In the poem, "When You Are Old", by William Butler Yeats, the speaker 's attitude towards the woman is conveyed through several elements. It is clear that the speaker has a loving attitude toward the woman. The poem 's form-the way it is put together-makes the attitude clear. However, the diction, imagery, and tone assist the form to make the attitude apparent. The poem is set up in three stanzas. The first stanza is the speaker telling the woman that when she "[is] old and grey and full of sleep,"(1) just read "this book" of her past. The second stanza moves on to talk about her past relationships. Halfway through the stanza, though, he indicates "one man" who loved her better than the rest. This is an indication of his loving …show more content…
The imagery in the third stanza is asking the woman to remember the love they had together in their relationship. "murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled/And paced upon the mountains overhead/ And hid his face amid a crowd of stars." (10-12). The speaker asks the woman to remember their love that departed into "a crowd of stars". The tone of the poem is slightly sad, but reassuring. The first stanza is somber because the woman is old and seemingly alone. But, when the second stanza is read, readers are reassured and are able to see the love the speaker has for the woman. "But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, / And loved the sorrows of your changing face."(7-8). This quote draws an emotional experience to many readers. Many young people grow up with fairy tales and the idea of unconditional love, regardless of our flaws. So, this emotional connection can see the tone reflects the speaker 's unconditional love for the woman. The poem 's form, diction, imagery, and tone relay the speaker 's attitude toward the woman. The order of the stanzas and the word choice makes it apparent that the speaker loves the woman. The imagery and tone also helps readers to see the speaker 's attitude. All of these elements work together so the reader can see the speaker 's
George Gascoigne utilizes intense diction and imagery in his multi structured poem “For that he looked not upon her”, his unique poem describes his complex attitude of a women and his feelings about her and himself. You must not wonder, though you think it strange, to see me holding my louring head so low; And that mine eyes take no delight to range about the gleams which on your face do grow. On Lines 1-4 the stanza ends abruptly on the speaker’s explanation of how he delights in the woman’s face but was caught seeing looking her way therefore hanging his head in awkward guilt.
Like in Jarrell’s poem, the presence of a woman symbolizes livelihood and tenderness that can bring out the humanity in a man who had almost lost it. Her beauty enchants him, possibly as
The woman has this feeling of being trapped or stuck in the life she was given and longs to be free. Later in the poem, as she is escaping from the life she
In the poems, “On the Subway” by Sharon Olds and “The South” by Langston Hughes, we seem many similarities in their themes and styles of writing. In Sharon Olds’ poem we see the presence of racial issues and how the Caucasian woman and the African American boy are both afraid of each other for different reasons. She talks about both white power and black power and the ways they affect the lives of her main characters in the poem. She uses symbolism when describing the woman and the young man when she says he is wearing red which could reference that he is in a gang and saying he has hooded eyelids makes him come across as sneaky and also fitting the mugger description she is talking about. Olds then describes that the woman is wearing an old fur coat and that tells us that she
The tone changes to a warm and loving sense as the poet makes a contrast between the clumsiness of his lover and her caring emotional self. This shift continues throughout the poem and shows the two sides of how the poet feels about his lover. “Nims takes a very realistic view of her and describes her clumsiness in great detail. Nims celebrates both the positive and negative aspects of his partner and explores the idea that true love is not built upon the belief that she is the perfect woman” (Baca 1). It’s a love that overcomes human faults.
The melancholic tone leads to sympathy as we can see the narrator having feelings towards her captors and the sadness of the situation and her sympathy is shown through the tone in this
Thus, the issue of translating is important concerning the interpretation of this poem. If there were mistakes in the translation, an inaccurate portrayal would change the way people view the poem. Moreover, in his article Mendelsohn mentions how another version of the same poem had included additional lines that added a “triumphant assertion of the power of beauty, of the “finer things”—of poetry itself” (77) to the poem’s ending. These lines completely change the tone and feel, and give the poem a more powerful and appreciative, up lifting tone. The difference in the ending compared to the new version of “Old Age Poem” displays how small changes in a primary source can influence the audience’s viewpoint.
He is using negative natural imagery to convey that the couple is not feeling a sense of serenity. The speaker questions why the relationship is failing, and how long has it been that way. Larkin portrays how easy talking was in the first stanza. By the time, we reach the second stanza, things have changed. Larkin writes, "more time passes silently.”
The poem begins with the speaker looking at a photograph of herself on a beach where the “sun cuts the rippling Gulf in flashes with each tidal rush” (Trethewey l. 5-7). The beach is an area where two separate elements meet, earth and water, which can represent the separation of the different races that is described during the time that her grandmother was alive and it can also represent the two races that are able to live in harmony in the present day. The clothing that the two women wear not only represent how people dressed during the different time periods, but in both the photographs of the speaker and her grandmother, they are seen standing in a superman-like pose with their hands on “flowered hips” (Trethewey l. 3,16). The flowers on the “bright bikini” (Trethewey l. 4) are used to represent the death of segregation, similar to how one would put flowers on a loved one’s grave, and on the “cotton meal sack dress” (Trethewey l. 17) it is used to symbolize love and peace in a troubled society.
This becomes evident in a lack of information about the type of society, and the reader therefore lacks a complete understanding of how the women are oppressed. As a whole, this poem sets forth the idea that female gender is fluid, and asks its readers to questions what it means to be a woman in a male dominant
As the poem comes to an end the speaker talks to the ladies from an experience that if you do such and such, it would make your more wiser and happier. A woman must remember her importance and cherish her values as a strong individual. “Value yourselves, and men despises/ you must be proud, if you’ll be wise” (23-24). She ends the poem with a strong inspirational opinion, that even if a man breaks you down and does not value you, you have to value yourself, and must be proud of yourself, and for that you will be
In stanza one and two, the woman is questioning why her lover’s expression changes whenever the two are together and he touches her hair (Fauset). With the third line, “Laughing and leaning so close to the gloom,” the fact that they are “so close to the gloom” suggests that the two are either in a point in their relationship in which they are nearing an impending heartbreak or they simply have a relationship that is already ridden with problems that have yet to be discussed (Fauset). At first glance, the problem, as evident in the following line, seems to be her hair. In line four, the “change that creeps sharp” over her male lover is abrupt yet slight and what incites this abrupt change is her hair (Fauset). Immediately once the hair came into the picture, the “ 'loving ' and 'doving '” seen in line two shifted into the male having a look of “mixed wonder and rue” in line six (Fauset).
The tone of this poem is enlightening. The author delivers the message that there is no guarantee of happiness when following the rules of society. The author does this by showing how two different the two sisters, Sadie and Maud, feel after taking two different approaches to life. The first perspective shown is Sadie. She lives life by her own rules, going against society 's expectation and yet still achieving happiness.
The author effectively broke up the poem into stanzas, each stanza discussed a different scene. It represented a condensed timeline of a love diminishing. Each stanza is creating a different scene and the change in meter helps transition from each stanza. She starts off talking about a perfect rose, but then moves on to talk about how maybe something beside a rose should represent love. Maybe the author has fallen in love in the past, but then slowly fell out of it and was no
This is shown in the opening line when she says, “If you grow up the type of women...” Throughout this poem, Kay explores the themes of empowerment and identity, through the use of repetition and connotation. Through the frequent use of repetition, Kay puts emphasis on how women are defined in relation to males. Additionally, she also uses connotation to remind women they are more than what they are perceived to be in relation to others and they have the power to define themselves. Therefore the main idea of the poem is to perhaps remind women of their worth and inspire them to define themselves on their own terms, and not through the eyes of men or in comparison/relation to their relationship with others.