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How Are Literary Devices Used In Ode To Dirt

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When something is seen frequently throughout people’s lives, it starts to lose significance, and people begin to forget the profound influence it has on their daily activities. People frequently praise the food that they eat and the place that they live in, however, they often fail to praise the main character that supports these events to occur. In the poem Ode to Dirt by Sharon Olds, he praises and apologizes to dirt for his past ignorance of never acknowledging dirt as a living equal. While Olds expresses his remorse, he also demonstrates his disappointment towards the little importance people take over dirt. To convey the complex relationship with dirt and how it has transformed over time, Olds utilizes metaphor, word choice, and personification …show more content…

At the beginning of the poem, Olds expresses his past ignorance by comparing dirt to “the background/ for the leading characters” in order to illustrate how little influence he believed dirt possessed (Olds, 2/3). However, in many cases, the backgrounds in movies or shows bring the picture together as it foreshadows future events and conveys certain emotions to the audience. Similarly, dirt also plays an important role, which Olds later connects to as if he had “loved only the stars/ and not the sky which gave them space” (Olds, 5/6). Olds illustrations and change of perspective allow the reader to view a wider picture of how people often belittle dirt without taking into consideration their dependency on …show more content…

In the poem, Olds defines dirt as “subtle, various,” and “sensitive” to illustrate the seasonal shifts that occur in different areas throughout the years (Olds, 7 and 8). By characterizing dirt with those adjectives, the author highlights the unpredictability and rapid changes that dirt can undergo in response to changes in the weather or temperature as the earth revolves and the environment shifts. Furthermore, Olds then characterizes dirt as “the skin of our terrain” to illustrate how dirt doesn’t just take a role in the cycle of the food chain but also in the way people and animals live in their environment (Olds, 8). Depending on the terrain a person lives, their bodies grow used to the temperatures as well as the cultures of that place in order to survive. Similarly, in certain animals, a change of environment allows their bodies to evolve over time to become better ‘fit’ for that certain

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437 Words | 2 Pages

In "Ode to Dirt " Sharon Olds ases viid imagen, metaphor and personification to convey the speaker's evolving attitude toward dirt, from revulsion to appreciation, as she explores the complex and often overlooked role that dirt plays in sustaining life and connecting us to the natural world. Sharon Olds states specific language in the poem "Ode to Dirt" to express revulsion. In lines 2,3, and 4, Sharon Olds states," I thought that you were only the background for the leading thoracters- the plants and animals and human animals. " This quote proves revulsion due to Sharon Olds thinking that dirt was not as important as the plants and animals. This information proves that Sharon Olds was never paying attention to dirt.

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428 Words | 2 Pages

In the poem, “ Ode to Dirt,” Sharon Olds uses figurative language and specific word choice to detail her acceptance and apparent repentance of dirt. The author's attitude towards dirt evolves throughout the poem, words such as “slighted” that entail apologetic feelings soon change to words of awe and amazement. This creates an interesting poem based around dirt, the speaker makes an irrelevant object into an interesting subject. To start the poem, the speaker sets the stage with an apologetic tone, referring to how insignificant they previously perceived dirt to be, “ It's as if I had loved only the stars and not the sky that gave them space.” She realizes dirt's importance in the grand scheme of things, and begins to realize its grand importance.

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771 Words | 4 Pages

Readers have to read the whole selection to get to it and in the end it leaves them with a challenge. Good Old Dirt by David Montgomery appeals to most readers. He sets up this selection to relate to both a reader’s pathos and logos. As well as calls the reader to take action and trys to get them involved.

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384 Words | 2 Pages

Have you ever really thought about how vital dirt is? Many people seem to look past its importance. In the poem “Ode to Dirt” by Sharon Olds, the speaker initially feels terrible for ignoring the dirt, then turns into acknowledging it. Old uses strong diction and figurative language such as personification to show the speaker's apologetic yet celebratory attitude towards the dirt.

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288 Words | 2 Pages

Sharon Olds utilizes word choice, and figurative language to express the speaker's complex attitude towards dirt throughout the poem "Ode to Dirt". At the beginning of the poem, Olds apologizes to dirt for viewing it as a background character and claiming that “I thought that you were only the background for the leading characters—the plants and animals and human animals” proves how the speaker viewed the connection between dirt and other living things. The speaker's word choice here emphasizes sympathy towards dirt for not appreciating it enough. Olds also includes personification as a figurative of speech to give dirt a source of agency by describing it as a "guardian that protects and nourishes the earth.

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890 Words | 4 Pages

Olds also uses vivid descriptions in order to inject a realistic approach into the poem. Olds beginning of similes start in the seventh line of the poem and is used to show the similarities between the bodies of gravediggers’ preparation to be buried and a tree’s preparation for life. The speaker says, “ They lay on the soil, some of them wrapped in dark cloth bound with rope like the tree’s ball of roots when it waits to be planted”(Olds Lines 5-8). After the gravediggers’ fight against starvation they are taken on a “child’s sled” to a cemetery (Olds Line 4). The “child’s sled” as being a

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573 Words | 3 Pages

There is an underlying theme. Dickey’s use of literary devices elaborates on the main theme and allows the reader to see the real issue. The main theme or issue in this poem is about social class and inter-racial relationships. First, the speaker is in the junkyard, waiting for Doris Holbrook to arrive.

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543 Words | 3 Pages

The speaker, instead of describing the swamp as dark and seamless, describes the swamp as “glittered” and “rich”. The abundance of life juxtaposes the previous image of scarcity in the swamp. At this point, the speaker is absent and the poem only focuses on the image of the swamp. This absence suggests that the speaker became part of the beautiful swamp. The vivid imagery of “fat grassy mires” and “succulent marrows” give the swamp a life-giving quality.

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He could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.

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He says, “Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,—the vales Stretching in pensive quietness between;The venerable wood” (0000). Bryant’s descriptions of natural things are incredibly detailed,and packed full of sensory. Bryant’s poem contains strong sensory prevalently throughout the poem. Connection humans and nature, and writing with strong sensory allow Bryant’s poem to awaken the reader.

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548 Words | 3 Pages

Here, Olds has the speaker using a metaphor to compare dirt to the skin of the Earth, showing how they themselves view it. This metaphor is important because it's a very different perspective from how they saw dirt in the beginning, with the "background" metaphor at the start of the poem. The speaker used to view dirt differently, as something that wasn't important, but we see by the end just how much they appreciate it. Olds effectively used metaphors to showcase the speaker's attitude toward dirt, but it wasn't just metaphors

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798 Words | 4 Pages

Olds starts the poem off by writing “The boy and I face each other.” This use of imagery by the author creates a sense of suspense and tension for what might happen next. Also, the suspense created by the face-off is used by the author to show that the speaker might be fearful of what might happen to her. Furthermore, the speaker reflects that the man “is wearing red, like the inside of the body exposed while I am wearing dark fur, the whole skin of an animal taken and used.” This reflective imagery can be interpreted in many ways to show the speaker's feelings of frustration with the relationship between black and white people.

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1501 Words | 7 Pages

These themes have played a constant role in everyone's life throughout history and are especially important in today's society. These themes come to us through imagery and mood, fostering us to look deeper into the individual characters and reflect on their arc throughout the poem and reflect how this

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813 Words | 4 Pages

For different people, comparable situations do not always reproduce the same end results or leave the same impressions. Rather, the resulting conclusion is often highly variable. As is the case of two labors featured in the poems, My Father’s Lunch” and “The life of a Digger”. While Erica Funkhouser’s speaker, Henry, experiences injustice and lack of reward for his hard labor in “The Life of a Digger,” Margarita Engle’s speaker experiences prosperity and remuneration for their father’s hard work in “My Father’s Lunch.” Each author uses the setting of a laboring man’s lunch break to demonstrate the ramifications of a hard day’s work and the rewards or lack thereof for their efforts.

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Julia Alvarez’s poem, “Dusting,” is told from the perspective of a women looking back at herself as a child. In the poem, the speaker is addressing how her mother and her childhood self, differed. The speaker is itching to spread her thoughts through words while her mother does the exact opposite by erasing herself or keeping anonymous. In the literal sense, the main conflict between the speaker and the mother is that the speaker writes anywhere and everywhere she can, while the mother follows behind cleaning off all the marks.

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