Preview

Poem Explication: Making a Fist by Naomi Shihab Nye

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
294 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Poem Explication: Making a Fist by Naomi Shihab Nye
Making A Fist By: Naomi Shihab Nye The title contributes, to us readers as it shows, that we are alive and strong as long as we can still make a fist. The person speaking in this poem is speaking to her daughter after a long car ride of days and days, maybe even weeks. Her mother is giving her comfort and reassuring her that even though people go through obstacles, you need to be strong enough to go through many aspects in life to bring happiness. And just tells her if you can still make a fist you are still alive. You will make it through because she believes her daughter has the strength to get through all the obstacles they have and will go through. This poem is very easy to understand, I think she did very well with her words and references of the content. I believe this story develops as a true statement, I think the lady speaking with her daughter has gone through similar obstacles as a child and her mother reassured her as she does for her daughter. It is always important to tell your children that they are strong and can make it through anything and that’s all she is trying to do. Many people face difficult times in life and that’s why it sounds so much like a true statement then just a story. Strength is very important to have and is always nice to have someone’s reassurance. Main idea of this poem is Strength. To never give up, and you are strong enough to get through anything even at rock bottom. The figurative language is symbolism the writer is giving her worlds to create the image using more meaningful words rather than a writers

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    This poem really resonated with me because I felt like it can be applicable to my own life. Not exactly in the same way of dying through childbirth, but through the love, honor, and sacrifice that she expresses through this poem.…

    • 557 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Overall while I was reading, this poem made me feel happy. I liked that I could read what the poet learned from their family and compare it to what I have learned from my family.…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Upon reading the poem, imagery can be found throughout the entire poem. For example, in the first two lines you can imagine a doll being put away like a dead child in a chest, you cannot bring a dead child back to life. This is the burial of her childhood only to keep her memories and carry them with her for the rest of her life. Also, the second to last line where she is “wound,” twisted, “like the guts of a clock,” referring to her stomach. She feels a sense of anxiety here. This is her final emotion to conclude the poem. She fears growing up because of the responsibilities she will have to take on, the shame she felt when her period started, will…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I feel this poem has impressionistic, decorative, and picturesque imagery. To allow you to visualize what’s going on and experience the emotions being expressed. Symbols were used to help add to the picture. One would be the bird that has a broken wing and moving in circles showed that everyone is capable of getting hurt. Another symbol is the goat’s bones, symbolizing that danger is always present in our lives. Birney used alliteration to flow from one word to another. An example of this would be “seracs that shore”. Similies were used to create an intense picture.”An overhang crooked like a talon” reveal’s the power and threat a mountain gives off. The metaphorical image: “... mountain... were made to see over, / Stairs to the valleys and steps to the sun’s retreats” relates to life. Mountains are the barriers to life in which you must overcome. The stairs resemble the chance to overcome the barrier. The sun setting shows missed opportunity.…

    • 375 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston follows the life of the beautiful, fair-skinned Janie Mae Crawford. The book’s main action comes from Janie’s quest to find all-encompassing true love. The book starts as Janie returns home to Eatonville after several years away. Her best friend, Phoeby Watson brings Janie food as an excuse to catch up. The events after this are in chronological order of Janie’s life as she recounts it to Phoeby.…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First of all it is clear that the mother and daughters relationship is a little unstable. It is clear that the two did not always see things the same way in the line “they clawed their womanhoods out of each other” (line 3). The poem also suggests that…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Figurative language is used in the meanings of words are not literal and literary devices are appropriate to literature rather than everyday speech or writing. This poem is one of those poems that catches your eye, and so…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poem Analisys

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    There is a lot to gain from this poem. It teaches people that they can have a great life even though it is rough during their childhood. If he can survive dealing with his parents going through a divorce and then his mom passing away at a young age, then anyone can. It is tough for the boy. But at the end of the poem, he expresses that he is happily riding his bicycle with no worries in life.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The White Porch

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Throughout the poem Song uses various ways of figurative speech. Similes and metaphors are used multiple times describing the strength and looks of her hair. A metaphor used…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Elizabeth Blackwell

    • 3035 Words
    • 13 Pages

    We define moral courage as the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, or discouragement. When we say a person has moral courage, we speak of things like ethics, good and evil, right and wrong. This is the kind of person who does bold things. They do these things not because they are trying to make a name for themselves or impress their peers, but because it is the right thing to do. A person with moral courage stands up in the face of adversity.…

    • 3035 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pass/Fail

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages

    pretty easy to understand but it also has deep meaning. This poem can be seen as representing…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story, written in the form of a letter, shows the process of a thirteen-year-old girl becoming more mature as she expresses her grievances from her tragic childhood. At the beginning of the story, she described both the emotional and physical difficulties her family suffered through because of the absence of her father. She felt lonely, insecure and confused as she hoped that her father would come back. “Sometimes I had bad dreams. I would dream the welfare took us away and no one missed us, not even mommy. Daddy where were you?” (Page 163) At the end of the letter, however, the girl started to understand that her view of the world before was unbalanced and incomplete, “through a thin veil full of small holes”. (Page 165) She felt more released and started to notice “the greatness of the world”. (Page 165) She began to treasure all the memories she had with her family instead of thinking about her misery all the time, “we carried on living.” (Page 165) There was a great transition of her character from the beginning to the end of the letter.…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The are two instances in the poem in which figurative language is used. The first instance is found in the fourth stanza, which says “The word hand floats above your hand like a small cloud over a lake.” This line is describing how life is cyclical and continuous, and this represents the interdependence for one’s existence,…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I chose this poem because of personal experience. It brings back memories of my brother who passed away from Cancer. He was an amazing person, always full of life. His death brought back many memories of our child hood, the laughs the humor. I think back to us running around as kids, summer breaks, Christmas, and all the best times of our lives. He’s sense of humor was one of a kind, he was indeed the star on the stage and us his audience. These are moments in life that could never be replaced. Often I would lose myself in thought, and wonder who would help fill his shoes. Just as he came he was gone, as if he never existed. Everything that he worked for or lived for was gone. Over time you look for ways to bring joy back into your life, to turn the pain into happiness. I remember my sister coming home with a puppy a couple months later. The puppy helped for a while but in the end the house was the same. It didn’t change the fact that he was gone nor did the puppy replace him.…

    • 745 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    My Favourite Poem

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This is my favourite poem as it describes hope by using a powerful array of metaphors to enhance its effect. While it is true that many people all over the world live in extremely challenging and life threatening situations, leading hard lives in appalling conditions. What keeps people going in such circumstances is the glimmer of hope that things can change. This is one thought that came to mind when first reading the poem and this is what attracted me to it and as it relates to any hopeless situations it really does apply to all aspects of life.…

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays