John Donne was a metaphysical poet of the Elizabethan era. In 1611, Donne wrote a poem titled, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, in which he expresses the extraordinary love him and his wife share, and the separation they must face. Before writing the poem, Donne had left his wife to accompany Sir Robert Drury to France on a diplomatic mission. This was not the first time he had parted from his wife. When Donne married his wife, his father in law had him imprisoned for a year. Through all this parting he has experience with leaving someone he loves profoundly. Adrienne Rich was an American poet who began her poetry after the Second World War. Rich wrote a poem in 1971 with the same title as Donne’s poem with a slight grammar change, “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning”. This similarity was done on purpose. Rich wanted to not only bring attention to herself by using a very popular persons title, but to also emphasize that men are hindrances on her writing ability. During this time Rich was known for her feminist writing. This poem explores the role of female poets in a male dominated society. It highlights how women have been forced to conform to the standards and practices of dominating male poets. Donne sets the scene of a virtuous man dying to begin his poem. This scene was set so Donne could use this simile to compare the death of the virtuous man to the separation of him and his wife. In the first stanza he says, “And whisper to their souls to go”, the man dying
Your Silver Spoon Will Be the Death of You Meghan Daum’s Variation of Grief exemplifies how different people take advantage of their different lifestyles. Daum’s view of her friend, Brian Peterson, suggests that his privilege and lack of importance for time hindered him from maturing. His family was not large, according to Daum,”The Peterson family unit was a tiny thing—mom, dad, kid. There were no other siblings, only a handful of relatives.” Brian’s parents gave him everything he wanted.
Throughout history, one of the most common occurrences during times of warfare is the death of the soldiers who are fighting for their country. Depending on one’s point of view, a soldier’s death at war could be honorable and glorified, or it can be a gruesome, anonymous demise. In the two poems, “Epitaph on a Solider” by Cyril Tourneur and “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” by Randal Jarrell, there is a stark contrast between the emotional impacts experienced by the reader. Through each author’s unique writing style, “Tourneur’s Epitaph on a Soldier” shows glory in a soldier’s death and is supportive of war, while Jarrell’s “The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” gives a much more painful impression of war and the passing of those involved in it.
Another portion of the text that is worth analyzing is whether or not the poet is a real person or a generalization about all or most poets. All of the lines in the poem use general text and never label a specific person. What’s interesting about the text is that without the title it would be nearly impossible to distinguish whether or not the person the poem is about is a poet or not. The way the text allows the reader to find a figurative meaning to the poem is by being vague enough and
Metaphors are an influential piece to the literary world due to, “the process of using symbols to know reality occurs”, stated by rhetoric Sonja Foss in Metaphoric Criticism. The significance of this, implies metaphors are “central to thought and to our knowledge and expectation of reality” (Foss 188). Although others may see metaphors as a difficult expression. Metaphors provide the ability to view a specific content and relate to connect with involvement, a physical connection to view the context with clarity. As so used in Alice Walker’s literary piece, In Search Of Our Mothers’ Gardens.
She asks her readers to rise above their defeats, to not allow anyone to stop their dreams. In demonstrating how she succeeded she has been a role model for women of all cultures and races. The “Phenomenal Women” poem is a celebration
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a self-taught philosopher, poet and forward thinker, wrote many empowering poems that captured how she felt during the time she was living in. Two of which “Foolish Men” and “On her Portrait” express how she didn’t like the stereotypical roles women were put in during her life. These poems show true anguish and express a slight distain for men. In the poem “Foolish Men” Cruz starts off by explaining how men are so quick to blame women for their ailments but in actuality it is themselves causing them.
This becomes evident in a lack of information about the type of society, and the reader therefore lacks a complete understanding of how the women are oppressed. As a whole, this poem sets forth the idea that female gender is fluid, and asks its readers to questions what it means to be a woman in a male dominant
5,6) the issues that have been mentioned above are expressed. Since, especially black women, are considered to be living in the shadow this passage exposes the feelings and representation of black women in society. Their existence in the world which is not considered and respected. Considering especially the fact that the lyrical I is a black maiden, she seeks for recognition and acceptance among the other figures of the poem. Referring to contemporary issues, the lyrical I would be classified as a lower ranked person since she is black and being occupied as a maid, which clearly makes her powerless and voiceless in society.
The different key features also plays an important role for example the tone that is being formed by the lyrical voice that can be seen as a nephew or niece. This specific poem is also seen as an exposition of what Judith Butler will call a ‘gender trouble’ and it consist of an ABBA rhyming pattern that makes the reading of the poem better to understand. The poem emphasizes feminist, gender and queer theories that explains the life of the past and modern women and how they are made to see the world they are supposed to live in. The main theories that will be discussed in this poem will be described while analyzing the poem and this will make the poem and the theories clear to the reader. Different principals of the Feminist Theory.
The poem was written in a time where black people and women were dehumanized where those in power abused the power to gain more and those without power were continuously affected by it. Reading the poem and had an impact on me with the dictation of lexis, however all of these feelings were heightened when I listened to the oral performance. The poem starts of in the present tense “Even tonight and I need to take a walk” (Jordan 1) which gives a setting to the scene, in the opening few lines Jordan uses the repetition of “I” and “my” which made the poem for me more personal, the use of repetition in the opening part of the poem produced a deeper connection to the poem, repetition of the words placed emphasis and clarity of the words which came after “my body posture my gender identity my age…” (Jordan
The poem, in brief, is about the struggle the speaker faces as he prepares for war and attempts to explain to his lover how important honor is to him, surpassing even his feelings for her. It is written creatively, with a unique style. The poem is also personal and temporal, a trait of poems of this era. The poem is written in a conversational tone and is read as if by a male writer to a female lover. Lovelace weaves poetic techniques such as assonance, and metaphor together to create a good rhythm, and a theme based upon honor.
“Women” by Louise Bogan Louise Bogan married her husband, Curt Alexander in 1916, and had a child a year later. In 1920, Curt Alexander died, causing Bogan to become a widow and left her with no reliable income and an adolescent to care for. After moving to New York City, later on, Bogan met other writers, this sparked her writing career. After writing multiple reviews for periodicals, she later wrote the poem “Women” (Louise Bogan). Throughout the course of this poem, Bogan uses metaphors, imagery, and the setting to show that women are seen as incapable of doing what men do.
William Shakespeare’s sonnets are closely related in the idea that the theme as well as the subject of the poem remain consistent. A distinctive factor among Shakespeare’s sonnets however, is that they each contain somewhat varying tones. Two specific sonnets that prove this are “Sonnet 71” and “Sonnet 73” respectively. Both sonnets refer to the same subject, what is seemingly the speaker of the poem’s lover or mistress. The theme of death and dying are ones which remain present throughout each text.
In order to show the manner in which Dickinson’s and Plath's poems portray gender relations and, more specifically, how they granted women a strong voice, I will analyze several poems and a novel. Historical background of that time will allow us an insight of the important processes in which many women were engaged. These processes refer to the First and Second Wave of Feminism. Although Dickinson and Plath were not active members of these movements, they are considered to be one of the cornerstones of modern and more equal world. 2.
Society’s superficial viewing of women is also reflected in the poem’s wring, as it may seem that this poem is strictly concerned with a prostitute, but in fact it describes all females. The male representative in the poem, Georges, then asserts his superiority, despite their similar conditions of being poor. Although he is sexually attracted to her as he “stiffens for [her] warmth”, suggesting an erection, he is unwilling to accept her as a human being as he deems her question “Why do you do this?”