1. Begin by revisiting a Jigsaw song of your choice. Paste the lyrics into Word and reread them. Choose an element or device to classify and explore in an analytical paragraph of at least 5 sentences. Every single sentence should fulfill the requirements represented in the rubric.
2. Next, choose three of the poets listed below and copy and paste three poems of your choice (from three different poets) into Word. Utilize your experience in analyzing songs to study and analyze the poem. Refer to the SSRS form if need be, and produce two additional five sentence analyses, again focusing on an element or device to classify and explore.
After proofreading, post your results as a comment here.
Your teacher will randomly select on sentence from each analysis to grade with the rubric. (3 quizzes total). Do your best- these are our last assessments before the end of the course.
Robert Frost
Seamus Heaney
Jane Kenyon
Robert Creeley
Gwendolyn Brooks
Cornelius Eady
38 comments:
In the song “Me and Bobby McGee,” Janis Joplin utilizes 1st person narrative to express through her own personal experiences that for some, people can find happiness from their past and would “trade all my tomorrows for a single yesterday.” Through the subtle use of positive irony Joplin expresses her fondness of times past and urns to go back. In her story with Bobby McGee, Joplin verbalizes her affection for him and seeks ways to call him back. Joplin also show her shallowness by “hey, feeling good was good enough for me,” possibly exemplifying that Bobby McGee wasn’t a true love, but just a lover. Through the use of 1st person narrative Janis Joplin in “Me and Bobby McGee” that she wants to go back to the past and revisit her fond memories, because life without Bobby McGee aint good enough for me.
john royle
Personification
In “Carry On” Stephen Stills of CSNY conveys enchanting personification in order to get his point across that life is a cycle and that “love is coming to us all”. While saying “The sky is clearing and the night has cried enough” he is referring to a storm that had taken place; more or less a break-up that the he was devastated by and is starting to get over; also now in the morning he is seeing the sun and the world is starting to “soften up”. While using this relaxing personification he adds a hyperbole in the mix which carries on the song by talking about “new eyes” which relates to the new outlook and perspective he has on the sudden change in his life. With his girlfriend leaving so abruptly he is left with questions, “questions of a thousand dreams”, because he doesn’t know what he did wrong for the reasons why she left. Stephen Still writes a song that is about losing love, without knowing the reasons why, and putting personification in to add another dimension to the cliché topic.
-Paige Almeida
Personification
In “Carry On” Stephen Stills of CSNY conveys enchanting personification in order to get his point across that life is a cycle and that “love is coming to us all”. While saying “The sky is clearing and the night has cried enough” he is referring to a storm that had taken place; more or less a break-up that the he was devastated by and is starting to get over; also now in the morning he is seeing the sun and the world is starting to “soften up”. While using this relaxing personification he adds a hyperbole in the mix which carries on the song by talking about “new eyes” which relates to the new outlook and perspective he has on the sudden change in his life. With his girlfriend leaving so abruptly he is left with questions, “questions of a thousand dreams”, because he doesn’t know what he did wrong for the reasons why she left. Stephen Still writes a song that is about losing love, without knowing the reasons why, and putting personification in to add another dimension to the cliché topic.
Melissa Potvin
Poetry of song G
12/20/12
The song “The high cost of low living” is classified as like you have such a good life that its almost to perfect the line “so many people here love ya but you just can’t the real ones that know to drop your name” as in their your friends to your face then they turn around and say so much negative things about you. Another statement is “they lift the flesh from your bones you should have known through all their games” which means that you should of seen the bad talk coming cause their fake right to your face. that line leads into this one that says “been chancing these dreams with whiskey from here to Tokyo using up all your real friends but no place left to go” which means you spend so much effort and time on your fake friends that your using your real friends that actually love you. the line “it’s the high cost of low living ain’t it high time trying to turn yourself around and it’s the high cost of low living that will put you 6 feet in the ground” means all the partying and the things your doing might be fun but in the end if you don’t change your going to end up dead. don’t look behind you ahh don’t look back sometimes you find reasons in the past ..past is gone – goin fast” which means now that you changed it was for the better and theres no reason to look back to where you ended cause all that partying and stuff wasn’t any good and wasn’t getting you far. Which the whole songs is saying you can have fun in life but their. comes a price and time and a place for the good times but you have to know who your real friends are.
Sand Dunes –Robert frost
Sea waves are green and wet,
But up from where they die,
Rise others vaster yet,
And those are brown and dry.
They are the sea made land
To come at the fisher town,
And bury in solid sand
The men she could not drown.
She may know cove and cape,
But she does not know mankind
If by any change of shape,
She hopes to cut off mind.
Men left her a ship to sink:
They can leave her a hut as well;
And be but more free to think
For the one more cast-off shell.
This poem by Robert frost is saying that the sand dunes are a symbol of the beach the place where he goes to think and a special place to him.
Wash –Jane Kenyon
All day the blanket snapped and swelled
on the line, roused by a hot spring wind....
From there it witnessed the first sparrow,
early flies lifting their sticky feet,
and a green haze on the south-sloping hills.
Clouds rose over the mountain....At dusk
I took the blanket in, and we slept,
restless, under its fragrant weight.
In this poem jane Kenyon is explaining how the smell of a clean blanket can take you to a place your mind would only dream about.
A Song –robert creely
I had wanted a quiet testament
and I had wanted, among other things,
a song.
That was to be
of a like monotony.
(A grace
Simply. Very very quiet.
A murmur of some lost
thrush, though I have never seen one.
Which was you then. Sitting
and so, at peace, so very much now this same quiet.
A song.
And of you the sign now, surely, of a gross
perpetuity
(which is not reluctant, or if it is,
it is no longer important.
A song.
Which one sings, if he sings it,
with care.
Robert Creely is saying in this poem he wasn’t trying to make a song when he was writing down his thoughts.
JACKIE TOOMEY
PART 1
Contrasting the lifestyles of living the “high” life and becoming a “low” life in “The High Cost of Low Living”, the Allman Brothers incorporate instances of paradoxical cliché throughout their song that serve to illuminate the ways in which people who don’t live up to their full potential and value their lives are going to end up paying the ultimate price: ending up buried “six feet in the ground”. The cliché goes that people who live the low life start off being “the life of the party, everybody’s host”, and seem to be having a wonderful time enjoying themselves “until [they] need somewhere [they] can hide”, when they realize that although they are surrounding themselves with many people, and appear to be living the high life, in actuality there is nobody left for them to turn to because they had “used up all [their] real friends”. Those who are in this situation tend to figure out too late that they had “so many here who love[d][them], and still, [they] just [couldn’t] tell”, which is an example of paradoxical cliché because this situation is rather common, and paradoxical because they have people who love them, but can’t tell that those people are there, although people who care about you are usually good at letting you know. Yet another occasion where paradoxical cliché presents itself would be in the title itself, “The High Cost of Low Living”, due to the fact that usually one who lives the low life should not be expected to pay a high price, but can also be interpreted to mean that by living the low life, one is giving up many opportunities in their life, missing out on many different things, and soon they are going to need to “turn [themselves] around.” It is very apparent that throughout their song, the Allman Brothers weave paradoxical cliché into the story line, creating an ominous mood that aids in enhancing the idea that unless one wants to end up paying the ultimate price, they need to turn themselves around and not “look back.”
