Digging Paragraph

In “Digging” a poem by Seamus Heaney, uses similes to portray the meaning of the poem. “The squat pen rests; snug as a gun,” is a simile which the narrator is trying to let the reader know that he is comparing the gun to his pen. That his pen is a perfect fit, just like a gun would be to a gunman. That he is meant to become a writer and not a potato farmer like the rest of his family on the male side. The use of similes helps the reader understand the meaning of the poem and relate to it by using personal experiences.

Baglady Free Response

In “Baglady” by A.S. Byatt, is about a woman who goes shopping at a prodigious mall in the Far East because of her husband’s business trip. Daphne Gulver-Robinson is the wife of Rollo, who is her husband and one of the directors. She doesn’t know if she belongs with the other ladies and if she should company her husband on this trip.
“Most of the wives are elegant, with silk suits and silky legs and exquisitely cut hair,” that the other ladies going on the trip are beautiful and younger than Daphne. So, she is feeling left out because she thinks she can’t relate to them and they have high standards of living. “She has tried to make herself attractive for this jaunt and has lost ten pounds,” she has even lost weight so she can look attractive for her husband and could fit the mold of the other ladies. She still knows it is not enough to fit in with the other ladies after she sees them.
“She buys a jade egg… and some lacquered chopsticks, and a mask,” she is just buying useless junk to fill the time of two hours, before it is time to go. There is no purpose in buying a jade egg because it is useless back home, it is only a tourist items to have memories of the visit. The mall is guarded by soldiers who keep the poor people from getting inside the mall and make sure no one gets robbed. “The figures about AIDS began to be drawn to his attention,” meaning the men will get only on their business trip and go for cheap prostitutes, since they are away from their wives. So the boss asks all the men to bring their wives on the trip so they can keep their men in check.
In the end of the story Daphne is all by herself since she did not relate to the other wives. She went shopping all by herself as the other women went in a group. While Daphne is shopping for herself, she misplaces her purse and credit cards. Without her identification, she is just like a poor person outside the mall and she has missed lunch and it is the time for the airport car to come pick the wives up. This supports that time goes by unexpectedly in the mall. None of the other ladies will remember her, and she thinks about them forgetting about her. Since she did not fit in with them and will be stuck there until her husband comes to her resume and getting out of the Good Fortune Mall.

Enormous Wings

In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is debating about whether a man with wings in an angel or not. This story is magical realism since it deals with the concept of angels, spider girls, and miracles. Since those things are not possible, it gives the story a magical setting.
The old man with wings is an angel, even if he’s not beautiful, clean, and pure. He is described as an old, dirty man with bird like wings and that is not the characteristics of an angel. The angel use to pick dirt, fruit peels and garbage out of his wings, so he tried to stay clean but he was put in a chicken coop. “The parish priest had his first suspicion of an imposter when he saw that he did not understand the language of God,” the priest didn’t of the angel because he did not speak Latin, which is God’s language. Language is a way of expressing yourself and the angel could not do that because he had a different didactic. So the priest did not believe he was an angel, and more like a man with wings. “He had an unbearable smell of the outdoors, the back side of his wings was strewn with parasites and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds,” meaning he was just an regular old man but he had wings because he smells just any man would and he was beaten up by the winds. The parasites suggest that he was too clean and angels are the purest white.
The old man with wings is an angel, “A short time afterward the child woke up without a fever and with a desire to eat.” Since the angel came to their house the bad didn’t have his fever anymore and was health. The angel seemed to be immortal, “he not only survived his worst winter, but seemed improved with the first sunny days.” That he did not die even after the worst winter came, even though his was in a chicken’s coop where it can get old. The miracles of the angel were: as a blind man who didn’t recover his sight but grew three new teeth, a leper whose sores sprouted sunflowers, and a paralytic who almost won the lottery. So the people lost their faith in him really being an angel because of his pity miracles. It’s up for debate, whether the old man with wings was an angel or not.

Diggin Thesis

In “Diggin” a poem by Seamus Heaney, the narrator talks about his will to become a writer instead of a potato farmer like his father and forefathers. The controversy is whether or not his family will still respect him if he decides to become a writer.

My food is yours

This is Just to Say

I have eaten
your tacos
that were sittin
on your table

you were probably
hungry
since you didn’t
have lunch

Forgive me
They were filling
So hot
And so crunchy.

My parody is about when I ate my roommates’ lunch one time since he had left it on my desk and went out to grab a drink. His tacos were all gone by the time he got back. I had just returned from class and I had missed lunch too, so I finished his lunch. The form of the poem is the same as Williams with 3- four line stanzas and also syllables. The punctuations for the poem only come at the end. The poem has mocking tone because I wasn’t really sorry when I ate his lunch because he has finished some of my food one night. But that is how roommates are with each other, so their needs to be communicate with us. The original poem has a similar tone compared to my poem. Getting the form down was easy, but getting everything you want in those 12 lines isn’t, but it is worth putting in the effort to have a great poem.

