Marcus Tullius Cicero once said “The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living”. With figurative language and tone a poem communicates the theme and consists of more information than even a 300 page novel could. These things can be seen in both “Whose Mouth Do I Speak With” by Suzanne Rancourt and “My Father’s Hats” by Mark Irwin. Both speakers share a common theme of nostalgia through different uses of figurative language and tone. “Whose Mouth Do I Speak With” by Suzanne Rancourt reveals the memories that the narrator experienced with their father with a tone of admiration. The text says, “ The spruce gum/ was so close to chewing amber” ( Rancourt 12-13). This metaphorical imagery compares the spruce gum to chewing amber. …show more content…
In the text Irwin says, “ the yellow fruit,leaves whose scent/was that of a clove in the godsome/air.. ” (14 -16) . The imagery talks about the fruit sacredly, but also like the narrator is telling a fantasy, especially because of the word “godsome”. Instead of saying awesome they use “godsome” to create an out of this world feeling. The “godsome” air shows the fanciful tone they use with the idea of their father. In “My Father's Hats” Irwin also says “imagine/ I was in a forest, wind hyming”( 5- 6). The personification uses the word hymning for the word wind, which can’t actually hymn.The word hymning also shows a fanciful and mystical tone. The “forest” the narrator imagines also shows the relationship that they had between them and their father was something adventurous. Altogether, this shows the figurative language used in “My Father's Hat” in order to portray a fanciful …show more content…
“My Father’s Hats” by Mark Irwin, as previously mentioned, talks about their father. “My Father’s Hats” uses a forest as it’s setting, and takes the reader through an adventure through the forest. This shows how the speaker remembers the father and the sentimental attachment to the memories he has with his father. The overall theme statement of this poem is that memories can open doors to place we’ve never been. “Whose Mouth Do I Speak With” by Suzanne Rancourt, also talks about their father. “Whose Mouth Do I Speak With” gives their father lots of appreciation, such as referring to him as “Coyote”. Even as she says “we had no money” she still continues to admire her dad. They both show sentiment and nostalgia in their narrations. The overall theme statement of this poem is that the best memories are the ones that are still felt. Nostalgia was portrayed through both poems in different ways, but this still gave them similar overall
“The Old Grandfather and His Little Grandson” and “Abuelito Who” compare and contrast Literary Analysis’ Almost every folk tale and poem express a universal theme or central idea, which are found in “The Old Grandfather and His Little Grandson” and “Abuelito Who.” The two literary works share the writing attributes of characters and the message that the readers receive from the passage, but , they are both categorized under two different genres. The reason why the characters in “The Old Grandfather and his Little Grandson” and “Abuelito Who” are extremely similar is because they both are described with identical characters. Also, their universal themes happen to disseminate the exact same moral, while the authors wrote them in two dissimilar writing styles.
The poems “Forgotten” and “Hanging Fire” demonstrate the possibilities of the similarities and differences that two different topics can represent. The two poems ‘Forgotten” and the poem “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde, share a similarity of a parent's absence. In “Forgotten” the text states, “...nobody else’s dad had gone away nine years ago./ Nobody else’s dad had been so loved by a four-year-old./ And so forgotten by one/ now/ thirteen.”
In lines eighteen through twenty, “Each square holds a sweet gum leaf.. Me into the silence,” the sweet gum leaf is symbolism for nostalgia. In a sense as well, the diction “caress me into the silence,” is symbolism for death in which the narrator is described still to remain
“Nineteen”, by Elizabeth Alexander uses language and tone to form a multi-sensory poem about remembering her youth and desire to connect to her past Vietnam vet lover. These aspects of language and tone are embedded in the outer form of the poem, as the author forms an imaginative recreation of her young adult life, which directly impacts the reader to allow for an enjoyable simple read. The elements of language and tone formation ensure the translation of Alexander’s emotions or feelings of her youth for the audience to relate and understand. In the first place, the language within “Nineteen” is casual and not really poetic.
Sunlight poured through the trees. The trees sparkle as well as the people the family encounter. Even the Misfit (leader of killers) shows an almost imperceptible spark of goodness right at the end of the story, and this comparison with "mean" trees that sparkle illustrates the sacred view of life. "
A Father’s Affection “My Papa’s Waltz” and “Those Winter Sundays” describe a character who reflects on their childhood. Although they based on the same theme, the two poems have very different perspectives. “Those Winter Sundays” talks about how the son regrets for not showing his love for his father, when all his actions went unnoticed. “My Papa’s Waltz” reflects on a son 's memory with is father where his danced around the house after the father long day at work. Both poems reflect on how their fathers showed his love for his son, the time spent with their fathers, a maternal conflict, and their relationship with their father.
