Research Topics: Poems

TWO POEMS BY ROBERT HAYDEN ” THE WHIPPING” AND “THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS”

TWO POEMS BY ROBERT HAYDEN ” THE WHIPPING” AND “THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS”

WHICH POEM DO YOU BELIEVE IS MORE OPTIMISTIC? The two poems by Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays” and “The Whipping” are both po...

CLEOPATRA MATHIS’ “THE TRAVELER”

CLEOPATRA MATHIS’ “THE TRAVELER” WHAT IMAGES DOES THIS POEM BRING TO MIND? OR DOES THE POEM ASSIGN BLAME TO A PERSON?               Cleopatra Mathis’ “The Traveler” speaks of one woman’s feelings towards a man who left her, a man who seems to be constantly traveling from one woman to another. The woman in the poem is nostalgic as the she seems to recall her past experiences with this traveler of a man. This is being triggered by the fact that it was raining that day, the same as the day that he left her. However, this woman does not feel pity for herself. She seems to be angry and is assigning blame to the man not only for her experience but also those of the other women this man has been with. In a way she also seems to be warning the other women against this man. This poem brings to mind countless images of women who were left by their men and men who seem to be discontented with one woman and thus like a bee travels from one flower to another. These men fail to consider that unlike flowers; women are more complex and have feelings. Or perhaps they knew but did it deliberately anyway, thinking only of their selves. Women, on their part, sometimes go to unreasonable points if their man left them. Such is the case described in the poem where she sliced the length of her fingers with a blade. She seems to be bitter, this woman in the poem, but she also seems to be strong. These are images presented in the poem which are reflected in real life. ELISAVIETTA RITCHIE’S “AWAITING PERMISSION TO LAND” WHAT VISUAL IMAGES ARE PRESENTED? OR WHAT IS THE SYMBOLISM OF A HAWK, A HELICOPTER, OR A FAT DIRIGIBLE?               “Awaiting Permission to Land” is a collection of poems by Elisavietta Ritchie. Among the poems included in the collection is “In Transit.” In this poem, life is likened to something that hovers up above like a hawk or a helicopter and waits for some permission to land. The visual images presented in the poem consist of objects in the air and not touching the ground. It visualizes that it is best to stay suspended in the air than stay on land. It also presents a visual image that up there affords a fascinating view. The author seems to think that it is best to stay suspended because that has been what life was all about and to change it would present facing an uncertain future. Although the author fears anything that might create harm up there, it doesn’t outweigh the uncertainty felt on the other option of being on land. There are doubts about a passport being challenged and a question of survival. The author likened life to something that is always in motion, always on the go, always in transit. It wants to get permission to land, yet it is hesitant, and thinks that up there may be cold and tricky but it affords a great view. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

CLEOPATRA MATHIS’ “THE TRAVELER”

CLEOPATRA MATHIS’ “THE TRAVELER” WHAT IMAGES DOES THIS POEM BRING TO MIND? OR DOES THE POEM ASSIGN BLAME TO A PERSON? ...

The Most Dangerous Game

“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell portrays the cyclical events of a situational irony with Rainsford, one of the main characters starting out as a hunter, then becoming the hunted and then reverting back to being a victorious hunter having to escape with his life and limb in tact  and with General Zarroff, another main character becoming the hunted from being the hunter parallel to the adage “Sometimes your up. Sometimes you’re down”. Situational irony or irony of circumstance as an element of literature refers to a situation where one event is expected to happen but another event actually occurs. Situational irony refers to the discrepancy between what is expected to be and what is. The development in the situation where Rainsford found himself to be shows the unexpected cyclical changes in his status as a hunter and the hunted.               Rainsford as a hunter was shown in the story through the comparison of the character traits of Rainsford and Whitney. Although both characters are hunters, there was a difference between the two on how they regard hunting. Whitney regards hunting as a great sport for the hunter but not for the jaguar being hunted when he replied “For the hunter, […] Not for the jaguar” (Connell 1) in response to Rainsford’s remark that hunting is “The best sport in the world” (Connell 1). Rainsford was elated with the statement of Whitney and commented that jaguars do not have understanding so there is need to worry about what the hunted jaguar feels. Whitney was persistent in reiterating that even while jaguars’ do not have a similar reasoning when compared to man they recognize and experience the basic instinct of being hunted “[…] The fear of pain and the dear of death.” (Connell 1) This is something that human’s in tight situations experience similar to an animal being hunted. This is a lesson learned by Rainsford as he ironically became the hunted in General Zarroff’s island.               Rainsford thought that he had found a safe haven after reaching land by swimming towards the sound of gunshots with the thought that these were made by hunters so that “Where there are pistol shots, there are men. Where there are men, there is food.” (Connell 4) He followed the blood trail and reached a chateau, where he discovered that General Zarroff together with his servant Ivan are deliberately trying to capsize ships that venture close to the island, capture the passengers and crew and offer them a deal of giving them their freedom if they are able to elude the general for three days in the relationship of hunter and hunted. Since, the general saw no hunting challenge with his prisoners; he makes the offer to Rainsford instead by giving a deeper meaning to the statement “Tonight, […] we will hunt–you and I.” (Connell 13) Rainsford had no choice, it was either to agree to become prey or become subject to the taste in sport of Ivan the giant. This event commences Rainsford becoming the prey. As prey, Rainsford sought to keep calm and plan his moves to evade the general despite his growing fear and physical fatigue. He constantly psyched himself by repeatedly saying, “I will not lose my nerve. I will not.” (Connell 15) Then in the third day, Rainsford finally thought of a plan to gain his freedom.               Rainsford jumped to the sea below to make the general think that he has escaped the hunt and evading the agreement. To the astonishment of the general, Rainsford was hiding behind the curtains in his room, ready to spring in attack much as a predator would stalk its prey and go for the kill once the prey drops his guard. As the general went to his room to retire for the night thinking about how he would replace his servant, two of his best dogs and find a suitable prey for the next day, Rainsford startles him for the final combat.               It was through this final event that the situation changed and Rainsford became the predator or hunter and General Zarroff became the prey or hunted. For the general, these last moments gave him great pleasure because he realized that he had finally met a worthy adversary. The general expressed his pleasure through the statement “Splendid! One of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed.” As the events concluded, Rainsford “had never slept in a better bed […].” (Connell 18)                           In the beginning, Rainsford and General Zarroff were hunters. Then the story developed to put Rainsford in the situation of a prey and Zarroff the predator. In the end, their situations changed and Zarroof became the prey and Rainsford the predator. Life’s events indeed unfold around a cycle. Bibliography   Connell, Richard. The Most Dangerous Game. 2006. 2 May 2006 <            http://eserver.org/fiction/the_most_dangerous_game.html>. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Most Dangerous Game

