Gwendolyn Brooks, a female black author. She had written many poems, but to everyone there is one that sticks out the most. “We Real Cool.” She wishes that wasn 't the only poem that she is well-known for but that will do for her. Her poem is very short yet it is good enough to set an image and makes someone think about what era this was at and how it can trigger something.…
We / Die soon” (7-8). The structure of this story also allows us to make an inference on whom the speaker is because the story only uses “we” to describe their behaviors that are carried out in the poem. By structuring it with only the pronoun “we”, I believe that it is…
In “It Ain’t We, Babe” by Lucy Ferriss, published in Chronicle of Higher Education, 8 April 2015,Ferrisss gainsays the review established by Princeton Review’s practice. She contends that proper grammar is not always appropriate or particularly suited within “language in real life”. Using various song lyrics and artists she perceives to disprove that proper grammar is needed to convey meaning and inadvertently proves that it can confuse a reader or audience, she additional comments on modern grammar and gives an alternative suggestion to…
When speaking of obligations, one is also speaking of responsibilities. Characters dodge their obligations because the thrill of being free and having a choice overrules their responsibilities. No one likes to be told what to do or how to do it, yet alone be forced to do it. When the opportunity to be free of worry presents itself, this is when choices become more difficult to choose because nothing is sweeter than adventure and thrill. The characters in “Would Our Two New Lives Include a Third” and “We Real Cool” are in similar situations when speaking of the thirst for adventure, but they handle things a lot differently due to the choices they made in the end.…
Isabella Valancy Crawford's narrative poem “Malcolm's Katie”, deals with wealth, the building of a nation and, most importantly, it deals with love as a conquering solution to address the major concerns of her country in the nineteenth century. Crawford’s cure for greed, nihilism, and the desirous exploitation of the “smooth-coated men” (II, 230) was love, which she deifies as capital L love. Personified love in the poem is embodied by Katie whose appearance, morals, and steadfastness is exemplary of the characteristics of love. Her “opponent” Alfred, the nihilist, doubts the existence of love, celebrates the sensual pleasures, and perhaps embodies the main concerns of late 19th century Canadians.…
This poem was chosen due to the power of the message that it possesses. To begin, the author Joshua Bennett, is from Yonkers, New York and attended the university of Pennsylvania to obtain a double major in English and Africana Studies. He is currently attending the University of Princeton in his third year of doctoral candidacy in the English department, he is studying Black Culture, Disability, and Ecocriticism. Joshua performs at events such as the NAACP Image awards, where he was nominated for an award, and the white house for previous President, Barak Obama. This poem is about Hip Hop and how the genre of music influences people, Bennett switches from talking about hip hop, to acting as the voice of Hip Hop saying, "I am".…
Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem old relative begins with a commentary on death, that is somewhat flustered into a morality poem. The poems morality contemplation is not an austere good or evil, but a just-unjust analysis of social institutions. Within the first lines, we are shown a gentleman who is not ‘dead’ until he is arranged for death. Demonstrating that the funeral as a conventionality eclipses the reality of life and convolutes man into a God assessing when one passes. One’s body is in limbo as it bathed and prepared, therefore casting doubt on the morality of funeral customs.…
Good morning/afternoon Mrs Vassilieff and fellow peers. In this short presentation I will be presenting three original poems concerning the social issue of racism. In the modern world racism is becoming more and more destructive. It disempowers people and destroys the cohesion in the community. I will be deconstructing the three poems using the STEPUP process and identifying and explaining the use of figurative techniques in each poem.…
In the poem,"Minerva Jones" by Edgar Lee Masters ,he writes about the sad life of an old crippled lady who was hated. I learned that this person is a writer of poetry and isn 't very pleasant looking from how Masters describes her. The person she speaks about in the poem are "Butch" Weldy and Doctor Meyers, who have different poems of their own as well. " Butch" Weldy is the one that hunts down Minerva (Goddess of Wisdom) and Doctor Meyers is the one that attempts to save her. The poet lets us know that small-town America is very judgmental because you can say that those who were wise were the ones being judged("hunts") by their appearance and their beliefs.…
Learning to Love America The journey and emotions that an immigrant must endure is something that no one can know unless you have experienced it. It may bring up feelings of joy, remorse, belonging, or isolation depending on the individuals experience. In Shirley Geok-Lin Lim’s poem “Learning to Love America,” she digs into these emotions of immigrating to a new country and the expectations that come with it.…
Corrie Lynn white poem, gravy depicts the speaker reminisce on the past events and how enjoyable they were. The poem is written with nostalgia provoked by the rummaging under the driver’s seat and the sudden thought of what the speaker was likely to find; one more quarter, a tampon, or a bottle of water. The rummaging under the seat triggers a flood of memory from when she met him, a strong hulk of a man who seduced her with lunch breaks of chicken salad on croissant. Back then, she thought that their encounter were just enjoying lunch and nothing more, however, the poem, without saying much, but the reminiscing is very graphic on how they spent time together, dining on plastic tables, taking a drive on Capital Boulevard, attending adult videos,…
The two translations of the poem “Some People Like Poetry”, written by Wislawa Szymborska, each create the tone of the poem differently through chosen diction, including the use of repetition and speaker versus the absence, resulting in a divide of both clear and opaque meaning of the analysis Szymborska tries to convey through the process of questioning. The poem “Some People Like Poetry” is focused around the theme of questioning: not only the idea of enjoying something, but the definition of poetry itself. Szymborska grapples with the idea of the unknown as she asks rhetorical questions reflected in both translations, “But what is poetry anyway? (trans.…
Poet for our time's commentary The headlines of Newspapers are those that catch our eye, and “grab attention”. The poem Poet for our Times by Carol Ann Duffy is one that explores, from the perspective of a newspaper headline writer, scandals and the normal aspects discussed in poetry. Referencing News headlines, the speaker, who is in a bar, provides the audience with social critics as well as the state of what art has become in 1980’s Britain.…
The speaker says “if we must die, O let us nobly die” (McKay 5). Using an iambic pentameter, imagery and ending it with a couplet is a way to emphasize the theme of honor and pride that he wants to portray to the reader. The speaker is a sort of leader, calling out to others to overcome the “common foe” and live and die with meaning and bravery, encouraging the audience to go forth and fight what is holding them back. During the Harlem Renaissance the death rates of African Americans greatly increased.…
Accepting others: A Choice Barbara Jordan once said with “ We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.” Accepting others is very important. For another person’s happiness, as in “Without Title” by Diane Glancy, the needs of the community, reflected in the story “What of this Goldfish, would you wish” by Etgar Keret and for the stepping forward of a nation, shown in “American Flag stands for Tolerance” by Ronald J. Allen. “Without Title” a poem by Diane Glancy, shows the effects of people not accepting people who are different. The author paints the picture of a Native American man, living without the important traditions of his people.…