Perseverance is something that we all struggle to maintain throughout our journey in life where at times we want to give up. The use of poetry is a vessel in which we are able to explore the themes of life. Two poems that explore perseverance are: “The Red Palm”, by Gary Soto and “The Onset”, by Robert Fost. Soto’s poem is about a cotton field worker who works tirelessly to provide food and shelter for his family. Fost’s poem is about being in the woods during the snowy winter, where he realized that he hasn’t accomplished as much as he would have wanted in life, and the change of the season to spring where he watched the snow turn into a stream of water. Although the content of the poems are totally different they still share the same theme …show more content…
In “The Onset” Fost uses imagery to paint a vivid picture of change he says, “always the same, when on a fated night at last the gathered snow lets down as white as may be in dark woods, and with a song it shall not make again all winter long…And I shall see the snow all go down hill in water of a slender April rill”. The description of the snow melting and turning into a small river is implying that the dark times of the winter have been washed away, and replaced with refreshing working that will nurture and develop new things. This image of snow transitioning into water was necessary to present the importance of staying determined knowing that the struggle will come to an end if you keep working hard. The transition in the water may be described as Soto’s abandoned …show more content…
Soto uses a typical work day of a cotton field worker to display the setting, he says, “you chop, step, and by the end of the first row, you can buy one splendid fish for your wife and three son’s. Another row, another fish, until you have enough and move on to the milk, bread, meat”. Being at a job where you are literally count the things that you need to do in order to determine if you have done enough to provide food for your family is ultimately used as motivation, which gives a person the will power to continue on. Also, although the work may seem hard and tiresome, there is the reward at the end of the hard work that has been
The poem The Cremation of Sam Mcgee takes a lot of turns throughout but always seems to keep to the themes of perseverance and friendship. This is evident in the things that the narrator does throughout the poem to keep his promise to his friend. A promise that seemed impossible to accomplish in the dead of winter on an Artic trail. The poem is about a trip to the Yukon back in the days of the gold rush. The poems narrator tells us a story about his friend Sam Mcgee who freezes to death during their journey.
These are similarities because they both tell how the song hypnotizes people. Another difference is the excerpt has a lot of imagery to describe the settings, the way something feels or the descriptions of something that is happening. The poem doesn’t have any imagery in it rather it has forms of manipulation, sarcasm, and Irony. These affect the rhythm of the story and the theme of both passages.
The Dark Truth In the contemporary world, a person’s success is usually determined by their job and because of this social norm, most of one’s life is spent attempting to live up to this expectation. Individuals possess vast dreams to hold highly ranked jobs and be content while doing so. However, the harsh reality is that people do not always necessarily meet society’s definition of “success.” There are several factors as to why, under certain circumstances, one cannot hold an affluent occupation and be prolific.
In the essay “Work Is a Blessing,” by Russel Honore the reader sees a strong argument for why work of any kind is a blessing. Honore begins “My father said “ya know, boy, work is a blessing.” (79) Throughout the story you can see the evolution of Honores belief in his father’s discussion that work is indeed a blessing, in place of a struggle. Living on a farm, Honore consistently helped out working with animals, gardening, etc.
The Nature of Symbolism within Trethewey’s “Elegy” In this poem “Elegy,” Natasha Trethewey depicts the relationship between herself and her late father by means of a metaphor that carries throughout the entire poem. We see that an elegy is typically used to lament the dead, however the abstract language of this poem sends a more demining message. This connotative thought is exactly what Trethewey chooses to address through subliminal metaphors equipped with items typically used to destroy rather than build, along with symbolism that alludes to fighting adversity.
A major theme in the true story, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park is perseverance. Perseverance is to stay steady in what you are doing or in a purpose, especially when you are faced with difficulties. This is a perfect theme for A Long Walk to Water because the main character, Salva Dut, an 11 year old Sudanese boy, faced many difficulties and kept going. He took things ‘bit by bit, one step at a time’, a lesson he learned from his uncle that helped him get through the desert, and he applied it to his life and kept going and believing his family was alive. Even though he almost died many times, he did not give up, and he went back to his home country and helped many people have better lives by building wells and giving them clean drinking water.
“Annabel Lee” and “The Raven” are similar because they both have the same mood and topic; however the two poems are different because the speaker felt differently about both of his lost girls. In the poem “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven” the mood is sad. In the poem “Annabel Lee” it states, “ In her sculpture there by the sea /
In William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis,” Bryant speaks of death, saying that it is just a part of nature, as if he is trying to tell us that we should not be afraid of dying. When analyzing Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”; I find that there are many different ways that Bryant’s poem can be interpreted, and I can see that the shift, attitude, connotation, and meter are all big factors in his poem. Bryant’s “Thanatopsis,” is very much about death, and how it is closely related with nature. In the beginning Bryant acts as if death is something scary and sad, “…last bitter hour come like a blight…” (line 9) and “… the all beholding sun shall see no more…” (line 18), then towards the end he changes, acting as if he has come to peace with it, and accepted that everyone will die, “Yet not to thine eternal resting-place shalt thou retire alone…” (lines 31-32) and “… like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.”
“Life isn't a Fiddle” “Discussion on the theme - Expecting the Unforeseen” In Spoon River Anthology, written by Edgar Lee Masters, many different themes are explored. Among those, are the ideas of the world not being as it appears, people often sleep with their enemy and life not always being easy. However, one very important idea is stated in the theme of “expect the unforeseen”. This particular theme is made especially clear, illustrated by the poems, “Fiddler Jones”, “Blind Jack” and “Franklin Jones”.
The same thing goes for “On the Pulse of The Morning”. There really isn’t a different message between the poems they both say that we are the same but we still have our own unique features. We created the
In the short story “ The Circuit” by Francisco Jimenez, the lifestyle of a migrant worker is portrayed as discouraging. Migrant workers have to move often. After a long day of picking strawberries, Panchito returns home to find that “Everything [he] owned was neatly packed in cardboard boxes.” he “suddenly felt even more the weight of hours, days, weeks, and months of work.” (1) Moving often is discouraging because everything that you have built at your current location is taken away.
Have you ever been lonely? Tired? Depressed? Have you ever had a time in your life when you wanted to give up or even die? But regardless you refused to give up and kept fighting through your pain?
The themes of the two poems are the same in that they are both poems about anticipating the loss of a parent. The fathers in these poems appear to be at the end of their life. Similarly, both poets
Let us say someone encountered a bump in life or something bad happened people will always move past it eventually because people cannot let something weigh them down for the rest of their lives. The big message or idea of these two poems is to keep moving on because people will always have to deal with problems. In “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes and Still I Rise by Maya Angelou they both convey the message that people should never give up and keep on rising no matter what happens or what people say. Throughout the poem “Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes coveys that people should always keep pushing towards their goals and not give up.
While the two poems are written almost a hundred years apart, it is notable, based on surrounding historical events, that they