The structure in the poem illustrates the freedom of youth and playfulness. The poem is written in free verse to emphasize the significance of her as being free as she fantasizes about being unstoppable and not being ordinary. In lines 23 and 24, the enjambments are crucial to the whole liberal tone of the poem. Through the rhetorical question, “[c]an it be there was only one summer that I was ten?”…
Through a critical study of Gwen Harwood’s poetry, the responder’s personal response has a significant effect on their judgement towards her poetry. In The Sharpness of Death, Harwood explores the inexplicable link between life and death, as well as the value of memories in response to the inevitable passing of time. Similarly in At Mornington, Harwood accentuates the value of appreciating life to overpower death and the importance of memories to lessen the effects of time passing. These aspects, which reoccur throughout Harwood’s poetry are universal, timeless, and prevalent to human existence and society. As a result, Harwood’s poetry has been able to endure varying contexts and continue to captive and create meaning for readers. The varying interpretations of Harwood’s work influence the judgement of responders to both the individual poems, and Harwood’s poetry as a whole.…
The poem demonstrates tone well using her emotions and feeling toward turning fifteen. This author takes her own experience and puts it into the poem. She describes the time she turned fifteen and how it made her felt. Cofer’s figure of speech is obvious showing the readers that she does not want to grow up. As she is transitioning into womanhood she seems to struggle with the idea of being a woman who wears satin slips and not the innocent girl who plays with doll. With adulthood comes more responsibilities and she herself must take on household tasks such as washing her own clothing and sheets. This will prepare her for marriage. She undergoes so many bodily transformations, practically overnight, that make her feel uncomfortable. Her menstrual cycle starts, which she feels is shameful. She is growing out of her innocence into a woman and dolls are no longer a choice in the path she must follow. All of which is overwhelming for her to take in, she just wants the anxiety of growing up to pass.…
One thing that Robert Gray has mastered is leaving no detail big or small out. Flames and Dangling Wires is a poem that effectively conveys the effects of the human’s materialistic demands on the world. Robert Gray shows what life will inevitably be if our actions and attitudes do not change through the somewhat disturbing images that he renders…
Throughout the poem it is evident that persona is discontent with her lifestyle. The paratactic form of the poem, consisting of enjambment, ‘a small balloon…but for the grace of God’, and hyphens ‘passes by-too late’ reflects her disjointedness with her current lifestyle. The masculine rhyme in the first two stanzas emphasise the repetitive cycle of her monotonous existence. This shows her sheer desperation to communicate her unhappiness. Her children are able to ‘whine and bicker’ however, she is forever silenced, and this constant frustration leads her to talk to the wind ‘ to the wind she says, they have eaten me alive’. When Harwood refers to the wind, she uses the particular image to allude to the human experience of loneliness and frustration, as the mother feels like she has nobody else to turn to. Harwood’s choice of words is monosyllabic ‘they have eaten me alive’ suggesting a sense of weariness and despair throughout the poem, in turn adding effect for the reader. The children ‘Draw(s) aimless patterns in the dirt’ metaphorically emphasizes her disorientation and lack of direction. When Harwood describes the persona as ‘sit(ing) in the park’ she is using the particular image to figuratively emphasise her lack of energy and enthusiasm even in the midst of the energy radiating from the children surrounding her. She is portrayed as lifeless, static and ignored. Her clothes ‘out of date’, creates a particular image, which suggests her loss of identity and self-indulgence. ‘Nursing the youngest child’ reflects her inclined responsibility, which further underscores her need to care for others and therefore forget about herself. ‘Someone she loved once’ symbolizes the love, romance, and the life she once lived. The irony that she is ‘rehearsing the children’s name and birthdays’ is effective, as birthdays should be a…
There are many memories that may come to mind when the word adolescence is spoken. Some people recall times of enjoyable, innocent adventures, but for others the phrase “teenage years” holds horrific memories. For a section of the populace their “teen experiences” may be the most appalling time period, as they begin to undergo many changes. This concept of dark adolescence is present, not only in the real world, but in the literary world as well. For example, in the novel A Separate Peace where a friendship turned in the wrong direction and a deadly war, mark the moments of growing up. While some readers believe that Phineas (Finny) and Gene’s separate peace shows the innocence of youthful occurrences; a closer inquiry demonstrates that through mental illness and death , adolescence is a time of terror, thus showing a theme of the realization of reality.…
In “The Violets,” the persona experiences a transition from childhood innocence to experience, sparking the process of maturation. This idea of childhood innocence is a Romantic ideal, and the process of growth that one experiences from this state of innocence to adulthood takes place when the persona learns about the inevitability of time. The dialogue, “Where’s morning gone?” is representative of this realisation, with the rhetorical question reflecting the child’s confusion at this stage of life when one is innocent and unburdened by certain mature knowledge. Also, the noun, “thing,” in the emotive lines, “used my tears to scold the thing that I could not grasp or name that, while I slept, had stolen from me,” refers to time and its namelessness symbolises the fact that it is abstract and unreturning, and incomprehensible to a child. This is what makes a child innocent and, Romantically invested; this is what Harwood is shown to value through her poetry. The emotive word, “tears,” and the dramatic verb, “stolen,” further exemplifies the harsh realities that accompany maturation and signify a loss of innocence. In these lines of the third stanza, there is a tone of sadness and despondency as the persona comes to terms with what the inevitability of time means for one’s life: that, regardless of when the process of maturation begins, one’s time is always limited. As Harwood’s poetry deals with the significant universal themes of personal growth, maturation and loss of innocence…