JACKIE TOOMEY
PART 2
Digging by Seamus Heaney
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pin rest; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.
Jackie Toomey
Poetry of Song G
Digging; Seamus Heaney
Contrasting the narrator’s own personal desires with the aspirations and occupations of their forefathers in “Digging”, Seamus Heaney makes use of hardworking, determined imagery and potent, appreciate symbolism in order to convey a commonplace occurrence in which a person is torn between fulfilling familial goals and chasing after their own dreams. The ways in which Heaney uses imagery to create a hardworking, determined image of the narrator’s predecessors aids in creating a sense of admiration that is radiated from the narrator. By describing the way that “the old man could handle a spade” and how he was “heaving sods over his shoulder” allows the narrator to show their appreciation for the hard work and manual labor provided by the father, while at the same time concluding that working out on a farm or “digging” is not right for them. The narrator uses the same hardworking imagery in order to explain how he has “no spade to follow men like them”, but the pen he holds between his finger and thumb will act as his tool, and he will “dig with it”. Just as the pen he holds is the narrator’s choice of tool, that same pen is used to symbolize the goals and ambitions of the narrator. The spade, which is used to symbolize the aspirations of his forefathers, is quite different than that of his own preferences, which in turn symbolizes the constant struggle between family members and their offspring that can present itself once the difference in interests arises. Although there are differences in the family’s choice of occupations, the narrator expresses acceptance and appreciation for the other family members’ jobs, although it is not what he prefers.
Jackie Toomey Part 2 Continued
My Mother, if She Had Won Free Dance Lessons; Cornelius Eady
Shifting between questioning the past and “wonder[ing]” about his mother’s future in “My Mother, if She Had Won Free Dance Lessons”, Cornelius Eady uses the narrator of the poem in order to incorporate elements of “sympathetic” characterization and “abandoned” imagery into the metaphorical representation of him and his mother’s relationship through elements of dance. The way in which the narrator describes his mother as “the neighborhood crazy lady” exemplifies the ways that his feelings about his mother are less than desirable, and serve to characterize her as nothing more than a dancer who only knew “one step” He describes how, as a child, his mother “abandoned [him] in a world larger than [his] bad dreams, which paints an image of a lone child, lost in a place they shouldn’t be, much like a dancer who is stuck in an “endless loop” of repetitive moves. He uses diction that characterizes dancers so that he can accurately describe the relationship between him and his mom. The dancers in the metaphor represent the narrator and his mother, while their “crazy” dance serves to represent the way everybody else doesn’t understand their relationship, but they function within it just fine. Although it appears that the narrator has some sort of hidden disdain for his mother, this metaphor also represents the ways that he adores her, and the functionality behind their communications despite the abnormalities.
Metaphors are an important device to use in poetry and lyrics. They challenge the reader/listener to analyze what they are saying. Without them the song would be straight forward and would not leave much to the imagination.
He is that fallen lance that lies as hurled,
That lies unlifted now, come dew, come rust,
But still lies pointed as it ploughed the dust.
If we who sight along it round the world,
See nothing worthy to have been its mark,
It is because like men we look too near,
Forgetting that as fitted to the sphere,
Our missiles always make too short an arc.
They fall, they rip the grass, they intersect
The curve of earth, and striking, break their own;
They make us cringe for metal-point on stone.
But this we know, the obstacle that checked
And tripped the body, shot the spirit on
Further than target ever showed or shone.
The Soldier by Robert Frost, alludes to man kind’s treatment of soldiers in times of war. People forget about their sacrifice’s since they are not directly seeing the battles we wage. “He is that fallen lance that lies as hurled, That lies unlifted now, come dew, come rust,
But still lies pointed as it ploughed the dust. “ The “too short an arc” of our missiles signify that we should be sending them away, away from harm of other human beings, but instead that is what is intended in war. “They fall, they rip the grass, they intersect
The curve of earth, and striking, break their own” their own being men we share this planet with. We are not a unified species, and for reasons unknown seem to constantly fight each other and self destruct.
Limbo by Seamus Heaney
Fishermen at Ballyshannon
Netted an infant last night
Along with the salmon.
An illegitimate spawning,
A small one thrown back
To the waters. But I'm sure
As she stood in the shallows
Ducking him tenderly
Till the frozen knobs of her wrists
Were dead as the gravel,
He was a minnow with hooks
Tearing her open.
She waded in under
The sign of the cross.
He was hauled in with the fish.
Now limbo will be
A cold glitter of souls
Through some far briny zone.
Even Christ's palms, unhealed,
Smart and cannot fish there.
The narrative tale of the fisherman in Limbo, by Seamus Heaney, depicts quite an inquisitive scenario. The fisherman “netter an infant last night Along with the Salmon.” It is said it was “an illegitimate spawning.” The fisherman tossed her back as if a fish, and for that reason had been pulled into the sea as if he too were a fish. “He was hauled in with the fish, now limbo.”
Storm Fear
When the wind works against us in the dark,
And pelts with snow
The lowest chamber window on the east,
And whispers with a sort of stifled bark,
The beast,
'Come out! Come out!'-
It costs no inward struggle not to go,
Ah, no!
I count our strength,
Two and a child,
Those of us not asleep subdued to mark
How the cold creeps as the fire dies at length,-
How drifts are piled,
Dooryard and road ungraded,
Till even the comforting barn grows far away
And my heart owns a doubt
Whether 'tis in us to arise with day
And save ourselves unaided.
Robert Frost’s Storm Fear seems to warn of the dangers of a winter storm. Being trapped outside could prove dangerous. “I count our strength, two and a child” alludes to the struggle to keep moving through the storm. Examples of metaphoric imagery include “the lowest chamber window on the east” which I find to refer to southern New England, and the storm there for being a “nor’ Easter.” They plan to fight through this storm “unaided” showing the determination they have to over come such hardship.
Drew Erickson
Poetry of Song G
“Carry On” by Stephen Stills of CSNY Colin Feeney
One morning I woke up and I knew 1/23/12
You were really gone
A new day, a new way, and new eyes Class-G
To see the dawn.
Go your way, I'll go mine and
Carry on
The sky is clearing and the night
Has cried enough
The sun, he come, the world
to soften up
Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice but
To carry on
The fortunes of fables are able
To sing the song
Now witness the quickness with which
We get along
To sing the blues you've got to live the dues and
Carry on
Carry on
Love is coming
Love is coming to us all
Where are you going now my love?
Where will you be tomorrow?
Will you bring me happiness?
Will you bring me sorrow?
Oh, the questions of a thousand dreams
What you do and what you see
Lover can you talk to me?
Girl when I was on my own
Chasing you down
What was it made you run?
Trying your best just to get around.
The questions of a thousand dreams
What you do and what you see
Lover can you talk to me?
In the wonderful song “Carry On”, Stephen Stills employs many unique hyperboles to show how he can be creative and sarcastic in many ways. Stephen Still says “love is coming to us all” and this is a hyperbole because he doesn’t know that love is coming to every single person. Hyperboles are exaggerations and can be the opposite of the truth.
Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost
Shifting from fire to ice, in the poem I have never read before “Fire and Ice”, Robert Frost uses masterful metaphor in order to show how some the two modes of ending the world. There are two ways people think the world will end, “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.” Some think that fire because they think a gigantic explosion of the sun will make the world turn into a supernova. Also, some think ice because they think an ice age will cause cooling and dying of the sun and the consequent extinction of all life.
Biscuit
The dog has cleaned his bowl
and his reward is a biscuit,
which I put in his mouth
like a priest offering the host.
I can't bear that trusting face!
He asks for bread, expects
bread, and I in my power
might have given him a stone.
Jane Kenyon
In “Biscuit”, Jane Kenyon uses imagery in order to how the audience what the dog is doing. “The dog has cleaned his bowl and his reward is a biscuit.” This is showing/telling us that the dog has cleaned his bowl and got a reward for it. Now the dog wants bread and “I can’t bear that trusting face!” the owner says, which is showing us even more imagery. The dog is now expecting the bread but the owner has more power over the dog maybe just “might have given him a stone."
A Form of Women
I have come far enough
from where I was not before
to have seen the things
looking in at me from through the open door
and have walked tonight
by myself
to see the moonlight
and see it as trees
and shapes more fearful
because I feared
what I did not know
but have wanted to know.
My face is my own, I thought.
But you have seen it
turn into a thousand years.
I watched you cry.
I could not touch you.
I wanted very much to
touch you
but could not.
If it is dark
when this is given to you,
have care for its content
when the moon shines.
My face is my own.
My hands are my own.
My mouth is my own
but I am not.
Moon, moon,
when you leave me alone
all the darkness is
an utter blackness,
a pit of fear,
a stench,
hands unreasonable
never to touch.
But I love you.
Do you love me.
What to say
when you see me.
Robert Creeley
“Carry On” by Stephen Stills of CSNY Colin Feeney
One morning I woke up and I knew 1/23/12
You were really gone
A new day, a new way, and new eyes Class-G
To see the dawn.
Go your way, I'll go mine and
Carry on
The sky is clearing and the night
Has cried enough
The sun, he come, the world
to soften up
Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice but
To carry on
The fortunes of fables are able
To sing the song
Now witness the quickness with which
We get along
To sing the blues you've got to live the dues and
Carry on
Carry on
Love is coming
Love is coming to us all
Where are you going now my love?
Where will you be tomorrow?
Will you bring me happiness?
Will you bring me sorrow?
Oh, the questions of a thousand dreams
What you do and what you see
Lover can you talk to me?
Girl when I was on my own
Chasing you down
What was it made you run?
Trying your best just to get around.
The questions of a thousand dreams
What you do and what you see
Lover can you talk to me?
In the wonderful song “Carry On”, Stephen Stills employs many unique hyperboles to show how he can be creative and sarcastic in many ways. Stephen Still says “love is coming to us all” and this is a hyperbole because he doesn’t know that love is coming to every single person. Hyperboles are exaggerations and can be the opposite of the truth.
Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost
Shifting from fire to ice, in the poem I have never read before “Fire and Ice”, Robert Frost uses masterful metaphor in order to show how some the two modes of ending the world. There are two ways people think the world will end, “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.” Some think that fire because they think a gigantic explosion of the sun will make the world turn into a supernova. Also, some think ice because they think an ice age will cause cooling and dying of the sun and the consequent extinction of all life.
Biscuit
The dog has cleaned his bowl
and his reward is a biscuit,
which I put in his mouth
like a priest offering the host.
I can't bear that trusting face!
He asks for bread, expects
bread, and I in my power
might have given him a stone.
Jane Kenyon
In “Biscuit”, Jane Kenyon uses imagery in order to how the audience what the dog is doing. “The dog has cleaned his bowl and his reward is a biscuit.” This is showing/telling us that the dog has cleaned his bowl and got a reward for it. Now the dog wants bread and “I can’t bear that trusting face!” the owner says, which is showing us even more imagery. The dog is now expecting the bread but the owner has more power over the dog maybe just “might have given him a stone."
A Form of Women
I have come far enough
from where I was not before
to have seen the things
looking in at me from through the open door
and have walked tonight
by myself
to see the moonlight
and see it as trees
and shapes more fearful
because I feared
what I did not know
but have wanted to know.
My face is my own, I thought.
But you have seen it
turn into a thousand years.
I watched you cry.
I could not touch you.
I wanted very much to
touch you
but could not.
If it is dark
when this is given to you,
have care for its content
when the moon shines.
My face is my own.
My hands are my own.
My mouth is my own
but I am not.
Moon, moon,
when you leave me alone
all the darkness is
an utter blackness,
a pit of fear,
a stench,
hands unreasonable
never to touch.
But I love you.
Do you love me.
What to say
when you see me.
Robert Creeley
The Allman Brothers’ “The High Cost of Low Living”
You’re the life of the party
everybody’s host
until you need somewhere you can hide
All your good time friends
and your farewell to has-beens
lord knows, there just along for the ride
you think you’re a survivor; lord, you better think twice
no one rides for nothin' step up and pay the price
--------------(CHORUS)---------------------
it's the high cost of low livin'
ain't it high time you turn yourself around
it's the high cost of low livin'
bound to put you six feet in the ground
----------------------------------------
so many here who love ya; And still, you just can’t tell
the real ones that know to drop your name
all the while behind your back
they lift the flesh right from your bones
you should know by now through all their games
been chancing these dreams with whiskey
from here to Tokyo
using up all your real friends, and no place left to go
--------------(CHORUS)---------------------
it's the high cost of low livin'
ain't it high time you turn yourself around
it's the high cost of low livin'
bound to put you six feet in the ground
--------------Bridge-----------------------
Don’t look behind you Ahh don’t look back
Sometimes you find reasons in the past
past is gone____goin' fast
--------------(CHORUS)---------------------
In “High Cost of Low Living”, The Allman Brothers use a detrimental paradox. This paradox: “the high cost of low living”, obviously makes no sense on the outside, for “low living” usually does not cost much, money-wise. In terms of paradox, “low living” is the pool of unregulated decision-making which plagues the individual. After a while of being “the life of the party”, it starts to sink in and take a toll. When an individual lives a low life, the “high cost” of it catches up and the consequences could be life-threatening.
Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
In “The Road Not Taken”, Robert Frost uses a natural extended metaphor. Frost uses the “two roads…in a wood” to compare to his life. He explains the tough decisions he had to make as a youth which “made all the difference” in his life. The first road leads to less work and ignorance, while the second leads to hard work and “the better claim”. By taking the second, “the one less traveled by”, Frost has obtained all he needs and lives in great content.
A Marriage
The first retainer
he gave to her
was a golden
wedding ring.
The second--late at night
he woke up,
leaned over on an elbow,
and kissed her.
The third and the last--
he died with
and gave up loving
and lived with her.
