The use of "evening" and "morning" may be held to limit "day" to the solar day; but the frequent parabolic use of natural phenomena may warrant the conclusion that each creative "day" was a period of time marked off by a beginning and ending. (Scofield’s Reference Notes)…
At first the purpose of the passage “Owls” by Mary Oliver is difficult to pinpoint. This is because Oliver begins with describing the penetrating fear of a “terrible” (33) great horned owl, and suddenly develops into a section discussing a desultory and trivial field of flowers. The mystifying comparison between the daunting fear of nature and its impeccable beauty is in fact Oliver’s purpose.…
The second part of the poem ‘Nightfall’ continues the story of the child forty years from ‘Barn owl’, where she had lost her innocence by shooting an owl and this had resulted in a heavy hearted guilt which was caused by her unknowing and stubborn actions. The poem represents death closing in on the father, and the limitations of time on their relationship that was never experienced before in her younger years. The father, who in the first poem is depicted as an “old no-sayer”, is now held in high esteem, he is admired and respected as an “old king”. The extended metaphor “Since there is no more to taste ripeness is plainly all. Father we pick our last fruits of the temporal.” Appeals to our senses and is now an aural metaphor, it illustrates the father’s life becoming fulfilled or ripe, it has come near to its end and the father and child will now spend or pick the last moments of the father’s life together. Over time her appreciation of her father has changed, this is shown through “Who can be what you were?” and “Old King, your marvellous journey’s done.” She has realised the valuable life her father has led and the great loss that will be felt after he is gone. The child, now a grown woman learns another lesson about death, it can be quiet and peaceful, and “Your night and day…
Frank O’Hara’s poem “A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island” is a fun account of the speaker’s encounter with the actual sun. This poem is not only fun, but a great comic pat on the back for both the speaker and even the reader. It’s nice to think that the Sun took time out of its busy schedule of waking up the earth’s inhabitants to give the speaker some words of encouragement and to let him know that his work is appreciated. The opening line, “The sun woke me up this morning loud / and clear,” (1) which was amusing because the sun usually signals the beginning of the day already, but this sun took it a step further and vocally woke the speaker. However the speaker reacted much more calmly that I would have. The sun would have been met with maniacal screams and running away faster than humanly possible.…
This seasonal change clearly excites Mrs. Millard since her life is previously obstructed by her marriage and now she can see herself is about to revive by taking control of her own life. Although one may normally associate sparrow as small or little, however, this may not be the case when sparrow clusters together. The “countless sparrow” are more powerful in making themselves loud enough to be heard when they are “twittering in the eaves”, which may signify Mrs. Millard self-assertion and her desire to withdrawn from living under her husband’s shadow. Similarly, Summer uses season to symbolizes different stages of human life: childhood, youth, maturity and death. The seasonal progress from summer to autumn. representing…
Mary Oliver shows both the beautiful and terrifying aspects of nature in “Owls”. She uses a variety of rhetorical questions to show her style throughout the entire passage; which gives us a better look at the complexity of nature.…
In the wee hours of the morning my life is the embodiment of a living, breathing dichotomy. Awakening with a wry little smile on my face, I knew I had dreamed of the river, big brown trout, and sweet 3wt bamboo rods. My body screams – “Where’s the coffee”, while my brain questions the sanity of getting up this early on a Saturday. Oblivious to the cacophony, the hairs on the back of my neck tingle. Betraying logic, they forewarn that this pre-dawn moment was the premonition of a great day ahead.…
Failure to adapt to environmental and societal time cues leads to misalignment of internal biological clocks. This ´dysentrainment´ comes with enhanced risk of errors and accidents, loss of productivity, and health risks such as increased propensity for cancer, depression, sleep disturbances, gastrointestinal, metabolic and cardiovascular disorders, decreased immune…
Nature captivates any human by its sheer beauty, however others may not see its beauty, rather its unnerving side. In "Owls," Mary Oliver conveys the complexity of her response to nature through the use of imagery, juxtaposition, and highly complex syntax. She is torn between her fear and her admiration and awe for the beauty of it.…
The diction in this poem is very interesting. Anne Sexton uses a lot of adjectives to describe the night and the objects that have to do with it. She uses the word “silent” to…
Jane chooses to sleep in the daytime so she can stay up all night and study the different patterns on the wallpaper that are revealed by the moonlight. Her illness allows Jane to see developing and changing patterns in the paper. “I don’t sleep much at night, for it is so interesting to watch developments; but I sleep a good deal in the daytime” (12). As Jane’s obsession with…
Owl was a very quiet, but lazy bird. He was very different from other birds though, and he was always treated unfairly just because of his appearance. He had a beak that curved in towards the bottom, a very wide body shape, big eyes, and a large rounded head. The only thing that made owl and the other birds alike was the way they lived. He ate just like them, bathed just like them, and slept just like them, but one day something strange happened. Millions of years ago, there was no darkness, only daylight. The birds still slept, but they slept in nothing but daylight. One day, Owl wasn't feeling himself anymore, he asked all the other birds if they noticed anything different about him and they all said no. Many hours later, all of the birds knew that it was midnight, and that it was time to go to sleep, so they did. All but Owl, he did not feel like he needed any sleep. He stayed up for a few hours and all of a sudden the sky above him turned into pure darkness. Owl was confused but scared at the same time, so he told all of the other birds to wake up, and they did. They thought and thought, but could not find out what had made the sky so dark. Soon after the darkness went away and daylight came, they found out that Owl had not slept from 12am-7am. Every night after that, Owl would not sleep, so the sky would remain dark throughout the whole night. Owl's lack of sleep is the reason why it's dark at night, and will forever remain that way until Owl decides to sleep at night again.…
Thesis: In Night, cognitive dissonance correlates with the theme, a loss of faith, by using words written by Elie Wiesel.…
Within the poem “In The Secular Night”, Margaret Atwood invokes a morose, and careless, and ultimately bitter character through a life of loneliness and isolation. Throughout the poem, the protagonist, seemingly a woman, seems to have a cloud of misery revolving around her, she feels “deserted” and - at “two-thirty” in the morning - feels herself start to relive a specific night of her adolescence in which she first felt lonely. The night she “lit a cigarette”, “cried for a while” and ultimately ended by “dancing, by [her]self.”…
“Let there be dark” is an article published by the Los Angeles TImes by Paul Bogard that speaks about the hazards of lighting up night skies. Bogard worries “we are rapidly losing nights natural darkness” and argues that not only does lack of natural darkness affects our worlds pollution but also our country’s economy as we waste “energy” and “dollar”. We are also slowly losing the capability of producing melatonin a key hormone in providing a healthy body. WIth the use of the three rhetorical figures, pathos, logos and ethos; Bogard was able to state to regular home owners and dwellers that we read to change our habits towards the nightś darkness and learn to embrace the beauty and uniqueness of it.…