Rita Dove, An African American Poet
Rita Dove is a poet who is currently 64 years old. She grew up as an outstanding student, to later become even more successful, winning several awards to her name. She was, and still is, a very passionate poet who has said inspiring things to her audiences such as, “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful”. Dove still continues to inspire and encourage those who read her poetry to this day.
Starting at the beginning, Rita Dove was born on August 28, 1952, in Akron, Ohio. She was the daughter of a chemist, Ray Dove, and her mother Elvira Dove. She later on married the German-born novelist, Fred Viebahn in the mid-1970s, and had a daughter by the name of Aviva. When Dove was young, she began …show more content…
In the poem, she puts herself as the narrator, making the form and structure a narrative, living as a person who is waiting in an airport for their next flight. Dove doesn’t seem to be talking to a specific audience, except for whoever decides to read her poem. As the narrator waits for his/her flight, they observe the different arrays of people around them. The main theme of this poem tells us brief, small descriptions of many different people’s lives, but all of them seem to have the same issue. The issue that was addressed to the readers, was how the people in the poem are trying to escape the reality of work and responsibilities in their life by going on a vacation, but in the end they must go back to their own realities. Though this issue is only addressed in the poem, it is very similar to life itself. Some of the sound and sense devices that were said in the poem were onomatopoeias, rhythms, similes, and hyperboles. When talking about the onomatopoeias, the two words “cooing” and “bickering” were used in line 9, talking about the “ragtag nuclear families”. For the rhythm in the poem, line 13-15 says, “...while the athlete, one monstrous hand, asleep on his duffel bag, listens, perched like a seal trained for the plunge”. This would be labelled as a rhythm due to the four syllable phrases is states. Aside from the two devices, the imagery and tone of the poem should be discussed. Starting off with imagery, “Vacation” by Rita Dove, shows to be “dull to light”. The dullness represents the people that are anxiously waiting for their next flight, while the light represents when people are talking about getting away from their responsibilities and only talking about vacation, showing the theme of the poem once
Rita Dove is a poet who is currently 64 years old. She grew up as an outstanding student, to later become even more successful, winning several awards to her name. She was, and still is, a very passionate poet who has said inspiring things to her audiences such as, “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful”. Dove still continues to inspire and encourage those who read her poetry to this day.
Starting at the beginning, Rita Dove was born on August 28, 1952, in Akron, Ohio. She was the daughter of a chemist, Ray Dove, and her mother Elvira Dove. She later on married the German-born novelist, Fred Viebahn in the mid-1970s, and had a daughter by the name of Aviva. When Dove was young, she began …show more content…
In the poem, she puts herself as the narrator, making the form and structure a narrative, living as a person who is waiting in an airport for their next flight. Dove doesn’t seem to be talking to a specific audience, except for whoever decides to read her poem. As the narrator waits for his/her flight, they observe the different arrays of people around them. The main theme of this poem tells us brief, small descriptions of many different people’s lives, but all of them seem to have the same issue. The issue that was addressed to the readers, was how the people in the poem are trying to escape the reality of work and responsibilities in their life by going on a vacation, but in the end they must go back to their own realities. Though this issue is only addressed in the poem, it is very similar to life itself. Some of the sound and sense devices that were said in the poem were onomatopoeias, rhythms, similes, and hyperboles. When talking about the onomatopoeias, the two words “cooing” and “bickering” were used in line 9, talking about the “ragtag nuclear families”. For the rhythm in the poem, line 13-15 says, “...while the athlete, one monstrous hand, asleep on his duffel bag, listens, perched like a seal trained for the plunge”. This would be labelled as a rhythm due to the four syllable phrases is states. Aside from the two devices, the imagery and tone of the poem should be discussed. Starting off with imagery, “Vacation” by Rita Dove, shows to be “dull to light”. The dullness represents the people that are anxiously waiting for their next flight, while the light represents when people are talking about getting away from their responsibilities and only talking about vacation, showing the theme of the poem once