“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell portrays the cyclical events of a situational irony with Rainsford, one of the main characte...

“Oh Daddy,” Stokesie said beside me. “I feel so faint.”

In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits. I’m in the third check-out slot, with my back to the door, so I don’t see them until they’re over by the bread. The one that caught my eye first was the one in the plaid green two-piece. She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs. I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up or not. I ring it up again and the customer starts giving me hell. She’s one of these cash-register-watchers, a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows, and I knowit made her day to trip me up. She’d been watching cash registers forty years and probably never seen a mistake before. By the time I got her feathers smoothed and her goodies into a bag — she gives me alittle snort in passing, if she’d been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem — by the time I get her on her way the girls had circled around the bread and were coming back, without a pushcart, back my way along the counters, in the aisle between the check-outs and the Special bins. They didn’t even have shoes on. There was this chunky one, with the two-piece — it was bright green and the seams on the bra were still sharp and her belly was still pretty pale so I guessed she just got it (the suit) — there was this one, with one of those chubby berry-faces, the lips all bunched together under her nose, this one, and a tall one, with black hair that hadn’t quite frizzed right, and one of these sunburns right across under the eyes, and a chin that was too long — you know, the kind of girl other girls think is very “striking” and “attractive” but never quite makes it, as they very well know, which is why they like her so much — and then the third one, that wasn’t quite so tall. She was the queen. She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round. She didn’t look around, not this queen, she just walked straight on slowly, on these long white prima donna legs. She came down a little hard on her heels, as if she didn’t walk in her bare feet that much, putting down her heels and then letting the weight move along to her toes as if she was testing the floor with every step, putting a little deliberate extra action into it. You never know for sure how girls’ minds work (do you really think it’s a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glassjar?) but you got the idea she had talked the other two into coming in here with her, and now she was showing them how to do it, walk slow and hold yourself straight. She had on a kind of dirty-pink – - beige maybe, I don’t know — bathing suit with a little nubble all over it and, what got me, the straps were down. They were off her shoulders looped loose around the cool tops of her arms, and I guess as a result the suit had slipped a little on her, so all around the top of the cloth there was this shining rim. If it hadn’t been there you wouldn’t have known there could have been anything whiter than those shoulders. With the straps pushed off, there was nothing between the top of the suit and the top of her head except just her, this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down from the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light. I mean, it was more than pretty. She had sort of oaky hair that the sun and salt had bleached, done up in a bun that was unravelling, and a kind of prim face. Walking into the A & P with your straps down, I suppose it’s the only kind of face you can have. She held her head so high her neck, coming up out o fthose white shoulders, looked kind of stretched, but I didn’t mind. The longer her neck was, the more of her there was. She must have felt in the corner of her eye me and over my shoulder Stokesie in the second slot watching, but she didn’t tip. Not this queen. She kept her eyes moving across the racks, and stopped, and turned so slow it made my stomach rub the inside of my apron, and buzzed to the other two, who kind of huddled against her for relief, and they all three of them went up the cat-and-dog-food-breakfast-cereal-macaroni-ri ce-raisins-seasonings-spreads-spaghetti-soft drinks- rackers-and- cookies aisle. From the third slot I look straight up this aisle to the meat counter, and I watched them all the way. The fat one with the tan sort of fumbled with the cookies, but on second thought she put the packages back. The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle — the girls were walking against the usual traffic (not that we have one-way signs or anything) — were pretty hilarious. You could see them, when Queenie’s white shoulders dawned on them, kind of jerk, or hop, or hiccup, but their eyes snapped back to their own baskets and on they pushed. I bet you could set off dynamite in an A & P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists and muttering “Let me see, there was a third thing, began with A, asparagus, no, ah, yes, applesauce!” or whatever it is they do mutter. But there was no doubt, this jiggled them. A few house-slaves in pin curlers even looked around after pushing their carts past to make sure what they had seen was correct. You know, it’s one thing to have a girl in a bathing suit down on the beach, where what with the glare nobody can look at each other much anyway, and another thing in the cool of the A & P, under the fluorescent lights, against all those stacked packages, with her feet paddling along naked over our checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor. “Oh Daddy,” Stokesie said beside me. “I feel so faint.” “Darling,” I said. “Hold me tight.” Stokesie’s married, with two babies chalked up on his fuselage already, but as far as I can tell that’s the only difference. He’s twenty-two, and I was nineteen this April. “Is it done?” he asks, the responsible married man finding his voice. I forgot to say he thinks he’s going to be manager some sunny day, maybe in 1990 when it’s called the Great Alexandrov and Petrooshki Tea Company or something. What he meant was, our town is five miles from a beach, with a big summer colony out on the Point, but we’re right in the middle of town, and the women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the street. And anyway these are usually women with six children and varicose veins mapping their legs and nobody, including them, could care less. As I say, we’re right in the middle of town, and if you stand at our front doors you can see two banks and the Congregational church and the newspaper store and three real-estate offices and about twenty-seven old free-loaders tearing up Central Street because the sewer broke again. It’s not as if we’re on the Cape; we’re north of Boston and there’s people in this town haven’t seen the ocean for twenty years. The girls had reached the meat counter and were asking McMahon something. He pointed, they pointed, and they shuffled out of sight behind a pyramid of Diet Delight peaches. All that was left for us to see was old McMahon patting his mouth and looking after them sizing up their joints. Poor kids, I began to feel sorry for them, they couldn’t help it. Now here comes the sad part of the story, at:least my family says it’s sad but I don’t think it’s sad myself. The store’s pretty empty, it being Thursday afternoon, so there was nothing much to do except lean on the register and wait for the girls to show up again. The whole store was like a pinball machine and I didn’t know which tunnel they’d come out of. After a while they come around out of the far aisle, around the light bulbs, records at discount of the Caribbean Six or Tony Martin Sings or some such gunk you wonder they waste the wax on, sixpacks of candy bars, and plastic toys done up in cellophane that faIl apart when a kid looks at them anyway. Around they come, Queenie still leading the way, and holding a little gray jar in her hand. Slots Three through Seven are unmanned and I could see her wondering between Stokes and me, but Stokesie with his usual luck draws an old party in baggy gray pants who stumbles up with four giant cans of pineapple juice (what do these bums do with all that pineapple juice’ I’ve often asked myself) so the girls come to me. Queenie puts down the jar and I take it into my fingers icy cold. Kingfish Fancy Herring Snacks in Pure Sour Cream: 49¢. Now her hands are empty, not a ring or a bracelet, bare as God made them, and I wonder where the money’s coming from. Still with that prim look she lifts a folded dollar bill out of the hollow at the center of her nubbled pink top. The jar went heavy in my hand. Really, I thought that was so cute. Then everybody’s luck begins to run out. Lengel comes in from haggling with a truck full of cabbages on the lot and is about to scuttle into that door marked MANAGER behind which he hides all day when the girls touch his eye. Lengel’s pretty dreary, teaches Sunday school and the rest, but he doesn’t miss that much. He comes over and says, “Girls, this isn’t the beach.” Queenie blushes, though maybe it’s just a brush of sunburn I was noticing for the first time, now that she was so close. “My mother asked me to pick up a jar of herring snacks.” Her voice kind of startled me, the way voices do when you see the people first, coming out so flat and dumb yet kind of tony, too, the way it ticked over “pick up” and “snacks.” All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room. Her father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them. When my parents have somebody over they get lemonade and if it’s a real racy affair Schlitz in tall glasses with “They’ll Do It Every Time” cartoons stencilled on. “That’s all right,” Lengel said. “But this isn’t the beach.” His repeating this struck me as funny, as if it hadjust occurred to him, and he had been thinking all these years the A & P was a great big dune and he was the head lifeguard. He didn’t like my smiling — -as I say he doesn’t miss much — but he concentrates on giving the girls that sad Sunday- school-superintendent stare. Queenie’s blush is no sunburn now, and the plump one in plaid, that I liked better from the back — a really sweet can — pipes up, “We weren’t doing any shopping. We just came in for the one thing.” “That makes no difference,” Lengel tells her, and I could see from the way his eyes went that he hadn’t noticed she was wearing a two-piece before. “We want you decently dressed when you come in here.” “We are decent,” Queenie says suddenly, her lower lip pushing, getting sore now that she remembers her place, a place from which the crowd that runs the A & P must look pretty crummy. Fancy Herring Snacks flashed in her very blue eyes. “Girls, I don’t want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It’s our policy.” He turns his back. That’s policy for you. Policy is what the kingpins want. What the others want is juvenile delinquency. All this while, the customers had been showing up with their carts but, you know, sheep, seeing a scene, they had all bunched up on Stokesie, who shook open a paper bag as gently as peeling a peach, not wanting to miss a word. I could feel in the silence everybody getting nervous, most of all Lengel, who asks me, “Sammy, have you rung up this purchase?” I thought and said “No” but it wasn’t about that I was thinking. I go through the punches, 4, 9, GROC, TOT — it’s more complicated than you think, and after you do it often enough, it begins to make a lttle song, that you hear words to, in my case “Hello (bing) there, you (gung) hap-py pee-pul (splat)”-the splat being the drawer flying out. I uncrease the bill, tenderly as you may imagine, it just having come from between the two smoothest scoops of vanilla I had ever known were there, and pass a half and a penny into her narrow pink palm, and nestle the herrings in a bag and twist its neck and hand it over, all the time thinking. The girls, and who’d blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say “I quit” to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they’ll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero. They keep right on going, into the electric eye; the door flies open and they flicker across the lot to their car, Queenie and Plaid and Big Tall Goony-Goony (not that as raw material she was so bad), leaving me with Lengel and a kink in his eyebrow. “Did you say something, Sammy?” “I said I quit.” “I thought you did.” “You didn’t have to embarrass them.” “It was they who were embarrassing us.” I started to say something that came out “Fiddle-de-doo.” It’s a saying of my grand- mother’s, and I know she would have been pleased. “I don’t think you know what you’re saying,” Lengel said. “I know you don’t,” I said. “But I do.” I pull the bow at the back of my apron and start shrugging it off my shoulders. A couple customers that had been heading for my slot begin to knock against each other, like scared pigs in a chute. Lengel sighs and begins to look very patient and old and gray. He’s been a friend of my parents for years. “Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your Mom and Dad,” he tells me. It’s true, I don’t. But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it. I fold the apron, “Sammy” stitched in red on the pocket, and put it on the counter, and drop the bow tie on top of it. The bow tie is theirs, if you’ve ever wondered. “You’ll feel this for the rest of your life,” Lengel says, and I know that’s true, too, but remembering how he made that pretty girl blush makes me so scrunchy inside I punch the No Sale tab and the machine whirs “pee-pul” and the drawer splats out. One advantage to this scene taking place in summer, I can follow this up with a clean exit, there’s no fumbling around getting your coat and galoshes, I just saunter into the electric eye in my white shirt that my mother ironed the night before, and the door heaves itself open, and outside the sunshine is skating around on the asphalt. I look around for my girls, but they’re gone, of course. There wasn’t anybody but some young married screaming with her children about some candy they didn’t get by the door of a powder-blue Falcon station wagon. Looking back in the big windows, over the bags of peat moss and aluminum lawn furniture stacked on the pavement, I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through. His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he’djust had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

