An Analysis Of Louise Erdrich's I Was Sleeping Where The Black Oaks Move
“I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move” written by Louise Erdrich focuses on a child and a grandfather horrifically observing a flood consuming their entire village and the surrounding trees, obliterating the nests of the herons that had lived there. In the future they remember back to the day when they started cleaning up after the flood, when they notice the herons without their habitat “dancing” in the sky. According to the poet’s biographical context, many of the poems the poet had wrote themselves were a metaphor. There could be many viable explanations and themes to this fascinating poem, and the main literary devices that constitute this poem are imagery, personification, and a metaphor.
This whole poem could simply be a metaphor that was related to Louise Erdrich’s biographical background. In her biography, it says, “As the daughter of a Chippewa Indian mother and a German-American father, Erdrich explores Native American themes in her works…” (“Louise Erdrich” 1). The flood
…show more content…
The possible metaphor of how a flood devastates a village could be compared to how the new Europeans pushed the Native Americans out of their homelands and sent them farther west. Even though this is a thing of the past, the true meaning of this poem could still be applied today. Everyone’s beliefs, values, and traditions are not all the same, and there will never be only one that everyone would agree to, but everyone’s way of life should be respected. Forcing the Native Americans out and killing them if they resisted prevented the preservation of ideas, which means that invaluable information and new ideas were also lost in the process. In the present day, we know how inhumane that was, but we should know that individuality is a very key aspect of our life and is something that we should
Annie Dillard's 'Nightwatch': Pilgrim At Tinker Creek
933 Words | 4 PagesIn “Nightwatch”, a chapter of the novel Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard guides the reader through an experience with migrating eels, creates vibrant mental images, and involves the readers with her own thoughts. This is all accomplished through the use of rhetorical strategies, namely diction, figurative language, syntax, and imagery; these elements culminate in Dillard’s intense, guiding tone that involves the readers with the eel experience. Diction is vital to creating Dillard’s fervent and guiding tone throughout “Nightwatch.” The use of gruesome and detailed words like “milling… mingling” and “seething… squirming, jostling,” causes the reader to erupt in silent shivers.
Poem Analysis: Eating Alone By Li Young Lee
831 Words | 4 PagesThe speaker of the poem walks through a reaping setting, alone. Lee uses the image of a bird who flies quickly away before the speaker can catch glimpse of it: “I turn, a cardinal vanishes”. This matches the memory that the speaker rekindles from earlier that morning, when his deceased father’s image seems to appear within the trees, and disappear again just as his child draws near. Lee beautifully uses concrete language to portray the picture, specifically the throbbing emptiness when the vision is substituted by a “shovel…in the flickering, deep green shade” (18-19). The sad, uncanny sensation showed by the event creates the lonely, sorrowful mood of the
The Great Santa Barbara Oil Disaster Poem Analysis
888 Words | 4 PagesIn “The Great Santa Barbara Oil Disaster, or: A Diary” by Conyus, he write of his interactions and thoughts that he has while cleaning the horrible and momentous oil spill that occurred in Santa Barbara in 1969. In this, there is a stanza that he writes that appeals to the entirety of the poem, the one that begins on page three with “Day six” and ends with “again & again.” ; this stanza uses tone and imagery which allow for the reader to grasp the fundamental core of this experience and how Conyus is trying to illustrate the effects of such a disaster on a human psyche. Day six of this poem is the day that starts with a dishonest sense of normalcy of an urban environment. Conyus introduces the idea of toads croaking in a setting combining two worlds, “asphalt rain pond”; this paints the picture of nature and man coinciding to try to live together harmoniously in an environment that
Literary Analysis Of Louise Erdrich's 'Captivity'
957 Words | 4 PagesCaptivity is defined as the state of being imprisoned or confined. A tragic experience is given a whole new perspective from Louise Erdrich 's poem, “Captivity”. Through descriptive imagery and a melancholic tone, we can see the poem and theme develop in her words. Erdrich takes a quote from Mary Rowlandson’s narrative about her imprisonment by the Native Americans and her response to this brings readers a different story based off of the epigraph. Louise Erdrich compiles various literary devices to convey her theme of sympathy, and her poem “Captivity” through specific and descriptive language brings a whole new meaning to Mary Rowlandson’s narrative.
Small Frogs Killed On The Highway Analysis
700 Words | 3 PagesWhat is the purpose of all the contrasting, descriptive imagery? What elements underlyingly stand for other items? The poem opens with the speaker reflecting on their past and relating to frogs asserting that they
Imagery In Mary Oliver's Wild Geese
842 Words | 4 PagesOne of the aspects of “Wild Geese” that truly struck my fifth-grade self was its use of imagery—I was drawn in particular to the extensive visual imagery in lines 8-13 (“Meanwhile the sun…heading home again”) and awed by the ability of text to evoke images of such clarity. Moreover, in addition to the intrigue of its use of literary devices and the complexity of its recitation, interpreting “Wild Geese” and finding meaning within it was a process that continued well beyond the end of my fifth-grade year, and the connotations of that poem continue to resonate with me. While the entirety of this story is too personal to share herein, “Wild Geese” was a poem that spoke to me on a very personal level. As I sometimes have a tendency to hold myself to unrealistic standards, “Wild Geese” was to me a reminder of the relative insignificance of the trivial matters with which I would preoccupy myself; nature became a symbol of that which existed beyond my narrow fixations and the wild geese a reflection of the inexorable passage of time—in essence, a reminder that “this too shall
The Mississippi River Empties Into The Gulf Analysis
616 Words | 3 PagesWe have seen examples of talented poets who overview the world in a more sensitive way than normal people. My favorite poem by an author that we have encountered this semester is Lucille Clifton’s “The Mississippi River Empties Into The Gulf.” I think this poem is a great example on how poets recognizes features that normal people cannot interpret out. First, Clifton personified a river to have the characteristics of humans. Clifton noted rivers to carry, to empty, and to drag the memories from the past.
