Hard Rock Returns To Prison Analysis

Ask yourself. How could six million Jews be persecuted and butchered? The memoir “Night,” written by Holocaust Survivor Elie Wiesel is about the experience Wiesel saw during the Holocaust and the torment and killings he saw and how it affected his life. The author uses similes and imagery to reveal a dramatic and sad mood to the reader to explain the thoughts and atrocities Wiesel saw during the Holocaust.

In his poem “an Echo Sonnet, To an Empty Page” poet Robert Pack introduces a narrator and his alter ego who exchange questions and answers that subsequently reveals the poet’s prospects and attitudes toward life. The narrator, or “the voice,” seems like a timid man who is afraid to plunge into his own life, because he fears the future and inevitable consequences of his mortality. The “echo,” which is the narrator’s alter ego, or a persona, answers the the voice’s questions in a way that drive the voice to take a certain prospect in life. Pack designed the poem masterfully in a way that it utilizes the traditional form of a shakespearean sonnet and an addendum of on “echo,” which communicates a cleaner and more direct message to the readers. Furthermore various literary techniques such as symbols, extraposition, and imagery add to the meaning of the poem Through form and literary techniques, Robert Pack emphasizes, through the answers of the “echo,” that no matter how frightening life seems to be, it is important to take a “leap.”

Paul Laurence Dunbar is known as one of America’s early and most well-known African American writers. He not only has many published poems, but also short stories, essays, and novels as well. He began writing early in his life, and in 1889 was editor of the Dayton Tattler, a newspaper published by the famed Orville Wright who, with his brother, invented the airplane. Though the newspaper was short lived, for Dunbar to be in such a position as a young African American during this time was a clear sign of his intelligence and talent. In 1899, Dunbar wrote a poem titled Sympathy. This poem, which was clearly influential in the literary world, even inspired one of Maya Angelou’s famous works “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”.

Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the most influential black poets of the 1980’s. Dunbar is best known for his poems written in dialect. A prime example of Dunbar 's work in Dialect is his poem “An Easy Goin ' Feller”. He was able to expand his audience beyond the black working class to whites as well. He was able to this by making his poems seem more human and easier for his audience to relate to. Dunbar was a self educated poet and publisher with high goals for himself. These goals come to haunt him later on in his life. Critics did not feel the same way he did about blacks, and they criticized his writings for his likings. Him growing up following the civil rights movement influenced his writing tramentisly. Dunbar was the son two former

Similar to Randall’s poem, in “Hard Rock Returns to Prison” imagery shows the struggle of being a proud African American during the civil rights movement. Hard rock is described as, “Split purple lips, lumped ears, welts above / His yellow eyes, and one long scar that cut / across his template” (Knight lines 3-5). The description of Hard Rock makes the reader visualize a much wounded individual. Hard Rock’s description shows if that if does not agree with you he will let you know, making him fearful. The scars on his body show his indifference to physical pain and refusal to live to the current standards of a racist time period. His strength to continue on despite having no voice in society is what others look up too. Randall writes, “A hillbilly called him a black son of a bitch / And didn’t lose his teeth…” (lines 24-25). After his lobotomy he becomes mentally incapable and is forced to accept racism because he can’t show his actions anymore. The image created shows that Hard Rock can no longer put up a fight against racism. Hard rock being rebellious led to the death of not only him, but his peers who supported him in silence. Hard Rock’s punishment helps visualize how it served as a warning to the other men to not be heroic, the prisoner’s just need to worry about themselves, rather than being brave and revolting like Hard Rock did. Knight’s use of imagery is a reminder of how brave African Americans who wanted equal rights were not necessarily

Hoagland’s use of space and long lines pulls the reader into the rhythm so that the audience can see the world through his perception. He strives to bring the outside world into the reader’s small spaces and forces them to acknowledge that there is a big world out there that hinges on our everyday lives, whether they want to see it or not. In addition to this, the form the author chose for this poem is free verse. To explain, a free verse poem does not follow any rules. The creation is completely in the hands of the author. Rhyming, syllable count, punctuation, number of lines, number of stanzas, and line formation can be done however the author wants in order to convey the idea. Hoagland takes advantage of the fact that there is no right or wrong way to write this form of