“Oh Daddy,” Stokesie said beside me. “I feel so faint.”

In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits. I’m in the third check-out slot, with my back to the door, so I don’t see them un...

Sample Comparative and Contrast Analysis on POEMS OF THE PAST

POEMS OF THE PAST   Introduction             This paper will focus on poems of the past that have the theme of death and dying. Two poems written by two different authors will be used for discussion. These two poems are Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go Gentle into that Good Night” and E.E. Cummings’ “Buffalo Bill’s Defunct.” This paper will try to compare and contrast the points of views in each of the poem, their literary styles explained, and ideas will be presented as to how these poems can change ones view of life regarding death and dying.   Context The poem ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ written in 1951 for his ding father, shows Dylan Thomas’s anger toward death. This is shown in the first three lines of the poem. It could be seen that the death of his father is a very sad and heart breaking experience for the author. Even without knowing the background of the poem, the content is very self-explanatory and readers can see that this poem is about fighting death. Thomas has written this poem in the first person, like he was talking to someone directly. We could gauge that this poem was written and intended, not for the general reader, but for his father. Therefore the poem is something very personal and reading it makes us feel like we knew the author personally and understands completely what he feels. The author uses very strong, and powerful words in the poem such as “burn”, “rage”, and “rave”. In the poem, the author likened death to the “close of day”, which suggests night. Here Thomas’ is using another word to mean death, perhaps this could make him talk about death in an easier way, as he must have found it painful. In the first stanza of the poem Thomas is protesting death saying ‘rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ This could be interpreted as to fight death to stay alive until the very end. The author is writing this as if he was talking directly to his father. Here he mentioned the phrase ‘close of day’ which could mean death.             The second, third, fourth and fifth stanzas actually begin with a description of a certain type of person. The author used the words “wise men”, “good men”, “wild men”, and “grave men”. They say that these are all qualities Thomas admires in his father, and uses them to make a different point, and reason for fighting death. The author ends the poem with another take on the title of the poem and this in effect reminds the reader of the true purpose of the poem: And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.             As we read the poem, you could imagine and picture in your mind what the author is trying to say in his poem. The author talks about light and dark, dark signifies death, evil and fear whereas light signifies light. Thomas uses it to describe death as similar to sleep. He likened what is happening to his father as that to sleep and therefore it perhaps made it less painful to write about. One could imagine thought provoking images that the author is trying to convey in his poem. Truly, imagery and emotion go hand in hand. As we read through the poem, we also seem to feel what the author felt when and why he wrote the poem.             E.E. Cummings’ poem “Buffalo Bill’s Defunct” is a very short poem yet very intriguing. This poem is very short, arranged in eleven short lines. In spite of its shortness, it presents in its words something deep to be solved. It is more like a puzzle rather than a poem. By the word defunct, the author means dead. Literally, the poem “Buffalo Bill’s defunct” talks about Buffalo Bill being dead. The author does not seem to convey any feelings to the fact that Buffalo Bill is dead. The poem does not present any feelings of happiness or sadness towards the death. The author seems to be stating that even death can come upon Buffalo Bill with the “watersmooth-silver stallion” and being a “handsome man” and “blueeyed boy”. This is so confusing and it could probably mean several things which only the author knows. Throughout most of the poem the author seems to praise Buffalo Bill. He described the horse which Buffalo Bill used to ride in lines 3, 4, and 5 as “a watersmooth-silver stallion.” Then in line 6, “break onetwothreefourfive pigeons just like that” seems to mean that the author acknowledges Buffalo Bills excellent shooting. In line 8 he even called Buffalo Bill as “handsome.” All these seem to point out that although the author does not feel anything towards Buffalo Bill’s death, he admired the person. Buffalo Bill is not the only person mentioned in the poem, which again makes the poem more puzzling. “Jesus” is also mentioned and in fact the word is centered within the poem in Line 7. We could see here a contrast between the characters that the author used in the poem. This contrast is that Jesus is often associated with peace and love, on the contrary Buffalo Bill is known for his fights and wars. But in the poem, they are united in one thing and that is death.             The author seems to be using metaphor in this poem – using two very unlike “ideas” within the poem – Jesus and Buffalo Bill. There is a lot of talk about death in the poem and both the persons mentioned in the poem are already dead. Jesus is associated with death to some extent, and ‘mister death’ is an obvious example. Metaphor sets two unlike things side by side and makes us see the likeness between them. Perhaps the author would like to us to see the likeness between them as death.             All in all, E.E. Cummings’ “Buffalo Bill’s Defunct” does not seem to be about praising Buffalo Bill even if that could also be read in the poem. The main essence of the poem seems to be about death. Buffalo Bill’s death just seems to be what the author likes to write about.   Conclusion             Unmistakably, readers will be able to point out that both talk about thoughts on death and dying. Although they all have something in common, the authors use different styles in conveying their ideas and thoughts on death. Death and dying, as themes used in the poems, are being expressed like as things that is as normal as day and night. To struggle when one learns or approaches death is normal. Yet death itself is a normal part of life and people should not be afraid of it. The death of a loved one does bring sorrow to ones life, yet there is nothing one could do about it but accept and live on. However, death can happen in many ways, not only in the physical sense. One could be physically breathing and alive yet dead in a certain aspect. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Sample Comparative and Contrast Analysis on POEMS OF THE PAST

