In The Circus Of You Nicelle Davis

At the beginning of the poem, the speaker, a twelve-year-old girl, is instantly gripped by a strong feeling of lust toward this mysterious seventeen-year-old boy: the paperboy. She even goes on to describe him as a “gift. A fluke from God” as if she believes that she and this boy are destined to be together (2). From her vantage point, the girl instantly notices the boy’s physical characteristics, traits which the young girl appears to admire when she describes the boy’s “bicep in the twilight” (3). This intense, love-at-first-sight reaction to the boy’s arm shows how irrational the girl’s feelings are. She seems to simply lust after the idea of him. The girl has “no memory of language” from their nightly encounters, further showing how this “relationship” was merely visual and very one-sided (6). The boy, potentially, never even notices the girl; and if he does, he does not acknowledge her presence, let alone her strong emotions. The only memories the girl has are from “loitering, lingering far past curfew,” times in which she merely stares at the boy while he completes his daily paper route (7). The girl's depictions of her mother "lost in steam, stirring" and her father "asleep beside his Manhattan, the half-read mail" almost puts the reader directly into the house. The girl, meanwhile, lost her in her emotions, wanders around her yard "without knowing what I longed for" (16). The parents, both focused on other activities, leave the twelve-year-old speaker to do as she pleases in the night.

The narrator of the poem begins with stating that “some kind of shadow was behind her/ she ran towards nowhere/ dark, empty, cold, stuck.” The poem depicts the

Each part was broken up after a noticeable shift and atmospheric changes in the poem. The first part of the poem is during “Sad is the man...with one”(Ln 1-2), and repeats again at “In a room...on his father”(Ln 6-9). These lines create a shift into a narrative stage. It puts a pause on the poem to introduce or explain the scene in the poem. The narrative is important because it shows the point of view of the poem. The second shift is created with “Already the man...should never disappoint”(Ln 10-18). This shift is when the father is thinking about his fears and desires, to be more blunt, the father’s fantasies. It creates an unrealistic tone to the poem an shows the father’s dismay when he cannot remember a story for his son. The last shift begins with “His five-year-old...scratches his ear”(Ln 3-5), and ends with “But the boy...up to silence”(Ln 19-23). This shift bring the poem into reality. In fact the poem states that the “emotional rather than logical equation”(Ln 20) is where most people get confused and frustrated at the world. The poem also states the conflict of fantasy and reality. This conflict is what creates the the multiple shifts and the complicated relationship between the father and the

The poem also contains many similes, “She goes to move, but is as frozen as ice./The ice, melts away and begins to pour”. The similes help create a comparison to help the reader understand what the character is going through. The poem contains a flow of repeated words such as the word ice. This helps make

In the poem it says “The funny faces that she made And the way she'd stomp her feet whenever they mocked the way she walked or the stutter when she'd speak,” This shows being different because she was not like all of the other kids she had these imperfections that the kids would magnify and make fun of. In the middle of the poem it says, “The day his bike met with a car, Leaving him with a dreadful limp And a jagged-looking scar.” This shows the theme being different because he had gotten in a bike accident and had developed these things that were not normal and for these kids to use as coping mechanisms of him to take out their stress or feelings. n the

In line 4, “I can make the blood run back up my nose” begins the shift in the poem by starting the reverse in time. This can be interpreted in two different ways. The first being that this is where the poem begins the shift in time and creates a sense of longing for the past for the reader to understand. The second way that this can be interpreted is that the speaker is currently being abused and by saying, “…blood run back up my nose” is a way to show that life before the abuse was normal and with dad. This can be connected to the second part of the fourth line in where the speaker says, “ants rushing into a hole”. This can hint at a sense of wanting to run away from the current abuse and hide from it. This can also just be letting the reader know that things from this point will be in reverse. These lines are critical for the development of the rest of this

The use of symbolism and imagery is beautifully orchestrated in a magnificent dance of emotion that is resonated throughout the poem. The two main ideas that are keen to resurface are that of personal growth and freedom. Furthermore, at first glimpse this can be seen as a simple poem about a women’s struggle with her counterpart. However, this meaning can be interpreted more profoundly than just the causality of a bad relationship.

Secondly, the author uses word choice to show the speakers overall sorrow. Throughout the whole poem there are word scattered everywhere that describe the general emotion of sorrow, some of those word being “restless” (19), “torment”, and “troubled” (4). These words instantly give the connotation of feelings like despair and sadness. The speaker also uses literary elements such as simile to express sorrow, like when she says “These troubles of the heart/ are like unwashed clothes” (27, 28). Everyday people usually do not pay much mind to unwashed clothes, and usually look at it as something unimportant or irrelevant. When the speaker compares her internal troubles to something that holds little importance to everyday life and is also seen as unpleasant, the readers really get a look into the sorrow and sadness that the speaker is truly feeling. The speaker also uses word choice to help show the readers the true intensity of what she is going through.

The next stanza begins with possibly the most wonderful line in the poem, which speaks to personal survival, joy, and the continuation of life: “You laughed with the spirit of your husband who would toss stars!” (Harjo). Here Harjo uses the metaphor again, this time to compare the widow’s tears to a butterfly, which is both beautiful and fragile. But here, because of the Butterfly Dance, it takes on a special meaning, bringing their daughter into the circle of death and rebirth.

There is a distinct contrast between appearance and reality, which works to reinforce the idea of confining individualistic behaviours to retain the ‘pattern’ of society. In stanza two, she says that “tripping by in high-heeled, ribboned shoes/ (there is) not a softness anywhere about (her)” (lines 16 and 17) when she’s wearing “only whalebone and brocade” (line 18.) The term ‘whalebone’ refers to a whalebone corset, which is a very hard material that is restrictive to movement. By describing her actions as ‘tripping,’ a modern day feminist reader is reinforced that she is not coping in her current lifestyle where she is limited to living in a strict manner. In the next stanza, she says that “underneath (her) stiffened gown/ Is the softness of a woman” (lines 32 and 33.) This develops the idea that the way she dresses is a deceiving appearance, because she is not as stiff and stable on the inside as she comes across on the outside. Deep down she is soft and sad, in mourning of the loss of her lover, yet she cannot express these emotions due to the expectations and restrictions of women during the Victorian era.

Dumont’s use of the lyric poem helps her affective involvement inside the poetry, as it allows her to rouse scenes and characters with no need to set them within a completely described narrative framework; it also allows her to stay at period on pics, emotions, moods, and emotions with out accomplishing a neat feel of closure. The poem "lucky stars," for example, meditates on the speaker’s feelings while she is being driven home in the dark by an older brother. Although the speaker refers briefly to an outside world — "many times I am taken back / to my parents in that logging camp" (17); "a family of ten" (17); "the dark wood ahead" (18) — the poem focuses on the brother and the protection he provides to his younger sister. The brother is affectionately fashioned into a mother duck, "his hair slicked back, a ducktail" (17), in whose "nest of blankets and pillows" (17) the speaker feels safe and protected. This metaphor extends throughout the poem, creating a mood of lightness, warmth, and innocence mirrored by "those big-eyed stars / overhead" (17) and "our high beams

Helena has dreamed of a serpent, eating her heart away, while Helena claims to be as "ugly as a bear" since the other woodland beasts run from her ("for fear" she supposes, but we do not have to agree with this judgement).

In chapter one, also known as ‘the hurting’, the author focuses on trauma that people have dealt with such as sexual abuse from a father or relative, failed relationships with parents, and difficulty with one’s self-expression. One of the poems in chapter one states that the girl’s first kiss was by the age of five and was carried out in an aggressive manner by the young boy, she assumes that he had picked that up from his father’s interactions with the mother. In the poem it says “He had the smell of starvation on his lips which he picked up from his father feasting on his mother at 4 a.m.” It is insinuated that the father uses forceful actions towards the mother during times that should be gentle and affectionate. In that specific poem she felt as if that was when she was taught that her body is only for giving to those who wanted out of satisfaction but she should feel ‘anything less than whole’. In another poem in chapter one, there is a family setting during dinner in which the father orders the mother to hush. This represents how women are constantly oppressed in their own

The use of connotative words in this piece is the foundation of this poem and it provides an idea of what this poem is going to be about. In the first stanza he describes the woman as “lovely in her bones,” showing that her beauty is more than skin deep comparing her virtues to a goddess of “only gods should speak.” In the second stanza, the reader can see and feel the love between the two people. The woman taught him how to "Turn, and Counter-turn, and Stand," showing that she was the teacher in the relationship and taught him things he thought he never needed to know. The speaker shows how when they are together, she was “the sickle” and he was “the rake” showing that this woman taught him what love is.

In both pieces she wishes to be detached from love and responsibility, yet as the poem progresses, she has a change of heart, almost an epiphany.