... hints at the fact that there may be a daily continuance of anger that is present in the house, between the father and the child. Hayden uses diction in this quote in a way that makes it seem like a serious thing in the narrator's childhood that he may now regret. The tone in the third ... of the poem, "What did I know, what did I know/ of love's austere and lonely offices?" (lines 13-14), uses repetition and diction to show the regret that he has for his attitude towards his father in the past. It can also be implied that the father is no longer around, ... 13) can reflect back to his ch...

• Word Count: 771
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... but Love, alas! At one first blow did shiver it as glass" (23-24). The repeating sound on the words alas and glass allow the diction to be more important. The speaker attempts to emphasize on how fragile the heart is. The impact of love is cruel, and the lovers are just as ... tyrannical. The speaker uses worthy diction to conclude the poem and his argument. The word, "nothing" means everything in the concluding stanza. It follows, "Yet nothing can to nothing fall, ... broken heart shows a bunch of images, there is something left of it. A lover can learn but never love again after a br...

• Word Count: 886
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... and it's aptitude to triumph over man's attempts to defy her (like the building of an unsinkable ship). Hardy uses such poetic devices as metaphor and diction throughout the work and the title to express his thoughts on the, "august event." Metaphor usage can be observed in several different stanzas and adds a ... tragedy of the Titanic. In addition to metaphor, "The Convergence of the Twain" also harbors bountiful amounts of diction within its lines. Stanza XI, for example, maintains its meaning solely through the use of diction. The choice of words in the line, "and consummation comes,...

• Word Count: 546
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Toad" by Richard Wilbur, the author elaborates on the death of a single toad that unfortunately was caught by a lawn mower. Using elements such as diction and imagery, the author exposes his feelings for the tragedy. However, the author's feeling is one of envy and relief rather than pity and remorse. ... of this poem conveys death as smooth and effortless. The toad is not reluctant. The author sees death as a release from the burdens of life. The diction of "The Death of a Toad", at first sets a mood of gore as the author describes the toad as "chewed and clipped of a leg". ... This h...

• Word Count: 364
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... line, which is the major metrical line in English called an iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is: ABBA ABBA CDCDCD. The language of the poem is old English, very high diction, very formal. The syntax in many sentences is marked syntax, and in 7 sentences one can find an enjambment, some are stronger then the others. The poet is creating an effective ... more specifically, the question "Why do sinners" ways prosper?" is a question almost every religious person is asking at a certain point in his religious life. Through strong enjambments, parallel comparison, formal diction and poetic ...

• Word Count: 1601
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... agony of captivity. He uses many devices such as metaphors, repetition, simile, imagery and Anthropomorphism to support his theme. Paul Laurence Dunbar also uses diction to link back to his theme. He uses a particular structure to link it to the theme of his poem. Paul Dunbar uses many examples ... trying to gain freedom. Lastly, Paul Laurence Dunbar uses a closed format structure to link back to the idea of being captivated. Dunbar uses hopeful diction in the first stanza such as "bright", "soft" and "flows" to demonstrate the motivation and optimism of the ... African American to lea...

• Word Count: 692
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... these devices. This poem is very effective because of its excellent manipulation of the mechanical and emotional parts of poetry. Owen's use of exact diction and vivid figurative language emphasizes his point, showing that war is terrible and devastating. Furthermore, the utilization of extremely graphic imagery adds even more to ... how there are disturbing tales that the troops will never be able to tell without remembering the extremely painful experience. The poem's use of excellent diction helps to more clearly define what the author is saying. Words like guttering, choking, and dro...

• Word Count: 1354
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... these devices. This poem is very effective because of its excellent manipulation of the mechanical and emotional parts of poetry. Owen's use of exact diction and vivid figurative language emphasizes his point, showing that war is terrible and devastating. Furthermore, the utilization of extremely graphic imagery adds even more to ... how there are disturbing tales that the troops will never be able to tell without remembering the extremely painful experience. The poem's use of excellent diction helps to more clearly define what the author is saying. Words like guttering, choking, and dro...

