The oxymoron “ancient innocence” again is symbolic for his reaction and pure joy for the simple surroundings that may sometimes go unnoticed. Gwen Harwood demonstrates the memory of a defining experience and shows the significance and impact it made on the personas life, in Part One of Father and Child. “Owl-blind in the early sun for what I had begun”, this line represents her hindered wisdom in her early ignorance for the pursuit of death. In Part two she finally accepts the inevitability of death. The persona turns to Romantic, naturalistic ideals to soothe her
The poem begins with the speaker looking at a photograph of herself on a beach where the “sun cuts the rippling Gulf in flashes with each tidal rush” (Trethewey l. 5-7). The beach is an area where two separate elements meet, earth and water, which can represent the separation of the different races that is described during the time that her grandmother was alive and it can also represent the two races that are able to live in harmony in the present day. The clothing that the two women wear not only represent how people dressed during the different time periods, but in both the photographs of the speaker and her grandmother, they are seen standing in a superman-like pose with their hands on “flowered hips” (Trethewey l. 3,16). The flowers on the “bright bikini” (Trethewey l. 4) are used to represent the death of segregation, similar to how one would put flowers on a loved one’s grave, and on the “cotton meal sack dress” (Trethewey l. 17) it is used to symbolize love and peace in a troubled society.
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.
The piece revolves around the subject of motherhood, portraying a women who feels smothered and consumed by her children. Poetic devices were used by Harwood to emphasise the affect that change had on the woman and her life progression, whilst illustrating the negative response which became evident as a result. In the poem, whilst taking her children to the park, the woman encounters an ex-lover, briefly discussing their life progression and stating to herself after his departure, that her children 'have eaten [her] alive’. Harwood’s use of this metaphor and hyperbole, shows the affect of the change her choices created, and its impact. The use of symbolism, to a large extent, also portrays the woman’s feelings derived from her sense of imprisonment.
Understanding symbolism, metaphors, foreshadowing, and the construct of stanzas is essential to understanding difficult poems. For the pilgrims they had to outwit wild animals, and hostile natives in their new home. As said by Hirsch in his essay, “It crosses frontiers and outwits the temporal.” Every person once in their life has crossed a frontier, for some it’s a mental frontier, others it’s a physical untraveled land. In “The Mother” the reader must cross a mental frontier, to understand the emotions the writer is expressing.
Throughout the poem, the speaker’s mother seems to be upset. The poems tone shifts when the speaker begins to talk about themselves. The speaker talks down on herself. The speakers states, “I will turn out bad”(31). From this, viewers can assume that the poems tone is unsatisfied.
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
The relationship between father and son is one that is both sacred, yet complex as each side of the relationship faces hardships. This relationship between a son and his role model, a father and his child, is one, has its ups, but one must also know it has downs. In Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” Roethke’s use of ambiguity through diction allows room for the audience to interpret the text in a positive or a negative way, representing the relationship between a father and a son, which on the outside can be interpreted in an either positive or a negative way. Roethke’s use of diction creates an element of confusion for the audience of his poem.
This also symbolizes that she has grown up and grown further away from her father since she has grown up. She no longer has that relationship with him, and it is something she cannot rebuild or
Her journey to her father expresses how much love she has for him. From the momment she leaves her home packing in only five minutes and arrive to only discover that her phone departured in only ten minutes, she gave it her all and made it. Olds interprets of enjambent, allusion, and metaphors prepares the storyline of the poem. She chronoloiges her evenst well and allows the resder to fell a part of the story. To the point of feeling anxious along with the writer and desperate to
He does this to not bombard the reader with a dark abusive poem. This can be seen by the metaphorical style of writing he has incorporated in his poem. For instance, the poet chooses a dance instead of outright saying it was an abusive encounter. Additionally, it shows the love the speaker has for the father. Instead of degrading the father he makes him more human to the reader by adding descriptive words.
4. Abject in “About Face” Similarly to the crucial aspects above, the poem “About Face” represents some issues already mentioned. The poem “About Face”, by Patience Agbabi is a poetic depiction of the mythological painting of the goddess of the hunt Diana and a hunter Actaeon. First of all, the poem has an interesting structure and way of representing and conveying its meaning.
Pressures from society and those around you can feel like a bell jar hovering over you. In the novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, pressures from society and self doubt lead a bright young female college student with loads of opportunity to fall into depression and eventually insanity. The main character, Esther Greenwood, battles with what society wants her to be as a woman and as a person in the 1950’s. When Esther is presented with a prestigious scholarship program for journalism in New York City she is eager to go. She is ambitious and intelligent but the weight of societal expectations, expectations of those close to her, along with her own self doubt cause her to go into the downward spiral of insanity.
Such representations provide the reader with a quick association with multiple aspects of life. Moreover, the enjambments, along with the wording of Lux’s poem remind the reader not to take life for granted, because in the blink of an eye, milestones become memories. Moving through the poem, Lux illustrates through word association that following rapidly guides readers through a child’s infancy, associated with baby teeth. Next, the reader rapidly engages in the view of toddler years, associated with learning words. Progressing into teenage years, and on into young adulthood, Lux illustrates that “she’ll fall / in love with cretins, dolts, a sweets / talker on his way to jail” (Lux, 1989, lines 4-6).
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a semi-autobiographical novel in which Plath relays her own experiences through protagonist Esther Greenwood by highlighting the struggles she faced in navigating societal expectations, depression, and her own desires. Having spent time in college and later in multiple mental health institutions, Plath tells her story through Esther in a way that blends fiction and reality. Through Esther, we see Plath’s own interpretations of her triumphs, failures, values, and the slow but seemingly inevitable diminishment of her mental health. The story starts with Esther Greenwood in New York City, where she is spending a month working at a magazine because she won a scholarship to a special summer program for female writers.
