Pastan stated in an interview that she stopped writing for about ten years, because she could not be the perfect wife and mother that she was expected to be and also commit herself to her poetry (Brown, 3). She considers herself “a product of the ‘50s – what I called the perfectly polished floor syndrome. I had to have a homemade desert on the table for my husband every night” (Brown 3). Such experiences reflected her poetry, significantly. Pastan uses many poetic devices, such as metaphors.
In the short poem “Marks” my Linda Pastan, you are given an insight on the life of a wife who is also a mother of two. The setting of the story takes place in a standard family home, but instead of feeling like you were home it felt more like school. This poem is an extended metaphor; the author uses grades a student would normally get in school to compare to how her family measures to being a mother as well as a wife. Now through dialogue you can tell that she is not actually receiving grades for the required chores she has to do but it helps communicate the message to the audience. Due to the fact that it’s easy for just about any one reading this to relate to a grading system cause we all have received an amount of schooling before.
Through contrasting and comparing these two poems we become aware of two very different insights into how on how a mother copes when her child grows up and leaves home. The two poems are vastly different. Whilst Stevenson’s poem presents a mother’s relaxed, passive reaction to this, La-Rose’s poem shows an angry, resentful mother. Each poem presents a different perspective, which in turn creates two completely different poems. These differences become apparent by comparing the poem’s titles, theme, tone, language and form.
Carolyn Kizner’s pantoum “Parent Pantoum” (1996) laminates that the speaker is conflicted about her daughter’s adolescent behavior and attitude. Kizner explores the speakers discontent between herself and her children using metaphor, juxtaposition, and parallel structure. Through her contemporary pantoum, Kizners speaker marvels at her “enormous children” (1) in order to try to understand how the girls can “moan about their age” (6) but still appear in “fragile heals and long black dresses” (7). Kizners pantoum addresses the speakers view on how kids act when they are in their adolescent years with a bewildered tone, however; as the poem progresses, the speaker develops her own ideas about why teens behave the way they do in a hopeful and proud tone. In stanza one, the speaker uses paradox to establish the fact that she is in awe about how fast her children have grown up.
When the author was younger, he would get up and see his father get up early on a Sunday morning, warm the house, and shine the son’s shoes, but he didn’t quite realize that his father is doing this out of love until he got older. In Sharon Old’s poem, the mother had trouble letting go of her daughter and seeing her grow up so fast, because to her, the daughter was still like a baby to her and she was not ready to let her go to become independent and maturing to be a older and responsible woman. She was also afraid of losing her responsibilities as a mother and a parent. The relationships between parents and children can ultimately lead to acceptance at the end. For example in the poem “ The Possessive, the mother accepted that her daughter is growing up.
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker has a tone that demonstrates aggravation and shame towards her mother. During the description of the mother, Hogan worded it in a way the reader could interpret as a negative connotation, which was later made clearer when Hogan pronounced the Grandmother’s hatred toward the white settlers. The speaker’s father, uncle, Grandfather, and Grandmother were all Native Americans, who were constantly removed from their land, where their farms and homes were destroyed by the prospective oil dreamers. “It was the brown stain that covered my white skirt, my whiteness a shame” (28) By inserting this line into the poem, Hogan was able to show what the speaker was really thinking. A lesser author would have put that line at the beginning of the poem, leaving no imagination for the reader.
Pam Muñoz Ryan wrote the book this exact way for one reason. She wanted it to impact everyone and everyone 's decisions. Hope is one of the strongest themes in this book because with everything Esperanza had going on if she would 've lost hope, she would 've lost herself and Ryan explains this very well to hope to make an even bigger impact on readers. Most people have been in many situations, I know I have, where you only need or want one thing and nothing else can fix it or help you.Sometimes events in your life can be difficult and frustrating but once someone of something helps you, you feel so much better. I think this book is such a moving story
To be specific, this is saying that the meaning of writing is exploring people’s internal thoughts. For Tan, writing is a method to figure out her mom’s thought and her attitude of life. This is an outstanding use of pathos because readers can recognize the change of her mom’s position to her. Her mom was a shame for her when she was a kid, but now her mom is the motivation, the center of her writing. Even there are cultural and generational gaps between Tan and her mom, Tan finally overcomes them and notices how value her mom’s thought is, which is impressing.
If this poem is read literally, it is incredibly repulsive, as it talks about eating tongues and hearts in a cannibalistic nature.When read figuratively, however, the poem is seemingly understandable and somewhat humorous. The speaker uses a tongue and a heart to characterize her sister’s and brother’s issues with the speaker. The “small bones and gristle” (3) of the tongue indicate a sharp speaker, capable of conceiving sarcastic retorts. This description sounds harsh, and causes the reader to feel uneasy. She goes on to say, "it will probably grow back" (6), indicating that even if her sister’s attitude is resolved for a little while, it will come back.
The simile in stanza three: "which tensed the air like an accident" is a negative connotation such as awkwardness. The "An embarrassing word, broken to bits" shows that she could be restricted, lacking freedom. The first main idea of the poem would be on Duffy’s religious perspective and imagery describing the women’s superficial talk and behavior during her period. The first stanza can be seen representing women 's being inhibited by social conventions during the 60s, Although this was not explicit as she was writing this poem at that time.Since women at that time would be going around shopping and buying