What Is The Tone Of A Poem By Sharon Olds

In the past decades, when referring to American Indians, people often associate racism. Native American culture is linked to the culture’s history of racial discrimination. Diane Burns, a Native American, who was born in Kansas and grew up in the U.S. Her poems usually revolves around Native American stereotypes. The poem “Sure You Can Ask Me A Personal Question" is one of her typical works. The title suggests that there are many questions and answers in this poem. The poem is built up as a monologue, even though it is a dialogue between an American Indian and a louder voice in the American society. With a unique narrative, the author divides the poem into three sections, each of which gives the viewer many views about the main character

In the poem, “35/10” by Sharon Olds, the speaker uses wistful and jealous tones to convey her feeling about her daughter’s coming of age. The speaker, a thirty-five year old woman, realizes that as the door to womanhood is opening for her ten year old daughter, it is starting to close for her. A wistful tone is used when the speaker calls herself, “the silver-haired servant” (4) behind her daughter, indicating that she wishes she was not the servant, but the served. Referring to herself as her daughter’s servant indicates a sense of self-awareness in the speaker. She senses her power is weakening and her daughter’s power is strengthening. It also shows wistfulness for her diminishing youth, and sadness for her advancing years. This

"The Race" by Sharon Olds is an uneasy poem about the situations a daughter has to pass in order to reach her father. The poem is broken into what seems fear and retribution. In the beginning of the poem the author addresses the characters situation, " . . . When I got to the airport I rushed up to the desk, bought a ticket . .

In the poem “On the Subway,” Sharon Olds uses imagery and descriptive language, tone, and metaphors and similes to express the contrast between the two individuals and her thoughts afterwards. Olds uses imagery and descriptive language to show the differences between them. She’s white he’s black, he’s “dressed poorly like that of a mugger” but she has on a fur coat. She’s eating steak but he is not, and they are on opposite sides of the car. She also uses similes and metaphors. “A couple of molecules stuck in a rod of light rapidly moving through darkness.” which I think explains the train ride. “he is wearing red, like the inside of the Body exposed.” showing how open he is from all the negativity he gets from his skin color. “The rod of

Both Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were great writers but their attitudes towards their personal experience as an African American differed in many ways. These differences can be attributed to various reasons that range from gender to life experience but even though they had different perceptions regarding the African American experience, they both shared one common goal, racial equality through art. To accurately delve into the minds of the writers’ one must first consider authors background such as their childhood experience, education, as well their early adulthood to truly understand how it affected their writing in terms the similarities and

Allison Joseph and Sekou Sundiata are both great writers who engage the world by expressing their struggles through poetry. Both authors write about how people make assumptions because of what they hear and see around them. Their poems discuss the altercations and obstacles they have faced only because of the color of their skin. In the poem “On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like a Black Person,” Joseph incorporates a wide breath of experiences from her point of view. She expresses her strong emotion by using descriptive language which allows us to read with emotion. In “Blink your eyes,” Sundiata shows the intensity of his feelings by using the repetition of phrases and reinforcing the poems irony.

Taking things for granted often leads to losing sight of the depth that objects or people provide in life. As seen in ‘Ode to Dirt,’ by Sharon Olds, she realizes what we owe to dirt and have gained from its existence. She only realized this after taking a step back and taking in all that dirt. In her poem, ‘Ode to Dirt,’ she uses literary devices such as word choice and figurative language to convey how her complex attitude toward the dirt has evolved from once a disdain to a newfound appreciation. To start, the poem has several examples of figurative language, most notably metaphors.

Rosemary Dobson's Poetry "Rosemary Dobson seems intent on presenting a view of life as bleak and generally uninteresting In the poems by Rosemary Dobson it generally presents the view of life as bleak. " The Tiger" is an example of this. This also reinforces the limitations on her poetic inspirations. The idea is presented by the effective use of imagery, tone, sound devices and the temporary progression.

Dorothy Livesay’s work expresses her identity as both woman and poet. In integrating female experience into her work, Livesay challenges patriarchal views of “the poet” as an archetype and the connection between male and female and nature and culture. Livesay states “I have always been fascinated by the role of woman as writer” (Livesay 2), in examining Livesay’s poetry from 1926-1944 the role of “woman as writer” speaks on women’s issues through connecting the identity of woman to nature and the patriarchy to culture. Livesay’s work holds radical feminist thought, through examination of her nature imagery and the conflicts presented between nature and culture her poetry can be viewed through a radical feminist lens as “ecofeminism”. Ecofeminism links feminist ideology with ecology and suggests that paternal-capitalistic society has “lead to a harmful split between nature and culture”(Cirksena and Cuklanz 29), linking “the treatment of women to the treatment of the environment.(Cirksena and Cuklanz 30). Although Livesay identifies with nature, she still holds a place in culture as a citizen and a writer and through "identifying herself with both nature and poetry she creates for herself a unique female poetic role: that of mediator between culture and nature" (Relke 219). Livesay challenges the patriarchal views of "the poet", the treatment of women in society and the connection between culture and nature. Taking on the role of "poet mediator" between culture and nature,

In the poem “Passed On” by Carole Satymurti, the speaker tells a story almost as in a novel of their mother and how she left them a box of index cards with advice on life when she died. The speaker’s gender seems to be female. In the poem, the poet presents the theme of growing up and becoming one’s own person through the maturation and acceptance process. She personifies the index cards themselves, comparing them to her mother. They also characterize the speaker and her mother and create a mood of sadness and longing, implying that perhaps the mother has been dead for some time, but the speaker has never truly accepted this.

Race plays a big part in this poem. He speaks on Harlem and its culture and this environment but also about mutual interest with people

Throughout this poem Hughes has placed many symbols in the readers mind to bring the image of the African American people to thought. He reminds African American readers of their origin and what they have been through by using the

All three of the poems discussed in this essay relate to the struggles suffered by African Americans in the late 18th century to the early 19th century in many different ways. They had to live under harsh

The author in this poem shows us two different point of views coming together. Both poems have been written to demonstrate us the differences and the similarities. Sharon shows us how both world are in reference to one another but at a final time they come together. At the beginning of the poem, the two boys are from different races and are on the opposite side of a car. That symbolizes the separation among races and color. The simile in this poem is being used to describe the little boys apparel, for example, “ black sneakers with complex pattern make a self of invented scars”. Then the color he talks about “red” shows the color inside, which refers to being something very dangerous. However, the poem has a change in mood at first it had

This poem is written from the perspective of an African-American from a foreign country, who has come to America for the promise of equality,