http://www.everseradio.com/sixty-years-after-by-derek-walcott/ In the poem "Sixty Years After," Derek Walcott writes about his thoughts towards growing old with a partner. He thought that "She" would be "golden and beautiful and young forever" even as he aged. However, in reality, she was aging just as much as he was with her "old" devastating smile that is "netted in wrinkles." This poem contains complex feelings in which he describes his lover as old and ugly, meanwhile stating that the "fever" briefly returned as they sat there. The portrayal of silence and preoccupation stood out to me as the poem visually presents the thoughts going through the speaker's head, but there is little to no description of motion or sound. This silence is broken by the sound of the intercom which Walcott describes as "the silent knives." I inferred that the intercom was the symbol for their separation and the hurt that the speaker felt from it. What was interesting was that the speaker did not act upon the feelings described in the poem but stayed very reserved throughout. The fact that Walcott does not include any interaction between the speaker and his lover created a "so close, yet so far" kind of feeling, adding to the poem's content of complex feelings of cynicism and declining motivation. Along with the loss of youth, the lovers lose their passion for each other, "hating time" and the "lie of general pleasantries." Near the end of the poem, Walcott hints at at the time the lovers had together despite the odds, as he states "those who knew us knew we would never be together, at least, not walking," sarcastically stating that they were in fact together, but in a wheelchair. The title of the poem also contributes to the meaning of the poem because the poem is about the thoughts that go through the speaker's head before the separation with his lover that he has been with for 60 years.
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In this poem, Rupi Kaur describes a past relationship she had with someone and how it created an illusion of powerlessness without that person's presence. She further explains in her poem thatshe possessed all these qualities on her own in the line, "as if I did not remain all these once you left." She was tricked into thinking that she was only beautiful because of the attention and affection she received from her significant other as she writes, "thinking it was you who gave me strength. wit. beauty."
This poem promotes independence and self-love, because it teaches how other people love you has to do with the person you are and not them. In this story, Kaur learned through a loss that she did not have to depend on anyone to love her because she already contained everything that she needs in herself. I could sympathize with Kaur because I have also felt that fear of losing someone. Kaur was obsessing over, or "soaking" in the idea of losing someone because of the way that person loved her. That attachment and connection with a person is amazing but it also creates a whole new fear of being alone or not be able to be the same again. She only realized when she let go of that person that she is more than capable of being "beautiful" on her own. In the poem "to fathers with daughters," Rupi Kaur explains the influence that a father has on their daughter's life. This poem was teaching the readers how much a daughter looks up to their father and looks for similar figures in the world, because the foundation of a young girl's knowledge of men comes from her father. The very first relationship a girl has with a male is her father and this poem shows the importance of the father's kindness, so she doesn't "grow up to trust men who hurt her."
This poem shows the importance of love and the need for a kinder way of teaching a young kid. It says in the poem that "you teach her to confuse anger with kindness," depicting the consequences of every word a parent says to a child. Even if a father yells at their daughter "out of love", the child will not understand it because they are only aware of the pure definition of love. This poem also sends a message that harsh actions with good intentions don't mean anything because the person who is affected only sees what they can see. Rupi Kaur's feminism really stood out to me in this poem because of the way she used a father and a daughter as the main figures. By doing that, I thought this poem conveyed a deeper message of how men unintentionally hurt women and does not know about the lasting affects it has on them. Poetry blog post 4
In the poem, Rupi Kaur describes the types of emotions she feels. She presents her characteristic of having these intense emotions has a curse and a blessing as she writes, "but perhaps that isn't a good thing." She tells the reader how selflessly she gives but only receives betrayal when she "gives them wings" and they "always tend to leave." Kaur describes herself as more of an emotional being because she reacts to things more dramatically than most. Therefore, I thought that Kaur was trying to reveal the beauty and also the struggle of feeling “in extremes” for the awareness of bipolar disorder. She also hints that love is an important part of her life because when she mentions her getting her heart broken and how impactful it was in her life. Kaur becomes very vulnerable in the poem by telling the readers her problem of having an unbalanced life. Also, the fact that she knows how she reacts when she feels a certain emotion tells the reader that she has been through that situation before. I thought that this poem very well explained things that must've been very personal to her, because I could almost feel the pain she has gone through in the line "I don't grieve, I shatter." This poem also carries a message that the people that are the happiest aren't always the strongest people. In fact, they are even easier to break. This unnamed poem by Rupi Kaur was beautiful to me because it portrayed the power of women. The way that Kaur compared women to water was understood by me as; so common, yet so powerful, and important. Nowadays, we do not appreciate the simple things as water, because we see it everyday. However, we forget that water has to power to give us life and to destroy us with a single wave in the ocean. This is like women, women are "soft enough" to give us life and nurture children, but they are also "though enough" to run for the president of the United States. I also liked how Kaur used a metaphor saying that "she is water" instead of "she is like water", because this further depicts the praise for women that women are mystical enough to be water instead of being like it. I love Rupi Kaur because she often writes her poems in a way that dignifies women instead of degrading them, which also portrays her feminist view on many of her topics.
https://pugalianidhi.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/rupi-kaur/
The poem "In the Spirit of Intl Women's Day" written by Rupi Kaur really spoke out to me because of the way it captures your attention in the beginning of the poem. Kaur starts the poem with an apology to the women she has called pretty. This is ironic and because she is apologizing for complimenting women which is a good thing. However, later on in the poem she explains why she felt in such a way by stating "but because you are so much more than that." This shows the reader the message of the poem that women are deeper than their looks, and are more "extraordinary" or "resilient," rather than "pretty." I was mesmerized by the thought that the author presented by pointing out a problem from something so common and innocent like being called pretty. I agree that women have more to offer to the world than just their outward appearance which is often praised more than their inner worth. This poem really inspired me to think deeper in a sense that Kaur saw that being pretty is just "something as simple as what you're born with." The author believed that the talent, spirit, and the work that women put in to life are more beautiful and weigh heavier than their superficial covering. https://twitter.com/rupikaur_/status/765007558708957184
Rupi Kaur is an Indo-Canadian poet and an artist, and in her poem "Accent," there is a line that says "My voice is the offspring of two countries colliding." This line stood out to me because it made the idea of having an accent as something exquisite. The use of the word "offspring" indicated to me that she viewed her accent as a precious possession or a gift rather than a burden or a disadvantage. Kaur carries her accent as a part of her identity and where she's been, and she doesn't understand how society creates a problem out of it when she says "what is the matter if my mouth carries two worlds." I could really relate to this poem as an Asian-American. Because English was my second language, I'll admit that I was once self-conscious about how I talked because I thought it would reflect how well I knew the language. However, through time I settled down to a place where I agree with Kaur that how I talk is a part of who I am, and I should cherish it. I also liked how I almost could not recognize what the poem is about without looking at the title because Kaur does not directly address that the poem is about accents except in the title. I felt like the title to this poem was a very simple but a significant piece in her work. |
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