Comparing Poems Salome, Hitcher, On My First Sonne and The Man He Kille

Comparing Poems Salome, Hitcher, On My First Sonne and The Man He Killed The poems, Salome, Hitcher, On My First Sonne and The Man He Killed all have similar themes. The menacing and threatening ideas that the poets used are all based around death. However, each poem has a different perspective on the word with different motives and emotions. The Man He Killed is about a man who talks of the experience he had of shooting someone and the regrets he has for it. He feels guilty, as he has no conceivable explanation for shooting the man. He talks of the similarities he and his foe had such as 'He thought he'd 'list, perhaps, Off hand like - just as I.' The use of hesitation and repetition show the threatening side of the story. It is almost as if he himself is trying to construct an image in his mind as not to make himself look or feel guilty or censurable. The use of colloquialism makes the image even more menacing as we do not understand greatly of this man. Originally, it could be perceived as an old man who regrets his actions in the past. It however, could also be seen as a man who enjoyed killing but must come up with an excuse to the reasons for killing him. 'My foe of course he was, that's clear enough, although.' The poem "Hitcher" has a character that expresses violence in a completely different manner. The poem is a monologue where the speaker casually admits to possibly murdering an innocent hitchhiker. The speaker tells us that he has been taking time off work - faking illness and not answering his phone. Being threatened with the sack, he goes in to work again and gets a lift to his hired car. As he drives out of L... ...he spot. Both of the poems are confusing and surreal as Hitcher is about the idea of jealousness compared to Salome, which is about the idea of hatred. Both The Man He Killed and On My First Sonne are menacing in a different way. They both are about guilt and empathy. The Man he Killed is a dramatic monologue of a man confessing to murder whereas On My First Sonne is an elegy to his Son. In On My First Sonne the man is desperate for the reason why his son was taken and feels pain and rage. When compared to The Man He Killed, he is looking for the reason for why he shot him but feels neither pain nor anger. All the poems show menacing and threatening ideas but are not all based around violence. The poets use technical methods to hide a story. They do this by using repetition of words, hesitations and enjambment.

