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The Sonnet-Ballad By Gwendolyn Brooks

229 Words1 Pages
The poem "The Sonnet-Ballad" caused me to better understand the sorrow that is felt when one's beloved is gone from your life. It made me realize that finding happiness, after your true happiness has gone off to war and died, leads you to question the chance of there ever being more joy in your life. I conclude this because the speaker of the poem repeatedly asks her mother an unanswerable question about happiness. In the poem, Gwendolyn Brooks writes "...Now I cannot guess/What I can use an empty heart-cup for." This shows me that after the speaker's lover left, her heart felt empty and drained. This thought makes me pensive, because I cannot begin comprehend the feeling that comes when the war takes your beloved. I think that the speaker
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Readers can make a logical assumption that the main character is the griever and in this case the woman is grieving as she lets her son go to war knowing that the chances of him coming home to her are slim. This creates a suspenseful situation, the conflict is where grief is initiated. Her husband, who is sitting next to her, tries to better the problem with social grief by venting to other, random passengers in hopes of hearing an optimistic outcome. “And he felt it his his duty to explain to his traveling companions that the poor woman was to be pitied for the war was taking away from her her only son...” ( Pirandello 1934 ).

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The lack of empathy and grief shows their numbing of emotions, which is further proven when the quote mentions “without resentment”. This suggests that the soldiers have been desensitized to the death and despair around them, so much so that they do not even feel any anger or resentment towards their enemy, who killed their comrade. This motif is also present in the novel All Quiet On The Western Front. As the soldiers are on their

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465 Words | 2 Pages

People don’t even care for their partners, some people that go to war tell their wives, “If I get killed off, you just go ahead and don’t cry, but get married.” (page 95) They have seen so much death that they truly don’t care for each other that they won't even cry. Mrs Phelps has had 3 marriages and is proving the point of nobody cares for each other because, she says, “let old Pete do all the worrying.” (page 94) nobody actually dies in wars usually but most of the men commit suicide while they are there, because of how depressing it

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1772 Words | 8 Pages

In line 2, the narrator says “They took my lover’s tallness off to war ” (2)as if he had no choice. “Took” implies against one’s will, as in two people were torn apart. Although “tallness” is supposed to give an image to add to the physical attributes of the love, it also contributes to an image of a bond breaking. All this grief that the narrator experiences because of death is only imminent because the narrator has coupled her lover and happiness together. One does not exist without the other, which is a very traditional

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858 Words | 4 Pages

She imagines doing typical motherly things to her children. She wants to be their mother, but the reality is she is not. She gave up her opportunity and subsequently finds herself in a state of deep remorse. She expresses her feelings even deeper with, "I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children… My dim dears at the breasts they could never suck” (RLWA 388).

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568 Words | 3 Pages

Their souls ache just as much as that of their mistress. I’m out here, old man, because my heart urged me to reveal to both, the Earth and the Sky, all of my Lady’s problems.

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986 Words | 4 Pages

In the lyric “The Wife’s Lament,” a woman’s husband was sent a great distance to war, leaving her all alone for an enduring period of time. She began to feel as if he would never return home to her. She lived her days in exile, having nobody to support her, protect her, or care for her. She spent her says fearing her husband would never return home to her again.

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718 Words | 3 Pages

How can one loose a thing that they regard as “loved” and “miss them” yet continue to reassure themselves that it was not a disaster. As the poem goes on, the tangible things that are lost become more personal, more grand, in the perspective of a typical person. Yet the author views them as incapable of touching her heart to the level of causing her tears to flow. Elizabeth Bishop opens up her true intention for writing the poem in the last stanza.

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766 Words | 4 Pages

When the narrator becomes aware of Miss Brill’s sadness and alienation, the statement is immediately rephrased. The repetition and denial of the word sadness signifies Miss Brill’s real

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The melancholic tone leads to sympathy as we can see the narrator having feelings towards her captors and the sadness of the situation and her sympathy is shown through the tone in this

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326 Words | 2 Pages

M1D3: Artificial and Natural Selection 1. Explain what is meant by artificial selection, using a specific example of something you came into contact with or make use of. Try to describe an example not already covered in discussion. According to Simon, artificial selection is the selective breeding of domesticated plants and animals to promote the occurrence of desirable traits.

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The story opens with the narrator telling the readers that Mrs. Mallard has heart trouble. In addition to this medical condition, her sister Josephine breaks the news to her sister, Mrs. Mallard, that her husband passed away. With all of this sudden news, Mrs. Mallard “wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.” With everything happening in such a quick time period, Mrs. Mallard might feel a wild abandonment because she just lost her husband and it seems like she feels a lack of love.

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He then contrasts between the bomber’s view to the civilians’ view from the ground. The bombers view is recognized from a plane filled with ammunition. This suggests the bombers are carefree of their acts committed, but the civilians are petrified for the safety of their lives due to the uncertainty of the attack which is to occur. The effect on readers is that while reading the poem they begin to notice the different views of the bombers and civilians while experiencing war. Also, the readers tend to realize the savagery conveyed by the

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1142 Words | 5 Pages

The poem really expresses how one mother values her son, and tells you how kids grow up to fast and she believes that her little boy cannot handle the challenges life throws at you. At the end of poem, the mom is surprised that her son learns to get out of the chains and get past the challenges he has been through. Families will always have a strong bond and it can never be broken, no matter what life throws at your family, you will always get though it and find new ways to make your relationship even stronger. Later in life as the kids get older, they learn that their mom will not always be there for you, so they start to get close with their mom and they realize all the wonderful things your mom did for you.

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286 Words | 2 Pages

Furthermore, the narrator uses repetitive words throughout the poem to emphasize his emotional state. The soldier emphasizes that “[Fear] will turn your heart black you can trust” (lines 30). The tone indicated in line 30 is very depressing because the soldier seems to have lost any bit of hope he has left. The narrator repeats this sentence in the poem multiple times indicating that it is important for him to inform the reader that he is not feeling well due to his depression. Many individuals in life have experienced some form of depression when they have hit a low point in their life and question whether it is worth living.

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