In “A Marriage”, Robert Creeley uses subtle satire. Creeley wants the reader to be enveloped in a ring of nonchalance in order to understand what “a marriage” really is. The man gives a “wedding ring”, love, and eternal gratefulness. The woman seems to be behind an iron curtain of indifference. As life goes on, the man realizes that he is wasting his time and “[gives] up loving” her.
Song
“Carry On” by Stills
One morning I woke up and I knew that you were gone.
A new day, a new way, I knew I should see it along.
Go your way, I'll go mine and carry on.
The sky is clearing and the night has gone out.
The sun, he come, the world is all full of light.
Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice but to carry on.
The fortunes of fables are able to sing the song.
Now witness the quickness with which we get along.
To sing the blues you've got to live the tunes and carry on.
Carry on, love is coming, love is coming to us all.
Where are you going now my love? Where will you be tomorrow?
Will you bring me happiness? Will you bring me sorrow?
Oh, the questions of a thousand dreams, what you do and what you see,
Lover, can you talk to me?
Girl, when I was on my own, chasing you down,
What was it made you run, trying your best just to get around?
The questions of a thousand dreams, what you do and what you see,
Lover, can you talk to me?
Internal rhyme is densely present inside the song “Carry On” by Stephen Stills in order to portray the idea that one must “sing the blues”, “live the dues and carry on” which alludes to crying, coping, and carrying on with one’s life after their lover has left them. Due to the decade in which the song was written, the imagery involved is relative to hippie culture, which intensifies the internal rhyme in “The sun, he come” and “A new day, a new way” because it helps to characterize the disposition of the speaker. “The fortunes of fables are able to sing the song” combines objectification with internal rhyme in order to show that a fate that seems to be too bad to be true can “sing” happily because “love is coming to all”. Alliteration coupled with the think internal rhyme inside “Carry On”, shown in “Now witness the quickness with which we get along is used to convey the split couples ease to “get along” with each other after the breakup. The inclusion of dominating internal rhyme only before the instrumental and lyrical shift in this song demonstrates how quickly one’s emotions can shift when trying to cope with a broken heart.
Poems
“Once by the Pacific” Robert Frost
The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God's last Put out the light was spoken.
In “Once by the Pacific”, Robert Frost uses figurative language in order to convey the idea that “dark intent” is as large and as scary as an ocean. “The clouds were low and hairy in the skies/Like locks forward in the gleam of eyes” utilizes a simile as well as foreboding imagery to show how the clouds are hiding the light from the observer. The overall structure of “Once by the Pacific” consists of couplets, and when figurative language is added in the form of personification, adds to the short bursts of fear portrayed before the impending storm or hurricane suggested in this poem. “Great waves looked over other coming in” includes personification along with imagery to portray the ever strengthening waves coming in toward the shore. Robert Frost uses multiple forms of figurative language in “Once by the Pacific” and pairs them with other literary devices, such as imagery, to illuminate the impending doom about to hit “the shore”.
“Briefly it Enters, and Briefly Speaks” Jane Kenyon
I am the blossom pressed in a book,
found again after two hundred years. . . .
I am the maker, the lover, and the keeper. . . .
When the young girl who starves
sits down to a table
she will sit beside me. . . .
I am food on the prisoner's plate. . . .
I am water rushing to the wellhead,
filling the pitcher until it spills. . . .
I am the patient gardener
of the dry and weedy garden. . . .
I am the stone step,
the latch, and the working hinge. . . .
I am the heart contracted by joy. . .
the longest hair, white
before the rest. . . .
I am there in the basket of fruit
presented to the widow. . . .
I am the musk rose opening
unattended, the fern on the boggy summit. . . .
I am the one whose love
overcomes you, already with you
when you think to call my name. .
In “Briefly it Enters, and Briefly Speaks”, Jane Kenyon utilizes kind-hearted metaphor in order to demonstrate how happiness is found everywhere in our world. The metaphors found in each verse of this poem are coupled with imagery, as found in “I am the blossom pressed in a book”, for the purpose of portraying the many forms of joy that readers can easily relate to. Symbolism, paired with the ever-present metaphor, is found in “I am the patient gardener/Of the dry and weedy garden” to show how happiness weeds out the destruction and terrible things in the world. “I am the musk rose” utilizes synesthesia with metaphor because it causes the reader to see a beautiful rose as well as remember the smell of the bloom in order to show different forms people notice happiness. Jane Kenyon combines metaphor with other devices in “Briefly it Enters, and Briefly Speaks” to show all the little ways happiness “briefly… enters” each person’s life.
The Mirror
Seeing is believing.
Whatever was thought or said,
these persistent, inexorable deaths
make faith as such absent,
our humanness a question,
a disgust for what we are.
Whatever the hope,
here it is lost.
Because we coveted our difference,
here is the cost.
In “The Mirror”, Robert Creeley utilizes morbid figures of speech in order to convey the idea that humans are “a disgust” because they covet their “difference”. The first line of this poem, “Seeing is believing”, is used as a double entendre because it refers to looking into a mirror and as a figure of speech, a cliché. The second stanza of “The Mirror” contains both imagery and personification, another figure of speech, in order to shown how murder makes believing humans are good creatures is impossible. Personification and imagery are also found coupled in “Our humanness a question/A disgust for what we are” to illuminate the gross things humans are according to the author. The structure of this poem adds to the idea of humans being inhumane because there is no rhyme-scheme or pattern found, showing that humans are not intellectuals. Robert Creeley pairs figures of speech with devices and tools in “The Mirror” so he can show how inhumane man is.
Amy Pereira (1 of 4)
“Seek Up” by Dave Matthews Band
Assuming the persona of a greedy figure whom he ultimately talks down about, in “Seek Up”, Dave Matthews Band uses lethargic imagery to portray the idea that some people “seek up a big monster, for him to fight your wars for you”, but in the long run shows that laziness is not the key to success. Also showing the universal idea that one has to work hard to be successful, the speaker states that the “things you have collected, well in the end piles up, to one big nothing” further explaining the adverse effects that being covetous and greedy has on one’s life. Covetous tone is also utilized through imagery in “Seek Up” through saying that one’s “cup is overflowing” to show that some people have more material things than their “cup” can hold. This song also portrays the use of sarcasm through imagery as well when the speaker says to “look at me in my fancy car, and my bank account” to make sure the listener realizes the detrimental effects the way of life he states has on people. This song also uses the analogous idea that a “merry-go-round” is like the on-going suffering and pain in the world today, in the fact that the lives of these people are “spinning” out of control.
Amy Pereira (2 of 4)
“Otherwise” by Jane Kenyon
In this narrative tale titled “Otherwise”, Jane Kenyon uses repetition in order to display an ordinary day of hers and to show how lucky she is that something bad could have happened and “it might have been otherwise”. When the speaker says she “got out of bed with two strong legs”, it was like her thanking God for the ability and opportunity to walk and stand up through the telling of her daily life. Keeping up with the grateful tone, the speaker goes on to describe how she is thankful for her “cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach”, her “mate”, and the dinner they had together as well. Her desire for “another day just like this day” is so great that she sits up in her bed and thinks of all these things in her day she should be thankful about. In the end though, the speaker knows that “one day” “it will be otherwise” showing, again, her full knowledge of how lucky she is that her life is normal for the time being; though she knows something bad is bound to happen someday.
