No one is able to fully understand what it is like to lose one of your senses until it happens. It is a natural and common occurrence for humans to wonder and attempt to describe what this may be like. People that have lost their hearing lose many things that others often take for granted, but is it possible that the silence could be enlightening? Joanne Diaz offers her opinion on this subject in “On My Father’s Loss of Hearing.” She conveys her theme of “love hurts much less in [deafness’] serenity” (Diaz line 28) through vivid imagery, simile, and tone.
When Diaz writes “love hurts much less in [deafness’] serenity,” (Diaz line 28) she means that all of the hardships her father had to hear are now silenced by his deafness. She makes this …show more content…
When the poem begins, the poem has a tone of pity and lack. This feeling is introduced with a description of all of the things the reader has lost due to his deafness (Diaz lines 8-11). Diaz also explains that she believes the deafening was caused by her and her family. She lists several things that could have caused the deafness including “sorrows and complaints, the stupid jabs, / [and] the loneliness of boredom in the house” (lines 6-7). This causes the reader to feel pity not only for the father and his losses, but also for the family and their guilt. This is because when a person thinks of someone who is deaf, they immediately feel sympathy and sorrow. Diaz then progresses the poem by shifting the mood and explaining why her father is not disabled, but abled differently. She describes her father’s ears as “no longer obligated” (line 15) and his desires as “released” (line 20). These types of descriptions serve to transform the tone of the poem from pitiful and sullen to freedom and hope. Diaz continues the tone advancement up until the last lines of the poem when she resolves that her father is no longer crippled by “noisome cruelty” and “baffled rage” (line 26), but “hurts much less in this serenity” (line 28). Diaz progressively deviates the tone of the poem from melancholy all the way to a sense of happiness and release. The reason for this dramatic change in mood is that Diaz is showing that people who are deaf
When Diaz writes “love hurts much less in [deafness’] serenity,” (Diaz line 28) she means that all of the hardships her father had to hear are now silenced by his deafness. She makes this …show more content…
When the poem begins, the poem has a tone of pity and lack. This feeling is introduced with a description of all of the things the reader has lost due to his deafness (Diaz lines 8-11). Diaz also explains that she believes the deafening was caused by her and her family. She lists several things that could have caused the deafness including “sorrows and complaints, the stupid jabs, / [and] the loneliness of boredom in the house” (lines 6-7). This causes the reader to feel pity not only for the father and his losses, but also for the family and their guilt. This is because when a person thinks of someone who is deaf, they immediately feel sympathy and sorrow. Diaz then progresses the poem by shifting the mood and explaining why her father is not disabled, but abled differently. She describes her father’s ears as “no longer obligated” (line 15) and his desires as “released” (line 20). These types of descriptions serve to transform the tone of the poem from pitiful and sullen to freedom and hope. Diaz continues the tone advancement up until the last lines of the poem when she resolves that her father is no longer crippled by “noisome cruelty” and “baffled rage” (line 26), but “hurts much less in this serenity” (line 28). Diaz progressively deviates the tone of the poem from melancholy all the way to a sense of happiness and release. The reason for this dramatic change in mood is that Diaz is showing that people who are deaf