Political Poetry by Margaret Atwood

â€Å"Backdrop addresses cowboy† by Margaret Atwood Creating a masterful poetic movement through the American mythos, Atwood skewers â€Å"manifest destiny† by embodying the voice of the Other, the discarded â€Å"I am. † Writing political poetry that artfully confronts dominant ideology – thus exposing the motivation and effects of misrepresentation – is a difficult challenge. The process can easily be derailed by temptations to write strident, overly didactic verse that elevates sentiment above nuance and craft.While passion is certainly important, it is the poem itself that transforms political intent into a dynamic act of oppositional literature. To be effective as a statement, it must first be effective as a poem. In â€Å"Backdrop addresses cowboy,† Margaret Atwood delivers a scathing indictment of imperialist power that, through its elegant craft and conceptual framework, is also a breathtakingly vibrant poem. The core message, a poten t denunciation of reckless power from the perspective of those who suffer its consequences, is simultaneously unequivocal and oblique.Though Atwood’s indictment is readily apparent, close reading reveals a brilliant poetic foundation comprised of nuanced language, double-meanings, and a metaphorical structure that satirically lambasts American exceptionalism by skewering the individualist ‘cowboy' myth with imagery from its own construction. In short, Atwood's poem succeeds as a political statement because she allows the demands of exceptional poetry to drive its articulation. From the outset, Atwood chooses language that economically expands the meaning of each phrase.For example, â€Å"Starspangled,† the poem’s first word, focuses a personification of ‘cowboy mentality’ into a subtle critique of nationalist manipulation. In addition, other connotations come to mind, like â€Å"starry-eyed,† or the gaudiness of â€Å"spangles. † Even elements internal to the American anthem apply: bombs bursting, a nation under siege, victory against all odds. Though speculative, a reading like this is supported by the poem’s representation of a cowboy who violently protects his own interests in an imagined landscape filled with heroes and villains.Regarded as a heroic figure by the myth of manifest destiny, he is conversely seen as a reckless tyrant by those who suffer the effects of his violence. The first stanza reveals a comic figure – â€Å"Starspangled cowboy† sauntering through his child-like fantasy while pulling a prop from the Hollywood simulacrum that supports his myth. Atwood complicates this image in the second stanza when she introduces violence to her â€Å"almost- /silly† characterization of the mythical â€Å"West. Using a line break to accentuate the transition, she plays the impact of a stand-alone line against the expanded meaning of its grammatical context. Isolated, line s ix (â€Å"you are innocent as a bathtub†) relates directly to the opening stanza’s child-like caricature, forming an aphoristic trope that is both interesting and oddly mundane. Accentuated by the break, the line’s reading adds dramatic nuance when its sentence unfolds into a broader meaning: â€Å"you are innocent as a bathtub / filled with bullets. Contrasting the ironic character of opposed readings (innocent and not-at-all-innocent) within the space of shared words, Atwood foreshadows an overall conceptual structure in which â€Å"backdrop† refers both to the simulacrum of Hollywood sets and to the genuine environment of a beleaguered world. Despite its obvious quantitative reference, â€Å"bathtub / filled with bullets† also infers a Hollywood cliche – the bullet-riddled bathtub – that reinforces a theme inherent to the myth: if you’re not ready to fight, they’ll get you when you’re vulnerable.An inference l ike this reflects back on the subtle statement of the earlier use of â€Å"starspangled†: a nation that imagines itself as besieged can use that camouflage as justification for militarism and imperialist expansion. Again, supported by the poem, these significations demonstrate a complicated structure that works internal logic to frame an effective (and damning) political statement. Oppositions and Conceptual Structure This is a poem about power and disenfranchisement.It employs oppositions as a conceptual device to turn manifest destiny on its head. Exploding the cowboy myth by use of its own imagery and overarching theme of heroes and villains, Atwood draws complex parallels to American exceptionalism, a black and white ideology that drains color from alternative perspectives. By use of satire, she effectively removes the shroud that justifies questionable actions as being both inevitable and heroic. As stated in the title, the voice of this poem is that of â€Å"backdropâ €  (i. . the environment of scenes portrayed by the myth and recontextualized by the poem) addressing â€Å"cowboy. † The expanding focus on â€Å"cowboy† and his violent milieu reaches a pivot in the fifth stanza when the Hollywood backdrop is fully exposed, and the speaker finally reveals herself. Using the word â€Å"ought† (implying mandatory obligation), she questions her expected role on the set (passive, â€Å"hands clasped / in admiration†) while asserting, â€Å"I am elsewhere. Spoken as â€Å"backdrop,† and expanded in the final stanzas, this statement implies a conceptual flip wherein â€Å"backdrop† becomes subject, inhabiting an environment desecrated by the reckless actions of a transient â€Å"cowboy†. Simulacra In the essay â€Å"Simulacra and Simulation,† philosopher Jean Baudrillard states, â€Å"The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth–it is the truth which conceals that there is none . The simulacrum is true. † While Baudrillard perhaps overstates his case, the point is clear: actions instigated and justified by myth play an undeniable role in shaping both material and social reality.Applying this concept to Atwood’s poem, manifest destiny can be seen acting as ‘truth’ in its own regard – concealing no truth, because instead it has replaced truth with artifice. Accordingly, â€Å"cowboy† becomes backdrop to the postmodern world from which Atwood addresses the genuine existence of other, more substantial truths conveniently denied by myth. The Alternative Power of Effective Verse As representation itself, replete with borrowed imagery and the detritus of experienced consequence, this poem enacts a self-reflexive reversal of the social forces it speaks against.With a vocabulary full of bullets, Atwood crafts a poem that stands the test of both ‘truth' and time – yet does so peacefully, through an act of oppositi onal literature. Whether her poem is construed as feminist, environmentalist, post-colonial, or just-plain-political (from a Canadian perspective), its verity is affirmed by continued relevance. Written in the mid-seventies, it speaks just as powerfully in our current era. In terms of effective poetics, how good is that?

Why College Is A Successful Life With A Career - 925 Words

As of recently, the validity of college has been questioned, is it really necessary to have a college education to be successful? In the past, education was the key to a successful life with a career. However, as of recently, some people don’t even have to earn the much coveted bachelor’s degree to make as much money as a person that went to school to earn such degree. So the question is what is the purpose of college? Is it really worth all the effort, time, sweat, and tears? Even though times have changed and the reason for going to college has taken a financial turn. I’m a firm believer that college certainly has its purpose aside from financial. The person that pushed me to go to college was my mother. In an informal interview I asked her what she thought on the purpose of college. She immediately told me that it was a vital element for me to have a successful future and life (Aguilar). In a poll performed by pewsocialtrends.com â€Å"Nearly every parent su rveyed (94%) says they expect their child to attend college... (Is College Worth It?)† For some time the purpose of higher education has been debated. On one side people insist that college is sort of a â€Å"coming to age rite† where student could learn and grow in many ways. According to the survey performed by Pew research, â€Å"Thirty-nine percent of people believe that college, main purpose is to open your senses and mind to new things and new ideas† (Purpose of College Education). From personal experience, I could sayShow MoreRelatedWhy I Went To College Essay734 Words   |  3 Pagesliteracy has changed. College comes after receiving the basic educational skills in middle school and high school. It has been debated continuously whether continuing education to college is quite necessary, or if it is just a complete waste of time. 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