Stanford and University of California alumni Sandra Lim reads from The Wilderness on April 7, 2015, at Prairie Lights. As an alumna from the International Writing Program Lim was making her return back to Iowa City after 11 years. In The Wilderness Lim reads a collection of poems about love, spring and one poem that caught my attention was about the individual struggle of one's body within one’s mind. The poems are open to many interpretations but that is the way that I chose to interpret that poetry in particular. The interesting thing about Lim’s poem is how describes the body parts in some of her poems. It is very vague. It almost makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable but at the same time, I really like her style. The way she describes…
The poem “How I Discovered Poetry” by Marilyn Nelson presents the theme of finding an interest or passion for something. Also another theme that can be wrapped around this poem is the power of words. The speaker is Nelson who is in the classroom while her teacher, Mrs. Purdy is reading from her desk. Mrs. Purdy becomes one of the main influence of her finding her passion for poetry. Mrs. Purdy seems to be a very genuine and loving teacher who cares about her students. This is shown when she brings in a poem specifically for the speaker and asks the speaker to read it in front of her classmates. The speaker also seemed to be different than her classmates in a way where she is more attentive and studious than them. This is portrayed when the…
Just as poetry is a permanent mark of feelings that last forever on paper, tattoos are permanent symbols that last forever on the skin. Tattoos and poetry can easily be combined such as in Kim Addonizio’s sonnet, “First Poem for You,” the speaker admires her partner’s nature themed tattoos in a darkened room. This may seem to be a simple poem, but by utilizing tattoos as symbols, including tactile and visual imagery in her poem, and using the sonnet as her structure, Addonizio laments about the true meaning of relationships and their longevity.…
The first lines of both of these stories talk about theme death. Since the authors being with a funeral moment at the beginning of the story, this is an anticipation of the rest of the story to follow the tone. The setting of both these stories take place in a small town. They are different in the way one is in the south and the…
Shutting our Doors and Disappointing Franklin Roosevelt “The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants — everywhere in the world” (The Four Freedoms). These words rang clear on January 6th, 1941. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his State of The Union Address, when at the time, war was raging across Europe and Asia.…
Think about the major Puritan beliefs as you re-read this poem. What philosophical beliefs about God and the purpose of human life are reflected in Bradstreet’s poem?…
“Dying is an art, like everything. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call” – Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts on October 27th, 1932 and died in London, United Kingdom on February 11th, 1963 at the age of 31 years old. Sylvia is well known for her astonishing poem such as “The Bell Jar” and “Daddy”. Her parents were Aurelia Schober, who was a student at Boston University and Otto Plath, who happened to be Aurelia Schober’s professor at the time (Academy of American Poets). “In 1940, when Plath was eight years old, her father died as a result of complications from diabetes. He had been a strict father, and both his authoritarian attitudes and his death drastically defined her relationships and her poems—most notably in her elegiac and infamous poem "Daddy."” (Academy of American Poets).…
Tattoos are permanent symbols that last forever, while relationships can’t be guaranteed permanent now a days. Kim Addonizio chooses tattoos as a symbol in this poem “First poem for you.” Water and lightning is what makes the poem most symbolistic. “Lines of lightning pulsing just above your nipple can find as if by instinct the blue swirls of water on your shoulder where a serpent twists facing a dragon.” Though symbols can have more than one meaning to them the poem helps to point of the specific meaning of these symbols.…
The song " Just a Girl" by No Doubt shows the stereotypes, oppressions and standards that women are subjected to in our society. The author feels oppressed because she is "...just a girl" and because of that the author thinks that" ...I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite So don't let me have any rights". The oppression makes the author feel lesser than a man even though she is aware that she doesn't need a man she feels that "This world is forcing me to hold your hand" .The author's decision to include these lines also help show the stereotypes that women are all expected to be small and weak and always need a men to help them become something.…
In this performance she sings of a life with no material possessions, no family, and no love. The song starts out somber and it makes me feel sad and I wonder if I picked the right song to write this paper on. I feel myself relating to her woes, even though I have everything I need in life. I pay close attention to the people in the audience and notice that all of them are fixated on Ms. Simone. They know they are in the presence of an amazing performance and are hanging off of every word that is coming out of her mouth. I also notice the pain in her face and in her voice. She is literally putting all of her being behind every word and making the audience feel those emotions with her. As time goes by she moves on from singing about all that she doesn’t have to all that she does, which is her body and mind. The tempo changes and becomes more lively and joyous. I find myself bursting with happiness because these lyrics are making me feel grateful for being healthy and able bodied. Ms. Simone sings of having her nose, arms, legs, mouth, brain, liver, and life. She makes the listener become grateful for the little things in life. I can tell the audience is happy with the change in lyrics as well and I feel that the audience wants to get up and dance with joy. Towards the end of the song Ms. Simone is smiling, which causes me to smile as well.…
When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the story “The Great Gatsby”, he never would have thought that it would generate such a debate over whether it is a love story, or a story on the failure of the American dream. Critics on both sides of the debate use specific quotes from the story to argue their points. My stance of the story is that it is a love story. The quote that can be used to argue that it is a love story is this, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay”, (83; ch.4).…
In the epitaph "Minerva Jones" by Edgar Lee Masters I learned that she was looked at as a person with a "heavy body, cock-eye, and rolling walk" and that she was the village poetess. The people this poetess speaks about are as she refers to as "Yahoos of the street" these were the people who would hoot and jeer at her as she walked by because of her looks. She also says that someone named Butch Weldy captured her after a brutal hunt and that she "sank into death, growing numb from the feet up" she is now pregnant by Butch. This lets us know how the poet's view on small-town America because not only does that seem bad that in the epitaph the girl is "captured" she is thirsty for love and hungry for life which means she isn't loved nor does she…
What is motherhood? Being caring and having patience are the main two components that make a good mother. In the poems “Daystar by Rita Dove and “To a Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Pastan both of the mothers are going through different stages of motherhood. In both poems we see the similarities that both poems have and we also see the differences. Dove and Pastan show us an early stage of mother and a late stage of motherhood. Although they are different stages of motherhood, they are both tough stages to go through.…
“Slaveship,” by Lucille Clifton, is a free verse poem from the perspective of slaves that the white men capture and trade in the slave trade, forcing them to travel on the Middle Passage. Ironically, the ships bear the names of religious symbols and figures such as Jesus, Angel of God, and Grace of God (lines 14-15) even though the act of slavery is one of the most sinful systems in the eyes of these slaves and in the eyes of all decent human beings.…
Such a historical poem by an anonymous writer is that of “We the First People”: a poem that illustrates the sad reality the Native Americans have faced. This Native American poem displays their dwindling culture, for the author states on line 7 and 8, “Stories of how life used to be, bring a rueful smile. Drums and flutes will find me dreaming all the while”. The Indian culture used to be spread immensely across America until the foreigners ravaged their home, as well as their way of life. In an effort to “civilize” the natives, they were torn apart from their families and forced to journey the death march that was the “Trail of Tears”. A bitter tone emphasizes the difference between the two cultures,…