• Word Count: 1354
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... that they are out of harm's way. Owen also uses the dialect of the soldiers. Instead of a poet who knows nothing of WWI writing in flowing colorful diction, "The Letter" is obviously written by a man who experienced the war, and knows the truth about it. The words Owen use proves this fact. "The ... leaving widows and children at home. Owen uses this to spread his resentment for WWI to others. In "Anthem for Doomed Youth" Owen uses specific diction to express his feeling about the unnecessary death of many young men during the war. The poem is about the remembrance and funerals of the ...

• Word Count: 2584
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... these ideas within the poem, by way of his language and various other techniques. This essay will discuss the significance of the form and structure used, the diction, the metaphorical language and images dealt with as a result and the how they relates with the poet's ideas. There are several extended images and metaphor's ... he once possessed and that in a way has betrayed that instinct within him through time, as his father replaces that position he once filled. The diction and word structure used by the poet is important in the understanding of the poem and in the support of the ideas...

• Word Count: 1170
• Approx Pages: 5

... is very honourable, and glorious. As both poets have different opinions about war, in fact, almost opposite opinions, each poet uses different types of diction, figurative language, imagery, sounds, and tones to achieve his purpose. In The Soldier, Rupert Brooke uses both fluid and long, yet well-linked ... and "But limped on, blood-shod." The tone and atmosphere used and created by the two poets are also different, with each of them using diction and poetic devices, thus creating a tone and atmosphere to put across their point. For The Soldier, Rupert Brooke, uses a tone of controlled...

• Word Count: 1482
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... verse and humor in Nash's poetry reflects and contributes to the everyday lifestyle of American society. Humor within the two poems is formed by using an adventurous rhyming scheme, archaic diction, and imagery to further establish Nash's light poetry. "Complaint to Four Angels" has a title that sounds sophisticated as it addresses a power higher. We then come to notice that ... "Lo" in the beginning of the third stanza which refers to an archaic way to draw attention to the audience in which he successfully did. Nash uses archaic diction to droll the audience into his poetry and adds t...

• Word Count: 1201
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... poetic devices to convey this theme. Imagery of water, personification, point of view and shift are applied to emphasize Plath's subject. Imagery and diction are very important tools employed throughout "Mirror". Water and water related diction are repeatedly mentioned in the poem to represent clarity and purity. This reinforces the theme of appearance because with the clarity of a mirror, one ... ...

• Word Count: 533
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... the Romantic era. This was a time of an artistic, literacy and intellectual movement originating in Europe. By exploring the passionate and sympathetic tone of the narrator, its image, and the diction, this paper argues that this poem expresses romanticism. The tone of a poem is the implied attitude of the narrator towards the subject and characters. In "Strange Fits of Passion ... the sixth stanza (My horse moved on; hoof after hoof He raised, and never stopped) describes the motions of his horse to get the rider to his destination. In poetry, diction is basically the choice of words u...

• Word Count: 918
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... on an Amtrak from Boston to New York. Though, these two characters are on the same Amtrak, their cultural perspectives and differences separate them. Through the use of irony, imagery, diction, and tone the reader can infer that the theme of the poem is about the conflict of cultural differences and values. The speaker accomplishes the use of irony in " ... how the Native American is drinking a "Diet Pepsi" which is indicating his incorporation of American ideals. Sherman Alexie's "The Amtrak from Boston to New York," uses diction to identify speaker's internal and external conflict...

• Word Count: 864
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography

An Eye of War In "The Man He Killed" Thomas Hardy uses rhythm and sound, diction and characterization to give the reader insight as to the actions and thoughts of the speaker. Throughout the poem the speaker expresses his thoughts and feelings of the war he ... enemy. Two exclamation points are used in lines four "Right many a nipperkin!" and seventeen "Yes; quaint and curious war is!" which gets the speaker very excited, clearly emphasizing his point. Diction is very important in this poem. The quotations in the first line of the first stanza let the reader know the speaker is speaking out ...

• Word Count: 746
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... why the poem is written with a bitter and angry tone from the African point of view. Throughout the poem this tone of voice is kept by the use of powerful diction and imagery to emphasize the violence and destruction caused by the Westerners. The title, "Our History" suggests a rather melancholic view of events. He is looking back at the past as ... affected. The last line holds a very strong final image, by comparing themselves to "the wings of whipped butterflies". This expresses how much pain they endured, through the excellent choice of diction: A butterfly is a fragile and vulnerab...

