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Literary analysis on emily dickinson's poems
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In the auto-biographical excerpt from Ornithological Biographies by John James Audubon, he depicts his intriguing encounter with the wild pigeons of Ohio, while in Annie Dillard's engaging excerpt from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, she illustrates her thought-provoking observation of the Starling roost migration. Both writers had an overriding passion that showed through in the diction, tone, and syntax of their pieces. Because of these different infatuations both authors use different literary devices that match their feelings of how they view the birds and how the birds affected them. The authors were very different in their tonality of the excerpts, as in how Audubon was a scientist studying the life of birds, but Dillard had a passion for the arts. Therefore both writers had a very different style of writing.
The imagery of the first poem greatly contrasts from the overall tone. In “A Barred Owl,” Richard Wilbur describes an owl frightening a child and waking her from her slumber. Wilbur sets the scene with dark imagery: “The warping night air brought the boom/ Of an owl’s voice into her darkened
Audubon's approach toward describing the massive number of the pigeons mostly involved sensory details such as "meting flakes of snow", "buzz of wings", this allows the audience to have a visual picture inside of their mind of how many birds Audubon is seeing. On the other hand, Dillard used many figurative language in her writing, comparing the birds to "an unfurled oriflamme" an eye, or a million shook rugs, though more abstract, with clever metaphors and analogies, Dillard's writing still have the same effect on her audience. With two different methods, Audubon and Dillard described what they saw and successfully communicated with their audience.
Part 1 "Bird Songs Don't Lie: Writings from the Rez" is a book by Gordon Johnson that features a collection of short stories and essays that examine the experiences of Native American people living on a reservation in Montana. The book delves into the complexities of reservation life, tackling topics such as identity, tradition, community, and family. The stories and essays offer a glimpse into the lives of the people on the reservation and the unique challenges they face, as well as their joys and triumphs. The writing in the book is diverse and includes various creative styles, such as fiction, poetry, and personal essays.
He continues on with figurative language up until line 19, giving the reader a vision of some mass of individual objects that one can only assume to be the birds. He ues diction again to describe how
The peacocks become a central point of the narrator’s life. The narrator describes the appearance and attitude of these grand birds in great
The metaphor of the birds also serves to create a sense of movement and tension within the poem, as the birds engage in a battle of wills that reflects the speaker's own struggle for
There are numerous instances of imagery in the passage, such as the following: The curlews circled down, down, down like rotating wheels, while the stream that went by the nesting location splashed and swished as it crept over the little stones that lined its bed, among other evocative descriptions of the scene in the field used by the author. The reader can better picture the scenario and have a sense of being there thanks to these details. To give the reader a sense of sound in the setting, the author also employs auditory imagery. For example, the stream blinks and twinkles like a sequin, and the reeds along its edge bow and bob in reverence. With the aid of these descriptions, the reader may hear the scene and almost place themselves there.
In the poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, figurative language is used to emphasize and intensify the growing emotions of the narrator. To the narrator, the raven symbolizes bad fortune. Moreover, the raven is black and black can represent death or evil. Poe twists the bird into a controlling being who torments him over the death of a loved one and he is able to enhance that effect with the use of metaphors. The use of metaphors in this poem adds an eerie background to the bird and adds quality to the writing.
Throughout the story, the narrator feels powerless about his situation, and he envies birds for their ability to fly and be free. The protagonist says, "I told Mom my theory of why we like birds –– of how birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.” The protagonist of the story uses birds as a metaphor for freedom, escape, and finding nobility in what he views as a harsh world. The protagonist is saying that birds are a symbol of hope and freedom and that they represent a simpler way of life that we should strive to achieve. The narrator expresses his desire to become a bird, as he says, “just make me a bird - that’s all I ever wanted - a white graceful bird free of shame and taint and fear of loneliness.”
Poets are not given the credits they deserve. When reading a poem one thinks about the meaning behind it but does not enjoy the beauty of it. People never truly focus on the beauty of the different words the poet uses and why they use them. In Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, “The Raven” he uses many sound devices to set the overall mood of the poem. The sound devices he uses are assonance, rhyme, and alliteration.
Throughout the semester, the same comment has been left on my poems: “more showing, less telling.” Even when I thought I had accomplished just that, my images were still not strong. This assignment however provided me with two exercises that I intend to utilize in my work. Based on Jamaal May’s poem “There Are Birds Here,” the use of a a refrain kept a consistent image that was developed though out the poem. In addition, Sylvia Path’s poem demonstrates the power of non-human metaphors.
In my favorite English class with my honors teacher, Mr. Palmer, I read a similar message about birds. This poem (also my favorite poem of all time) is called “The Waterfowl” by William Cullen Bryant. Whither, 'midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way? Vainly the fowler’s eye Might mark thy distant flight, to do thee wrong, As, darkly seen against the crimson sky
John J. Audubon and Annie Dillard both experienced the same phenomenon – enormous flocks of birds (pigeons) passing over their heads in flight. They both presented a sense of awe at the sight. However, they portrayed that awe and their other emotions very differently. Audubon’s language was more analytical, and it allowed the reader to grasp the experience with their mind. In contrast, Dillard was more whimsical, and described her experienced so the reader could understand the experience with their heart.
In the poem “The Wind begun to rock the Grass,” Dickinson personifies a storm coming through a town and how members of a community react to it. For example, “…The Birds put up the Bars to Nests…” is written. Dickinson personifies the birds to make them more relatable to humans. By putting up bars, the bird’s space could be thought of as more of a prison than an actual house. This makes sense, because birds are animals that enjoy being free.
