Swearing is mostly an unconscious reaction to express emotion, like when you get hurt or you lose something valuable. Swearing was originally seen as slang but it was decided by scholars that swear words were not to be put into dictionaries. Over time swearing has become more acceptable due to increased exposure through music and television. ”Swear words” were eventually put into dictionaries because it became more acceptable for people to swear. Keywords: Swearing, English, History, Foul Language, Taboo A Short History of English Swearing The phrase foul language, can be described as a selection of words that is likely to cause offence to someone when used in conversation (McEnery, 2006).
The poem portrays the daily routine of a countryman who is struggling to discover any form of enjoyment or contentment in his life after the loss of his wife. Throughout, the poem the persona discovers how repetitive and tedious life can be without his loving wife to be there to support him every step of his life. Murray illustrates a strong feeling of grief and agony in “The Widower in the Country” through the use of first person narration. This is evidently portrayed in “I’ll get up soon, and leave my bed unmade”. Through the use of first person narration, the composer is able to express the persona’s monotonous and repetitive life each day.
The Poem “The Poet” by Tom Wayman is a poem that takes the reader through the physical characteristics of your average poet. The entirety of the “The Poet” consists of a list of 14 descriptors that could be used to describe the typical poet. Each of the descriptive phrases seems to be negative towards the unknown poet that he is talking about. Although the poem seems quite literal, a figurative message is portrayed though text, tone, structure and the literary devices used in the poem. To start off, the specific word usage that Wayman chose to use gives off the impression that poets have their drawbacks.
The speaker is an extremely clever person, and his treatment of death makes for the absolute most engaging conversation starters. By trying to make the mistress do what he wants her to, the speaker tries to take away her freedom. Sex in the poem is a metaphor for the writing process – what the speaker really wants is enough time to write, and, hopefully, to create a poem that will last longer than he
The word “trembling” is a direct declaration of how the narrator and his family felt in their homes as they watched with fear. The family was scared of what was going to happen to them as they watched the “white men in their gowns” (13) gather around the trussed cross. The cross burning symbolizes the impact the event had on the narrator. The narrator feared that he was watching his life burn before his eyes as he was watching the white angels in their gowns burn the
The speaker uses figurative language to help us easily understand what we as readers do, by comparison between unalike items. Lastly, the speaker uses imagery throughout the poem, to give us the idea of what is trying to be conveyed to us. All of these poetic elements are found inside the poem giving us an idea of the theme. The theme that the speaker is trying to help us understand, is that we as readers should enjoy the poem for its quality or content, and go more in depth in our thinking, rather than just sitting there trying to figure out what it means by not opening our eyes. Diction is very heavily influenced in the poem, mainly because of the way that the words
In the beginning of the poem the speaker mentions how “Sometimes the road was hot with sun/But I had to keep on until my work was done” (25-26). The literal meaning of the lines is that the speaker had to work even though the sun was blazing down on her. But, in the metaphorical sense the “sun” represents the struggles and hardships the mother had to face throughout her life. Additionally, the “work” symbolizes her desire to achieve equality and freedom for all her children. Further along the poem the speaker mentions how her children should make the pain that she suffered in the past the “torch for tomorrow” (36).
When she died, the narrator sums up his feelings by saying, “But she is in her grave, and, oh/ the difference is to me!” (Wordsworth 491). He clearly loved this girl, and when she died, his world was turned upside down. My question about the poem is why he does not refer to her by name at the beginning of the poem, and instead waits until the
The poem consists of a monologue of one of the child’s parent who is explaining to his or her child about his or her childhood as the child is asking about the past trying to remember it. It seems as if the parent is denying what the child who talks about the cruel painful past the child had to suffer through over those years. Based on the poem it seems the child has been very badly treated with parts “nobody hurt you”,”nobody sent you away”...This the main topic of the poem the parent talks in a manner as if they were desperately trying cover up something the past presumably from the child now turned
But the speaker suggests that though her marriage did last seven year, the young girl still gets her revenge. The speaker announces finally that she killed the image of her father and of the man who mirrored her him. This poem is about a girl who struggles with the idea of her father. As well as the want to know more about who he was since he died when she was so young. The poem shows the battle she has with herself wanting to be set free.