• Word Count: 591
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... poem is enjambment as well as line seven in the second stanza that continues on until line twelve in the third stanza. The diction of the poem is informal. The speaker's narrative is colloquial although it changes in line fourteen where the diction becomes formal. Austere and offices in line fourteen are two words that have multiple meanings. I think this changes the ... diction of the poem. There are also several caesuras in the poem Those Winter Sundays. One example of a caesura is line two where the comma ... ...

• Word Count: 863
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... of the coming season. However, one may wonder if there is more to the poem than what the words simply say. After it is studied and topics such as sound, diction and imagery are analyzed, one can clearly say that Keats used those techniques to illustrate the progression of death, and to show that there is still life at the end ... Keats' "To Autumn" is to enjoy life, even as you grow old and it begins to slip away from you. He spreads his message through the time frame, imagery, and diction of the stanzas. To begin with, the time frame of the stanzas begins to prove the theme. By itself,...

• Word Count: 529
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The speaker, through the use of diction and punctuation, communicates that she feels this is not a bad thing. The reader can see that it was more of a passing, or moving on to something better. However, there was ... a main factor in the lives of all the living who witnessed the occurrence. They all wandered uneasily in and out of the room where the woman was dying, and the diction, such as "jostled," "Italicized." and "great light upon our minds," clearly indicates that they were uncomfortable in this setting. However, despite their unease, both the speaker and the witnesses knew ... of t...

• Word Count: 563
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... her feeling of love. The imagery of coldness is mostly mentioned in the first stanza, as it is Madeline's first state of isolation. In the first stanza the choice of diction in the sentence "Bitter chill it was" shows the coldness being bitter which explains that her first state at the time of innocence is bitter or filled with sorrow, frustration ... her chastity. Bitter also gives a feeling of chill because of the alliteration sound of "T" that creates a harsh tone. "Was a cold" in the first stanza also described the coldness. And the diction "frozen grass" and "frosted breath," expla...

• Word Count: 620
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the immense suffering and pain that soldiers must undergo. A helpless tone underscores the downtrodden and mentally feeble condition of the soldiers, who struggle to survive through an arduous battle. Ironic diction is employed to highlight the truth about war over the false impressions of its honorable status. The author beings by introducing the deterioration of the lives of the young and ... longer maintain the high energy and spirit they initially had. They are exasperated by the endless violence of war, which has quickly stolen away their innocence and youthful souls. Ironic dictio...

• Word Count: 1389
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... a lot of tension. Speaker wants his audience to follow him. He also wants his words to sound more important by doing these line breaks. This poem is written in a low diction. The speaker uses very simple words, even slang in expressing his ideas. One of the reasons is why Langston Hughes used this kind of ... diction is to make this poem available to everybody, educated and not. The poet repeats phrases like "eat in the kitchen" and "company comes" in the first and second stanza. In ... lines start with an "I", which means that speaker is describing his own actions. Most of the lines ...

• Word Count: 632
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... of "language really used by men," and his use of simple topics surrounded by mass detail. "What made Wordsworth's poetry so favorable and memorable was his challenge of formal poetic diction, profoundly affecting the course of modern poetry"(369). Wordsworth's experimentation with colloquialism and nature imagery was met with mixed reviews. "Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, England"(Exploring Poetry). "Both ... , the primary laws of our nature: chiefly, as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement"(Wordsworth 373). Wordsworth not only e...

• Word Count: 863
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... many mechanisms that Shakespeare has manifested in A Misummer Night's Dream is the unreliability of time, and how it has a tendency to lose its fluidity within a dream. Perhaps the structure and diction of the poem, which Duffy retains incredibly succinct, can be equated to represent the unusual mechanism of time in a dream, and how it seems to lose its normal gist of ... fluidity in the context of a dream. Duffy's distinctive spacing, meticulous diction and intermittent phrasing can be perceived to represent the intricate concept of time in the poem. Duffy ends the stanza in quite a su...

• Word Count: 1990
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate