Preview

Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941 Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
603 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941 Analysis
Matt Cingari
E 110
February 11, 2010

Sharon Olds’ “Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941” is a very sad and dreary poem. This is because Olds writes about the Battle of Leningrad, a 900-day siege of Leningrad during World War II, and the lifelessness that is going on afterwards. Olds’ word choice throughout the poem is very important to the meaning of this poem. The way that she writes about this battle paints a very clear picture in my mind of what she is describing. Many times thorough the poem, Olds compares life and death many times with different comparisons. Olds starts off the poem by saying: “That winter, the dead could not be buried.”’(1) This creates a sad tone for when the rest of the poem. She then talks about the atmosphere of the aftermath of the battle with words that help you create a very vivid picture in your head of what she is talking about. She says things like “the ground was frozen”(2), “sub-zero air”(5), “dark cloth” (6), and “their pale, gauze, tapered shapes”(9). To me, these descriptive words help me create a visual of what is written down because these words are sad and dark descriptive words. Olds also says: “So they were covered with something/ and taken on a child’s sled to the cemetery/ in the sub-zero air.”(3-5) When Olds says this it makes me think whether she put the word “child’s” in the poem on purpose. I think she put this in because a child’s sled is used in the winter to have fun; however, Olds says that they are using it as a way to transfer dead bodies to the cemetery. This is because she is comparing life and death by using a sled, which is supposed to be used for fun in the winter, as a transportation device of corpses. When Olds says “stiff as cocoons that will be split down the center/ when the new life inside is prepared;”(10-11) Again, Olds is comparing life and death by comparing the stiff corpses to cocoons. The ambiguity in this comparison is that the poem says that the cocoon will split down the center

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    "The Cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors. It cast its eyes upon the roads, which were growing from long troughs of liquid mud to proper thoroughfares. A river, amber-tinted in the shadow of its banks, purled at the army’s feet; and at night, when the stream hand become of sorrowful blackness, one could see across it the red , eyelike gleam of hostile campfires set in the low brows of distant hills.”…

    • 1091 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The beginning of the poem starts out very depressing, the soldier talks as if they are old men on their death beds. ""Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge"(2), this line implies how miserable the soldier 's are, their sick, weak, and enduring unbearable conditions. They are walking toward their camp, which the poem tells us is quite a distance away. But they are so tired they are sleeping as they walk toward the camp. These men don 't even have sufficient clothing, some have lost their boots and most are covered in blood. "Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots / Of tried, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind"(6-7). This line tells us that these men are so exhausted they have become numb to the war and blood-shed around them. The soldier 's have become numb to the 5.9 inch caliber shells flying by their heads, the bombs bursting behind them, and their fallen comrades body 's lying next to them.…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    We choose the reading prompts, A Jewish Cemetery Near Leningrad written by Josef Brodsky, and Bitburg written by Elie Wiesel. Both writings are similar in many ways despite being written by different authors. One is a poem, the other a speech, but they both express the emotional rollercoasters the Jews went through during the Holocaust. Not only are they both similar, but they’re also similar to the book, Night, written by Elie Wiesel.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    'The convoys of dead sailors come' imply a repetitiveness and routine in the deaths, where he has dehumanizing them through the blunt language. 'The breath of wet season has washed their inscriptions/As blue as browned men's lips,'. Through his descriptive language and simile, he has illustrated the soldiers washed away, and that their tombstones have no writing on them anymore, making them anonymous. 'Whether as enemies they fought,/Or fought with us, or neither; the sand joins them together,' demonstrates that the men buried in the sands are not only anonymous but are 'joined together' by the sand, whether they were friends or foes. '"Unknown seaman" - the ghostly pencil wavers and fades' gives anonymity, and the word 'ghostly' echoes the deaths. It shows that the pencil is indelible, and that although their bodies will decay, they won't be forgotten because they shall live on through the…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In complete contrast with the reality of the poem’s setting, the touch of snow is equated with an image of lying under a blossom-laden tree in England. The home fires contain glowing coals described as ‘crusted dark-red jewels’, this actually signifies a dying fire, a symbol of people’s waning interest in the fate of the exposed soldiers. That the ‘doors are all closed: on us’ is also symbolic, representing the total loss of the memory of the men and that…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For example, the lines “there are zepplins helicopters, rockets, bombs bettering rams armies with trumpets whose all at once blast shatters the foundations” give strong mental images of war, destruction and death. This also is another large detail that may signal the reader to realize that this poem is taking place during a war. Internment and concentration camps occurred historically during major wars. Also, “wailing prayers to utter special codes to tap birds to carry messages taped to their feet” gives images of people praying and of a bird with a paper message tied to its feet. This is another historical clue as during the war as this was a way of communicating. The lines “a voice cries faint as in a dream from the belly of the wall” gives the mental picture of being in a kind of dream-like state where you can hear a faint voice but can’t see anything…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To begin with, Thomas writes in rhyming couplets which create an on-going effect of the individuals story also reflecting the oral tradition of the English countryside. He also writes in narrative lyric which gives this poem a song like undercurrent carrying the story fluidly and seamlessly. AOMWN is a narrative poem with an irregular rhyme scheme, Frost here reflects the conflict between man and nature as death approaches. Even though the poem is irregular in rhyme, frost makes use of internal rhyme such as assonance and alliteration which may illustrate how the character feels comfortable inside but has a fear of the natural environment, feeling almost as if it is against him.…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the first stanza, the poet uses phrases that remind readers of sorrow caused by names of those who have passed on. As the author begins to list one name per each letter of the alphabet, he paints a picture of a dreary morning following a rainy night. He describes flowers whichare “heavy with dew like the eyes of tears,” equating the morning dew to the tears of those mourning the loss of a father or brother or maybe husband. He goes on to say that each tear had a name, meaning that it was not just one lost in war. Stars are also used in a comparison to show how numerous the list of people who were taken is. Although the words are used in their literal sense, many of these words actually seem to give the reader a vivid and clear image of what the poet is describing.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thousands of headstones in the far distance create magnificent mazes against the horizon. The immense land has very little room to spare as it is overflowing with graves of heroic soldiers. The white marble graves are like oversized dominos stacked precisely in the thick wind ruffled grass. It is almost inconceivable to imagine each tomb is the physical eternal home to a once courageous and patriotic warrior…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On January 3rd, 1857 an article was printed in the Harper’s Weekly newspaper. The article, ‘Do We Bury Alive’, addresses the very real threat of premature internment during this time. The author tells many stories of people being buried alive in different ways to let the readers know that it is an ongoing problem that is more common than they may think. Then, after expressing to the readers the gravity of the situation, the author writes about the apparatus the he encountered in Germany that was made to prevent this ghastly fate, and his hopes to implement the system in America. The first example of premature burial the author gives is one where the victim is unconscious at the time of entombment.…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To give this poem empathy Wright says “And while I stood my mind was frozen within cold pity for the life that was gone. The ground gripped my feet and my heart was circled by the icy walls of fear.” This creates a feeling of deep empathy because he then goes into detail about how he can feel the dark cold bones melting themselves into the speaker’s bones, and the gray ashes that formed black flesh and merged with his flesh. It is as if he is sharing the feeling with the body he found at the base of the tree when he said “Now I am dry bones and my face a stony skull staring in yellow surprise at the sun.”…

