way things were back then and how terrible it was for the slaving children so that we never let things go back to the way they once were.
The golf link lie so near the mill
That almost every day
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play.
1. Is this brief poem satiric? Does it contain any verbal irony or is the poet making a matter-of-fact statement in words that mean just what they say?.
This poem is satiric as it was written in the time before child labour was illegal and although today, children are thought to be free to play and men are to work and earn a living, it was very different back then. To have the children stuck inside working for little or no pay is ironic as they are now sheltered from suffering such hardships. I believe that the use of the word ‘lie’ in the first line is verbally ironic because to lie is a form of relaxing and supports the contrast between the golf link and the mill.
2. This poem dates before the enactment of legislation against child labour. Is it still a good poem or is it out of date?
I think it is still a good poem as it reminds people of the way things were back then and how terrible it was for the slaving children so that we never let things go back to the way they once were.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Chronology - Margaret Atwood
Chronology refers to the sequential order in which past events occur. The poet, Margaret Atwood uses her poem titled Chronology to show the negative effects of the media on a person throughout the stages of their life. Short stanzas make up the poem, each representing a stage of life and Atwood uses similes’ and images contradictory to the title making the character appear to be growing younger in knowledge and sense of self. To be “born senile and gigantic; [their] wrinkles charting” gives readers the image of an older person. I believe Atwood uses this image to represent wisdom and experience which slowly deteriorates throughout the poem as the person is influenced by the media. This person “wears [their] hair like a helmet” and conforms with society as it is evident that “thin skin is no protection.” As the poem comes to an end, Atwood compares the narrator at the age of fifty to “a horse with a broken back,” a person who is “no use to the city” and the narrator is “unshelled” to reveal their innocence and vulnerability was hidden within her. Atwood’s poem conveys a strong message of the realities of the media and how a child may be wiser than say an adult as they are not affected by the negative influence of society.
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