In Margaret Atwood's poem A Sad Child, she uses imagery to show the transition of a girl into a woman. The poem is full of images that correlate with sadness and depression. There is also a tone that emphasizes tough love one might say.
in the first stanza there is the image of a sad young girl who does not have an external reason to be sad. It is because of her age and is turning from a girl to a woman. Atwood uses the image of material item to combat or suppress the sadness and depression mentioned in the poem.
In the third stanza Atwood uses the image of light and fog to point out the change in the young girl. the light may represent her innocence while the fog rolling in represent the loss of that innocence and the coming of womanhood. The "red flame" seeping out of you symbolizes the natural course of things when a woman starts to get her menstruation cycle. This ignites or starts a girl's life as an adult.
The imagery Atwood uses in this poem fits perfectly into the poem's theme.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
From The Frontier Of Writing
The poem From The Frontier Of Writing by Seamus Heaney is one of my favorite poems we have reviewed and analyzed all semester.
The entire poem is an extended metaphor. The speaker relates getting a work of literature published to someone passing a border check. The literal incident that is happening is that someone has approached a border check where they are checked by the guards and waiting to see if they are able to get to the other side. The figurative meaning of this poem is that if you’re a writer you have to go through editors and publishers who have the power to deny or approve your writing.
The troops or guards in the poem may represent the publishers who look over your work which in the poem may be the vehicle. They inspect the “make and number” of the vehicle. This make and number may refer to the title and content of the work. The guns that are prominently mentioned represent the power the publishers have. They can ‘kill’ your ideas or shoot it down.
In the poem what the speaker is trying to portray is that when writing you are never fully in charge of your writing. There is always someone looking and analyzing it from up-close or from afar which is symbolized in the poem by the marksman who constantly has his gun pointed at you. But after your work is approved you are able to go forward giving the feeling of freedom. Heaney uses the image of a waterfall to show how it feels when you are approved. You no longer have to deal with the soldiers or publishers as you see them fading away as you go forward.
The entire poem is an extended metaphor. The speaker relates getting a work of literature published to someone passing a border check. The literal incident that is happening is that someone has approached a border check where they are checked by the guards and waiting to see if they are able to get to the other side. The figurative meaning of this poem is that if you’re a writer you have to go through editors and publishers who have the power to deny or approve your writing.
The troops or guards in the poem may represent the publishers who look over your work which in the poem may be the vehicle. They inspect the “make and number” of the vehicle. This make and number may refer to the title and content of the work. The guns that are prominently mentioned represent the power the publishers have. They can ‘kill’ your ideas or shoot it down.
In the poem what the speaker is trying to portray is that when writing you are never fully in charge of your writing. There is always someone looking and analyzing it from up-close or from afar which is symbolized in the poem by the marksman who constantly has his gun pointed at you. But after your work is approved you are able to go forward giving the feeling of freedom. Heaney uses the image of a waterfall to show how it feels when you are approved. You no longer have to deal with the soldiers or publishers as you see them fading away as you go forward.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Black Berry Picking
This is one of Heaney's poems that centres on memories of his childhood, growing up on a farm in the Irish countryside. Here he recalls the annual experience of picking wild fruit in the summer.
Heaney uses assonance in his phrase 'glossy purple clot' to describe the first blackberry that ripened and stood out from others pictured with the simile as being still 'hard as a knot'. Heaney compares the taste of the first ripe berry to the sweetness of 'thickened wine'. He uses the metaphor 'summer's blood' to express the redness of the juice that led to a desire for more: 'lust for picking'. The reference to blood is the first suggestion of a less enjoyable or innocent experience.
The second part of the sixteen-line first stanza tells how they collected all the containers they could lay their hands on: 'milk-cans, pea-tins, jam-pots'. The rhythm of the list is repeated two lines later in 'hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills' whose bordering hedges offered the fruit for picking. The macabre imagery increases at the end of the first stanza, where Heaney uses the simile 'sticky as Bluebeard's' to describe the blackberry juice covering the palms of the children's hands as if it were blood, thus echoing the earlier metaphor of 'summer's blood'.