POEMS OF THE PAST Introduction This paper will focus on poems of the past that have the theme of death and dying. Two poe...

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‘s “In a Station of the Metro” – A Profound Miniature   ‘s poetry comes from the modern free verse where poetic conventions such as rhyme, meter, etc. are broken in favor of the free flowing lines and imagery.  This particular poem is almost reminiscent of the Japanese which is known to only comprise of three lines to describe a fleeting moment in one’s surroundings.  ‘s poetry consists of only two lines subtly describing and presenting a scene.  This kind of poetry continues to be rejected by forefronts of traditional and conventional poetry, or the New Critics who would seek that poetry by a lofty experience that will need to be analyzed through its symbolisms and allusions.  The poetry is seemingly stripped to its bare essentials and has only portrayed the use of language in two short lines.  It is an impression that starts and begins with a picture as though poetry is a snapshot.  A “snapshot” or a piece of photography is the best description of “In a Station of the Metro”.  This kind of poetry has been the style of poets like and.  All of their poems are also brief and attempting to illustrate or draw an image.  In this manner, their poetry, along with, is called the Imagist poetry.  Imagist is described to be a 20th century poetic form known for its rejection of past conventions to favor the precise description of an image in a language that is clear, frank and straight to the point.  The words are usually common, ordinary and non-elevated and employed in everyday use.  Critics do not recognize Imagist as poetry as it fails to fit the definitions as an artful display of language.  To them, the poetry is very shallow, insufficient, and could only suggest nothing other than a picture.  However supporters would emphasize how each word use and combined is carefully selected and meaningful in their own.  The image is not supposed to be an end but a means towards an inspired feeling or mood brought by the picture.  This is similar to the argument of photography as art.  Critics would not put photography side by side the likes of paintings, among graphic arts because of its mechanical and instantaneous production.  However, photography has a carefully chosen angle and focus that was supposed to convey meaning from how it appears.  The photography, and thus, the Imagist poetry, despite their size and circumstances, may capably inspire thought and feeling because they may reach out and communicate with its viewers or readers.    “In a Station of the Metro” describes (or rather more appropriately, records) a crowd literally in a Station of the Metro.  It attempted to print a fleeting moment or instant thought in words.  The poetry needs to be short, swift and versatile in order to capture the moment at the risk that it will be gone.  Imagist poetries are compact for a reason other than its mere superficiality.  It is supposed to be a package of real emotions that would strike the reader directly.  The creation is usually without total contemplation but rather, spontaneous move.  The poem consists of nothing more than: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd;/Petals on a wet, black bough.” This strikes the reader as a description of the speaker of the poem of a specific crowd in a station of the metro.  It should be said that the words chosen for the poetry are not chosen random but in fact they come from the poet’s feelings and personal impression.  However, unless this is properly discerned, there will really be no output coming from the reader.  The poem is a subjective attempt to interpret something that is objective, and that alone would say a lot about the poem.  The crowd registers to the speaker of the poem as “petals on a wet, black bough” which presents the crowd as outstanding bright and beautful faces amidst the hustle and bustle of the station.     wanted to capture this spontaneous feeling in 2 sentences.  Somehow, it could not be described in a poem more than 2 lines as it will fail to evoke the instant feeling one would chance upon in a station of the metro.  The metro, to emphasize, is a very busy and fast-moving milieu.  The station above all, emphasizes this as people and trains are literally coming and going, a point of arrival and departures.  People are perceivably always in the move.  It’s hard to pin them down in a thought or a long poetry, the trigger needs to be instantaneous and follow a snapping movement to precisely capture the moment in sharp concentrated (rather elaborated) language.   In this manner, poem may be transparent and it may transport an impression in a manner that is quick and understandable to the reader. It must be said that this poem illustrates an American’s attempt to inculcate and take in Asian influences such as that of the Japanese  .  The poem is an attempt to adapt to the Japanese style of perception.  Finally, it must be mentioned how poetry is a truly dynamic language that is capable of so much flexible and  versatile styles, forms and moods in order to communicate a human impression.  In the case of Imagist poetry such as “In a Station of the Metro”, poetry has just become visual art.     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

NONE

‘s “In a Station of the Metro” – A Profound Miniature ‘s poetry comes from the modern free verse where poetic conventions such as rhy...

