What Does Life's Scars Mean

This is a very lyrical poem. The speaker's emotions and intentions are made very clear in very inconspicuous ways. The subtle repetition of certain words and images give the poem a very distinct tone. For example, the repetition of the words

The imagery used in this verse appeals to the sense sight. This helps the reader visualise what the writer is taking about. It also allows the reader to relate and connect more to the poem.

The poem suddenly becomes much darker in the last stanza and a Billy Collins explains how teachers, students or general readers of poetry ‘torture’ a poem by being what he believes is cruelly analytical. He says, “all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it”. Here, the poem is being personified yet again and this brings about an almost human connection between the reader and the poem. This use of personification is effective as it makes the

The poet uses many metaphors, repetition and morbid diction to illicit the response I had to this poem. Firstly, Butson compared the emotions and internal struggles of a

The author uses imagery in the poem to enable the reader to see what the speaker sees. For example, in lines 4-11 the speaker describes to us the

The use of symbolism and imagery is beautifully orchestrated in a magnificent dance of emotion that is resonated throughout the poem. The two main ideas that are keen to resurface are that of personal growth and freedom. Furthermore, at first glimpse this can be seen as a simple poem about a women’s struggle with her counterpart. However, this meaning can be interpreted more profoundly than just the causality of a bad relationship.

Unlike other forms of literature, poetry can be so complex that everyone who reads it may see something different. Two poets who are world renowned for their ability to transform reader’s perceptions with the mere use of words, are TS Eliot and Walt Whitman. “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” by TS Eliot, tells the story of a man who is in love and contemplating confessing his emotions, but his debilitating fear of rejection stops him from going through with it. This poem skews the reader’s expectations of a love song and takes a critical perspective of love while showing all the damaging emotions that come with it. “Song of myself”, by Walt Whitman provokes a different emotion, one of joy and self-discovery. This poem focuses more on the soul and how it relates to the body. “Song of myself” and “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” both explore the common theme of how the different perceptions of the soul and body can affect the way the speaker views themselves, others, and the world around them.

Poems are centerpieces for human emotions. They can feature an array of passions ranging from bright and peaceful to angry and sad. For most people, somberness is not very alluring, but for those who have been through a traumatic event such as a school shooting, poems that begin in sorrow and conclude with hope are most fitting. These poems are sometimes used inside obituaries to help restore peace to a broken family. One poet whose poem heals people is Nikki Giovanni. In her, “We are Virginia Tech,” she addresses a crowd who has fallen victim to a tragedy. The facts that poetry is therapeutic in times of stress, its cadence affect emotions, and that it is inspirational during times of loss, proves “the healing effect” that Giovanni believes is prevalent in poetry.

The poem sits easily on a page and is visually satisfying, although this is in part due to the visual rhymes previously mentioned. This appearance though is false as the poems content is analysed but reinforces the theme of appearance and reality in the 4th stanza. Again, the "controlled" use of structure can be seen as adding to the poems "passion" showing a masterful combination of the two. The repetition of and permutations on the line: "my heart is breaking for a little love" is another structure that reinforces the poems meaning and show the despair that the poem communicates. The move away from the 1st person in the last two stanzas serves to provide a different perspective on the emotions discussed allowing a broader view than if the whole poem was in the first person, again this use of structure emphasises the underlying emotions.

Seemed to provide me with a private context for exploring my own grief at the loss of my father” (Stanford). She informs her readers that while writing these poems, she was going through a terrible time for her and her family, so it's understandable why the theme of grief is very

Symbolism in this poem is usually used to cement the other feelings that are involved in the poem while the other poetic techniques primary focus is on the theme; such symbolism is used in this poem, purely to explore the other facets not connected to the theme. For example, the disorganization and chaotic feelings that a person would feel during a love one’s death is shown in the poem when it states “as we teased her with play, blood was filling her skin” (7) or “we thought her shy malaise was a shot reaction. / The autopsy disclosed a rupture in her liver. ”(5-6)

Analysis of the use, or lack of use, of poetic devices within the poem it is obvious that the poem is less artistic and poetic than the song. One of the literary devices used in the poem is assonance. The assonance is used only in the first few lines of the poem. The little use of assonance within only the beginning of the poem does not compare to the use of assonance throughout the entire song. The poem also features metaphors and hyperboles.

The most important means of developing the effectiveness of the poem is the graphic imagery. The images in this poem are so graphic that it could make the reader feel sick. The images in this poem can draw graphic pictures in the readers mind, such as in these lines: ?If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood/ Come gargling from the

The author uses several types of poetic terms in this poem to develop the theme of a person accepting grief in their life. One poetic term she used was a metaphor. The metaphor is “Ah, grief, I should not treat you like a homeless dog.” Although grief is not a type of dog, the author wants us to think of grief in the same way that we would think about a homeless dog. The same phrase can also be considered a simile. The author intends for us to think of grief as being like a homeless dog. Another way that the author expressed her theme was by using a specific kind of repetition like anaphora. Several words are repeated at the beginning of two or more lines and sentences in the poem. These words are “you,” “your,” “my,” and “and.” There are also several phrases that are repeated throughout the poem. These phrases are “your own,” “I should,” and “you need.” She uses these repetitive words and phrases in the poem to describe a conversation that a person is having with grief.

The poem was written to impact the emotions of the reader, dramatizing them with