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Analysis of the poem death
Death poem analysis
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Recommended: Analysis of the poem death
In Elizabeth Acevedo’s novel, Clap When You Land, Acevedo uses similes and personification to display a strong theme of grief that has severe impacts on individuals. In the novel it says, “Mami still had an air around Papi,/like he was a medicine she knew she needed/even as she cringed at the taste (Acevedo 230-231).” Simile acts as a dominant tool for Acevedo to help highlight the theme of grief. Here, the simile is comparing the theme of grief to a world without Papi when she writes “he was a medicine she knew she needed”.
For my first poem, I chose to construct this piece in the form of a “title poem,” using a direct quote from Jason Reynolds’ novel, Long Way Down. In doing so, I labeled my poem, “Title Poem: ‘Somewhere between guilt and grief”’ (Reynolds 218). Reynold’s protagonist, Will voices this line when describing the empty eyes of his Father and Uncle. By combining Reynolds’ literary and my own poetic technique, I was able to create a moment inside Will’s mind and what he was possibly thinking while staring into the lifeless eyes of his family members.
The author’s use of imagery presented her memories in a way that her audience could either relate or feel empathy towards
Visible imagery is used when O’Brien describes the man’s corpse, he describes the man in great detail which humanizes the Vietnamese soldier. The more the protagonist describes the man, the more the feeling of regret and guilt sets into the reader and it makes the effects of war more daunting. The author also touches kinesthetic imagery by making the reader feel for the author when he begins to create the corpse’s backstory. The readers feels sympathy for O’Brien because he is already consumed with guilt and pain. In the story, O’Brien reflects his own life onto the Vietnamese soldier and the reader sees that.
Sometimes imagery makes a story more eerie, exciting or intense. In “Chickamauga” Bierce made his first story more shocking with this quote, “There, conspicuous in the light of the conflagration, lay the dead body of a woman--the white face turned upward, the hands thrown out and clutched full of grass, the clothing deranged, the long dark hair in tangles and full of clotted blood. The greater part of the forehead was torn away, and from the jagged hole, the brain protruded, overflowing the temple, a frothy mass of gray, crowned with clusters of crimson bubbles--the work of a shell ” ( Bierce, “Chickamauga”). The boy in the story just found his mother’s dead body. This example of imagery made this very dramatic and shocking because the reader can envision what is happening in their head.
Frederic, Piani, and Bonello were struggling to assist their hit comrade, Aymo. The senses this quote appealed to were visual, hearing, smell, and touch. The visual atmosphere created in this quote was one of complete panic, as they struggled through the mud and brush in attempt to save their bloodied friend. While they provided medical assistance they continued to hear gunfire in the background, and could smell death around them. The ever-present symbol of rain foreshadowed Aymo’s death.
Richard Wright’s poem “Between the World and Me” mourns the tragic scene of a gruesome lynching, and expresses its harsh impact on the narrator. Wright depicts this effect through the application of personification, dramatic symbolism, and desperate diction that manifests the narrator’s agony. In his description of the chilling scene, Wright employs personification in order to create an audience out of inanimate objects. When the narrator encounters the scene, he sees “white bones slumbering forgottenly upon a cushion of ashes,” and a sapling “pointing a blunt finger accusingly at the sky.”
The use of imagery shows the reader more vividly the realistic feelings of fear that soldier may feel while fighting in a war. The graveyard that the narrator is marching through is described as “conical-shaped burial mounds and tiny altars made of clay and stone. The graveyard had a perfumy smell. A nice place to spend the night, he thought” (O’Brien 831). The vivid description of the graveyard and burial mounds shows the reader that the senses of the soldier were heightened due to his feeling of fear.
Ahmedi’s use of sensory language contributes to the power of her story because it allows the reader to engage their creative understanding in order to fully comprehend and enjoy the story. This is because when Ahmedi uses sensory language, it makes the reader’s five senses become involved; therefore, leading the reader to be able to imagine the plot going down as if they witnessed it. Ahmedi uses different types of sensory language, such as imagery, and when a scene is described, you tend to imagine it in your mind, so this shows how sensory language works to bring a story to life and make it impactful, and how the way Ahmedi used it contributed to the power of her story. In the story, Ahmadi uses a lot of sensory language including: imagery, onamonapia, olfactory words (smell), and tactile words (touch), and all of these words help the reader understand what the characters were surrounded by therefore allowing them to clearly process what is happening or what happened.
Writers have the ability to convey their thoughts on paper in a way that shows their personal feelings. In his essay, Shaw reveals his perception on the passing and cremation of his mother. Despite being a very heavy-hearted affair, Shaw’s attitude is light-hearted. Imagery has a strong force on a piece of writing as it gives the reader the ability to visualize how the writer sees the world around him. In this case, Shaw uses imagery to describe his attitude toward the passing of his mother.
This conveys that each image created in the poem is significant, reinforcing William’s message that both man and nature are important, and that nature is essential to mankind. In addition, while William uses enjambment to join the “wheel” and “barrow,” he clearly divides the word through the couplet’s fragmented structure. In breaking apart the word wheelbarrow, each component is emphasized. The wheel is a reminder of a perpetual cycle beyond man’s control. The “barrow” is connotative of death, and is used to reinforce Williams’ concern that the American farm has become a tomb.
Mary Hill creates a tone of despair in Excerpts from the Trail of Tears Diary by using sensory imagery. In the text, the author uses sensory imagery when she
In Sir Philip Sidney’s poem “Thou Blind Man’s Mark”, expresses disapproval of desire as an immoral emotion that overpowers the speakers true meaning of satisfaction. Sidney expresses throughout the poem that desire acts as a form of self- destruction, communicating it as “the band of all evils.” The speaker addresses the complex idea of desire through several literary devices to add depth to the piece, truly depicting the loathing he possesses over such a feeling. In conveying the convoluted and bitter attitude toward desire, Sidney employs poetic devices including anaphora, alliteration, and personification.
In “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, Emily Dickinson uses imagery and symbols to establish the cycle of life and uses examples to establish the inevitability of death. This poem describes the speaker’s journey to the afterlife with death. Dickinson uses distinct images, such as a sunset, the horses’ heads, and the carriage ride to establish the cycle of life after death. Dickinson artfully uses symbols such as a child, a field of grain, and a sunset to establish the cycle of life and its different stages. Dickinson utilizes the example of the busyness of the speaker and the death of the sun to establish the inevitability of death.
Gunn connects tactile imagery with the puzzlement that comes along as an illness first presents itself, visual imagery as patients thinks about how their body is deteriorating, and kinesthetic imagery when the person comes to understand that they no longer have power over their body. While Gunn may have drawn inspiration from his experience with AIDS, the poem is universal in that it can be a testament to the transition from strength to fragility when one is faced with a hardship of any