Jared Marvel
In “Seek Up,” Dave Matthews Band adopts a greedy point of view to satirize the selfishness of many people in today’s society. Though we could end poverty for “the price of a coke,” people are more worried about a “fancy car” and “bank account.” The writer adopts this point of view to make his point more direct and personal; he enters the mind of the man who would take his wealth “into [his] grave,” making them “pile up to one big nothing.” He wants to make the listener realize how uncomfortable these actions are. He shows how well off we are as well, juxtaposing the lavish life of an American with the life of “Tv’s hungry child.” He satirizes those who can “forget about being guilty” for thinking about their next car rather than the starving child’s next meal. Through this mocking of a greedy person’s point of view, Dave Matthews Band satirizes the inconsiderate men and women who are so well off, but can’t think of anyone but themselves.
In “Perhaps Not to be is to be Without Your Being,” Pablo Neruda employs consistent shifts in point of view to imply that we are inspired “because of love.” He wants us to see that each person has a soul mate who will guide them that others “may not see as golden.” This shows that though they aren’t perfect, they are perfect for their soul mate. His purpose of constantly shifting point of view is to show that soul mates become unified and “will come to be” but only “because of love.” He is saying that we need our soul mate to make it through life inspired and content.
In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost exercises employs symbolic motif to elucidate how decisions should be made with more than choosing “perhaps the better claim.” The road “less traveled by” was a mistake that he made which “he shall be telling..with a sigh.” This decision which he regrets will haunt him because he did not look further into the decision than it being “grassy and [wanting] wear.” He is trying to show the reader that each decision we make is “all the difference” in our life and should be contemplated deeply.
In “Lovers on Aran,” Seamus Heaney engages natural personification to question if “sea define[d] the land or land the sea.” He turns the shore and ocean into lovers who “rush to throw wide arms” around each other. His questioning which lover defines the other shows that he wants us to find that they both define each other equally. The personification of land and sea to lovers makes the topic universal in that it pertains to our world and relationships. Heaney helps us see the “wide arms of rock around a tide” as if they were embracing each other and not “posess[ing]” each other.
Amy Pereira (3 of 4)
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
In the poem, "The Road Not Taken" Robert Frost uses natural imagery to tell the reader that the road one chooses might be the right or wrong one, but “that has made all the difference”. This quote, the shift in the speaker’s life, is there to imply the importance of the road “not travelled by” in their life. Through the description of the “yellow wood”, we can infer that the season if autumn; in this season, plants die and the speaker is trying to show how death and sadness can persuade someone to choose a different “road”. The speaker saying how he “took the one less travelled by” shows the importance of one being your own person and not doing something because everybody else is doing it; it shows the speakers unique thoughts and twists on certain situations. Through the soft words of the speaker we can deduct that the speaker is trying to say that of one takes the easy way out then one will not see a change in their life; if you want change, then you’ll have to work for it.
Amy Pereira (4 of 4)
“Sadie and Maud” by Gwendolyn Brooks
Through the characterization of two sisters, in “Sadie and Maud’, Gwendolyn Brooks portrays the lives of opposite sisters that grow up and grow apart and to finally saying their “last so-long”. The speaker shows how one can make the “wrong” decision and still be happy through the “Maud and Ma and Pa’s” shame, but also through Sadie still living a good life, showing even further that you don’t have to do what everybody else is telling you is right to be happy. The speaker doesn’t come out and say that Maud is jealous of Sadie, but we can infer that she is through the diction and metaphors in the last stanza; “Maud, who went to college, is a thin brown mouse. She is living all alone in this old house”. When the speaker talks about how Sadie “scraped life with a fine toothed comb”, it is symbolizing how Sadie doesn't miss out on any fun in her life and how she lives it to the fullest.
“A Cliff Dwelling”, Robert Frost
There sandy seems the golden sky
And golden seems the sandy plain.
No habitation meets the eye
Unless in the horizon rim,
Some halfway up the limestone wall,
That spot of black is not a stain
Or shadow, but a cavern hole,
Where someone used to climb and crawl
To rest from his besetting fears.
I see the callus on his soul
The disappearing last of him
And of his race starvation slim,
Oh years ago - ten thousand years.
Shifting from naturalistic imagery to humanistic observation, Robert Frost’s “A Cliff Dwelling” contemplates the potential significance behind even the most inconspicuous sights. The imagery Frost evokes in the opening lines – “There sandy seems the golden sky/And golden seems the sandy plain/No habitation meets the eye” – is intentionally sparse, describing two inherently empty bodies, then explicitly states that the area described is uninhabited. Frost then idly speculates as to the meaning behind the “spot of black”, saying it might have been the hiding place of some ancient being. Frost chooses to downplay the possibilities he presents; despite discussing remarkable circumstances, taking place long ago, he chooses to discuss them casually, particularly in the phrase “Oh years ago – ten thousand years”, in which he nonchalantly reveals the wide scope of his supposition. This balance between relative natural barrenness and casual speculation maintains the humble even as it explores expansive ideas and images.
“Death of a Naturalist”, Seamus Heaney
All year the flax-dam festered in the heart
Of the townland; green and heavy headed
Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.
Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.
Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring
I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied
Specks to range on window-sills at home,
On shelves at school, and wait and watch until
The fattening dots burst into nimble-
Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how
The daddy frog was called a bullfrog
And how he croaked and how the mammy frog
Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was
Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too
For they were yellow in the sun and brown
In rain.
Then one hot day when fields were rank
With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs
Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges
To a coarse croaking that I had not heard
Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.
Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cocked
On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:
The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat
Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.
I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings
Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew
That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.
Utilizing naturalistic imagery in an unorthodox manner, Seamus Heaney’s “Death of a Naturalist” seeks to satirize the frequent romanticization and glorification of nature by depicting natural settings in a manner designed to shock and disgust the reader. Through a series of unpleasant descriptions, Heaney reveals that nature, contrary to the pure, clean depictions it has been given by many, has a much more primal, earthly, crude side. Heaney’s use of imagery extends towards nearly all the senses: sound (“The air was thick with a bass chorus.”), smell (“Then one hot day when fields were rank/With cowdung in the grass…”), and touch (“That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.”) all accompany the vivid visual descriptions, deliberately aiming to create an all-encompassing sensory atmosphere. In addition to providing an alternate viewpoint on the natural world, Heaney explores the value of the seemingly unsavory setting to a child, narrating from the persona of what can be deduced (through the use of childlike terms such as “daddy frog” and “mammy frog”, in addition to an allusion to one “Miss Walls”, who it can be assumed is likely a teacher) is an adventurous youth. By using the childlike persona to effectively and fully display the grimy nature of the natural world, Heaney manages to portray the subject matter in manner that is neither inherently negative nor soullessly neutral.
“Hesitation Blues”, Cornelius Eady
I am five or six years old, and my mother is on her knees.
She is at the county welfare office, and something has gone
wrong. The assistance she'd hoped for isn't going to
happen, and she is at the end of her rope.
She has three children, and whatever our daddy is doing, it
either isn't enough, or it's barely too much, since her
arguments will not move whomever is sitting behind this
desk, looking at the top of her head.
My mother has fallen for love, for mercy, for her children,
to her knees.
But there will be no pity for whatever sorrows have pushed
her to this. To the ears I can't fully remember, her crisis
must have rung of back door blues. How impatient they
must have become for my mother to rise, O careless love, O
easy rider, off their hard luck floor.
Observing the fruitless struggles of a mother in need, Cornelius Eady’s “Hesitation Blues” sparingly uses poetic devices in order to convey plainly the simple reality of the narrator’s impoverished life. Eady’s decision to speak plainly – dictating events explicitly, using common clichés and idioms – helps define the persona of the narrator as an ordinary being. However, Eady does use more figurative language towards the end, using it to accentuate his previous descriptions and describe the narrator’s reactions more vividly and precisely. The narrator colloquially relates his response with the phrase “To the ears I can’t fully remember, her crisis/must have gung of back door blues”, giving us some idea as to the greater time and setting behind the story. In doing so, Eady creates a work that serves not only as a personal recounting of, for want of a better word, an anecdote, but also as a potential portrait of what life was like for countless others – in short, a piece of massive, relatable scope.
John Royle
In the poem “All That Gold Does Not Glitter” John Tolkien utilizes contradictory statements to express the main idea that you should not take everything in life for surface value and to look deeper into the predicament or current situation. Tolkien exemplifies his main idea using short punch lines to push his ideas across. From “From the ashes a fire shall be woken” one can come to a conclusion that anything is possible and the smallest chance can give hope and spark a fire. In the poem “All That is Gold Does Not Glitter” John Tolkien uses contradictions to push his idea that you need to look deeper into different situations and do not judge a book by its cover.
In the poem, “The Road Not Taken” Robert Frost utilized indecision and past regret to make the choice to take the path less traveled, or try to make both decisions. In the poem Robert Frost tells a story about himself and a fellow poet, Edward Thomas would walk on a path and always come to a decision, left or right, and after that decision he would want to take the other path out of curiosity. The main idea of this poem can be taken many different ways, but I came to the conclusion that, in taking the road less traveled, Robert Frost is challenging the reader to make a decision he or she is normally uncomfortable with and see where it takes you. In Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken” he challenges the reader to experience new opportunities and uses indecision to show his outlook on “The Road Not Taken.”
Shifting from a disapproving tone to a hopeful outlook in “The High Cost of Low Living”, The Allman Brothers use bitter second person point of view and denouncing irony, while ending with positive mood in order to communicate that it’s not too late to “turn yourself around” despite paying “the price” of “low living”. The band refers to “you” as the “life of the party” in a resentful manner, criticizing how “you” have “been chancing these dreams with whiskey” and “using up all your real friends”. The overall tone is aggressive, creating a tone of karma, “no one rides for nothin’ step up and pay the price” but at the same time a hint of forgiveness is expressed with, “so many here who love ya” which describes the “real friends” that the subject left behind. The title is ironic and is repeated in the chorus with, “High cost of low living” which uses irony to show that being “the life of the party” and “low livin” doesn’t go without a cost. The words “high” and ‘low” are contrasting and are used to show the reality of the situation.
Acceptance
When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud
And goes down burning into the gulf below,
No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud
At what has happened. Birds, at least must know
It is the change to darkness in the sky.
Murmuring something quiet in her breast,
One bird begins to close a faded eye;
Or overtaken too far from his nest,
Hurrying low above the grove, some waif
Swoops just in time to his remembered tree.
At most he thinks or twitters softly, 'Safe!
Now let the night be dark for all of me.
Let the night bee too dark for me to see
Into the future. Let what will be, be.'
-Robert frost
Shifting time spans from one day to “into the future” in “Acceptance”, Robert Frost uses natural imagery and suggestive symbolism in order to communicate that humanity does not “let be” enough and that an animal such as a bird is much more “accepting”. Frost utilizes the outdoors scenery of a bird “swooping” in the evening sky towards its “remembered tree” which creates an atmosphere of a tranquil night. The symbolism is in the birds who thinks “safe” when he gets home and accepts the darkness in the line, “let the night be too dark for me to see” which shows it’s peaceful nature. The last line, “into the future. Let what will be, be” illuminates the meaning of the title “Acceptance” and suggests that nature is more at peace than humans.
Digging
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.
-Seamus Heaney
Shifting from a rhyme scheme to free verse in "Digging", Seamus Heaney utilizes ancestral characterzation, rugged imagery, and conflicting narrative in order to show his admiration of his father and grandfaterhers work, but his ultimate desicion to "dig" with a pen instead of a spade. In the poem, Heaney describes his father and grandfather with pride, "by god, the old man could handle a spade/just like his old man" which displays, with admiration, his families on going work as digging in the yard. The imagery is crucial in capturing the hard work his father does, "He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep/To scatter new potatoes that we picked". His narrative, although one of respect, is conflicting in the sense that he does not want to "follow men like them", instead there is an important use of wordplay, "Between my finger and my thumb/The squat pen rests/I'll dig with it" which replaces the literal form of "digging" with "digging" ideas out of his mind onto paper.
The Road Not Taken
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
Symbolism
In “The Road Not Taken” Robert Frost uses naturalist symbolism to show how people need to follow what they believe they should do, and not do what everyone else is doing because they are doing it. When Frost says “two roads diverged in a yellow wood” he is referring to how people usually have 2 choices- the way everyone is going and the way that you want to go. The symbol is the road which illustrates the choices that people make that will put them down a certain path in their future. People are afraid to make an important step, and thus take the path that is taken by most. People need to find what they like and take a chance at it, and not be set back because the road you want to take “because it was grassy” and “bent in the undergrowth”.
-Paige A.
February: Thinking of Flowers
Now wind torments the field,
turning the white surface back
on itself, back and back on itself,
like an animal licking a wound.
Nothing but white--the air, the light;
only one brown milkweed pod
bobbing in the gully, smallest
brown boat on the immense tide.
A single green sprouting thing
would restore me. . . .
Then think of the tall delphinium,
swaying, or the bee when it comes
to the tongue of the burgundy lily.
Imagery
In February: Thinking of Flowers Jane Kenyon describes a field he is in with tremendous imager that makes one feel as if they are sitting in with the character. When saying “Nothing but white--the air, the light; only one brown milkweed pod bobbing in the gully, smallest brown boat on the immense tide” it gets the reader imagining that they are floating along in a pond with not a care in the world. One feels relaxed and taken back when reading this because it is so simple yet you feel so amerced in it. When Jane says “the bee when it comes to the tongue of the burgundy lily”, gives moving imagery, but also gives it personification because a lily can not have a tongue rather than a part of the flower that the bees get to create their honey from. For such a simple poem, the immaculate yet basic imagery really bring the poem to life.
-Paige A.
Grief Bird
After those buildings fell,
And New York City stank from bad intent,
And the wind twirled with human pigment,
And the sky darkened in one spot and howled,
There we walked, newborn, holding flashlights and shovels,
Dusty with shock, the streets painted mad,
Ears still smarting from the evil crumble.
