ENG 113
Instructor Risch
Donna Stevens
February 16, 2011
Comments on “Walking Out” by Betty Adcock
My initial reaction to this poem is that I had a great appreciation for the lesson it taught. Life is short, valuable and full of surprises. The speaker in this selection is third person omniscient. I would describe the speaker as a casual observer because the subject was only known as “he” and there was little attached emotion to the subject on the part of the speaker. The speaker’s tone is an attitude that life is frail and in a moment it can all be taken away, so one must count blessings and live each day as if it were the last. The poem’s setting is near a body of water in the early fall. This poem follows the structure and form of a ballad more than a sonnet because it is a narrative and not a “little song”. The effect on the reader is the reader observes a story with symbolism and meaning which conveys an important message about embracing every moment of our frail lives. An example of personification is in the last line, “his bones remember trying for bottom”(5). Another personification is him “touching greenfingered sand”(5). This is a personification for the grass that was sticking out of the sand like green fingers. “The coin he took from the pocket of terror” is another personification since terror has no pockets (4). An example of a metaphor is in the first paragraph when he “was turned out of the caulked world”(4). This means that he flipped out of the boat. The boat was his caulked world. The reader learns in the next line that he did not know how to swim, so this caulked world was what kept him safe. “Every place raises walls around him” is a metaphor for the fact that he was discriminated against because he was dark skinned. The role of figurative language in this poem helped the reader gain insight into the poem and to visualize the events more clearly. Also, the figurative language helped the reader gain a more personal relationship to the subject. He was seventy years old, could not swim and had been shunned his whole life but yet the brief events of this day completely changed his walk on this earth. The poem’s title relates to its overall meaning because this man now has a new walk in life. He walks with humbleness because his life was nearly snatched from him as his bones tried for the bottom. He feels so thankful and blessed that the day even seems brighter. He feels like he is so in touch with Heaven that he feels it is close enough to touch. He is a new man as he is walking out.
ENG 113
Instructor Risch
Donna Stevens
Comments on “Parting” by A.R. Ammons
February 16, 2011
My initial response to the poem is that it was a sad tale about a husband and wife who spent many years together must now say goodbye. Only now, she only knows who he is in fleeting moments of mental clarity. The speaker is third party omniscient. The speaker’s persona is that of a casual observer. The speaker’s attitude toward his subject is that of a straight forward speaking stranger. Especially the line “a stroke or two slapped her face” makes the speaker seem like that of a casual observer with no emotional attachment to the subject. The setting is in a nursing home because of paragraph five, “a slightly less hopeful setting”(30). A personification is in the last paragraph “the room stiffened”(30). The title “Parting” related to the overall meaning because the wife was very frail and near death. Her husband who had cared for her until he himself needed care desired only to say goodbye to her. The line “good bye or hello” meant that it had been so long since he had spoken with her that he needed to say goodbye but wanted to say hello. The “misfire in the perilous fire” is the broken passion in their relationship.
ENG 113
Instructor Risch
Donna Stevens
February 15, 2011
Comments on “Wide Open, These Gates” by Kathryn Stripling Byer
My initial response to this poem is that this young person felt that they had a childhood that was mostly good but they wanted to escape. The author said their childhood was “crabbed”(81). The poem is in first person. The person says “one of these days I’ll be gone” (81). A personification is when in the last paragraph “the gnats sing”(81). The author says that their father bid on a pig by accidentally scratching his nose. The next line is that the grandfather could grow corn up “ tall as his hat brim”(81). The author contrasts the father and the grandfather. Another contrast is that the grandfather had a bad temper but the grandmother’s cooking calmed him down. The author contrasted the grandfather’s talking nonsense to her own “nonsense coos like a dove”(81). The last paragraph, the author says goodbye to things that brought her fond memories. Her words of goodbye were the gates swinging wide open that she would walk through after one more summer.
ENG 113
Instructor Risch
Donna Stevens
February 16, 2011
Comments on “The Memory” by Maya Angelou
My initial response to this poem was that it was about a person who had wasted their life because they were forced into slavery. Their entire life was about a few things and all of them involved very hard work. The theme is that the work of this person’s entire life had not profited them anything but “dead-tired nights of yearning”(44). This person had dreams that could never come true. These dreams were still locked up inside of them as their days are now spent dying. The speaker is first person. The title of the poem suits the message of a memory of a dream. All those nights spent “yearning” were nights spent dreaming of what their life could be if they were free. “Shame the blanket of my night” means that it is a shame that their body is getting old and now all they have left of their life is a memory of a life simply yearned for and not lived. The setting is probably in the south because of the cotton, sugar cane and slavery. The diction is like that of an African American.
ENG 113
Instructor Risch
Donna Stevens
February 16, 2011
Comments on “Thaw” by Kathryn Stripling Byer
My initial response to this poem is that it is a narrative from the first person point of view which tells about the agony of wintertime in the horse and buggy days. I would describe this persona as a person from the 1800s possibly a farmer. A simile is that her “hair is dull as a rope in the barn” (90). In paragraph four, another simile is “Today the riad’s shedding its ice like a snakeskin”(90). This person longs for spring so much that they “scour” or look hard in the almanac for the first signs of spring and are pretty sure it is coming but maybe it is a lie. A metaphor is in the last paragraph when the author says “the sight of me frozen in glass every morning”(90). That means she looks in the mirror and her cold, hard reflection stares back at her. In the last paragraph the author uses a personification when she states “ the moon waited for stones I will throw in the water”(90). The title is appropriate because the person cannot wait for the land and most of all herself to thaw.
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