Bader Jamal
Ms. Lauren
Grade 10-m
November 28, 2016
The sloth
I will be analyzing the poem “the sloth” by Theodore Roethke. This poem is an organic poem it basically speaks about a sloth and describing him. In this essay I will be explaining the poem and talk about poetic devices, figurative language, the theme of the poem, and the imagery. Then I will link this poem to the learner profiles and to the global context.
This poem has four stanzas of three lines each stanza. Nearly every line in each stanza has the same length. The rhyme scheme in this poem is a,a,a b,b,b c,c,c d,d,d in each line in the stanza
The last three words rhyme with each other. The sloth is so lazy and he sets on the tree, when you ask him a question he acts as if he doesn’t know, but he thinks about it and then he acts like you herd what the answer was even though he is not speaking. I think that the main theme in this poem is that people these days are annoyed on how slowly things go so the author wants all his questions to be answered as fast as possible.
In the first stanza the writer mentions that the sloth has no peers. There is an image shown in line two and three in the first stanza. It says “you ask him something in his ear, he thinks for a year”.
(Roethke, the sloth). He is comparing the sloths thinking to some someone very slow it takes him along time to think. Peer, ear, year are three rhyming words in the first stanza. There is an assonance (ear, year) line two and three. Then we
Sloths are very strange animals with their sluggish behaviors, yet they are very interesting at the same time. Sloths belong to the mammalian order Xenarthra, which also includes armadillos and anteaters. There are two different kinds of sloths, the two-toed and the three-toed sloth. There are four species of three-toed sloths and two species of two-toed sloths. Two of these species of sloth can be found in the tropical forests of Costa Rica, the brown-throated three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus) and Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni).
It gives the poem an uneven feeling, as if the lines were incomplete, much like how the soldiers may not feel whole anymore after an over-exposure to the brutality of war. The last word in each line of stanza five: “to-day … move; … eye” and “cave” do not rhyme, showing how a dead man decaying in the open is unusual. This stanza differs from the others since this stanza is the only one to have no rhyming pattern at all. Though the lack of rhyming structure in the fifth stanza would most likely be overlooked, the lack of rhyming happens at the stanza about the soldier’s decaying body. The shift from semi-regular to irregular rhyming exemplifies how the sudden change from normality is meant to create the feeling
Since the poem is a Blues, the phonological structure of the text is of great importance and at the same time it cannot be expected to find many regularities. This assumption can be validated at first glance: There is no veritable rhyme scheme. On the other hand, there two dysillabic internal rhymes {\tql}bunch, hunch{\tqr} (l.1) and {\tql}sputter, gutter{\tqr} (l.2-3). Still the author uses a lot of other sound patterns as for example Alliteration, Consonance, Assonance and Onomatopoeia. For each only one or two examples are given due to their high occurrence.
Sloths By:Cameron R, Did you know that sloths are the slowest animal in the world? Did you also know that sloths spend almost their whole life in trees? While they are in the trees they eat leaves that are on the trees. If they are not eating leaves they will eat little insects on the ground.
Secondly, another insight that I gained from this podcast is that sloth involves the resistance to the effort we need to make to be changed by love. This resistance is a consequence of the desire to stay in one’s comfort zone. Our relationship with God and our neighbors involves accepting a new identity that needs to be lived out daily for the rest of our life.
While mindlessly working, Noguchi describes how “the rats in the ceiling gnawed a pillar,” (Noguchi, Line 8). This line is important because the use of the word gnaw ties back with how the narrator feels like life is chewing him up. This feeling seems to share a similarity with the theme and how he cannot keep up with life anymore. The image of rats gnawing at the pillar further suggests a slow decline, which mimics Noguchi's struggles with life. with this idea of being “bitten” later on in the poem.
In his article, "The Neglect of the Intellect: Sloth," Dr. Mortimer J. Adler assigns a new definition to the word "sloth," using it to describe anyone who willfully neglects their intellectual abilities in favor of fruitless leisure. A sloth commits the worst of academic transgressions, forsaking even the basic act of reading in favor of pleasure, fame, and fortune. These sloths refuse to consider books, along with the majority of written material, as meaningful ways to enrich the mind. In reality, reading serves a particular purpose, especially to those students seeking knowledge and intelligence; it constitutes a timeless conversation that is only achieved through critically reading and analyzing the content. That conversation between
What 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
The ecology of sloths When people hear “sloth” they usually think of a lazy mammal that does barely anything and isn’t that interesting, but they are wrong. Sloths are very interesting, they have many interactions with lots of different organisms. Sloths are arboreal{tree dwelling} mammals that live in the rainforest canopies of central and south America. A sloth’s diet consists of plants, when they are ready to defecate they go to the forest floor dig a hole and go, this sends the nutrients back into the ecosystem and makes an area for sloth moths to lay their eggs.. Sloth are very interesting mammals that are a big part of the arboreal mammals in some areas of central and south American rainforests.
The 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
The poem “Miniver Cheevy,” is about a man who spends his days wishing that he had been born in a different era than the one he spends his days in. Looking back on the olden days Miniver Cheevy feels that the olden days were much better than modern times and the poem goes on to show his love for the past. However, instead of doing something about his love and curiosity for the past he chooses to reminisce about the past and drink his misery away. Throughout this paper I will discuss the poem’s central purpose and its attitude towards its subject matter, and how the author uses allusion to reinforce the poems central purpose and attitude. First, I will begin with the poem central purpose or theme.
In the poem, "When You Are Old", by William Butler Yeats, the speaker 's attitude towards the woman is conveyed through several elements. It is clear that the speaker has a loving attitude toward the woman. The poem 's form-the way it is put together-makes the attitude clear. However, the diction, imagery, and tone assist the form to make the attitude apparent. The poem is set up in three stanzas.
Biography/Context: Langston Hughes (1902-1967) is widely considered as one of the most successful African-American poets of all time. He was also a columnist, playwright, novelist, and social activist for African-American rights. Consequently, Hughes wrote all sorts of literature about 20th century African-Americans living in Harlem--a major black residential within the Manhattan borough of New York City--and soon became an extremely influential figure in the Harlem Renaissance, which was the rebirth movement of African-American culture in the arts during the 1920s. Hughes also had great admiration for music, and was inspired by a variety of genres/musicians such as boogie, Bach, jazz, and blues. His special love for blues music caused
It has an iambic metre and the rhyme scheme is a cross rhyme throughout the poem. The first stanza offers a good insight into the theme of the poem. It is built up on statements which contradict each other. '[Thick] ' (l. 1) and '[thin] (l. 2), for example, are attributes used to illustrate love in comparison to forgetfulness. However, as
The poem is a sestina, which consists of 39 lines, that is to say 6 stanzas of 6 line each with a three-line concluding stanza. The actual line-ending words are repeated in successive stanzas in a designated rotating order. According to the story, and after deep analysis in relation to historical events, we may infer that the Seamus writing is merely autobiographical.