Death can be often talked about when it the topic of coming of age arises, as the child at once begins to comprehend and look forward to the future rather than mostly living in the moment. Two poems, The Ball Poem by John Berryman and Quinceanera by Judith Ortiz Cofer, associate death with coming of age in their poetry.
In Quinceanera, death is used as a symbol for her transition from childhood to adulthood, the narrator seemingly looking at her loss of childhood as a sort of death in itself, to begin a new life. In the story, she uses words depicting this thought process, such as “dead children”, “black”, “skull”, and “bones”. The central way she talks about death is through blood (per say, a way to discuss her coming of age physically).
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The author uses a ball to represent a human life, that a little boy lost it and cannot get it back, much like a person who has passed away. The little boy has a realization at the end of the story, slowly beginning to realize that this is a part of life. The narrator furthers this thought process by adding his mindset, that he too will eventually become the ball that was lost at some point, stating “Soon part of me will explore the deep and dark, Floor of the harbour”. While the whole poem takes a turn for the darker side in the end, it begins very storybook-like, the narration being a bit whimsical and childlike to fit the symbol of a child’s toy. At “An ultimate shaking grief fixes the boy” there is a shift to the reality of the situation.
Both of these poems are existential surrounding, in that the coming of age section arrives with the idea of death and that life is not eternal. However, they discuss this in two completely opposite ways. While Quinceanera utilizes death a symbol for her childhood, such as in describing her dolls as “dead children”, The Ball Poem uses a symbol of an item for childhood to mean death, using the ball to describe this part of
“The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst is a short story about a man looking back on his childhood experiences with his little brother, Doodle. The author uses symbols related to death to affect the tone. The words death and dead are used nine times and subjects related to death seems to sneak into the narrative very often. For example, when naming their son, the protagonist’s parents decide on the name William Armstrong. The narrator says that “such a name sounds good only on a tombstone” (Hurst 1).
Death is the unavoidable part of our daily lives. In the poems, “Shrike Tree” by Lucia Perillo and “Plums Falling Well” by Linda Gregg, the poets discussed the plot with an accepting attitude towards death because it is part of the natural life cycle. In our society, we tend to hide and avoid death; However, Shrikes and the plums in the poems face death with an open manner. Their attitudes towards death indicate the shrikes and plums are not afraid to die.
In Richard Wilbur’s ‘The Juggler,’ the speaker describes the juggler as someone who is attempting to lift the spirits of his audience with his talent to distract them from their tedious and arduous daily lives. Through this description, the speaker reveals about themselves that they too are suffering from a tedious and arduous daily life. The description of the juggler and what it reveals about the speaker are expressed in each stanza through the use of diction, figurative language and tone. The opening lines of the poem demonstrate personification, saying, “[The ball is not]
The overall idea of fate seems to be a universal theme throughout all religions, and it proves to be a significant plot point within this poem as well. The first stanza is a great example of the relationship between the juggler and his balls. Through concise diction such as “resents its own resilience” and “settles and is forgot,” the speaker personifies the juggling balls, depicting them as living beings with emotions. They resent their own resilience because they lack autonomy; the juggler controls their movement, just as fate determines the path we take. The balls, “roll around, wheel on his wheeling hands,” an image that appears almost as if the balls were each planets in a solar system, suggesting that fate even controls that aspect of being.
Although the depiction of death is controversial towards many religions, the elderly individuals in the poem see death in a newer light. For example, when the viejos were waiting for their moment of death, La Muerte arrives “ in black cape,red feathered
However, mothers are always there, just as the pond is, and are always ready to forgive whatever hardships they have had to endure. From the beginning of the poem, I describe the pond as being a beautiful figure in nature, and as the day goes by her beauty is impaired by the sharp blades of skates and the puck. However, she doesn’t let the infliction of skates and pucks tear her apart but instead cherishes the time the children spend with her and only looks forward to a new day, keeping in mind that she is the one who will provide the bond between the children that makes for everlasting memories. As it was said before, the puck represents the various distractions in life that might push a child away from their parents. The biggest distraction being growing up, children who move into teens find themselves separating themselves from their “embarrassing” parents, but as life goes on, like the day goes on, the children will always come back and remember the great memories they have made with the pond
In stanza three the ball is personified to lay emphasis on flicks skill, and a simile likens Flick’s hands to wild birds. Yet irrelevant, the lug wrench is personified in the next stanza we jumped back to the present. While “the ball loved flick” (Updike) the lug is indifferent to Flick’s skill. In the last stanza, a metaphor depicts flick as standing “kind of coiled”, signifying the old basketball player within flick is still ready to spring. The last two lines liken the town of candy to former applauding audiences in the seats.
Allegory and Symbolism of “The Masque of the Red Death” The Masque of the Red Death is a story of symbolism and allegory. Everything from the arrangement of the seven chambers, the ebony clock, and the color red. The seven chambers are arranged ever so carefully, “The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time.” The chambers are color coded by which I see as the seven stages of life.
Death can never be escaped no matter what. In “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe shows the theme of death, a suspenseful mood, and an ominous tone. Through Poe’s use of literary devices, the reader can discover tone, theme, and mood. Throughout Poe’s life he experienced death with two of his mother’s and his young wife. Death is shown how inevitable it is with Poe’s writing and experiences combined together.
Despite the belief that one can live forever, death is certain. Edgar Allen Poe wrote his short story, “The Masque of the Red Death” with a greater meaning than simply the Red Death, or plague. He wrote this story, symbolizing the stages of life. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, Poe uses the symbols of the hallway, the rooms, and the braziers, to enhance the allegory, and to show how death is inevitable and one can not spend their life worrying about it.
To begin, it’s important for the two poets to led the readers to understand the context about death behind their poems and how it has inspired them to write about it. Throughout Dickinson’s life, she has experienced death in many ways and forms: with that, death has made a great impact in her writings. In Dickinson’s poem, “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –,” Dickinson looks into the physical procedure of dying and how it affects not just herself, but others as well. When Dickinson was dying on her deathbed, she describes the fly as a figure of the theme death itself, as the wings of the fly basically cuts off the speaker of the poem. For Whitman, he has experienced death in the time of the Civil War.
Through personification the speaker depicts death as a gentlemen, and not someone who brutally takes our lives quickly, but in a courteous manner. The use of symbolism to describe three locations as three stages of life. These three stages are used to show our childhood,adulthood, and us as elderly soon about to meet death, The speaker also uses imagery to show that all death is a simple cold, then we go to a resting place which is the grave, and from there on we move on toward eternity. Death is a part of life that we all need to embrace, and learn that it is not meant to be
In “The Death Of A Toad” by Richard Wilbur, Richard Wilbur uses various poetic devices in order to bring across the idea of death and its different features. Some of the poetic devices used by Richard Wilbur are rhyme scheme, symbolism, and simile. Wilbur uses these specific devices in order to make his point that there are two ways people see death which is that “they are no longer suffering and are at peace” and the “hard times and tribulation” during the grieving stage. Richard Wilbur uses the rhyme scheme aabcbc throughout his entire poem in order to follow the structure of a poem but also to convey the idea that there are two different aspects always taken when speaking about death. Wilbur uses rhyme scheme in the last two words of his
In “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, Emily Dickinson uses imagery and symbols to establish the cycle of life and uses examples to establish the inevitability of death. This poem describes the speaker’s journey to the afterlife with death. Dickinson uses distinct images, such as a sunset, the horses’ heads, and the carriage ride to establish the cycle of life after death. Dickinson artfully uses symbols such as a child, a field of grain, and a sunset to establish the cycle of life and its different stages. Dickinson utilizes the example of the busyness of the speaker and the death of the sun to establish the inevitability of death.
In Walt Whitman’s poem “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” we see the carefree barefooted little boy develop an attachment to two mated birds he has been observing, until one day, there is only one; “Nor ever appear’d again” (Line 45). Whitman uses a type of personification when he gives the solitary bird a voice; “…I wait till you blow my mate to me” (Line 54). The author alluding to the empathy that the little boy feels to the now solitary bird; “…the meanings which I of all men know” (Line 60). The aria mentioned in the poem has revealed to the boy what sorrow is, and yet life continues on “…strange tears down the cheeks coursing” (Line 139) and “All else continuing” (Line 131). The boy has left his childhood behind and becomes an adult,