CANE

In one story or poem from Cane show how emotion (perhaps stimulated by sight,   sound, scent, touch, and physical memory) or desire (sexual, spiritual, or material   longing) causes personal or social conflict.   Perhaps one poem that best describes emotion and desire in Cane would be “”.  “” is a third person lyrical narrative that presents a portrait or an image of a persona named.  is perceivably a woman yearned by men for her ravishing beauty as she resembles “the dusk on the eastern horizon”, and this line will be repeated all through-out the poem so to insist this attractive feature.  The description presented the desire on even as she was a child, and how presented her to be as “perfect as dusk when the sun goes down”.  She was a “wild flash” epitomizing the vibrancy of life and at sundown, she was still the “vivid colour”.  Eventually matures in this narrative in such a young age and as a woman she becomes impregnated.  meshes visual and touch stimulants to draw watching eyes at .  Besides the dusk of the eastern horizon,   repeats how   “carries beauty” from her childhood to when she is pregnant.  However, the repetition is not only performed so to emphasize the inherent attraction in   but to also stress the disappointment that will be revealed in the final line: “But   is a woman, and she has a child.” The very passage concretizes the conflict of the persona as there is an inability to claim  despite her stunning beauty.   has an inherent complicatedness that will make her elusive much to the disappointment and dismay of the persona.  It is clear that   is a little girl grown too early and she had submitted herself to men until she was left pregnant with an unwanted child.  Clearly the persona is so drawn and haunted by   .  This is not typical in a poem in those times as women (black women especially) are seen to be lower than men.  They would immediately be branded as prostitutes, detested, mocked and looked down upon.  Yet the persona is so much attached to   despite the circumstances.  Somehow the attraction is not just physical or sexual but also spiritual.  The repetition of “Oh can’t you see her” challenges the reader to try to look beyond the physical to find    ‘s essence which completes the beauty of her dark skin or dusky beauty.  There is an expressed fragility and mysterious at this female, who is still very much a girl.  The conflict is on a personal level because the persona somehow desires  when it is forbidden.  The poem is delivered in a restrained level that the persona cannot say anything more than the beauty   carries or the dusk of the eastern horizon.  These lines are repeated over and over, thus presenting a pain that is repressed and unspoken.  The persona never tells more information other than these nor does the persona inform the readers why  killed the child.     may also suggest a social conflict because it presents a girl who has lost her virginity at such a young age.  It presents woman as a sexual object of men.   One possible interpretation is that    was actually raped, which would not be a far off inference knowing how she was already desired by men even at age 12.  It can very much be a tragic story of a girl who becomes a victim of an oppressive society who only sees her as a mean towards sexual satisfaction.  It can be the tragic story of an aborted child who was born out of wedlock or out of rape due to the secrecy and mystery that embraces the poem.  No one can speak entirely of what had happened. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

CANE

In one story or poem from Cane show how emotion (perhaps stimulated by sight, sound, scent, touch, and physical memory) or desire (se...

Explicating ” The Elder Sister “

The Elder Sister               , the author of the poem The Elder Sister, presented in her poem a younger sister’s feelings toward her elder sister who came out of their mother’s womb ahead of her. The author describes how a younger sister sees her elder sister.             The author wrote the poem in the first person. The author writes as if she is in the shoes of the younger sister who is describing how she feels and thinks about her elder sister.             In the first few lines, the author describes literally how the younger thinks her elder sister was born. The author did an anatomical description of how as a baby the elder sister was born. The author likened the birth of the elder sister to someone who has just come out of a tomb after a long time. The author mentioned in her poem how the pressures of their mother’s muscles made her elder sister look like that. She also likened her elder sister’s eyes to someone who has been in prison a long time and knows they can send her back. Perhaps in the eyes of her elder sister, she saw the fear of being exposed to another world, yet happy to stay there and afraid to go back to the old world. The younger sister expressed that “By the time mine came along, the were just two more birds on the flock, and when the hair rose on the white mound of her flesh, like threads of water out of the ground, it was the first time, but when mine came they knew about it.” She was referring to the concept of womanhood – the physical transformation that comes with it. By the time the younger sister reached those years, her parents and other family members are already aware of what it would be like for her. They have already experienced the same with her elder sister. At first this has made the younger sister somewhat jealous. She felt negative emotions towards her sister. She used to think only in terms of harshness with regards to the fact that she is not the first one and therefore everyone already knows what these are all about. Then she realized that somehow her elder sister has been more than good to her. She saw that she “had her elder sister before her always like a shield.” Perhaps the author did not mean this literally as when she wrote “the blows that did not reach me.” By blows she meant, consequences of certain actions which her sister have done ahead of her and which she has somehow learned through her sister. In the poem, the younger sister likened her elder sister to a protector who is always there for her. And someone whose experiences are also something which she can learn from. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Explicating ” The Elder Sister “

The Elder Sister , the author of the poem The Elder Sister, presented in her poem a younger sister’s feelings toward her e...