Miguel Piñero believes that if any person were to die, they should be buried in the place where they became who they were. Piñero implies that the place where the most obstacles were overcome is the place that should be called “home.” According to lines 29-31, the speaker says, “A thief, a junkie I’ve been committed every known sin Jews and Gentiles..” (Piñero). In 1963, Piñero committed a burglary and went to prison. After encountering life in prison, he became a heroin addict. Through harsh experiences, Piñero became highly influenced his poetry. Piñero establishes pathos by using the words “I” and “sin” to evoke strong emotion. To make the reader fully understand his point of view, Piñero incorporates small clips of his experiences to illustrate his licentious life of petty crime.

The poem is very much structured like a winding swamp. The arrangement of the poem itself

In Chapter 12 we learn about the living environment in prison and the process of leaving the prison life. When a criminal is exiting prison depending on the crime they have committed coming back into society can be hard or difficult for them. The prison system is put there to

This is a free verse poem in that it does not contain rhyme scheme or meter. The poem is made up of twenty nine lines in total. The poem contains varying lengths of stanzas. There are two each of one line stanzas, couplets, and quatrains, and five tercets. The syllables each line contains ranges from six to

For some people who are serving a life sentence, being in prison is too much to handle. In January two inmates, David Sweat and Richard Matt, began planning their great prison escape. On June 6, 2015 both prison inmates escaped from a maximum security prison in New York. Even though the duo spend several months working together to execute a plan, the pair was not alone in their planning. In order to escape they needed to get the help of a prison employee. Even when the odds were against these two men, they were determined to get a taste of freedom one more time.

This poem is mostly about a fallen hero of some sort to the inmates of the prison. Hard Rock was a constant source of inspiration to the fellow inmates and patients, but he was quickly brought done by the circumstances of his environment. “Since 1980, the number of inmates in U.S. prisons and jails has grown from roughly 500,000 to over two million. Today the United States jails a higher number of its citizens than the top 35 a countries in Europe combined.” (Inmate Nation 5). Hard Rock is just one of many example of the effects mass incarceration has on African Americans. This concept is just a modern day movement to reform America’s problem, Black Americans. Looking back at the Poem, I recognized the similarities between Hard Rock and mass

Both inspiring and heartbreaking, the poems “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley and “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” by Emily Dickinson give an honest insight to the realities of life. It is demonstrated by both poems that often times there are difficult and unconventional aspects to human life, but both poems also illustrate that people can be healed from these aspects and be brought out of misery. Through each poet's diction, choice of imagery, and structure these ideas are found.

Choosing a monotonous rhyming scheme, the author mimics Mr. Cuff’s communication. Words are “stuck” and “rusted” showing that Mr. Cuff has lost himself and connection to others, “the boy reminded him of how stuck he was.” Written in the final stanza, the exception reveals Mr. Cuff has breathed his last breathe forcing everything to change. Death is the only true life changing experience, for when we have died we embark forwards to unknown. Life changes because we are either reborn or dissolved to the heavens.

For starters, the jail visit was quite alarming and eye opening to me. I never knew that facility was down there right next to the capital. I always picture jails or prisons in rural area. When touring the classroom where the imamates work on their schooling, I was looking at pictures of the previous students. As I looked at each picture, a familiar face popped out at me. It was a guy I had attended high school with. He was a fun, caring, and silly guy. He sat next to me in my English class sophomore year. After that year, he never came back to school. I had wondered where he went, but I figured he had just transferred schools. It was a moment I'll never forget as I stared at his picture. Jail or prison is something that just seems fake. For me, it isn't an issue or problem I have to hear or see about rarely ever. After visiting I feel like it isn't some made up place, it has become real to me. For the guy I know serving his sentence, I just want to know where he went wrong. I can only hope that he will be put on the right tracks in his life. He is