Summary Of Ode To Dirt By Sharon Olds
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.
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.
Sharon Olds is a poet who is known for writing a poem called, "Ode to Dirt" in which admires nature. Although Olds used to despise dirt by calling it "the background for leading characters", she later apologizes and admires dirt. In, "Ode to Dirt" Sharon Olds elaborates on her praise of dirt by using certain words, similes, and personification. Olds tributes dirt by using certain vocabulary in the ode. To illustrate, Olds uses words such as, "slight" and "intricate" to indicate how her views have changed of dirt.
Each stanza also makes the readers question their opinions and their understanding of the poem and the street. While analyzing Kenneth’s poem we see his use of imagery , personification, metaphorical language and repetition. With the end of each stanza repeating the words “you find this ugly, I find this lovely” the use of repetition gives the audience the sense of how the poet is displaying his message with this literary technique. The repetition also gives insight in how he see’s something that everyone calls ugly as something beautiful. The readers are also always drawn back to processing their opinions with his use
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.
In the poem "Ode to Dirt" by Sharon Olds, the author focuses on humans disregarding dirt. He praises dirt in numerous ways. Olds uses similes, metaphors, and personification in "Ode to Dirt" to convey how humans overlook dirt which is the cause of our prosperity. Olds use of similes is very clever. She states "It's as if I had loved only the stars and not the sky which gave them space" which directly compares dirt to the stars in the sky.
Nature surrounds people, it provides food, water, and shelter. Nature supports the human race. Nevertheless, nature is disregarded by society, and treated as a nuisance with no meaning. However, Sharon Olds wishes to change this with her message in her poem, “Ode to Dirt”. Olds uses the evolution of the narrator's attitude to teaching her readers to appreciate nature for all that it provides.
Think about what dirt is, unimportant debris. No! dirt is the foundation of all life, but its importance is overlooked. Sharon Olds, author of the poem "Ode to Dirt", tells of her point of view on dirt and how it has changed after realizing it, comparing it with other importances in nature. In "Ode to Dirt" Olds uses metaphors, personification, and word choices to change the general opinion about what dirt is. Olds uses metaphors to transcend the literal meaning of dirt and also to try to increase the value placed on dirt.
Sharon Olds begins portraying vivid images into the readers mind from the first few lines. She begins the poem with “I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges”, this shows that her parents come from a privileged background, because they were able to afford to go to university in 1937. Then she brings the readers focus to her father walking out of the college she uses very vivid imagery to describe this “the red tiles glinting like bent plates of blood” the use of the word blood in this early line gives the reader a hint of what happens later on. The use of the word blood also gives an insight of the authors attitude, because it has a negative connotation, blood is a frequently used term to describe forms of injury and pain
In her poem, “Crossing the Swamp,” Mary Oliver uses vivid diction, symbolism, and a tonal shift to illustrate the speaker’s struggle and triumph while trekking through the swamp; by demonstrating the speaker’s endeavors and eventual victory over nature, Oliver conveys the beauty of the triumph over life’s obstacles, developing the theme of the necessity of struggle to experience success. Oliver uses descriptive diction throughout her poem to vividly display the obstacles presented by the swamp to the reader, creating a dreary, almost hopeless mood that will greatly contrast the optimistic tone towards the end of the piece. While describing the thicket of swamp, Oliver uses world like “dense,” “dark,” and “belching,” equating the swamp to “slack earthsoup.” This diction develops Oliver’s dark and depressing tone, conveying the hopelessness the speaker feels at this point in his journey due to the obstacles within the swamp. As the speaker eventually overcomes these obstacles, he begins to use words like “sprout,” and “bud,” alluding to new begins and bright futures.
The loss of purity and innocence is a common theme in many art forms, including poetry; many of these pieces focus on where the protagonist begins and the simple, mundane state of the character/being (Golan par 2). Human ordeals are a central focus in many mediums of art. People are born innocent and are shaped into who they become through life experiences. There are often specific instances that represent the loss of innocence. Through the poem that is being evaluated, there are specific examples listed to represent the original, pure state of the people: beauty was stripped from a self-created dress by being torn and representation of the shoe of a baby still loosely holding on (Harjo 28-32).
Contrasting images are used between the beginning and end of the poem. At first, the speaker is described as standing on a “wide strip of the Mississippi beach,” (Trethewey l. 2) while her grandmother is standing on a “narrow plot of sand.” It symbolizes the freedom the speaker now compared to the confinement and limited opportunities her grandmother experienced. Natasha Trethewey uses mood, symbolism, and
Literacy has applied over the course of my education and my life. As an education major, I believed that literacy was an ability to learn how to read and write. Furthermore, literacy has been a part of my education. I have come to an understanding that literacy is a lot more than what it seems. It’s about expressing yourself that includes your opinions and feelings.
Thus, the form of the poem is a dramatic monologue established between the speaker and an unknown addressee .The struggle running through the whole poem is that of Prufrock, and through this conflict the speaker reveals a variety of themes that he struggles with as boredom, insecurity, and frustration. The poem is a song of desire and failure. The poem is, therefore, a narrative that studies the character by using a range of literary devices such repetition, metaphor, simile, personification and irony.
In many poems in this volume, time and place are very specifically evoked. ‘Album I' begins inside the house but then the poet takes us back into the past to a specific day spent with his parents on the top of ‘Grove Hill'. The mention of ‘Grove Hill', an actual place, makes it more substantive and authentic. The poem is set in the natural world, the world in which he was always most comfortable.
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