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Analysis of poem "On the Subway" by Sharon Olds
Analysis of poem "On the Subway" by Sharon Olds
Analysis of poem "On the Subway" by Sharon Olds
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Sharon olds in the passage “on the subway” is trying to write the similarities and differences between the way people are with a Caucasian and an African American. Sharon attempts this by using literary techniques like imagery, simile, and tone. Imagery is used to see the differences between a white women and a black boy, the the first part of the passage. The narrator is the white woman and the black boy is the observer; the the shoes that he is wearing are black with “white laces on them”.
On the Subway Sharon Olds depicts the harsh realities of our world. Some may believe whites have privilege over other races; however, Olds tells the story in a way that challenges that notion. Old’s use of imagery and simile help the reader understand the contrast between the white and black world. Olds uses imagery in describing the (black) male. “Casual cold look of a mugger… hooded lids.”
What is the purpose of all the contrasting, descriptive imagery? What elements underlyingly stand for other items? The poem opens with the speaker reflecting on their past and relating to frogs asserting that they
Everyone has a journey of childhood some with more self-discovery and some with more self-doubt. The poem “Queries of Unrest” by Clint Smith is about a black author dealing with self-doubt and seeing joy in darkness. Furthermore the poem “Making a Fist” by Naomi Shihab Nye is about a whining child asking his mother about death. “Queries of Unrest” by Clint Smith and “Making a Fist” by Naomi Shihab Nye the poem that was more effective was “Queries of Unrest,” due to it having a more meaningful message of the relationship between self-doubt and trying to discover himself, and a more impactful tone of darkness. In light of this “Queries of Unrest” becomes the more impactful and effective poem.
The essay will consider the poem 'Practising' by the poet Mary Howe. It will explore how this poem generates its meaning and focus by analysing its techniques, metaphorical construct and its treatment of memory. The poem can primarily be seen to be a poem of missed opportunity. In this way is comes to form, alongside other poems of Howe's a study about a certain kind of loss and the recuperative efforts of memory, alongside the certainty of the failure of this recuperation. The paper will begin by giving a context to the poem with regard to Howe's life and work and will then proceed to analyse it directly, drawing attention to how it can be seen to fulfil this thesis about its content and meaning.
The 1970s were a rough year for African-Americans, still fighting for social and political rights in the United States. Consequently, women still did not receive equal rights. However, in 1972, “Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution, which reads: ‘Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex’ (History.com Staff).” Out of the thirty-eight necessary states only twenty-two ratified it right away, it was relieving for the moment because the feminist advocates had been trying to be ratified since 1923. The First African-American woman elected into Congress was Shirley Chisholm.
In the poem “Ego-Tripping” by Nikki Giovanni, she normalizes her worth by continuing to royalist herself as a black woman who is essential to mankind. Giovanni creates a vision throughout the poem, which leaves a thought in mind of how woman should look at themselves with much confidence as Giovanni does. “Ego Tripping” was written by Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni, Jr. who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 7, 1943. G9iovanni is a writer, poet, activist, and educator whose work was influenced during the Black Power Movements and the Civil Rights Movement. The poem was released in 2002.
How would you feel if someone could control what you were thinking? In “The Feed” written by M.T Anderson, everyone living in the community had a feed in their brain that was controlled by one large organization. Violet, the main character, suffers through a malfunction in her feed that changes the way she sees her society. Most people’s opinions can be changed when they have experienced the benefits and the disadvantages of something. Since Violet is aware of how life is with and without the feed, she becomes hesitant to believing that her community is being run efficiently.
A Poem an Obstacles written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a poem which try to narrate about the human’s day to day struggle and tell us about how we have to ignore all those obstacle and resume our journey to our destiny. 1.Firstly analyse the whole poem by considering the narrator as a human Being As we know that every people have their own obstacle which make them uneasy and bring hardship in their life. An obstacle is an object, thing, action or situation that causes an obstruction. This obstacles are the things that we human being face in our day to day life So obstacle can be of any form and kind which bring difficulties in people life until and unless it is eradicate.
In today's world, many people are very ungrateful for their current state they are in and complain without taking any action, only adding negativity to their lives. In the slam poem "Complainers" by Rudy Francisco, it demonstrates that one's constant focus on negativity and complaints towards life with no action results in failure to recognize the joys life has to offer. Throughout the slam poem, the author makes effective use of allusion, metaphor, and repetition to inspire and encourage readers to make positive changes in their lives and to strive towards self-improvement. Firstly, the author uses allusion to draw on the reader's pre-existing knowledge of the subject matter and establish the context of the discussion. " May 26th 2003 Aron Ralston was hiking, a boulder fell on his right hand.
Rina Morooka Mr Valera Language Arts Compare and Contrast essay on “The poet’s obligation”, “When I have fears that I may cease to be”, and “In my craft of sullen art” The three poems, “The poet’s obligation” by Neruda, “when I have fears that I may cease to be” by Keats, and “In my craft of sullen art” by Thomas, all share the similarity that they describe poets’ relationships with their poems. However, the three speakers in the three poems shared different views on their poetry; the speaker in Neruda’s poem believes that his poems which were born out of him stored creativity to people who lead busy and tiring life, and are in need of creativity, while the speaker in Keats’ poem believes that his poems are like tools to write down what
The poem A Step Away From Them by Frank O’Hara has five stanzas written in a free verse format with no distinguishable rhyme scheme or meter. The poem uses the following asymmetrical line structure “14-10-9-13-3” while using poetic devices such as enjambment, imagery, and allusion to create each stanza. A Step Away From Them occurs in one place, New York City. We know this because of the lines, “On/ to Times Square, / where the sign/blows smoke over my head” (13-14) and “the Manhattan Storage Warehouse.”
Get on the bus and join the movement towards appreciating poetry. Join author of Poetry Should Ride the Bus, Ruth Forman in making poetry an everyday thing. Poetry should be familiar to everyone and looked at as a mundane concept. Society should be able to use poetry as a benefit to their lives on a regular basis. Unfortunately, poetry isn’t appreciated as much as it should be.
“On the Subway,” written by Sharon Olds, is written from the perspective of what is presumed to be an upper class white woman, who finds herself on a subway with a lower class black boy. In “On the Subway”, Olds focuses on the controversial issue of racial conflict, and the theme of White v. Black. She does so by use of contrast between whites and blacks, by using harsh enjambments, powerful imagery, and by using the tone to convey the purpose. A major strategy used by Olds throughout the poem is contrast; in this case, the contrast between blacks and whites.
Conflict is a big theme and many poems and texts have been written on this topic, but two of the most well done and most expressive poems about this topics are “Out of the Blue” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade”. Even though the topic is the same the two authors, Simon Armitage and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, present the theme with different approaches, one about the innocent, one about the ones that chose to get involved In the conflict. The first poem, “Out of the blue”, is about the terrorist acts on 9/11 and the position that the ordinary people were putting in. The people that have been caught in the two towers were ordinary people going to their jobs and doing their daily routines and they were definitely not expecting what happened.
