The Writer by Richard Wilbur On order to effectively analyze “The Writer,” one might look to the Advanced Placement format, for instance, to best understand the meaning of Wilbur’s poem. Some questions we might ask as a basis for analysis are as follows: 1. Who is the speaker in the poem? In “The Writer,” the speaker is likely Wilbur speaking about his daughter. 2. Who is the audience of the poem? The poem seems to be directed toward parents who might relate to Wilbur as they watch their children grow up. Likewise, the poem might also be directed at young people, who will inevitably undergo a journey similar to that of Wilbur’s daughter in the poem – fraught with many ups and downs, and hopefully the triumph that the …show more content…
6. Comment on the poem’s diction. How does this relate to tone? Wilbur is widely recognized for embracing the attitude of those such as Frost, using common diction and concise, imagery-filled poems. In this poem he references common objects that working people would understand — for example, comparing the sound of a typewriter to a chain hauled over a gunwale. 7. Is imagery dominant? Explain. Wilbur makes frequent use of imagery in “The Writer.” He uses metaphors extensively – for instance, calling “the stuff / Of her life is … great cargo, … some of it heavy”. The whole second half of the poem is one giant extended metaphor! Wilbur compares the difficulties of growing up those of an ‘iridescent creature’ – a ‘dazed starling’ that in spite of difficulties, ultimately flies free. It serves as a metaphor for life’s ups and downs. 7. Is the poem narrative or lyric? The poem seems to be narrative. It conveys not only a story about his daughter, but a story of life, and paints distinctive images in the reader’s mind. 9. Comment on figurative language. To me, this poem is an extended metaphor for life journeys. Wilbur’s daughter is undergoing not only the experience of writing– along with its frustrations and “heavy cargo” – but is experiencing life with some difficulties along the way. The Gift by Li-Young Lee This poem is about the
INTRODUCTION – (1 paragraph) STRUCTURE 1. Opening sentences which introduce the poem, its author and its form.Explain why the poem is of a particular form (either a ballad or lyric poem). 2. Thesis statement: A general statement about what the poem communicates about life and life experience. 3. Signpost: briefly outline the more specific reasons for how/why the poem conveys this life experience and / or message. (Introduce the main features which will be explored in more detail in the body of your essay).
The strongest usage of metaphor in this poem is in the first stanza in the line “write their knees with necessary scratches”. While scratches cannot be written, words can, so this insinuates that children learn with nature, and that despite its fading presence in today’s urban structures, it is a necessary learning tool for children. The poet has used this metaphor to remind the reader of their childhood, and how important it is to not just learn from the confines of a classroom, but in the world outside. This leads to create a sense of guilt in the reader for allowing such significant part of a child’s growing up to disintegrate into its concrete surroundings. Although a positive statement within itself, this metaphor brings upon a negative
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.
There are clues throughout the poem that express the man’s past experiences, leading him to have a hostile tone. The speaker represents his past as “parched years” that he has lived through (7-8) and represents his daughter’s potential future as
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.
In the poem, “Dusting,” Julia Alvarez uses symbolism and imagery to describe children’s desires to follow their own footsteps, instead of what their parent’s footsteps are. The poem is written in first person to delineate how the girl’s goal for herself differs from what her mother wants her to become.
They help they author by portraying accurate images that they author could convey to readers. Doty used metaphor to find the central claim of the passage and poem, repetition to emphasize on the importance of certain ideas, personnification to light up the tone of the passage, and contrast to bring in attention and to guide the readers to think. Metaphor is commonly used as a hint to the readers, but to Doty, it served as a key to exploring one’s insight on certain pictures or experiences. He claim that it was “metaphor” that helped him find the purpose of the passage Soul On
The other section where symbolism is evident is “Small Porch in the Woods.” It is divided into several poems. In the first one, there is the mention of “unshifting star” which represents a change that is undisturbed. It is the turning point of the society. Despite the challenges communities face in their life, their ambition leads them towards achieving their objectives in life. The second poem under this section is about a heavy rain that fell in the month of April. Heavy rain is the representation of unhappy moments. The description presented by the narrator shows that it is a sad moment where everything is carried away. Throughout the poem, the rain is seen, as a lesson
The poem “The Death of a Toad” by Richard Wilbur was an interesting form of telling a
All the descriptive action words play a huge role in the compilation of this poem. The daughter in the poem is intent on covering every inch of herself. The father begins to contemplate her possible thoughts as he is watching
In an effort to transform his ideas about life from ordinary to exceptional, and also to emphasize his central theme, Wilbur makes his entire poem a series of parabolic movement. The first stanza consists of verbs, like “settles, less and less, falling. These verbs suggest no motion, or a decrease in motion. This group of non-action verbs is representative of the low and gloomy times in life when troubles turns our world upside down, and seizes our happiness,
The poem, “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur contains a visible change in tone. In the first stanza of the poem, the created tone is friendly. The conversational language produced by Wilbur is comforting, and mimics that of a maternal figure, “We tell the wakened child that all she heard was an odd question from a forest bird,” (Lines 3-4). By using personification, the owl is given an innocent voice that depicts the owl as a harmless creature. The second stanza creates a more ominous and calamitous tone.
20). In the fifth stanza, she fulfills every child’s dream of the parent’s constant attention by sleeping “in the cornucopia / of your left ear, out of the wind” (C. 21), safely surrounded by and encompassing his interest. This is, of course, undercut by the fact that it is not her father’s ear or attention at all, but an inanimate statue symbolizing frightening impermanence. The poem begins and ends with the recognition that what is lost is truly lost. She begins prophetically, “I shall never get you put together entirely”. Ending nestled in his ear, she seeks solace in the pattern of colored stars, knowing that she must find fulfillment in the world immediately around her, by “no longer….listen[ing] for the scrape of a keel on the blank stones of landing”(C. 21).
The poem is classified by the sub-genre of poetry it belongs to. Some are sonnets, some are fables. But this long poem with multiple sections is neither. It has a story of its own. In other words, it is a ballad. Combining all the sections, it seems long, actually it is the author’s largest, but in light of story content, we can call it short.
In conclusion this poem is about a girl who comes home after being missing for three days, she was asked many questions but did not answer them. She was to scared to talk so she started to have nightmares about the event that she witnessed. Then the matchmaker said to her dad that a rich guy wanted to marry his daughter, he said yes. She asked her dad to invite the law to the ceremony. Then she told everyone about the nightmare she had been having ever since she got home. She then asked the man she was marrying where that ring in his pocket came from, he was handcuffed, taken away, judged, then