Cane

In one story or poem from Cane show how emotion (perhaps stimulated by sight,   sound, scent, touch, and physical memory) or desire (sexual, spiritual, or material   longing) causes personal or social conflict.   Perhaps one poem that best describes emotion and desire in  Cane would be “Karintha”.  “Karintha” is a third person lyrical narrative that presents a portrait or an image of a persona named Karintha.  Karintha is perceivably a woman yearned by men for her ravishing beauty as she resembles “the dusk on the eastern horizon”, and this line will be repeated all through-out the poem so to insist this attractive feature.  The description presented the desire on Karintha even as she was a child, and how  presented her to be as “perfect as dusk when the sun goes down”.  She was a “wild flash” epitomizing the vibrancy of life and at sundown, she was still the “vivid colour”.  Eventually Karintha matures in this narrative in such a young age and as a woman she becomes impregnated.   meshes visual and touch stimulants to draw watching eyes at Karintha.  Besides the dusk of the eastern horizon,  repeats how Karintha “carries beauty” from her childhood to when she is pregnant.  However, the repetition is not only performed so to emphasize the inherent attraction in Karintha but to also stress the disappointment that will be revealed in the final line: “But Karintha is a woman, and she has a child.” The very passage concretizes the conflict of the persona as there is an inability to claim Karintha despite her stunning beauty.  Karintha has an inherent complicatedness that will make her elusive much to the disappointment and dismay of the persona.  It is clear that Karintha is a little girl grown too early and she had submitted herself to men until she was left pregnant with an unwanted child.  Clearly the persona is so drawn and haunted by Karintha.  This is not typical in a poem in those times as women (black women especially) are seen to be lower than men.  They would immediately be branded as prostitutes, detested, mocked and looked down upon.  Yet the persona is so much attached to Karintha despite the circumstances.  Somehow the attraction is not just physical or sexual but also spiritual.  The repetition of “Oh can’t you see her” challenges the reader to try to look beyond the physical to find Karintha’s essence which completes the beauty of her dark skin or dusky beauty.  There is an expressed fragility and mysterious at this female, who is still very much a girl.  The conflict is on a personal level because the persona somehow desires Karintha when it is forbidden.  The poem is delivered in a restrained level that the persona cannot say anything more than the beauty Karintha carries or the dusk of the eastern horizon.  These lines are repeated over and over, thus presenting a pain that is repressed and unspoken.  The persona never tells more information other than these nor does the persona inform the readers why Karintha killed the child.  Karintha may also suggest a social conflict because it presents a girl who has lost her virginity at such a young age.  It presents woman as a sexual object of men.   One possible interpretation is that Karintha was actually raped, which would not be a far off inference knowing how she was already desired by men even at age 12.  It can very much be a tragic story of a girl who becomes a victim of an oppressive society who only sees her as a mean towards sexual satisfaction.  It can be the tragic story of an aborted child who was born out of wedlock or out of rape due to the secrecy and mystery that embraces the poem.  No one can speak entirely of what had happened. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Cane

In one story or poem from Cane show how emotion (perhaps stimulated by sight, sound, scent, touch, and physical memory) or desire (se...

Explicating ” The Elder Sister “

Explicating ” The Elder Sister “

The Elder Sister , the author of the poem The Elder Sister, presented in her poem a younger sister’s feelings toward her e...

Education

is known to be the first published African American writer and possibly one of the youngest for being only 18.  Her poems do not directly attack or tackle slavery and racism but they are indirectly suggested and may be considered as the first statements of an African American regarding such issues.  The impact of her poetry and the display of literacy had become a challenge to those propagating slavery.    1) “On Being Brought from Africa to America” – This poem glorifies Christianity as a religion of freedom and equality but has hints of critiquing racism by how it said Some view our sable race with scornful eye/Their colour is a diabolic die.”/ Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain/May be refin’d, and join the’ angelic train   2) The poem and letter to General Washington – An impressive show of education and literacy in the part of an African American writer that some critics are led to refuse to believe that this is not Wheatley’s work.    3) Liberty and Peace and America -  does not directly attack slavery but she has glorified freedom.    4) To Samson Occom – Where  makes the most assertive statement against slavery.     believes that Racism is a “scholarly pursuit” and conditioned by Education in itself.  To her, African American literature is taught as a means of social tolerance and not seriously as a text in itself.  Her novels always speak of the problems that plague African Americans and bringing awareness to such conflicts (rather solving them).    1) Beloved – The novel details the life of Sethe, a black female slave.   2) The Bluest Eye – The novel is about embracing and accepting Black identity and the tragedy that awaits when one refuses to accept one’s race and favours another.    3) Jazz – The novel indirectly tackles racism by putting it subtly and suggesting through hints thus proving that the pervasive nature of racism does not have to be visible but it may take place within the invisible cracks.   4) Song of Solomon – The novel documents the experience of an African American family and makes relevant the past struggles of African American South to the 20th century.       5) Tar Baby – The novel is a discourse on the Black American female’s identity and accepting prejudices by turning them into strengths while also     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Education

is known to be the first published African American writer and possibly one of the youngest for being only 18. Her poems do not directl...

