The Red Wool Shirt By Alden Nowlan

Introduction:

“The Red Wool Shirt” by Alden Nowlan is an interesting poem that reflects the emotions of a person when receiving bad news. This poem has a lot of hints throughout the text that reveals a lot of meaning behind it. For example, in lines 12-13 on page 15, which states “one of the buttons was missing”(12, 15) is a sign that something is missing or off in the poem. Another example of this is in lines 23-24 on page 16, which states “for some reason I didn’t smile that day”(23-24, 16). Nowlan is giving another hint that something is off or wrong about that day. This also sets the mood and tone of the poem. Although Nowlan has many examples of clearly stated language throughout this poem, there are a couple of things that are quite

So why does Nowlan reveal so much about the red wool shirt, the buttons, and the way someone smiled? This is because usually when a significant event happens to someone, they usually remember very distinctive and detailed images of that day. Therefore, this poem isn’t really about a red wool shirt; it’s about the death of family members. This gripped my attention as it made me realized the connectedness between important events and environmental objects and how they can link themselves together. Not only was the significance behind the context of this poem interesting, but the format in which the author wrote it was as well. The elements of writing that are most effective was the word choice and sentence structure in this poem. The words are simple and the poem is linear, which is something I find effective when reading a poem. Overall, this poem is a very well put together poem that makes the reader think and

Atwood writes the ways in which a country can be defined from another. The main thing that I learned from this poem is to bring attention to the many different countries in the world, and how the cultures, society, and lifestyles are so different from one another. This poem makes people think of not only there own country and society, but thinking about others as well. Something that might seem normal in their country, could be totally opposite in another country, or may not even exist. Atwood displays a lot of great messages throughout this poem, although this is not the only fascinating thing in this poem. There are many elements of writing in this poem, but the most effective one would be repetition. One page 32, in lines 8-16, there are 5 examples of repetition. Why would Atwood have repeated lines in her poem? The repetitiveness in this poem is a sign of significance. The author is trying to get an idea or meaning across to the reader and making sure they notice it. In this poem, Atwood is using repetition to signify how different countries can be from one another. It displays that something so normal in one person’s country, might be totally opposite in another or may not even exist. This poem has made a positive impression on me because it has made it very interesting to see the numerous lifestyles in the world from a different point of