The Wild Swans

In “The Wild Swans at Coole” by William Butler Yeats is about a narrator who feels lonely and wants to fly away from his problems and become a swan.
“Are nine-and-fifty swans,” meaning there is room for one more swan in the group. Because swans usually fly together in even numbers because each swan has mate and the narrator is feeling left out because he doesn’t have a mate and his life isn’t going that well.
“I have looked upon those brilliant creatures, / and now my heart is sore,” the narrator is putting all his feelings in the swans. The swans symbolize the freedom that he doesn’t have and wishes he could get by watching the swans. The swans are able to do fly around and do whatever they wish with their time as the narrator has to deal with his life. When the narrator doesn’t notice, all the swans fly away. Leaving him to wonder where they have flown off too and left him by himself.
In “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks is about a young generation who thinks they are invisible and are able to do anything they want. This poem is really short compared to Yeats’ poem; Brook’s poem only has 10 lines to Yeats 51 lines. The poem uses “we” several times to portray the deadly sins the young group of boys are breaking. The author also uses “thin” and “jazz” as verbs in her poem to symbolize then invisible of the group of guys. In her last line, “We die soon,” symbolizes the mindset of the guys; as it won’t last long before they have to get jobs and enter the real world.
Andrew Hudgins writes a parody of the “The Wild Swans at Coole” and “We Real Cool,” which is called “The Wild Swans Skip School.” Hudgins is mocking Yeats by letting him know that swans aren’t anything more than simple birds. “We beat wings. / We fly rings,” as the swans are just regular birds and they don’t symbolize anything that Yeats is looking for in his life.

Digging

Digging by Seamus Heaney uses many forms of imagery to convey the message that the narrator will not be like his father. Heaney uses similes, metaphors, and symbolism to distingish his poem.

“The squat pen rests;/snug as a gun,” is a smile comparing how the pen fits in his hand like a gun. That he is meant to be a writer. As a gun perfectly fits in a shooters hand, so does the pen for the narrator. His father is a potato farmer and he doesn’t want to be a farmer.

“Bends low, comes up twenty years away/Stooping in rhythm through potato drills,” this symbolizes the stop of patriarchy in his male figure as he’s going to stop the family tradition of potato farming. He has fear of ending the “power” of the family business. “I carried him milk in a bottle…he straightened up/to drink it…slicing neatly, heaving sod,” is comparing himself to his father. He juxtaposed to compare his sloppy work to his fathers neatly; perfected work and he will worry that he will never catch up to their standards.

“By god, the old man could handle a spade/Just like his old man,” which continuously discusses how talented his father and grandfather were with the spade on the farm. He feels that he is not qualified to work in the field, but more fitted for his pen.

Heaney uses a metaphor to end his poem. “The squat pen rests/I’ll dig with it,” compares that the spade is their strength, and his weakness. So he will never able to work in the fields like his ancestors.

Osymandias Free Response

Osymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelly is one of the best poems I have read and analyzed during my first year in college. How it relates with the struggle of power from the beginning of time. The poem uses three levels of narration to get its meaning through. The three different story tellers are the traveler, the statue, and finally the king’s voice.

The use of verbs help the reader understand what the statue goes through. “Half-sunk, a shattered vessel lies,” demonstrates the power of the statue when the King was in control. Since the statue is half sunk now, it represents the power lost by the king. The kingdom went to ruins just as he ruled over the sand now.

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings,” the voice gives the king power which he once possessed. The last couplet tells the reader that the king is nothing more than a mere half sunk statue. The fight for power will continue.

Poetic Form Sonnet 73

Sonnet 73

In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by-and-by black night doth take away,
Death's second self that seals up all in rest,

Interpretation

I can see my life coming to an end.
As the sun sets in the west.
Night after night his youth fades away.
Death is the last step to finish life.

In Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare is an appropriate poem to discuss poetic form. I will analysis his second quatrain and how it uses poetic form. The iambic pentameter is the following: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. This is an Shakespearean sonnet which has three quatrains followed by a heroic couplet.

The writer is portraying the image of death in his sonnet. "See'st the twilight of such day," prefers to seeing the end of the day, which will turn to night. The life of a young man is coming to a sudden end because his life is meaningless. His youth goes away day by day, since he is not taking advantage of his life.

The rhyme scheme also portrays a dramatic effect with the change of day to night. It refers to night as death's second hand man, also their is a lot of emphasis dealing with youth and death. The commas used in the quatrain help the reader understand the meaning of the poem.