2nd Essay: Responding to Poetry Poetry mainly describes love, loss, and regret. However, every writer adds his or her own twist. For example, “Last Night” by Sharon Olds and “Cherrylog Road” by James Dickey deals with the same theme but are two different pieces of writing. They explore the theme of forbidden love and use imagery to show the lust between the two characters.…
Creating memories is one of the most beautiful and happy moments for an individual especially if those moments are with their loved ones. Although memories can last forever, people do not live forever. Anything can happen today, tomorrow or the day after, but the real question is how can an individual endure the pain of a lost one? In "Passed On" by Erin Belieu, the author reveals that even if an individual loses a loved one, the precious memories that they have created will remain with them forever and happiness will overtake their sadness; thus, creates an important theme towards the poem using symbolism and figurative imagery.…
When writing a poem a poet can twist a subject into whatever perspective they see fit. While Kilee Greethurst wrote her poems based on her experiences she opened up her thoughts and feelings to give the readers a wall of emotion and imagery. In order to portray these feelings of happiness and romance, she used the concept of bliss as her overall theme. All of Greethurst’s poems revolve around the idea of a blissful state of mind, creating a theme of happiness and love.…
On October 14th, 1894, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Rebecca Haswell and Edward Cummings gave birth to Edward Estlin Cummings. However, the world would ultimately know him as E. E. Cummings, the poet that wandered away from the norms of modern society and made astonishing innovations in the realm of poetry through his experimentations with syntax, grammar, punctuation, spacing, and typography. Like every notable literary figure, E.E. Cummings applied his life experiences and influences to his work, helping establish him as one of America’s most distinguished modernist writers. Cummings grew up in a wealthy family that held strong liberal and tradition opinions that influenced his early works. Edwards Cummings, a Harvard professor and Unitarian…
Therefore, I would dare to say that the reason for this poem’s huge success in American society is that Ginsberg somehow managed to create the perfect declaration of empathy. We have all felt at some point in our lives that we are living in a society that often breeds suffering and instability, however in reading such a work of art, in observing the deepest inner workings of a poet, we can come to find solace in the idea that we are not alone in our…
In each of Anne Bradstreet’s poems her style has changed and contoured to fit the theme of the specific poem. In “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” Bradstreet seamlessly describes the love she has for her husband using a variety of literary devices such as metaphors. Using metaphors helps Bradstreet clearly demonstrate the point she is trying to make while writing it in a creative way. The strongest metaphor in this poem is, “My love is such that Rivers cannot quench” this line gives the reader a visual of how strong Bradstreet’s love is for her husband. Another poem in which Bradstreet strongly displays metaphors is “The Author to Her Book.”…
Life is filled with many experiences that can teach a person a lot. In the poem “Ithaka” by C.P. Cavafy it talks Odysseus’ journey on his way back home to Ithaka in The Odyssey. In addition, he expresses that on Odysseus's way home he is able to learn many valuable lessons and have countless experiences. This message that C.P. conveys very much relates to everyday life in that what you lean on your way to achieving a goal may be better than what you initially intended.…
In Just- Poetry Explication E.E. Cummings major approach to unfoalding the theme would be the use of diction. While many words in the poem are made up such as, “mud-lucsious”, this emphasizes how the speaker is excited that he or she has to put together words to describe the feeling they are having. Because of this use of word, the speaker could be portrayed as a child because during the spring time children often play in mud and enjoy themselves. Also, one can assume the speaker is a child by the way they describe their friends, “eddieandbill” and “bettyandisbel”.…
The great Robert Frost once said, “Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.” Many believe that he was a happy poet, writing about his experiences in nature. Upon closer inspection, the darker side of Frost becomes clear. He was fearful of many things in his life and they became evident in his poetry. However, he denied that there was any connection between his personal life and the work he made.…
Poems are often very confusing for the simple-minded reader. Though if you focus, reread, and take time to understand what the poem is saying, you can often find a very relevant and inspiring message. There are three poems this essay will cover. The first is a poem called “The Unknown Citizen” by W.H. Auden, this poem is about no one important just an average factory worker who seems to have everything go perfect in his life. The next poem is titled “Old Age Sticks” by a famous poet named E.E. Cummings the poem describes the contrast between people of old age and the rebellious youth.…
Playwright Thornton Wilder and poet e. e. cummings are portraying ordinary life in a small town in the play Our Town and in the poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town.” Both, the play and poem were written about at the same period. The towns in both the play and poem can be related to any city in the country. The poem and play take the readers through the similar themes of the passage of time, love, and death, which are an ordinary life that is monotonous and ultimately unmemorable. Both authors Thornton Wilder and e. e. cummings are modern writers who applied a combination of ironies to express the final passage of the time and death.…
Harwood’s poems are as much about love and life as they are about death and loss. Gwen Harwood once wrote that one must immerse themselves in the shades by confronting harrowing truisms, namely an awareness of life’s brevity and death’s inevitability, in order to find solace in difficult times. While Harwood’s poems consider death as a plaguing concern, she does not remain morbidly transfixed on grief and loss. A celebration of significant relationships with loved ones and reflecting upon fond experiences allow the persona to transcend the fleeting nature of life’s cycle. Harwood utilises the raw and confronting concern of death and loss to emphasise the importance of living expressively and relishing the moment.…
Olds’s poems are also full of emotions that personal yet can be used to connect with others that have the same…
It was the winter of 1906 and the only thing that was present in the life of a middle-aged New Englander was failure. “After a near death experience with pneumonia that winter, this man turned to poetry as his only form of consolation” (Thompson 151). That man was Robert Frost. He was a loving father, husband, and friend. Frost was inspired by the sights around him, the people he met, and the experiences he had.…
The poem “One Perfect Rose,” written by the author Dorothy Parker, represents an example of a well-developed creative narrative that reflects how rhetorical elements such as repetition complemented with tone shifts can highlight and present the theme more vividly. This poem represents a contrast from the majority of poems about love because it is not the typical portrayal of a non-practical, idealistic feeling. In fact, the poem serves as a mockery of love in the way we tend to envision it, since it comes from a speaker who cynically devalues true love over materialistic possessions. Although the identity of the speaker is not explicitly revealed, it can be inferred that it is a woman who has had romantic experiences where men tend to propose…