The poem “l(a” by E.E. Cummings is a prime example of how the unique form that a poem is written in can completely alter the meaning it portrays through the use of separation and imagery. The poem is written with four words which are divided into several different lines and stanzas. Without this separation, the poem would have very little meaning but by splitting the words up, Cummings' poem exaggerates the separateness that a person feels when they are alone. The word "loneliness" and phrase "a leaf falls" have been separated by parenthesis.
Reading T.S. poems at first is like reading a language that is not fluent to you. T.S. Eliot uses many different techniques for his poems to be read aloud to make no sense to then after further investigation being acquitted in to his world of the modernism era. Such techniques include personification, metaphors, epigraphs, sibilance, dramatic irony, imagery, simile and symbolism.
One of these elements of poetry is very apparent while reading some of these poems and that is element is metaphor. Metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two things that don’t have anything in common in a way that gives it commonality. Many poems throughout the book uses metaphors to help compare complex issues by tying it to an object or something that is very familiar to most people so that the once complex issue can now be understood by most. A poem that stands out a lot through the use of a metaphor is Niggerlips written by Martin Espada. The poem itself is talking about racism and how throughout generations racism has been felt in some way or form.
Compare the ways the central characters are presented in “checking out me history” by John Agard and “Case History: Alison (head injury) by U. A. Fanthorpe. The poems “Checking out Me History” and “Case History: Alison”both use many different techniques and linguistic features in evenly effective and successful ways to present their central characters throughout their piece. “Case History: Alison” relies mostly on the tone set in the poem to convey its characters’ attitude and message, whereas the poem “Checking out me history”, relies more on structural techniques and the language featured to put across its own characters’ different views and ideas. The ambiguous tone that “Case History: Alison” is flooded with is shown through the confused emotion in the poem.
Symbolism Essay For authors, writing a story is not merely to explain a sequence of events, but it is used as an expression of self. One must realize that most stories contain deeper meaning. Authors secretly shed light on the stories theme through their choice of symbols. Symbolism has been used for centuries by writers in giving a person, object, action, place, or event, a more profound meaning or range of meanings, according to the particular work. By enhancing the ordinary meaning this allows endless interpretations of the symbols by the reader, keeping them interacted and paying close attention in order to figure out the stories ultimate theme, or dominant idea implied through the sequence of events.
In Modernist literature, much like painting, there is experimentation with form: narration style, tone and plot line. Instead of having Kurtz tell his story, or Marlow recite the tale of his journey; the actual narrator in the Heart of Darkness is an unknown passenger on the Nellie. Verisimilitude becomes of much importance when characters are not well defined. Unlike the renaissance period, Modernism spawned literature that questioned the existence of absolute truth; perfectly suiting this novella as through language power can be gained, yet most truths and realities can be seen to be lost in the “haze”. Language within the land of the “brutes” acts as an extremely powerful tool to aggrandize civilization above the “pilgrims”, and put Kurtz in possession of great power: “must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of supernatural beings—we approach them with the might as of a deity…By the simple exercise of our will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded” In response to this, Marlow admits, “it gave me the notion of an exotic Immensity ruled by an august Benevolence”.
Poetry is an important portion of the English language. We have seen poetry way back in the years Before Christ. This art is so diverse and complete that many people even study it or write it because is a way of expressing our feelings, is not only about rhymes but also about the deep feelings that the author establish and deposit in their poems. There is a really good poem called “Richard Cory” written in 1897 by Edwin Arlington Robinson. This short fascinating and incredible poem displays the irony of human nature within the lines.
The other is that the author endows unique meanings to a specific thing, which often take a significant place in modern works. In Heart of Darkness, the author adopts the latter. He himself puts an emphasis on symbol and regards that literary works should not be one obvious conclusion, but the rich layer achieved in meaning through the art of symbolism. Conrad utilizes the technique of symbol, leaving the story much room for the reader to imagine and to recreate the text for themselves. The title
What did it fulfill? How did it go about that? Those are all questions that involve the beginning of this discussion, the purpose of poetry. Jane Hirshfield, a known poet talked about the purpose in her journal “Poetry and Uncertainty”. Hirshfield says, “Poetry often enacts a recovering of wholeness of emotional and metaphysical balance, weather in an individual or a culture.” (63) So poetry has in innate emotional attachment to us, evoking all manner of thoughts, feelings and a balance for not only the individual but the culture as well.
Poetry is said by many to be the deepest and darkest thoughts of the heart and mind; that the author pours themselves into their work and opens up a piece of them that isn’t always exposed for people to see. When reading poetry, or any piece of literature for that matter, the reader typically starts with the title, where sometimes the most meaning and thought comes from for the piece. In both Elegy by George Gordon & Lord Byron and Grief by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, only one word is used in the title, expressing a sense of definiteness towards their poem; simply stating that their thoughts revolve solely around this word. With the use of form, sound, rhyme, and literary elements, the above stated poems will be compared to show the thematic similarities both authors used. After fully understanding both poems and reading this comparative essay, any reader will be able to successfully discuss the similar messages in each poem.