Rita Dove

Since times have changed and this generation is vastly different than the last, the American dream has entirely become something different. The American dream was at one point something that immigrants and even those native to the United States pictured as being a life that with hard work would become easier and one that would become comfortable. A life that they thought would mean wealth based solely on hard work and dedication and that is a perspective that has since changed completely. In…

The American dream is a debatable proposition that can be deciphered in many different manners, today people realize that it is just a matter of accepting the fact that there is not just one ‘American Dream.’ Some people have hopes of becoming rich, while some have dreams to be given more opportunities, others have dreams to become someone famous, and have a perfect reputation. These examples pinpoint that there is not just one ‘American Dream’. Everyone has dreams, but not all are the same.…

The city of Iowa City has become legendary for their creative writing and literary works. The University of Iowa has contributed to this legacy and made it world renowned; their unrivaled approach to language, writing and literature has solidified it 's spot at the top among schools. Iowa City has always placed an emphasis on creative writing and literature. In fact, writinguniversity.org has gone so far as to say that, "For 80 years, Iowa City has been teaching the world to write." It is true,…

to what you can build, and what can happen to you and your family”(BrainyQuote, 2). Then there are the realists, the people that see the facts in the situation and rely on those facts to form their opinions. Those people often have opinions like Rita Dove, who once said “The American Dream is…

“Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.”- Rita Dove. The art of poetry shows to be a powerful way to convey a message, emotion, or story, and the artistic elements involved depict the characteristics of the poet. Poems come in different sizes and shape each having its own distinct features. Haikus, sonnets and odes are few examples of the different types of poems and their unique style of expressing their themes. Haikus are most notable for being sweet and short, hence…

Similar to how the father may feel in “My Father Sits in the Dark,” Rita Dove explains in “Daystar” how sitting and doing nothing can be relaxing and a great way to think clearly and without distraction. “Daystar” reveals this by mentioning how the mother sits alone thinking for her own pleasure as long as she can in order to get away from her busy life. The first two stanzas of the poem show that the mother has diapers on the line and that there is a doll laying out in the house, though the…

“jive” (3). There is also a unique use of metaphor and simile (Hurston 295). Cortez, for example, speaks of the “salty dust devil winds/spitting in to silver helmets/through shit splattered wings” and likens a dream to a nail (Rampersad 3). Rita Dove in “Nexus” depicts a praying mantis outside the window as having a “monkey wrench head,” “pale eyes,” and “ragged jaws” as well as being “absurdly green” (4). Jackson speaks of the “pimped belch of Detroit” (14). Steptoe portrays “trees…

defeated the dictator Fulgencio Batista and as such was perceived to be the hero of Cuba (Rita J. Markel 74). His greatest strength was that he was a great orator which allowed him to further enchant his own reputation (76). Castro played on the Cuban people 's Christian beliefs by telling them his journey started with only 12 followers (76). His mystic was further enhanced when on January 8, 1959 some doves landed on his shoulder when he was giving a speech (Philip Brenner 29). Castro and…

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