The Pedestrian Mood Analysis
651 Words | 3 Pagesone of the many times he uses imagery throughout this story is when the narrator says, “on his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows” (Pg 1). By using imagery to compare walking through the neighborhood as walking through a graveyard shows that it is completely silent and there is no activity in any of the houses. Most people wouldn't describe their neighborhood as a graveyard, this also develops the mood. Another time he uses imagery is when the narrator says, “The street was silent and long and empty, with only his shadow moving like the shadow of a hawk in mid-country” (1). This shows mood because the narrator describes him as a hawk in mid-country, that means that he is all alone in what he feels to be like a barren or abandoned place.
Analyzing Elie Wiesel's 'The Night'
301 Words | 2 Pages1. The Buna has a good atmosphere. People were wearing nice clothes, wandering and they had more freedom here. They were given new clothes. 2.
The Fury Of Overshoes Analysis
878 Words | 4 PagesThe Fury of Overshoes Anne sexton The poem is written in first person and in a free verse. The poem does not have a specific order, and the reader cannot find a pattern, in which the author organizes the poem. The rows does not rhyme and they are short.
A Barred Owl And The History Teacher Essay
799 Words | 4 PagesThe imagery of the first poem greatly contrasts from the overall tone. In “A Barred Owl,” Richard Wilbur describes an owl frightening a child and waking her from her slumber. Wilbur sets the scene with dark imagery: “The warping night air brought the boom/ Of an owl’s voice into her darkened
Compare And Contrast There Will Come Soft Rains
495 Words | 2 PagesRay Bradbury’s short story, There Will Come Soft Rains, has elements of destruction, and what the future holds for mankind. It tells the story of a self operating house that carries out its day to day duties as , after a nuclear holocaust has occurred. In addition to this short story Rad Bradbury includes a poem by the same name written by Sarah Teasdale’s. While these two pieces of literature resemble each other in many ways, they also differentiate in just as many.
Analysis Of A Stranger In Strange Lands By Lucille Mccarthy
454 Words | 2 PagesLucille Parkinson McCarthy, author of the article, “A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing Across the Curriculum”, conducted an experiment that followed one student over a twenty-one month period, through three separate college classes to record his behavioral changes in response to each of the class’s differences in their writing expectations. The purpose was to provide both student and professor a better understanding of the difficulties a student faces while adjusting to the different social and academic settings of each class. McCarthy chose to enter her study without any sort of hypothesis, therefore allowing herself an opportunity to better understand how each writing assignment related to the class specifically and “what
Analysis Of Planting A Sequoia By Dana Gioia
1100 Words | 5 PagesThe agony the writer is feeling about his son 's death, as well as the hint of optimism through planting the tree is powerfully depicted through the devices of diction and imagery throughout the poem. In the first stanza the speaker describes the setting when planting the Sequoia; “Rain blacked the horizon, but cold winds kept it over the Pacific, / And the sky above us stayed the dull gray.” The speaker uses a lexicon of words such as “blackened”, “cold” and “dull gray” which all introduce a harsh and sorrowful tone to the poem. Pathetic fallacy is also used through the imagery of nature;
Report To Wordsworth Summary
873 Words | 4 Pages“Report to Wordsworth” by Boey Kim Cheng and “Lament” by Gillian Clarke are the two poems I am exploring in this essay, specifically on how the common theme of human destruction of nature is presented. In “Report to Wordsworth”, Cheng explores the damage of nature caused by humans and man’s reckless attitude towards this. In “Lament”, the idea of the damage of oceans from the Gulf War is explored. In “Report to Wordsworth”, Boey Kim Cheng explores the theme of human destruction of nature as a response to William Wordsworth, an romantic poet who celebrated nature’s beauty in his poetry.
More about An Analysis Of Louise Erdrich's I Was Sleeping Where The Black Oaks Move
Annie Dillard's 'Nightwatch': Pilgrim At Tinker Creek
933 Words | 4 PagesPoem Analysis: Eating Alone By Li Young Lee
831 Words | 4 PagesThe Great Santa Barbara Oil Disaster Poem Analysis
888 Words | 4 PagesLiterary Analysis Of Louise Erdrich's 'Captivity'
957 Words | 4 PagesSmall Frogs Killed On The Highway Analysis
700 Words | 3 PagesImagery In Mary Oliver's Wild Geese
842 Words | 4 PagesThe Mississippi River Empties Into The Gulf Analysis
616 Words | 3 PagesThe Pedestrian Mood Analysis
651 Words | 3 PagesAnalyzing Elie Wiesel's 'The Night'
301 Words | 2 PagesThe Fury Of Overshoes Analysis
878 Words | 4 PagesA Barred Owl And The History Teacher Essay
799 Words | 4 PagesCompare And Contrast There Will Come Soft Rains
495 Words | 2 PagesAnalysis Of A Stranger In Strange Lands By Lucille Mccarthy
454 Words | 2 PagesAnalysis Of Planting A Sequoia By Dana Gioia
1100 Words | 5 PagesReport To Wordsworth Summary
873 Words | 4 Pages