Shamsiyya Alhassan
Professor Ball
ENGL 1001
20 October 2017
The Role of Lines One to Four in Beware: Do Not Read This Poem by Ishmael Reed In Ishmael Reed’s 1070 poem, Beware: Do Not Read This Poem, lines one to four represents the backbone upon which the entire of the poem rest. Great writers and storytellers have been known to build a complex body of work, based on a small sample of the work itself. This trend in common even in other forms of art like music, where simple lines composed as the chorus of the song, describe the purpose and intent of the entire song. This is also true in poetry, as well as in prose and in most plays. In a play, a scene in an act can define the structure of the play and a paragraph in an essay can serve as the soul of the essay. The same is true in Ishmael Reed’s 1070 classic poem, Beware: Do Not Read This Poem; a complex body of work whose soul can be understood in the first stanza, which describes the personality of the subject (the reader) and the poem itself. The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis about how the beginning four lines help us understand the rest of the poem. To achieve this goal, I have divided the poem into three parts in order to explain how they all relate to the first stanza and to paint a simple picture for understanding this great work. The first section represents a folktale styled intro, introduces us to the personality of the subject of the poem and her relationship to her environment as seen
However, the poem has fluidity despite its apparent scarcity of rhyme. After examining the alteration of syllables in each line, a pattern is revealed in this poem concerning darkness. The first nine lines alternate between 8 and 6 syllables. These lines are concerned, as any narrative is, with exposition. These lines set up darkness as an internal conflict to come. The conflict intensifies in lines 10 and 11 as we are bombarded by an explosion of 8 syllables in each line. These lines present the conflict within one's own mind at its most desperate. After this climax, the syllables in the last nine lines resolve the conflict presented. In these lines, Dickinson presents us with an archetypal figure that is faced with a conflict: the “bravest” hero. These lines present the resolution in lines that alternate between 6 and 7 syllables. Just as the syllables decrease, the falling action presents us with a final insight. This insight discusses how darkness is an insurmountable entity that, like the hero, we must face to continue “straight” through “Life” (line 20).
“Ye sometimes rest; men never can be still but in their graves.” This poem uses many literary devices like similes and onomatopoeia to convey that this world never stops moving and people are in constant rushing. In The Daily Trials of a Sensitive Man by Oliver Wendell Holmes, the author uses language and similes to portray that the world and everyone living in it never stops moving. In this poem, the author uses great language like repetition and onomatopoeia to help convey the message of the motion and great rush of the world and the people in it.
The appreciation of nature is illustrated through imagery ‘and now the country bursts open on the sea-across a calico beach unfurling’. The use of personification in the phrase ‘and the water sways’ is symbolic for life and nature, giving that water has human qualities. In contrast, ‘silver basin’ is a representation of a material creation and blends in with natural world. The poem is dominated by light and pure images of ‘sunlight rotating’ which emphasizes the emotional concept of this journey. The use of first person ‘I see from where I’m bent one of those bright crockery days that belong to so much I remember’ shapes the diverse range of imagery and mood within the poem. The poet appears to be emotional about his past considering his thoughts are stimulated by different landscapes through physical journey.
The absence of meaning in both Carroll and Lear’s poems is significant, even though it may seem like the opposite. When reading these poems for the first time, the reader may be
The works of poetry are often underappreciated and overlooked. The stories of plenty are being neglected in the education of our youth. The work of Cathy Song, per say, personally has never come up prior to the assigning of this paper. In Song’s “The Youngest Daughter”, we are introduced to a variety of meanings in which an analysis full of depth is required to clearly interpret and understand what it is that the speaker is attempting to bring across through the use of clever diction. The poem in itself also contains a compilation of carefully puzzle together literary techniques that are taught to be broken down to provide a good understanding of a work of
The tone of the poem changes as the poem progresses. The poem begins with energetic language like “full of heroic tales” and “by a mere swing to his shoulder”. The composer also uses hyperboles like “My father began as a god” and “lifted me to heaven”. The use of this positive language indicates to the responder that the composer is longing for those days – he is nostalgic. It also highlights the perspective of a typical child. The language used in the middle of the poem is highly critical of his father: “A foolish small old man”. This highlights the perspective of a typical teenager and signifies that they have generally conflicting views. The language used in the last section of the poem is more loving and emotional than the rest: “...revealing virtues such as honesty, generosity, integrity”. This draws attention to a mature adult’s perspective.
The idea of poetry is a long romanticized work of art, that’s been analyzed and exploited over the centuries. Since it was first discovered in 40,000 B.C. it’s revolutionized the style of writing. Poetry wrecked the border and rules of literature, that has taken millenias to be developed by several dynasties and empires. From the billions of poems that have been recorded, and the thousands of themes these authors write about, choosing merely two poems to be compared is almost a disgrace to the community. Disregarding this, two poems from Richard Berengarten and Edgar Allen Poe will be analyzed. Despite their related themes, the two poems narrowly match each other besides the theme of Dreams.
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.
Once the reader begins to really analyze the poem it is apparent that it was not written in a very complex or thought provoking manner. The poem itself is written with an ABAB rhyme scheme and without much
The poem is composed of quatrain stanzas. In each of these stanzas, the speaker reveals descripted imagery of his environment that also correlates with his attitude towards poetry. Additionally poetry can be interpreted to have different meanings in each stanza where the speaker gives poetry personification characteristics, to suit the situation in the stanza where poetry is found.
Reading chapter three was truly a thoroughly enjoyed adventure. In that, it was like a hunt, where the prize catch was a deeper understanding of word choice, word order, and tone. Furthermore, understanding the poets have a duty to words opened up new revelation as the poems in chapter three were read. Notably, the poet Gwendolyn Brooks stated that “I still feel that a poet has a duty to words, and that words can do wonderful things And it’s too bad to just let them lie there without doing anything with and for them” Poetry goes far beyond the simple rhyming of words, it is an art.
The similarity between “Suicide Note” and “Awakening” makes both work almost identical, only being differentiated by the outcome of the character's life or death. Although the illustration of the characters depicts the burdens of establishing a personal identity within a society that impairs the formation of an individual's identity, there is a substantial difference between their psychological states, coping methods, deriving in varied resolutions for each author’s struggles,shown by the authors use of theme, figurative language, and tone. The entirety of the poem and song theme depicts a multitude of changes in the character's identity while they try to cope and resolve their struggles of achieving a ‘perfect persona’ set on to them by society.
Essentially a monologue set within a frame, this poem creates two personae. The anonymous author gives a brief introduction and conclusion. The Wanderer, an aging warrior, who roams the world seeking shelter and aid. The Wanderer’s monologue divides into two distinct parts, the first being a lament for his exile and the loss of kin, friends, home, and the generosity of his king. In nature, he finds absolutely no comfort, for he has set sail on the winter stricken sea. Poignantly, the speaker dreams that he is among his companions, and embracing his king, only to awaken facing the gray, winter sea, and snowfall mingled with hail.
First of all poetry conveys the reader more better feeling about how the character feels, in stanza 7, line 25-28, it states,
Reread what chapter two has to say about the importance of history and context to understanding poetry. Keeping these two aspects in mind, write a paragraph in which you explain what the following quotations from the poem refer to: