After a Greek Proverb is an eloquent poem written by A.E. Stallings in 1968. It’s a villanelle that expands a Greek proverb that translates into: “nothing is so enduring as the accidental”. The only thing that is consistent in life is the inconsistent; emotions, objects, thoughts, etc. This notion is merely revealed with more sophisticated diction through the original Greek proverb. Yet many can pull positivity from this lesson, having a better understanding of the things around them and how living a life of none attachment can be rewarding if everything will continue to disappear before them. The proverb starts the conversation but the poem goes deeper and illustrates it by pointing out the negative side if we are to flip over the coin. It’s through this analysis of a positive and negative side, do both the poems and proverb gradually begin to differ, in both structure and focus. Consequentially the poem delves into the tragic cost of seeing nothing more permanent than the temporary. The poem touches on these costs when is examines regret, a feeling unsettlement, and the fear of good fortune. For now, regret will be discussed. Of course when faced with this reality of temporary aspects of life, it is no surprise the speaker had trouble starting anything. This is evident in lines such as; “We’re here for the time being, I answer to the query-/Just for a couple years, we said, a dozen years ago…Nostalgia and tear gas have the same acrid smack …Twelve years now and we’re
Clint Smith is a writer, teacher, and doctoral candidate in Education at Harvard University with a concentration in Culture, Institutions, and Society. Smith Clint wrote a poem called “Something You should Know.” The poem is about an early job he had in a Petsmart. The poet allows the readers into his personal life, but before he had trouble opening up to people and his work. Moreover, Clint wrote an insight in the poem about relying in anything to feel safe and he says it is the most terrifying thing any person can do.
In the excerpt of Cutting for Stone, Verghese recurrently variates the mood throughout his text. Through vivid imagery, Verghese illustrates emotion visually on the faces, as well as through actions of the characters. In addition to imagery, emotions are aroused through onomatopoeic words and aroma. The reader is then struck with a macabre backstory arousing sorrowful emotions within the reader. Verghese uses sensory details, along with backstory to efficaciously expose the reader to the emotional duality of happiness and sadness.
“Carpathia”, a short story by the poet and memoirist Jesse Lee Kercheval. The short story was written for a segment in her book “Building Fiction”. The main plot is a fictional story about her parents in their honeymoon. The setting is in April 1912, when the titanic sank. Jesse Lee’s parents were on the Carpathia, a ship that picked up the Titanic survivors. It also focuses on the role of women in society.
A less theoretical definition of poetry is, “putting the best words in the best possible order.” A poet may incorporate the theory as follows. The poet may astutely choose words possibly with a double meaning in order to indirectly convey a message, evoke emotions, or to slander. Then, the poet may unconventionally place such words and phrases perhaps out of expected order for the sake of creating a “word picture,” emphasizing the speaker’s feelings, or offering tangibility to the poem. By implementing this idea onto poetic works, the poet will have auspiciously written a superb poem. This theory may be applied to a few of Catullus’s poems specifically “Carmen 5”, “Carmen 8”, and “Carmen 85.” Catullus’s meticulous choice of words and arrangement highlight the central focus of the poem, obliquely criticize traditional Roman law, manipulate the audience’s attitude, transmit the speaker’s emotions, paint “word pictures,” and offer symbolic meaning consequently producing a successful poem.
“Once upon a time there was a wife and mother one too many times” (Godwin 39). This short story begins with the famous opening, once upon a time, which foreshadows that the story line will be similar to a fairy tale. It raises expectations for the story that all will be magical and end happily. A typical modern-day fairy tale is that of a distressed character who overcomes an obstacle, falls in love with prince charming, and they ride off into the sunset; living happily ever after never to be heard from again. Godwin however, puts an unexpected twist on “A Sorrowful Woman”. This short story is a tale about what can happen when everyday roles take over our identity. Ultimately, this short story challenges societal expectations of marriage
Anger has always been the down fall of humanity. For generation man fought in war for political claiming their rights. What right does any one man has gather troops in the name of love, hatred and thirst has send innocent people to their death. What make men mad that give their back to their people that they can careless for the consequent or outcome of their action. In the end of a war who wins and who losses. People that no one will ever know who they were but with courage fought for? In the Iliad, Homer’s descries the moment when the warriors filled themselves with bravery and yell the cry of war prior to going into battle, this is also the same cry that generation that follows become conflicted
The Desire of freedom, the temptation of danger and nostalgia for childhood are examples of twists and turns observed going through life, but it is often at their last moment that people take the time to realize how important their surroundings are and the time passed is precious. Frost poem, “nothing gold can stay” is a writing, underlining the lost in which we are confronted and the incertitude of the future. However, Sylvia Plath’s poem is pointing out more and more the unusual way she sees the world and her own life with her writing “Mirror”. With both of these poems, the reader go through the meaning of life according to both authors. Through disparate personification, imagery, and symbolism, Frost and Plath utilize those literacy diverse to emphasize their poems themes human vanity and the fear of aging.
