Summary Of Richard Blanco's Poem 'Shaving'
In Richard Blanco’s poem “Shaving,” the speaker connects the act of shaving with his father who has passed away. Blanco uses literary techniques to convey the feelings of the author and how he believes the growing of his beard, as well as the passing of his father is a way of life that cannot be avoided. Blanco begins his poem describing how his beard is a creation of life that is to be appreciated. He acknowledges the beauty of how his beard grows and how it is an “elaborate idea,” something humans cannot fully understand. Blanco compares his beard to “like [an] ocean stream rising to form clouds.”
In the poem, “Dusting,” by Julia Alvarez, the speaker is being rebellious against her mother and wants to do different things than what her mother wants her to do. In the first stanza, the poet writes that the speaker writes her name many times on dusty furniture “each morning” while the mother followed her to dust the furniture and the mess by the girl. This is an example of the speaker rebelling her mother since this is a metaphor meaning that the girl wants to accomplish different things than her mother but her mother keeps on erasing her accomplishments and wants the girl to be just like her. Another evidence in the poem is at the end of stanza two, where the speaker says “But I refuse with every mark to be like her, anonymous.” This phrase
Richard Blanco’s, “Shaving” (1998), utilizes purposeful simile and anaphora in order to convey the vulnerability of life. Blanco’s distinct interpretation alters the perception of seemingly unimportant tasks (shaving), sharing its profound connection to the narrator’s lineage. Blanco’s similes highlight a progression in significance; his father’s life was grossly underappreciated. Blanco begins, “His legacy of whiskers that grow like black seeds sown over my cheek. , my own flesh” (lines 18-20).
Then the roses are described as lifeless because they represent death/a lack of meaning in life. Which is further shown by a janitor being the person that asks the girls for more petals
The poem “Shaving” has three stanzas. In the first stanza, Blanco gives examples of things like “the bloom of spiderwebs, the drink roses take” and “the fall of fresh rain” (lines 5, 7-8). In the second stanza, Blanco describes how he is connected to his father through a “legacy of whiskers” (line 18).
The poem states, “...-it is in that split second, when perhaps the roses drink and the clouds form, that I most understand the invisibility of life and the intensity of vanishing, like steam at the slick edges of the mirror, without a trace. (Line 24-29)”, the author relates how the mystifying of nature, which where used to create similes, is not actually a mystery but just how life goes. The selection of detail that explains why or how roses get their water and answer some of the other mystifying previously mentioned is a way for the readers to see the narrator’s thoughts and his coming to peace with the mysteries of the world. The quote relates back to the narrator as he questioned how certain aspects of nature arrived, but realizes that these things are just how life passes on, which the narrator can relate back to his father. Since the father passed away at a young age, the narrator questioned why his father left him at such an early age at the beginning of the poem, but at the end of the poem, he realizes that he can not spend his whole life questioning why things happen because life is something that constantly moves forward.
Like many things, life itself is a cycle: there are the ups and downs, the unexpected and mundane elements that fill each and every day. This idea is clearly represented in the poem “Shaving”, written by Richard Blanco in 1998, where the speaker uses various literary techniques to first symbolize the growth of his beard with awe-inspiring natural phenomena, then dedicate the act of shaving to mourn the untimely loss of his father, and finally compare the ritual of shaving to the cyclical nature of life, revealing the underlying theme that life could be beautiful at times, but also tragic, so it is important to savor the moments with your loved ones. In the first stanza of the poem, the speaker uses literary techniques to symbolize the growth
In conclusion this quote is to inform Winnie that dying is a part of the natural life cycle and that she should not drink from the
In Richard Blanco’s poem “Shaving”, the speaker uses the silent but progressive growth of his beard to reflect on the idea of life's silent yet impactful memories that define an individual, as well as the fragility of those memories and life itself. In Blanco’s poem, the speaker uses captivating similes and vivid imagery to express his association of shaving with the passage of time, specifically with the memories and passing of his father. In the poem, Blanco uses a variety of similes to compare the creation of his beard to the fragility and quick, silent nature of life. Throughout the poem, Blanco describes his beard as a creation of silent labor “like ocean steam rising to form clouds”, and “like the drink roses take from the vase”.
While the first stanza emphasizes the inevitability of death and the comfort of memory, the second stanza feels much more melancholic and, at some points, angry. The narrator is still using metaphor to explain how shaving reminds him of his father, but the metaphor is no longer comparing his father's passing to nature; it instead compares the narrator's own beard with that of his father's, revealing that the narrator is seeing parts of this father in himself, for better or for worse. In the second stanza, the narrator compares the whiskers of his own beard to 'dead pieces of the self from the face that never taught me how to shave,' revealing that the memory of this father oftentimes feels more like a mystery than a keepsake. We can see from this line that the narrator's relationship with his father was, in the eyes of the narrator, incomplete. The fact that the narrator's father never taught him how to shave implies that the father died early in the narrator's life, before that skill would ever become important to the narrator.
Due to the paratactic sentence structure, it is difficult to understand the connection between the imperative and the declarative clause. Roses symbolise love, beauty or youth and their ephemerality. Perhaps the speaker asks the addressee, Leucon, to pick them while they still bloom, to enjoy them while they last. This interpretation would be coherent with the truism of the second verse, the warning that tomorrow is not today. The speaker then advises the addressee more directly to seize the moment as time is fleeting.
One look 's back to find justification in childhood for the sins he 's committed in later life; to better recognize the cruelty inflicted onto others. But only appeasing the guilt and responsibility and blames the child within; without a father 's wisdom or a mother 's compassion: an orphan to himself. I was alone in this war, and out of everyone I have ever known; it was Rosemary 's absence that never left my side. What would she of thought of my actions? I took refuge in one of her bedtime poems to ease my
In Richard Blanco’s “Shaving”, the speaker’s complex relationship is portrayed through several literary devices and techniques. Blanco’s use of imagery, metaphors, shifts in tone, and symbolism create a paradox for the reader by clearing up the base aspects of the poem yet complexifying the underlying meaning; leaving it completely up to the reader’s interpretation. In “Shaving”, the extensive use of figurative language highlights the speaker’s trouble with his identity, with his varying views on shaving being representative of how he feels about himself. First, Richard Blanco uses intense and symbolic imagery to broaden the possibility of interpretation. Blanco describes the shaving cream as “hugging” the speaker like a “new lover”, evoking a sense of comfort and intimacy yet also suggesting the possibility of betrayal.
Poetry The Poem “Shaving” by Richard Blanco shows how the event of shaving causes the speaker to think about the finer details of his life, and the short but now meaningful memories he has of his father, as well as the the impact that miniscule and unseen processes have on the world. The first stanza of the poem demonstrates to the reader the thought process of the narrator whilst he shaves. The first 5 lines set a precedent for the underlying narrative of a “silent labor” that blossoms into something substantial. This epiphany of a slow, continuous effort having a substantial outcome is supported by other examples of this phenomena stated in lines 4-9; examples of this being “ocean steam rising to form clouds”(line 4), or “the fall of fresh
I also believe”, Her early leaf’s a flower,” means the same. The metaphors of this poem shows the theme by describing that you could always start over and make something better out of it. It also describes that life is golden, so you should make something out of
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