Poetry Project Essay
Throughout our lives, humans continuously find themselves in periods of time where life appears tough. Whether it is through a traumatic event, a hard medical diagnosis, or a depressing swing, we all seek to find tranquility in these rough patches. Many find a sense of peace in their surroundings specifically in nature. In Instructions on Not Giving Up by Ada Limón and Leila Chatti’s I Went Out to Hear, the authors use a diversity of nature imagery to represent the peacefulness of the outdoors in order to reveal how one can find hidden messages about healing in nature.
In Ada Limón’s poem, Instructions on Not Giving Up, the author takes us on a walk, describing the blossoming of plants in the spring, leading to an overall message of resilience. Initially, the speaker of the poem highlights the overwhelming “fuchsia funnels breaking out” and “cherry limbs shoving” in their eyesight. Limón utilizes this fast-paced diction to prove to the reader the materialistic value of the “obscene display” of flowers trying to overtake the narrator’s vision. However, the narrator seems mindful of their surroundings repeating that “more than” the spring flowers surrounding them “it’s the greening of the trees” that they truly take note of. The author then goes on to write of the “baubles and trinkets” of white
…show more content…
Author Leila Chatti’s life has not been an easy one throughout her adult years due to the two uterine tumors found in her mid-twenties. This is a focal point of many of her poems, as she describes not only the pain experienced in this time period but also, her spiritual and social relationships. Throughout her battle with cancer, she had to continuously go to the doctor and had depression causing her life to seem chaotic. I Went Out to Hear dwells on a memory of Chatti’s where she notices how far she’s come despite her