Ted Kooser, the thirteenth Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner, is known for his honest and accessible writing. Kooser’s poem “A Spiral Notebook” was published in 2004, in the book Good Poems for Hard Times, depicting a spiral notebook as something that represents more than its appearance. Through the use of imagery, diction, and structure, Ted Kooser reveals the reality of a spiral notebook to be a canvas of possibilities and goes deeper to portray the increasing complexities in life as we age.
Again, the author selects a new set of imagery, such as stars, moon, sun, ocean, and wood to remind of the heaven in which the speaker used to live, and then to sweep it off right away. The last statement “For nothing now can ever come to any good” (16) finally reinforces the speaker’s loss and unhappiness. In loneliness, the speaker’s love becomes fiercer and more truthful. It is the fierceness and truthfulness that lead the speaker to the last stair of hopelessness. The end of the poem is also the hopeless end of the speaker’s life because of “nothing …good.”
The Homeric simile is a trademark of the epic poem. It describes an extended simile, which continues for lines on end, and the extended simile’s vehicle often describes multiple characteristics of its tenor (Cite Sharon Hamilton!). Homer uses the Homeric simile throughout The Iliad to describe the Trojan or Achaean people and/or army as a group. Yet, the Homeric simile also applies to an individual many times throughout the text, specifically, The Iliad’s protagonist: Achilles. Achilles is a complex and dynamic character. Despite his almost superhuman strength defining his identity, he rejects the heroic code, and his fated downfall in The Iliad’s Book 24 ultimately defines him. The Homeric simile symbolizes Achilles’ strength in battle,
The Poem “Introduction to Poetry” is by Billy Collins, an English poet, and it is about how teachers often force students to over-analyze poetry and to try decipher every possible meaning portrayed throughout the poem rather than allowing the students to form their own interpretation of the poem based on their own experiences.
Throughout The Iliad, an epic poem written by Homer, there were numerous warriors and other characters that could be looked upon as heroes; some of these heroes included Achilles, Ajax, Diomedes, Hector, and Glaucus. All of these individuals were heroes because of their remarkable mental and physical strength: they were courageous and were better fighters in war than other ordinary men. The trade of battle was a way of life to the Greeks back in Homer’s time. Children were raised to become great servicemen to their country, and warriors lived to fight for and defend their nation with pride and valor. The heroic code was a strict morality that dealt with matters relating to honor and integrity in battle.
“In the darkness the fields / defend themselves with fences / in vain: / everything / is getting in” (Atwood, 28-33). The man in Margaret Atwood’s poem “Progressive Insanities of a Pioneer” is in a situation similar to the stranger in Douglas LePan’s poem “A Country Without a Mythology.” The man in Atwood’s poem as well as the stranger in LePan’s poem are both unsure of where they are. In “Progressive Insanities of a Pioneer” the man tries to separate himself from his environment; however, in “A Country Without a Mythology” the stranger tries to adapt himself to his environment. By analyzing the content, structure, and meaning of “A Country Without a Mythology” the reader will understand that if the stranger openly accepts his surroundings
The twenty-four old romantic poet John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” written in the spring of 1819 was one of his last of six odes. That he ever wrote for he died of tuberculosis a year later. Although, his time as a poet was short he was an essential part of The Romantic period (1789-1832). His groundbreaking poetry created a paradigm shift in the way poetry was composed and comprehended. Indeed, the Romantic period provided a shift from reason to belief in the senses and intuition. “Keats’s poem is able to address some of the most common assumptions and valorizations in the study of Romantic poetry, such as the opposition between “organic culture” and the alienation of modernity”. (O’Rourke, 53) The irony of Keats’s Urn is he likens
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” declared by an influential leader Martin Luther King Jr. As a soldier againsts unfairness, King strongly states that people should fight for freedom. Driven by human nature, humans are always chasing freedom. In “A Century Later,” the Pakistan-born British poet Imtiaz Dharker uses the poetic devices of symbolism, diction, and allusion to explore how perseverance drives freedom.