Now the combing, the sifting,
Now the hauling, the uncovering.
The astonished song.
Imagery
Cornelius Eady in “Grief Bird” tries to set an image or visual when ready this depressing and upsetting poem about an actual event, 9/11. By saying “New York City” and “The sky darkened in one spot and howled” it is clearly talking about the falling of the towers and the dust and smoke that filled the air. When the madness was over people came out where “we walked, newborn, holding flashlights and shovels” to help find survivors and try to make out what had just happened. “Grief Bird” is another word for the plane that hit the tower and caused so many innocent deaths. The melancholy imagery shows what the people were going through at the time with “the hauling” and “the uncovering”.
-Paige A.
1. In the song “Me and Bobby McGee,” Janis Joplin utilizes positive irony to show us the listeners that some people choose to live in their past. Due to the fact their past was much better than their present time. Janis Joplin uses irony when she says “But feeling good was easy Lord when he sang the blues,” characterizing herself through conveying her warm feelings for “Bobby McGee” via her happy response to his singing of “the Blues”, typically a very depressing genre of music. In this piece of imagery “Windshield wipers slapping time I’s, holding Bobby’s hand in mine.” Usually windshield wipers would represent the rain, and the rain would be a symbol for the theme “sadness”. It’s ironic because she says “Holding Bobby’s hand in mine” meaning she is not sad, she is actually happy, and loving the fact she is holding his hand. Furthermore, Janis uses a loving tone to show us the listeners that some people prefer to live in their past memories.
2. In the poem “Otherwise”Jane Kenyon uses effortless imagery to show people that you should always be grateful for what you have because one day “it will be otherwise.” Jane uses symbolic imagery when she says “I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe flawless peach. It might have been otherwise.”This is a simple basic everyday thing, but she makes it sound so good, like if her day started out perfect, because she had her bowl of cereal. Therefore she is being very thankful, for what she has because one day there will be no “perfect” cereal and “ripe peaches.” Jane Kenyon also uses a lovely tone to show us the readers that life is to short, and you should always be grateful.
3. In the poem “Grief Bird” Cornelius Eady uses mournful imagery to show us how sad the 9/11 attack was. He uses sad imagery when he says “ After those buildings fell, and New York City stank from bad intent, and the wind twirled with human pigment.” This quote shows how depressing the 9/11 attack was.
Mikhala.A
Meredith Davern
Let Evening Come
Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.
Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.
Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.
Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.
To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.
Let it come, as it will, and don't
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.
-Jane Kenyon
1. Jane Kenyon in “Let Evening Come”, exposes personifying allusion, and creates parallels between light and death; she encourages readers to “let evening come”, and embrace the dark because “God will not leave us” without comfort.
2. The moon is the only natural provider of light at night, and light represents life; night portrays death; the darkness coming.
3. The moon is shown as “comfort” or a “God”, it is the only object personified and given a name.
4. “Her silver” light encourages those not to be “afraid” of death, and “let evening”, or death come.
5. The moon does not follow the repetition of the poem; it is the only thing directly given human features; it being personified allows the moon to shine life on a scene of death.
Seamus Heaney (1939- )
Digging
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.
Under my window a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade,
Just like his old man.
My grandfather could cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, digging down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.
1. Shifting between setting and characterization, Seamus Heaney utilizes inked personification, violent comparison, and descriptive adjectives to show how important family and tradition leads to great skill as an “old man” in digging.
2. Using personification makes the poem appear like a story; “the pen rests” creates the idea writing, couple that with the family back ground of the poem makes the poem appear like a family history.
3. “The pen rests, snug as a gun” is very similar to the cliché “the pen is mightier than the sword”, which alludes to the power of words and literature over violence.
4. The characterization of the narrator’s grandfather “he cut more…in a day than any other man”, which shows how striving for excellent work runs in the family, and it shows a sense of pride.
5. By using such detail (lines 19-26) shows how important his family was; to describe something in detail means that it has been looked at greatly and cared for, it also portrays the family’s good values and influence.
My Mother, If She Had Won Free Dance Lessons.
1. Cornelius Eady in “My Mother, If She Had Won Free Dance Lessons” uses sympathetic humor, lyrical metaphor, and lonely imagery to show how one small action can save someone from being the “crazy lady”.
2. The humor of calling his mother the “crazy lady” is pointing that he does not think his mother is crazy, but instead he is using sarcasm to either poke fun at those who think his mother is crazy, or it is done to lighten the mood, and make a joke of the bad situation.
3. “Would she have been a person”, meaning would she been normal, not isolated and alone, if one meaningless action had occurred; a simple thing like dance lessons can change lives.
4. Dance comes to show live, and intimate connection, and would one event be the long lost love; “two ball room dancers who only know one step” or would it be like a savior, “Jesus”’ taking the hand of one in need; dance is portrayed as a godsend.
5. Dance is the one thing, one instance, or event to occur and stop the “crazy lady” from appearing; a simple chain of event can change one’s life forever.
“Me and Bobby McGee”: Janis Joplin
Written by Kris Kristofersson
Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train
When I's feeling nearly faded as my jeans
Bobby thumbed a diesel down, just before it rained
And rode us all the way to New Orleans
I pulled my harpoon out of my dirty red bandana
I's playing soft while Bobby sung the blues, n-yeah
Windshield wipers slapping time I's, holding Bobby's hand in mine
We sang every song that driver knew
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
Nothing, I mean nothing honey if it ain't free, no no
Yeah feeling good was easy Lord when he sang the blues
You know feeling good was good enough for me
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee.
From Kentucky coal mine to the California sun
Yeah Bobby shared the secrets of my soul
Through all kinds of weather, through everything we done
Yeah Bobby baby kept me from the cold world
One day a near Salina Lord, I let him slip away
He's lookin' for that home, and I hope he finds it
But I'd trade all of my tomorrows for one single yesterday
To be holdin' Bobby's body next to mine
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
Nothing, and that's all that Bobby left me, yeah
But feeling good was easy Lord when he sang the blues
Hey feeling good was good enough for me, hmm-mm
Good enough for me and Bobby McGee.
La da la la la, la da la la la da la
La da da la la la Bobby McGee yeah
La da la la la, la da la la la da la
La da da la la la Bobby McGee yeah
La da la la la, la da la la la da la
La da da la la la Bobby McGee yeah
Lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo
Lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo
Lo lo lo lo lo lo Bobby McGee
Lo lo lo lo lo lo Bobby McGee
Lord I called him my lover, I called him my man
I said called him my lover just the best I can and c'mon
And and a Bobby oh, and a Bobby McGee yeah
Lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo
Hey hey hey Bobby McGee, lord.
La da la la la, la da la la la la la
Hey hey hey Bobby McGee yeah
1. Moving from a passionate to longing tone, Janis Joplin, in “Me and Bobbie McGee” utilizes a runaway narrative, positive irony, and soulful metaphor to “trade all of [the] tomorrows for” one moment in the past.
2. By setting the song as a narrative Janis sounds like she is telling a story, and reaching into personal experience, which helps the listener to connect with the song.
