Native Speaker

speaker's life. The speaker states that before their death, the room was so unbearably silent that the only noise heard was the sound of a fly buzzing, “I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - / The Stillness in the Room / Was like the Stillness in the Air - / Between the Heaves of Storm - /.” The reader can then conclude that the speaker was in a room with loved ones who had cried until they couldn’t anymore, “The Eyes around - had wrung them dry - / And Breaths were gathering firm /.” The speaker…

This is apparent in Humanimal by Bhanu Kapil, in which the speaker’s experience in India focuses on the citizens of India, and their obsession with her ethnicity. At one moment in the collection, the speaker is persistently asked by a police escort, “Are you Indian?... Madam, are you France? Are you American? I think you are born in a different country” (Kapil 18). The question of ethnicity is reiterated several times because people find it important…

In life, the greatest struggles are what motivates people the most. Despite the violence and discrimination that the speakers faced, they were able to find a moment of understanding within their lives. These two poems work together to help describe that no matter the hardships people face, people can still succeed. Within the poem, “I Go Back to May 1937”, the speaker goes back to the time when her parents were in college. She begins by describing what she sees, her father walking out from…

There are many things that can make up a person. From their age, nationality, gender, personality, and personal beliefs, everyone is different in some way. In the poem, “The Secretary Chant,” written by Marge Piercy, the speaker is slowly being dehumanized as each of her body parts are referred to common office supplies. In 1970, the time that the poem was written, Marge Piercy was a secretary who worked long shifts and was constantly mistreated for the fact that she had the jo Piercy’s use of…

In "words are birds" Francisco X. Alarcón uses many metaphors comparing words to birds to suggest that words, although many and vastly different, all fall under one category and unite us all. The poem begins by giving the reader an overview of how words and birds are related: "words / are birds / that arrive / with books / and spring" (1-5). The correlation between words and books is obvious, as they are often put together, but the author is comparing words to spring as well to show that we use…

This poem describes how when he goes to sleep, the speaker begins a “war” and he also begins to have nightmares. All “visions of light” begin to disappear, this could be all the things that make him feel safe begin to go away when he goes to sleep. He also states that he is “shribling with fear” meaning that these nightmares that he has are truly terrifying. He continues to state that no one will hear him scream meaning no one will come help him. He also says that god is near but “the devil is…

In his poem, “Richard Cory” Edwin uses irony to show how we are to a man like him. Maintaining the idea that this man had everything going for him and was a well to do man. From the outside, the men working saw this man everyday, gazing at what a man should look like. Charles Burkhart gives criticism that show his contrast and his own ideas and claims about the man. In Richard Cory, author’s creates irony by using imagery, diction, and contrast to show the true description of the man and…

"I, I, I received blows on my face and my body! All of those deaths! The long procession to the cemetery! Dad! And mom! And the terrible spectacle of Margaret! I was so swollen that could not lay her in the coffin! we had to burn it as if it were trash! you just came back in time for the funeral. And funerals are beautiful compared to the deaths. they are silent, but deaths are not always so. sometimes your breathing is hoarse, sometimes tartajosa, sometimes they shout to one: Do not let me go…

1. At times in this essay, Michelle Cliff uses rich description with poetic language. Provide 3 different quotes, where, in your opinion, she demonstrates this. Examine their overall effect on the reader. Numerous times throughout the essay, Michelle Cliff uses imagery described with poetic language in her essay, for example: “I remember when I saw San Quentin by night. A wrong turn on the way to the Pacific Ocean, and then the lit-up Oz, but yellow, not green like the Emerald City”, “I drive on…

Birdbath” by Gail Kredenser Mack, a speaker, presumably a woman is watching and observing a cardinal that is in a birdbath. However, beyond the literal cardinal watching, is a speaker who has significantly changed her view on life, especially towards her job, and has realized how another person, in the case a cardinal, has affected her, all because of something simple such as a cardinal playing in a birdbath. Mack employs diction and imagery to convey how the speaker taking a respite from her…