    • 410 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This poem is about the World War Ⅱ especially in Leningard(1941.09.08~1944.01.18) in winter of 1941. Leningrad which is now St. Petersburg is once former capital of Russia and Russian Revolution so it was strategically important place for Hitler to have war with. German army siege this city almost 900 days and over 650,000 people are dead from this war because of starvation, exposure, disease and so on. However, Leningrad did not surrender against the enemy and bear all hardships and difficulties, later called 'city of hero'. How extremely difficult and severe situation it was in World war Ⅱ is depicted in this poem.…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pathetic fallacy is used, and is described when Raleigh says ‘it’s so frightfully dark and cold’. This makes the atmosphere seem grim and unforgiving. Additionally, this very much contrasts the beginning of the play, where outside of the trenches where the cold war was, was juxtaposed with the inner warmth of the trenches; but in this case, the trenches are described as ‘dark’ and ‘cold’, much like the war. This shows that now wherever they go, they are amongst death, and will quickly meet their fate. Also, the plosive alliteration used in the words ‘dark’ and ‘cold’ which brings an explosive tone, relating to gun fire. This reinforces an anxious atmosphere because they are approaching their death faster and faster.…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Cemetery History

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Have you ever stop to think about the history of a cemetery you’ve once passed? The curiosity, could be so overwhelming to a person. Cemeteries, have a historical value behind each and every single tombstone. Cemeteries, also contain a sentimental value to the family of the deceased. Behind each and every cemetery their contains history we wouldn't have ever known. History, remains behind the names of the people who have died. As well as, why their bodies were buried in that particular cemetery? Therefore, there are many reasons why people who first started a certain cemetery chose that particular ground. For every tombstone there is, massive information is underground waiting to be acknowledged. So many questions running through ones mind…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    He used four senses to achieve this: visual, aural, tactile and gustatory. The verse that reads, ‘Til on the haunting flares we turned out backs" really brings out the aural imagery it gives. Words such as "Sludge" from the second verse, first stanza, make it almost possible to feel the ‘sludgy' touch and phrases such as "yelling out" and "coughing like hags" give the audience aural images of someone desperately shouting to save others lives from gas, and people coughing severely. The imagery of gustatory can be found from "coughing like hags" in the first stanza and "GAS! Gas!" in the second stanza. Though gas can not be smelled, the fumes from the flames can be predicted to be smelled. We know this because it the soldiers are coughing because of the burning of the shells and fumes coming out from it. Personification was used at the part when it's said "disappointed shells" in the first stanza, last verse. It is more of an effective way of describing how the soldiers were close of being blown up by the thrown shells. Simile plays a good part in the first and the second verse of the opening stanza where it is used as "like old beggars" and "couching like hangs". It is another effective way of using metonymy. By comparing the young soldiers to old hags and poor beggars, the horrible situation at the trenches was well described and exaggerated. Metaphor is something that should…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays