2008 AP LIT FREE RESPONSE: Section II, Question One In both poems “When I Have Fears” by John Keats, and “Mezzo Cammin” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, both narrators expose their unfulfilled aspirations with the underlying fear that death will soon approach. Keats explains how his career as a famous, credited author has not yet been fulfilled, and fears that he will not live long enough to do so. Conversely, Longfellow looks back on his past slightly disappointed, but assured that he has the latter half of his life to accomplish his objectives and goals. Longfellow is dismal and terrified of death, while Keats comes to realize that his dreams are infinitesimal in the grand scheme of things, and any life lived is a gift that will eventually succumb to death. Keats’ poem is one extensive run-on sentence that truly “runs” across the page.
Peeling back the layers of the poem, I was fascinated by the connotative purposes of the poet. As we all know, successful achievement of purposes can’t go without the proper use of poetic techniques. This point is proved in the poem ‘Back to Melbourne’. The use of metaphor makes a great opening of the poem, ‘my week has been/ a blast into the past’. It enables us to feel the poet’s panic of losing self-identity and the strong desire of finding somewhere he belongs.
William Carlos Williams makes great use of several elements in the presentation of the poem. Some of these elements are language, form and content. First of all I was greatly attracted to the aspect of content. The author chose to narrow down to old age as the essential content of the poem. Actually it activated me as I read through the poem.
“Father and Child” is essentially concerned with the loss of innocence through a negative experience, which allows the persona to grow. Harwood juxtaposes the youthful persona’s potential for both good, ‘obedient, angel minded’ and evil, ‘horny fiend’ in an attempt to foreshadow the possible carnage. As the child shoots the bird but realises it is alive after one shot, the persona’s confidence level drops as the poet juxtaposes the imagined world with one of harsh reality. The child’s innocence is impacted when the father sternly says ‘end what you have
With this poem tries to achieve is the reflection in all those young boys who have left school and unfortunately have taken bad choices, and how this actions can severely impact their life. With all the things that many teenagers think are cool end up in a tragic event as is their own death. The poet inspired me to think of how the lack of life experiences can many times make us take bad choices that might seem fun at that moment are not, and how we often never think of the consequences until after is already too late. The pool Players- Short Poem for Listening and Reflection The second literary element actually makes you forget about the seriousness of the poem which is the rhythm that the poet uses when narrating her poem. I was able to hear the rhythm when she stressed the words as she narrated the poem.
Alicia McKeen English 102-701 Intercession 2013 Forgetfulness Reader Response Essay The main subject of the poem is forgetfulness. It seems to have been written by a person who is forgetful, an affliction which may be caused by aging, but an affliction that affects us all to some degree. The author is speaking of memory loss in general but also conveying what he is going through and warning others what is all too soon to come for them also. As my Gram used to say, ‘As I am, so shall ye be.’ He describes how this happens little by little with the smaller things going first. The author’s name of a book, then the title, the plot and so on until you have no recollection of having even heard of the book and progressively until one is practically forgetting their own name.
The past is a recurring theme in Thomas’ poetry. He feared the changes England was undergoing, both physical, as in ‘As the Team’s Head Brass,’ and social, seen in ‘Aspens’. His poetry often celebrates an England that is passing; a theme expressed in ‘Gone, gone again’. The past is the subject of the title and the opening line; the speaker is looks back on his life with feelings of regret and sorrow. Thomas gives the sense that a significant portion of time has passed by quickly with the repetition of the words "gone" and "again“.
For an example, when Gilgamesh’s friend Enkidu dies he is left broken hearted and thinks, “If my grief is violent enough perhaps he will come back to life” (Mitchell, 445). Furthermore, He begins to think the fear of death sends him on his quest for everlasting life, “This fear of death that restlessly drives me onward” (Mitchell, 451”). Gilgamesh has this great fear of death and begins to believe it can be overcome. This quote begins to develop the idea through Gilgamesh’s journey that maybe death can be overcome that there
Since he had so many deaths in his life he wrote this poem to express how he sees death taking over locations that were once spectacular and are now in grieve and the absence of the liveliness. This poem shows an image of how death rises and becomes a higher power and taking away the light. The outcome of all the pain and horror that follows in deaths footprints in a city isolated by water is seen as a putrid
What message? The cause of Old Hamlet’s death, and seeks for revenge. “I am your father’s ghost; doomed for a certain period to walk at night, and during the daytime to fast in fires, till the wicked sins done during my lifetime are burnt and purged away. If I were not forbidden to reveal the secrets of my prison, I could tell you a tale whose simplest word would terrify your soul” Here the ghost is simply informing Hamlet’ his purpose of randomly