Even with his insecurities, the father described in the poem still cares about his son, which is shown through his attempts to give his son what he wants. One example of his efforts to provide him with a good life is shown early on in the poem, specifically after his son asks him to share a new story. As the father and son get ready for bed, the poet relies on the imagery of the situation, writing, “His five-year-old son waits in his lap. / Not the same story, Baba. A new one.
War can have a profound effect on soldiers who have witnessed the atrocities that occur on the battlefield. Death becomes a part of their everyday life, however; it is the reaction to this and the coping mechanisms that soldiers use that defines true self from that of the field. This essay will examine Tim O’Brien’s short stories “The Things They Carried” and “How to Tell a True War Story” in order to show how the soldiers dealt with death through their responses and attitudes. For the most part the reader is able to identify some common themes in responding to death between the two short stories.
Every story consists of different elements, such as characters, plotlines, and settings. Nonetheless, many stories portray the same messages or ideas. “My Papa’s Waltz,” by Theodore Roethke, depicts a reckless father who is loved by his child, while “Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden, depicts a hardworking father whose child is indifferent to him. Though the poems depict exceptionally different childhoods, both contribute to the idea that perceptions of parents alter as one grows into adulthood. Both poems use harsh words and critical tones in order to convey this notion, however in “My Papa’s Waltz,” they signify the recklessness of the father and how the narrator perceives his father as an adult, while in “Those Winter Sundays,” they
In the poem “forgiving my father”, Lucille Clifton writes of a young daughter reminiscing about her father’s recent death. The daughter talks about it being Friday, it being payday. She discusses her father and how he owed her and her dead mother money when really they just wanted him to be present. The daughter feels she has had no time with her father and she resents him for it. He was not present in her life and now he has passed away, leaving her with a yearning for something that she will never obtain.
Comparing and contrasting Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” and Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”, one finds the two poems are similar with their themes of abuse, yet contrasting with how the themes are portrayed. Furthermore, the speaker 's feelings toward their fathers’ in each poem contrast. One speaker was hurt by the father and the other speaker was indifferent about how he was treated by his father. The fathers’ feelings toward the children are also different despite how each treated the child. Both poems accurately portray the parent-child relationships within an abusive home, even if they have different
Sometimes the relationship between two generations is very complicated. “My Father Is a Simple Man” by Luis Omar Salinas and “A secret Lost in the Water” by Roch Carrier explore these universal themes, the greatness of love together with the unavoidability of conflicts between two generations through the depiction of the speakers’ personal experience with their fathers. In “My Father Is a Simple Man”, the speaker expresses his love for his father deeply by highly complimenting that his father has sincere “kindness and patience” (Salinas 23) to take the speaker on “lifelong journey” (Salinas 9-10). In the end of the poem, the speaker firmly believes that he should “have learned” (Salinas 36) something from his father which states a manifestly
“Someone will Remember Us,” holds the hope that even in death, someone will remember and thus those people will be a part of history. However, in Renée Vivien’s translation of the poem, concepts such as, “erotic suffering, obsession, and anxiety” are present. Nonetheless, those negative emotions resulted in “eternal devotion” within the poem (36). Through the translation of Sappho’s poem, Vivien takes on the role of Sappho’s lover, and thus she proves that someone did remember her. Love believes that Sappho and Vivien both represent loneliness and isolation within the poem.
In Sarah Orne Jewett’s piece, “A White Heron”, tension is continuously built to give a sense of meaning to a young girl’s climb. Her success hinges on her ability to come to and understanding with the wise old tree, so the evolution of their relationship is dramaticized. Even at the start of the piece, the tree’s presence is felt. The author uses personification and polysyndeton to give it qualities similar to an old, wise, tired grandfather who has just encountered something that he’s never seen before. It has outlived the whole forest of “pines and oaks and maples”.
“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden has much significance throughout it, the poem is generally about an adult reflecting back to his childhood having regrets for not appreciating his father's love. Hayden describes a father to son relationship for the reader. This poem can be similar to the quote “ you don’t what you’ve got until it's taking away” Hayden uses imagery, diction, and emotional appeal to make it relatable to the readers. Hayden writes this poem figuratively using imagery to provide the reader with a vivid ideal for example “Blueback cold” shows imagery of how cold those winter Sundays really were, and “Blueblack cold can also be used metaphorically here to describe the bruise on the child heart from the feeling of thinking he was unloved throughout his childhood. All love is shown in a different manner you just have to understand the