Fireside Poets

Donne declares love a quick draw, a tyrant and a powerful master that can turn even the strongest hearts to glass. In the first stanza, the speaker compares love to the plague and to a powder blast using metaphor and hyperbole. He states: “Who will believe me, if I swear/ That I have had the plague a year?/ Who would not laugh at me, if I should say/ I saw a flash of powder burn a day?” He extends the metaphor to love saying that no one could possibly be in love for an hour, because love can…

Two poets describe the American plight and experience of the 19th and early 20th century in more detail and emotion than any other poets – Walt Whitman and Carl Sandburg. From two different generations, the younger writer’s content and style is very much an extension of his elder, Whitman. Both write, in a very casual style, about the suffering of the common man that they saw firsthand; Whitman’s “I Sit and Look Out” and Sandburg’s “Chicago” provide great examples of their observations of the…

Milestone Two The two poems being used for this assignment are Sylvia Plath’s “mad girls love song” and Nikki Giovanni’s “balance.” Mad girls love song is about a girl that feels like the man she fell in love with isn’t real, but just something she created in her own head because he suddenly disappeared and never returned. Balance is about the balance of black and white, truth and lies, love and loneliness. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the linguistic principles demonstrated in each of…

Bambara does not explain what kind of neighborhood this is but the reader is able to get an image of it through the language. "And the starch in my pinafore scratching the shit outta me and I'm really hating this nappy-headed bitch and her goddamn college degree" (Bambara 136). This sentence gives the image that this is a poor, low class neighborhood. The reader is able to identify that this is not a high-class place, but one possibly in the slums. The language is symbolic because it represents…

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. In this essay I will compare and contrast the two poems by presenting different examples. Titles can say a lot about a…

Samuel Coleridge used figurative language and unorthodox verse structure to describe the tragic, lesson-filled past of a sailor and portray literary elements of Romanticism and its ideals. By using a non-traditional approach to verse structure, it shows Coleridge's choice to not compromise the meaning and thought process of each stanza by following a set pattern. This demonstrates the versatility and story-like dynamic of the poem making it all the more captivating to the reader. Through his use…

Metaphor and Symbolism in Langston Hughes’s My People My people is one of Langston Hughes’ poems which is about working class black African American people. In this poem, he compared the beauty of nature to the beauty of his people. My people is a very short poem, built in three stanzas which consist of two lines in each stanza. This poem was written in simple language, therefore, the readers can easily understand what he is trying to convey. I believe, beneath its simple words, this poem…

In our world, there is a common misconception that everything is possible in the United States. For example, people often image a life with a spouse, home, and white picket fence. However, in reality, there is a huge difference between this common misconception that everyone can achieve this picture-perfect life and what life often entails for many. In fact, Gwendolyn Brooks’ “Kitchenette Building,” Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again,” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” all…

A Feminist Perspective of Metaphysical Conceit, Action, and Defense of a Woman’s Virtue in John Donne’s Song In his poem Song, John Donne uses metaphysical conceits, persuades his readers, and defends his negative view a woman’s virtue. A woman’s virtue is proven her moral standards in society. Song was written during the Renaissance era, a time in which men used Petrarchan values to place emphasis on their appreciation of women. John Donne’s poem rejects the Petrarchan ideology, and forces…

Being an editor for my publication Unnamed Trademarked Patent Pending has its up and its downs but writing an anthology for Gwendolyn Brookes, Sherman Alexie, Lucille Clifton, Sylvia Plath and Gary Soto was eye opening. These are some of the best poets that I have had the opportunity to read and appreciate in my lifetime. The diversity among the bunch was very fulfilling, from poetry about racial tension, native American culture, women empowerment, depression to young love. Initially the poems…