To begin with, Duffy writes about childhood as ultimately a loss of innocence as children ‘come of age’. This is clearly portrayed in ‘in Mrs Tilcher’s class’, as in the last stanza of the poem Duffy writes “sexy sky.” This use of the word “sexy” represents the protagonist of the poem growing into adolescence and becoming aware of sexual interests. The use of assonance emphasises this message as the repeated ‘s’ sound rolls off the readers tongue in a very sensual sounding way which forces them to mirror the exciting and intriguing experiences now known to the growing child. A loss of innocence is also revealed in ‘Lizzie, Six’ as initially the repetitive questions at the beginning of every stanza appear to be innocent “what are you doing?”, yet as the poem progresses, the true nature is revealed as Duffy writes “I’ll give you dark and I do not care”, illustrating the true nature of the poem and the child’s “dark” loss of innocence. The use of the term “I do not” as opposed to the abbreviation “I don’t” is very successful as it creates a harsh monosyllabic rhythm and a hollow, eerie tone.
Alliterations are very important to the author’s tone: “The hardest weather in the world is there. Winter brings blizzard, hot tornatic winds arise in the spring, and in summer the prairie is an anvil’s edge”. Here, the repetition of the letter “w” slows down the prose, giving a sense of delicacy in the author’s tone. Indeed, Momaday uses a lot of long and flowing sentences that are usually known to calm down the reader and describe beauty. The author takes the time to describe something that is generally pleasant to his eyes, giving a sense of serenity in his tone.
But from the moment your parental gametes linked their half-strands of DNA to form the zygote that would develop into you, everything you now claim as yourself has been derived from matter and information imported across your body’s external membrane. The world may be full of things that slash, nibble, pierce, abrade, infect, and sear, but it is also replete with oxygen, sunlight, chocolate, laughter, the colors of leaves in autumn, the smell of fresh-baked bread, the twining of bodies under the covers on a winter’s night. Skin differentiates but does not isolate. Your singular existence unfolds within it, but skin does not hold the universe at bay. Instead it marks the seam that joins your existence to everything else.
The first stanza depicts a “melancholy” setting where “frail” violets excite the persona’s recollection of a poignant childhood experience. In correspondence with Elizabeth Lawson’s psychoanalytical assertion, ‘Harwood interweaves past and present’, the reoccurring flower motif of ‘spring violets’ arises in both memory and reality, epitomising the persona’s acceptance of the present’s ‘dusk and cold’ contrasted with the childhood memories of a ‘hot afternoon’. The persona’s period of transition is symbolised by the rich imagery of the sunset being “striped like ice-cream”. The use of simile is effective at both describing the dusk as well as alluding to images of childhood (i.e. ice-cream), reflecting the beginning of the persona’s introspective retreat into her thoughts.
The descriptive language used in the second stanza assumes a certain brilliance when the poem reflects a positive tone when he says “the wide wide heavens!” He uses a sense of heightened colour when describing the nature surrounding him, e.g. “purple heath flowers!” Coleridge realises toward the end of the imaginative journey that nature is all around us for those who have the desire, passion and determination to search for it. Conversational tone is also conveyed in ‘Frost at Midnight’. Frost at Midnight is in an secluded cottage during the stillness of night. “The frost performs its secret ministry” at the start of the first stanza implies personification used to establish the stunning silence of nature and the frost falling outside.
In one of Dr. Polnac’s comments on the excerpt, he says “Gardner creates verisimilitude…” throughout the narrative between Terence and Margie using physical, characteristic, and setting description. At the beginning of the narrative, Gardner introduces Terence Parks in a bedroom fiddling around with his French horn “emptying water from the tubing.” In the same room, Margie Phelps is introduced sitting on the side of the bed “with her hands on the flute in her lap.” This visual imagery of their behavior already let’s the reader hint that the two are shy even if Gardner left out the sentence “He was as shy a boy as ever lived, as shy as the girl seated now on the sagging old fashioned bed.” He includes this sentence to create the feeling of similarity between the two. Gardner then gives their facial descriptions and their attire. He uses a simile to describe Margie’s “silver-blonde hair falling straight past her shoulders, soft as flax.” The following sentence supporting her shyness describes her face as “serious, though she was prepared to smile…” Terence wore “glasses without which he was utterly helpless,” and had “a small chin.” The words “utterly helpless” and “small” lets the reader visualize someone perhaps the opposite of a big guy with an independent, confident, and outgoing
Alka-Seltzer Latasha Clayton English112ON R Composition Professor Ann Tschetter May 12, 2012 Would you like to have a good nights sleep? Most if not each of us would respond to that question with a resounding Yes. On the off occasion that our stomach prevents our restful slumber, Alka-Seltzer may provide the relief you need. Similar to our Author Wally Wood, often recalling to mind a commercial or advertisement to assists us in determining what product to buy for our element. In this particular case, Wally’s work began as a print ad receiving much attention it then became an animated commercial.
Palled: (verb) become less appealing or interesting through familiarity. The quiet life palled the boys one day at a time. 40. Iridescent: (adjective) showing luminous colors that seem to change when seen from different angles. Her shimmery dress was iridescent and caught the light every time she moved.
Almost regally he reached out, clasped her hand in his, drew it toward him, and kissed it with his lips … Once two tiny infants pulled on opposite ends of a twig in a gentle tug-of-war.” (397) These words are loaded with bias I assure you, the way she describes a “kissed” hand sounds almost romantic. I believe that romance is strictly a human emotion or state of mind. “Regally” describes a human action and tug-of-war is a human game. She further
Fong further writes that if the poem is quoted at all, it is to mention “the father’s “mixture of tenderness and brutality” and the child’s “admiration and fear” (1990). Theodore however uses imagery very effectively as a poetic device to increase sensitivity in “My Papa’s Waltz,” and precise language to develop this poem. I would tend to believe that if there was any fear it would be the natural fear a child would experience like when spinning around; the fear that they would trip and fall down. Lines five and six, “We romped until the pans/Slid from the kitchen shelf” show an example of how the image is a well-defined, giving description of ideas undergone and realized through the senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste (as cited in Clugston, 2010). Understanding the poem was not easy at first because of my own negative personal experiences.