The term, “Coming of Age” has a variety of connotations ranging from a realization of one’s personal duty in life to a more harrowing observation about the harsh reality one has been hidden from while in the depths of his/her youth. While perhaps there are as many different conclusions reached about growing up as there are pieces of literature revolving around the subject, two works in particular offer transitional tales that depict vastly different narratives. Judith Ortiz Cofer in her poem, Quinceanera, presents a dark and literal use of language to portray a raw and reluctant journey to womanhood, while in “My Back Pages” Bob Dylan more frequently utilizes figurative language to relay a sense that the anger and resentment of his youth was…
‘Mother Who gave me Life’ shows how Harwood expresses her love and compassion towards her mother, and the influences she had in her life, showing its relevance in today’s world. In some interpretations Harwood focus’s on Romanticism referring to nature in ‘thresholds of ice, rock, fire’ as she describes humankind’s evolution. However in my opinion the psychoanalytical interpretation dominates this poem because she explains the love and duties of a mother’s sequence, ‘The Sister’ referring to all women are sisters, shown as a sequence of life through memories and thoughts. Harwood shows respect towards her mother in the metaphor ‘It is not for my children I walk… It is for you’ emphasising the centuries of women through time. The literary, critic Patricia Makeham believes this poem reflects on ‘understanding of herself through descendants whilst acquiring skills of life’ through ‘wild daughters becoming woman’ and the noun ‘wisdom’, this I comply with. Harwood appreciates her mother’s qualities of life in recognising an unbroken chain of woman’ as a symbol of family, this relationship of daughter to mother is still strongly bonded in today’s society and…
The narrator’s inner monologue reveals his misery despite his attempts to brush over it with drugs, alcohol, and sex. “[A]ny beautiful girl, especially one with a full head of hair, would help you stave off this creeping sense of mortality” (McInerney137). The narrator is using superficial pleasure to fill a void, but he admits that his methods only achieve a temporary end. The unusual narrative style allows the reader to understand this secret realization before the narrator himself does and to anticipate his struggle as the evening progresses: “Go home. Cut your losses.…
Julia Alvarez once said, “I write to find out what I’m thinking. I write to find out who I am. I write to understand things.” Julia Alvarez, a world-renowned poet, has written many powerful poems through her life. She writes what she feels, what is on her mind, and what message she wants to get across. However, while writing her feelings down, she has connected and touched many people around the world. In Julia Alvarez’s poem, “Dusting,” she tells of a mother trying to shape her daughter, and a daughter trying to create herself. She writes of the external struggle between a mother and a daughter, along with a daily internal struggle the two of them face, and a young girl who is trying to create herself as an individual.…
Gwen Harwood’s poetry explores the reality of human existence, utilising a number of personal experiences in order to impart meaning onto the responders. The poems, At Mornington and A Valediction, explore countless thematic concerns including the loss of childhood innocence, comprehending mortality and maturation of individuals. Utilising a regular variation of tense, between past and present, and her own personal relationships with others, Harwood’s poetry provokes an appreciation of the past, and reinforce themes, which highlights their universal significance. Within the beginning of the poem At Mornington, Harwood explores a childhood memory, at “the sea’s edge”, in order to highlight her apparent childhood strength in her naïve belief that she could defy nature by “walking on water/it’s only a matter of balance”, only to be saved by her father. This nativity is reinforced in the parable of the pumpkin, which grew upwards in “airy defiance of nature”. The biblical allusion with the attempt to walk on water reinforces the blind faith and innocence of the child which is contrasted to the personas self-awareness and acceptance of her own mortality, “at the time of life, when our bones begin to wear”. This childhood recollection can be deemed as the commencement of her acceptance of death; however it is only upon self-reflection on this…
Emily Dickinson is unquestionably one of the most significant, innovative, and renowned American poets. She did not always receive such high praise, however, as most of her fame and honor was obtained long after she died. While she was alive, she lived most of her life isolated from society as a recluse. During this reclusion, however, she wrote almost eighteen hundred poems, and one of these included “Because I could not stop for Death” (Mays 1187). This is one of her most popular poems and that is in part because it allows the audience to analyze the topic of death and the struggle to come to grip with one’s own demise. The concept of Death is humanized within this poem. “He” is portrayed as a groom and a conductor, as much as he is a robber…
In the poem hanging fire she learns how two face hardships. She deals with the fact that her mom is always in the bedroom and doesn't care about her. “My momma is always in the bedroom with the door closed” the text stated. And she also has to deal with the fact that she doesn't feel loved. “ will I live long enough to grow up” the text states.…
In the first stanza, the poet talks about the tension between the mother and her attitude towards her. She makes known to reader immediately that at the first meeting, the tension between the mother and herself was one that was harsh and bitter.…