In the shorter second stanza, the pleasures of picking and tasting the first ripe berries soon fade away. The berries were 'hoarded' in the byre, but very quickly begin to go mouldy. The mould is described as a 'rat-grey fungus': the inclusion of the word 'rat' in the metaphor emphasizes the distaste of this deterioration. The smell and taste are focused on too. 'Stinking' makes no bones about the unpleasant smell, and the original sweet taste of the blackberries turns sour. The following line reminds us that the poet is speaking here as a child: 'I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair...' Then once again the smell is recalled: 'all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot'. In the last line, Heaney remembers that he always hoped the blackberries would last once they had been picked, but inside realized that this was impossible.
It is interesting to compare this with another poem of Heaney's, 'Death of a Naturalist'. Both of them centre on childhood memories that begin as innocent, pleasurable experiences rooted in nature, but both end in disillusion. Nature's beauty and sweetness do not endure. The desire for the experience ends in revulsion. There is even a parallel in the structure of the two poems with the extended first stanza followed by a more compact second one that describes a change, the moment of disillusion and disgust.
Heaney addresses all the senses with his imagery and hints here and there among his initial admiration and enjoyment that things are perhaps not all they seem. The innocence of childhood and the wonders of nature are transient, and disappointment has to be confronted.
Heaney uses assonance in his phrase 'glossy purple clot' to describe the first blackberry that ripened and stood out from others pictured with the simile as being still 'hard as a knot'. Heaney compares the taste of the first ripe berry to the sweetness of 'thickened wine'. He uses the metaphor 'summer's blood' to express the redness of the juice that led to a desire for more: 'lust for picking'. The reference to blood is the first suggestion of a less enjoyable or innocent experience.
The second part of the sixteen-line first stanza tells how they collected all the containers they could lay their hands on: 'milk-cans, pea-tins, jam-pots'. The rhythm of the list is repeated two lines later in 'hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills' whose bordering hedges offered the fruit for picking. The macabre imagery increases at the end of the first stanza, where Heaney uses the simile 'sticky as Bluebeard's' to describe the blackberry juice covering the palms of the children's hands as if it were blood, thus echoing the earlier metaphor of 'summer's blood'.
In the shorter second stanza, the pleasures of picking and tasting the first ripe berries soon fade away. The berries were 'hoarded' in the byre, but very quickly begin to go mouldy. The mould is described as a 'rat-grey fungus': the inclusion of the word 'rat' in the metaphor emphasizes the distaste of this deterioration. The smell and taste are focused on too. 'Stinking' makes no bones about the unpleasant smell, and the original sweet taste of the blackberries turns sour. The following line reminds us that the poet is speaking here as a child: 'I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair...' Then once again the smell is recalled: 'all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot'. In the last line, Heaney remembers that he always hoped the blackberries would last once they had been picked, but inside realized that this was impossible.
It is interesting to compare this with another poem of Heaney's, 'Death of a Naturalist'. Both of them centre on childhood memories that begin as innocent, pleasurable experiences rooted in nature, but both end in disillusion. Nature's beauty and sweetness do not endure. The desire for the experience ends in revulsion. There is even a parallel in the structure of the two poems with the extended first stanza followed by a more compact second one that describes a change, the moment of disillusion and disgust.
Heaney addresses all the senses with his imagery and hints here and there among his initial admiration and enjoyment that things are perhaps not all they seem. The innocence of childhood and the wonders of nature are transient, and disappointment has to be confronted.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The Bait
Thoughts on "The Bait"
In the poem The Bait by John Donne he describes the good and the bad thing about love. He tries to portray what love really is. To achieve this he changes his diction from that of a loving and caring tone to that of an alarming tone. He also uses word choice to do this.
In the first half of the poem the speaker talks about the good things about love. Donne uses the metaphor of bait to represent love. Just as fishes are drawn to bait the bait says that people are drawn to love as if it is something enjoyable. Donne uses words such as golden, crystal, pleasures, enarmour’d and amorously.
In the second half of the poem Donne switches the diction and starts using alarming and upsetting words such as freeze, cut treacherously and strangling and snare. He does this to emphasize the change that can happen with after you are in love.
In conclusion the speaker then says that those who don’t fall in love are smarter than he was. He says this because those who avoid love or prefer not to fall for loves bait are smart because they will not be hurt by love’s deceit.
In the poem The Bait by John Donne he describes the good and the bad thing about love. He tries to portray what love really is. To achieve this he changes his diction from that of a loving and caring tone to that of an alarming tone. He also uses word choice to do this.
In the first half of the poem the speaker talks about the good things about love. Donne uses the metaphor of bait to represent love. Just as fishes are drawn to bait the bait says that people are drawn to love as if it is something enjoyable. Donne uses words such as golden, crystal, pleasures, enarmour’d and amorously.
In the second half of the poem Donne switches the diction and starts using alarming and upsetting words such as freeze, cut treacherously and strangling and snare. He does this to emphasize the change that can happen with after you are in love.
In conclusion the speaker then says that those who don’t fall in love are smarter than he was. He says this because those who avoid love or prefer not to fall for loves bait are smart because they will not be hurt by love’s deceit.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Good Morrow
In the poem The Good-Morrow, Donne uses word choice and diction to show the reader the narrators’ love for his lover through a romantic tone.
In the first stanza Donne writes about how the narrator and his lover were metaphorically asleep. The narrator wandered around aimlessly before meeting his love in the first line. He states that before they met or loved each other they did not know anything especially that of beauty. We can see this when he says, “twas but a dream of thee”. It is very obvious that also in this stanza Donne writes in the past tense, dwelling on their past experiences. To create a romantic tone in this stanza he uses words such as loved, pleasures, childishly, beauty and dream. These words create a certain feeling within the reader
After they are acquainted and awakened in the second stanza Donne switches the tense and starts using present tense. In this stanza he treats there love as if it were a journey, with things to be discovered. He wants them to go hand in hand on this journey so they could be close and be one.
From other Donne poems I have realized that he uses the image of reflections in his poems about love and he does this in the final stanza in the first line. He starts to mention that they are perfect for each other and they are meant for each other. He uses metaphors such as hemispheres to describe them and their love for each other. Overall Donne just wants to show how true love is supposed to be.
In the first stanza Donne writes about how the narrator and his lover were metaphorically asleep. The narrator wandered around aimlessly before meeting his love in the first line. He states that before they met or loved each other they did not know anything especially that of beauty. We can see this when he says, “twas but a dream of thee”. It is very obvious that also in this stanza Donne writes in the past tense, dwelling on their past experiences. To create a romantic tone in this stanza he uses words such as loved, pleasures, childishly, beauty and dream. These words create a certain feeling within the reader
After they are acquainted and awakened in the second stanza Donne switches the tense and starts using present tense. In this stanza he treats there love as if it were a journey, with things to be discovered. He wants them to go hand in hand on this journey so they could be close and be one.
From other Donne poems I have realized that he uses the image of reflections in his poems about love and he does this in the final stanza in the first line. He starts to mention that they are perfect for each other and they are meant for each other. He uses metaphors such as hemispheres to describe them and their love for each other. Overall Donne just wants to show how true love is supposed to be.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Blasphemy
For my Resistance project my friends and i decide to protest against talking the Lord our God's name in vain. people often to this without thinking of what they are saying or who they are offending around them. we decided to make tee shirts with a quote on them which says "Don't offend my God; I don't offend yours".
while i wore this tee shirt during the day a lot of people asked what my shirt said. when i told them what it said many agreed and told me that they believe that too. a few others said that this was part of the way they talk and would probably not stop taking Gods name in vain, although they were professed Christians.
i think that if people really cared about serving God and wanted to be better Christians they would try to stop saying such things especially seeing that it is part of the ten commandments. im not saying that i doont slip up sometime but i try to not say such things when i can.
People often say such things as a form of frustration. a solution for this although many may disagree with me is just to use plain old curse words such as the F word and the S word. these words don't discriminate anyone and would a fine replacement.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Numbers
Just like how the women in the play united for a common cause so did the men. They all came together even though they were enemies and made peace for the sake of sex. Lol. This goes to show that there is power in numbers.
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