In the poem A Father to his Son by Carl Sandburg, a father advises his son, leading him through a set of guidelines and values to assist him untie the knot of inextricable uncertainties, problems, pain, and complexities of life. Based on his experience, he knows that there is no perfect formula for living. As a result, father suggests values that will help his son lead a purposeful, satisfying life. Markedly, out of his different suggestions, being true and honest stand out. Although limited in poetic devices, personification, rhetoric question, and an enthusiastic one are evident.
How do ‘Follower’ and ‘Once upon a time’ show father and son relationship? ‘Follower’, written in 1966 by Seamus Heaney and ‘Once upon a time’, written by Gabriel Okara both explore the issue of a relationship between father and son. However, they express this in different situations and forms. ‘Follower’ expresses the relationship with father and son with the son being admired by his father and wanting to be just like him which suddenly contrasts at the end of the poem. ‘Once upon a time’ expresses the relationship between each other as if it was some form of fairy tale story.
The neighbor who has the pine trees believes that the wall provides a sense of privacy and security to him. Even though he believes that two people can be neighbors and friends, he still feels some form of barrier is needed to separate them and “wall in” the space that is personal and the space that is private of the individual. His repeated line throughout the poem “good fences make good neighbors” (line 27) is evidence of the feelings he has towards his neighbor and the fence that divides the two properties. Another poetic technique Robert Frost uses in “Mending Wall” is imagery. This is evident in the first eleven lines of the poem describing the poor conditions of the wall.
Skrzynecki’s words, “gentle father kept pace only with the Joneses of his own mind’s making” as quoted from his poem ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ exhibits, through the descriptive word ‘gentle’ and the metaphorical use of ‘only with the Joneses of his own mind’s making’, the obvious admirations of son to father as well as the childhood lesson of staying true to oneself. Thus, upholding the concept of belonging in the English curriculum as well as continuing the analysis of Skrzynecki’s poems is vital as it permits students to understand the notion of familial relationships. After all without our family, who else could we belong to? Will Hodkinson’s feature article “Marked as an enemy of the state” also demonstrates the importance of familial belonging. Baldaev’s widowed wife Valentina expresses her strong emotions when referring to Baldaev’s drawings as “she didn’t know what to do with them, but she was concerned that her family would throw them out when she died.
He, therefore, allows the reader to become further engaged with the text. In this essay I will hope to examine how structure, language and form assist in either making Apologia pro Poemate Meo more or less effective as a poem compared to that of Birdsong. In Apologia pro Poemate Meo, by Wilfred Owen, Owen is apologising to the soldiers who he did not realise he needed till the end. Yet, at the same time he is thanking them for their bravery. Alternatively he tries to portray to readers the feeling of lost emotions, which the soldiers sense at the war front with other soldiers (or ‘brothers’).
Understanding nourishes belonging, yet it is experiences and actions that shape an individual’s sense of belonging. Good morning/afternoon Ms Allen and class. The author Mary Bateson once said that “insight refers to the depth of understanding that comes by setting experiences, yours and mine, familiar and exotic, new and old, learning by letting them speak to one another”. Memory can be useful in creating this understanding by bringing back a forgotten or lost sense of belonging, it can bring back a lost sense of belonging and can help to shape an individual’s sense of belonging. Family is a strong source of belonging but experiences and actions of family can also challenge a person’s sense of belonging.
Seamus Heaney uses various ways to explore the theme of family life in his poems. The poems, 'digging' and 'follower' specifically explore this theme, 'Digging' is about Heaney's search for his family history, and he seems to be digging into the past for old memories and his ancestral roots and is also about the admiration he has for his ancestors. 'Follower' on the other hand is about the roles in his family and the relationship between his father and him and his disappointment at not being able to possess the same skills as him. Heaney shows a great deal of admiration for his father and grandfather's skill. This is shown in the way Heaney describes them and their vocation.
‘The passing of time, the passing of mine’ by Natalie Isakov, and ‘A sense of Belonging’ by Sylvia Mortoza explore Belonging through concepts such as Belonging to a person, Belonging to place, and belonging throughout time. In Isakov’s text, the composer is shown to belong to a person, firstly through the inclusive language associated with the involved parties, such as “we were together”, and possessive language implemented by the author in “you were taken from me, and part of me died”; the inclusive and possessive language alludes to a sense of belonging between the two parties. The metaphor of light representing the author’s love denotes his importance in her life; and the isolation brought by the absence of light in the latter stages of the text removes the belonging that the composer once felt, instilling a sense of isolation. Similarly, in ‘A sense of belonging’, Mortoza’s is shown to belong to the Queen. The belonging in this piece is alluded to through the romanticized exaggeration of the Queen’s features, showing the authors adoration.
A Father’s Love The poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden is a result of the speaker’s reflection on his past experiences with his father. Hayden shows all the little things the father did for his family and how the speaker took them for granted. Looking back, the speaker now realizes and understands what the father had really gone through for him. The descriptions Hayden uses express both directly and indirectly the idea of unseen love. Hayden goes into detailed explanations of examples of the father’s devoted love.
I believe that the difference of the first and last line from the rest of the poem in terms of structure, is to emphasize the difference that the poet feels from the rest of his family. In the next two stanzas, writing is compared to digging in terms of action and inaction. Firstly, the pen is described to be at rest and not moving, a contrast to his father’s digging work outside that was taking place at that time. Also, we can see from the poem that the father is working away and “straining” whereas the poet is not moving or working. While the digger’s job is physical, the poet’s task is observational.