Poem and others

No Capital Just Life, Neria, and the Traditional African Property Law   1.        Ifi Amadiume’s No Capital Just Life is a very symbolic poem. Literally, it depicts the richness of the African region in gems (diamonds and gold), the people’s ways of living, and their dreams. In deeper sense, it is a meaningful poem as it consists of nationalistic perspectives. To sum up, it is like ‘what belongs to Africa belongs to Africa, what belongs to me I own it’ viewpoint. Also, the poem is about the paradox of free and exclusive things. In structure, the poem used the free verse. According to , free verse or sometimes called vers libre is a term describing various styles of poetry that are not written using strict meter or rhyme, but that still are considered as ‘poetry’ because of the virtue of complex patterns of one sort or another that readers can perceive to be part of a coherent whole. Specifically, the poem can fall under prose poetry because it contains heightened imagery or emotional effect and associated with some prose techniques. The thematic universality is apparent as it depicts the idea of property. The things that belong to a particular place are considered to be their properties and that others can not take nor control them. Like the diamonds and gold, they belong to Azania and not to the speaker in the poem. The poetic techniques are used unmistakably. Since it is free verse and prose poetry, poetic techniques are unreservedly used. For instance, alliteration is very palpable in the phrases like ‘man of mine, diamond is diamond, and gold is gold or longer example like ‘imagine his promises of love placed in diamonds paid in cars!’ For assonance, ‘Now, let me see what else you want to give me…’ is a simple example. For symbolism, the following can be considered: <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> his promises of love placed in diamonds paid in cars – The promises of the global community in aiding most African countries in moving ahead progression is very prosperous, but all these promises are paid or have equivalents such as its natural resources.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%">  I won’t take it if you do, for all we know, it might be from Liberia or even Sierra Leone, not to talk of South Africa! – The things that Africa owns must belong to them and that no other power should interfere. In most cases, the richness and treasures of Africa should be brought back to the place and its people.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> But diamond is diamond! Gold is gold so therefore I should wear the gem. – The fact remains that Africans and their continent is their legacy. Diamond is diamond and Africans are Africans. The things that belongs to them must be given back and let them make proud and make the most of it. It is also similar with the line: So, not that diamond for me, not the gold either for me, the gold belongs to Azania.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Remember the amputee children, our women, our old men, untold terror done to them to steal and sell their diamonds and gold! – This symbolizes the long history of colonization on most African regions and how they suffer all throughout.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> We cannot give the kids back their arms! – The destroyed reputation of Africa and its people will never be back to its original form.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Now, let me see what else you want to give me, this modern African man of mine. Well, well, well this time you want to give me the latest Mercedes sedan SL 600! – This pertains to the effects of globalization and industrial development to the whole region. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> What then can I want from you untainted? What can you give me freely? – This speaks of the dreams and aspirations of every African lineage. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> If you can give me pure water to drink, to quench my thirst. If you can give me clean air to breathe, to clear my congested lungs. Just things you shouldn’t be giving, Just things that should be free and clean; no fees no capital, just life, for you! For me! – This clearly speaks on how Africans long for long-standing and establish peace and order in the whole continent. </li> </ul>   2.        Neria in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s film of the same title is indeed a leader against social injustices in her community. In the film, Neria faces the daily life struggles upon the death of her husband. Being a widow, she is forced to deal with the difficult life without her husband and at the same time the social norms of African life. Her rights in the properties that she and her husband holds are questioned by her brother-in-law, Phineas. With her own conviction and principles in life, she fights for her right to keep their properties and the essential elements of her former life. Apparently, Neria is very brave for she endured the troubles brought about by her immediate community. The hardship of being a widow served as her ultimate challenge to continue her role as a woman and wife as well as her quest for human dignity. As she continues to take part in her daily routines, the emotions and feelings inherent to her heart and mind keeps her going. With the loss of her husband, she achieved human dignity and respect by fighting for her rights and being strong and persistent to live her life even with the absence of her better half. Also, being a widow herself, she recognizes the difficulties and the societal prejudices present in her environment. Neria is just one of those women who seek to be recognized as equal beings. Like Neria, widowed women are entitled with their own rights. The empowerment that Neria possesses is a manifestation that indeed women particularly African women is deserving to take control and autonomy to their feelings, actions and the things that exquisitely and exclusively belongs to them. By means of Neria’s daily battle against social injustices, she is a living proof that women should are just similar to men no matter what. The scene in the courtroom is the most compelling situation that showed how Neria become a leader against social injustices in her community through her quest for justice.   3.        According to , “many African women are caught between customary laws that have long governed issues such as marriage, inheritance and land ownership and modern civil law that was first brought by colonialists and later embraced by newly independent African states”. The Traditional African Property Law affects widows and divorcees by giving them lesser or worst, no opportunity to own the things that are connubial in nature. The Law limits widows and divorcees in owning properties as prescribed by a rights-based system and African culture. In Ifeoma Okoye’s The Trial and Other Stories, the short stories Soul Healers, The Voiceless Victim, and Between Women indicate some customs in need of change. In Soul Healers, Somadi was separated from her children upon the death of her husband because of traditional laws. Sent away from all that is ancestral, she is destined to live a life separate from her children. This kind of belief must be changed for there is already legal framework that deals with child custody. For The Voiceless Woman, the young woman, Ebele, lost her husband and was forced into the streets to beg, having been unable to find any work. Ebele is a victim of an unbalanced and unfair system. Today, the prejudice against widows or even divorcees in terms of employment should be addressed. Also, any person like the privilege woman is not entitled to disgrace a widow or other people. Equal opportunity employment as well as rights for equality must be enforced. In Between Women, Ebuka, being maid with an unjust employer must be protected by fair and just employment laws. The traditional and cultural belief of slavery must be changed. The injustices of privilege people against less fortunate individuals must be punished by corresponding provisions or policies prescribed by the state. As women empowerment is clearly propagated in the contemporary times, laws in general might as well address the need and rights of women.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Poem and others

No Capital Just Life, Neria, and the Traditional African Property Law 1. Ifi Amadiume’s No Capital Just Life is a very symbolic...

POEMS

The fist poem   The Negro Speaks of Rivers   I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when A be Lincoln went down the New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I’ve known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.     The Second Poem    Mother to Son   Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor Bare. But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on, And reaching’ landin’s, And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no light. So boy, don’t you turn back. Don’t you set down on the steps ‘Cause you finds it’s knder hard. Don’t you fall now – For I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’, And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.       The Third Poem    Cross   My old man’s a white old man And my old mother’s black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mother And wished she were in hell, I’m sorry for that evil wish And now I wish her well. My old man died in a fine big house. My ma died in a shack. I wonder where I’m gonna die, Being neither white nor black?     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

POEMS

The fist poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human bl...