3. The positive irony proves that many would like to “trade all of [their] tomorrows for one single yesterday” and how one treasure moment can seem worth a life time.
4. Joplin shows irony by saying that “feeling god was easy…when he sang the blues”, the blues are meant to portray sadness, but when “he” sang the narrator felt joy, and loved their time together.
5. By employing metaphor Joplin explores the intimate relationship between “[her] and Bobby McGee” shows how they “shared the secrets of [their] souls”, and portrays the loving timeless relationship.
Shifting from detrimental to a hopeful theme, high cost of low living is harmful to your health or well-being. The Allman Brothers utilizes direct irony throughout the entire song, which adds to the credibility of the song itself. The title “The High Cost of Low Living” is very ironic itself, because low living isn’t at a high cost. If there hadn’t been irony in this song it would be very simple and boring. The irony enables you to have a different prospective of the story.
The Allman Brothers’ “The High Cost of Low Living”
You’re the life of the party
everybody’s host
until you need somewhere you can hide
All your good time friends
and your farewell to has-beens
lord knows, there just along for the ride
you think you’re a survivor; lord, you better think twice
no one rides for nothin' step up and pay the price
--------------(CHORUS)---------------------
it's the high cost of low livin'
ain't it high time you turn yourself around
it's the high cost of low livin'
bound to put you six feet in the ground
----------------------------------------
so many here who love ya; And still, you just can’t tell
the real ones that know to drop your name
all the while behind your back
they lift the flesh right from your bones
you should know by now through all their games
been chancing these dreams with whiskey
from here to Tokyo
using up all your real friends, and no place left to go
--------------(CHORUS)---------------------
it's the high cost of low livin'
ain't it high time you turn yourself around
it's the high cost of low livin'
bound to put you six feet in the ground
--------------Bridge-----------------------
Don’t look behind you Ahh don’t look back
Sometimes you find reasons in the past
past is gone____goin' fast
--------------(CHORUS)---------------------
The Road Not Taken
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 20
Robert Frost utilizes descriptive imagery and direct symbolism throughout his poem “The Road Not Taken”. Frost is trying to hint that he “could not travel on both” roads. He states that “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”, that line makes you picture his surroundings, which makes you understand the poem even more, and it grasps the reader’s eye. The road symbolizes how the reader has to be successful in his life in order to live it happily. The juicy imagery and symbolic lines in “The Road Not Taken” make the poem, and without these literary devices the poem wouldn’t have much meaning.
Christmas Away From Home
Her sickness brought me to Connecticut.
Mornings I walk the dog: that part of life
is intact. Who's painted, who's insulated
or put siding on, who's burned the lawn
with lime—that's the news on Ardmore Street.
The leaves of the neighbor's respectable
rhododendrons curl under in the cold.
He has backed the car
through the white nimbus of its exhaust
and disappeared for the day.
In the hiatus between mayors
the city has left leaves in the gutters,
and passing cars lift them in maelstroms.
We pass the house two doors down, the one
with the wildest lights in the neighborhood,
an establishment without irony.
All summer their putto empties a water jar,
their St. Francis feeds the birds.
Now it's angels, festoons, waist-high
candles, and swans pulling sleighs.
Two hundred miles north I'd let the dog
run among birches and the black shade of pines.
I miss the hills, the woods and stony
streams, where the swish of jacket sleeves
against my sides seems loud, and a crow
caws sleepily at dawn.
By now the streams must run under a skin
of ice, white air-bubbles passing erratically,
like blood cells through a vein. Soon the mail,
forwarded, will begin to reach me here.
Jane Kenyon
Shifting from a hopeless mood to a hopeful mood Jane Kenyon seats a creepy tone in “Christmas Away From Home”. She uses vivid imagery which adds to the credibility of the song itself. She explains the house as “the wildest lights in the neighborhood”. She also uses a descriptive simile while comparing the “white air-bubbles passing erratically, like blood cells through a vein”. The literary devices used throughout the song make the song far more intriguing.
In the poem “Happiness”, Jane Kenyon personifies happiness to communicate that though happiness may be fleeting; it will ultimately return and save you. Happiness is portrayed as a character who leaves “having squandered a fortune far away” but “comes back to the dust at your feet” when you most need it. For example, happiness comes “to the child whose mother has passed out from a drink” to let them know they “were not abandoned”. Through personifying happiness as a character, it is able to “save its most extreme form” in order to rescue those most needy.
Through a simplistic narrative in the poem “A Time to Talk”, Robert Frost emphasizes the importance of human companionship. In using leisurely imagery frost establishes a mood of tranquility, so stopping “for a friendly visit” instead of working is a decision rather than a mandatory task. In choosing to visit with a friend opposed to “hoeing” the remaining “hills” Frost communicates friendship and companionship can be more important and essential than work.
In “The Armful”, Robert Frost utilizes ongoing, objectified allegory to stress the necessity of balance in order to handle the extremes of life “too hard to comprehend at once”. The disheveled pile of bottles and buns represent the struggles and responsibilities in life. As they fall from the subjects arms it represents responsibilities and struggles falling apart and pushing you “down”. This is caused by the un-organization, and lack of balance in the speakers life; so they attempt to “stack them in a better load” to establish a balanced life. The allegorical load of bottles and buns “slipping” show the need for a balanced lifestyle in order to handle the struggles life poses.
In order to communicate that you has “got to live the dues and carry on” in “Carry On”, CSNY utilizes natural personification. The speaker talks of “a new day” for a fresh start after the “sorrow”. As the “night has cried enough” the opportunity of “a new way” comes with “the sun, he come, the world to soften up”. Since the night cannot cry and the sun cannot come to soften up the world, they are examples of personification. This personification is used in “Carry On” to show the exhaustion of the “sorrow” leading to the chance of a sunny “tomorrow” to show you must “go your way” and “carry on”.
Robert Frost's "Road Not Taken" is about making your own decisions and not relying on someone else.
His poem "Birches" is about him remembering his past life and taking responsibility for your actions.
My song is by Rammstein "Ohne Dich" (without you)kind of resembles Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet only taking place during WWII battle grounds. It's a sad romantic tragedy.
Another Robert Frost Poem is OUT,OUT.
The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behing the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw,
As if it meant to prove saws know what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap -
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all -
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man's work, though a child at heart -
He saw all was spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off -
The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!"
So. The hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then - the watcher at his pulse took a fright.
No one believed. They listened to his heart.
Little - less - nothing! - and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
Through the eyes of an individual in “Monsoon”, Jack Johnson uses first person point of view and vivid imagery to show how “time never waits.”
Jack Johnson uses the first person point of view throughout the song to show how time still carries on even through the good and bad moments of life. Even in moments of sadness, Jack Johnson shows the anguish of the person who wants someone to “show me that there’s more than the mean time.” Time never waits even when crisis strikes, it just keeps moving forward at a steady pace. It also tells that time fixes everything and the “waves of sorrow always break.” No matter what the situation, time will not wait and it will only pass on.
Jack Johnson uses vivid imagery to describe how time pushes forward in the world. “when all of life is in one drop of the ocean waiting to go home.”
-Eric Linfield
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