Poetry Page 13

Sex and politics have proved to be two very popular themes that havesurvived throughout centuries of literature, poetry, drama, and mostrecently, cinema. As one of the touchiest subjects to expose to thepublic, the sex theme has proven time and time again to be not only acontroversial tool for artists and authors, but also a topic…

”Sympathy” and “We Wear the Mask” are without doubt two of the best crafts that a beleaguered poet, who struggled against the norms of his time, would inevitably come up.  Though “Sympathy” and “We Wear the Mask” both speak of Dunbar’s regret for being imprisoned in his own situation, condemning the slavery of blacks and…

“My spirit takes journey, my spirit takes flight, could not have risen otherwise & I am not running… I am choosing.” Alike is an intelligent and poetically talented 17 year old girl. On the surface, Dee Rees’s Pariah (2011), is the coming of age story of African-American lesbian, Alike. Growing up in a traditional household…

The Flower-Fed Buffaloes is a slow and rhythmic poem, which uses many aural effects, emotive language and techniques to create a powerful lament on the destruction of the world. Lindsay often portrays the destruction with scenes from the American ‘Wild West’. Lindsay writes, “Ranged where the locomotives sing and the prairie flowers lie low”. Here…

The theme in the poem “Homecoming”, by Bruce Dawe, is the feeling and belonging of home and how you can die for your country, yet receive inhumane like treatment. The theme in “Beach Burial”, by Kenneth Slessor, is the pointlessness of war. The two poems are very similar, yet very different, in meaning and tone,…

‘Remembrance’ by Alexander Pushkin is an impassioned poetic lamentation or an elegy of the ‘I’ in the poem about having to be plagued by dreadful memories of particular events.  The poem has an allusion to the capitalist labor atmosphere which was quite abusive during this time.  Pushkin, in the poem, presents the voice to be…

Mid-term Break is a poem by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney. In this poem I will explain how the poem is very effective at conveying the complex emotions of how Seamus Heaney feels when he loses his younger brother in a road accident. I was surprised that in the poem he doesn’t show any sadness,…

Island Man, a poem written by Grace Nichols, depicts the tale of a Caribbean man residing in London who yearns to be back in his homeland. This piece is structured into three primary stanzas and incorporates occasional rhymes like “of gray metallic soar” juxtaposed with “to dull north circular roar,” enhancing its poetic allure and…

In Medias Res in Latin means “in the middle of things. ” This poem was published in 1985 by poet, critic, and editor, Michael McFee. Michael McFee was born in Asheville, North Carolina and earned both his BA and MA at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He teaches in the creative writing program at…

Emily Dickinson was famous for her poetry, considered nonconventional during her time. What separates her from the rest was her original treatment and reworking of popular materials. Although her poems are lyrical and her themes conventional, she was innovative in molding what she had to say, using concise words and witty metaphors. In Wild Nights…