Shamsur's blog

"Into Death Bravely"                   In “Into Death Bravely” Santiago talks about how winter is bad for farmers and poor people. It can destroy in many ways in a short period of time. Peoples dreams and lives get shuttered during that time and leave them empty handed. In “Into Death Bravely” Jimmy Santiago Baca also reports the winter like a knight with his strong imagery. The signal of the story is dark and fearful. In the poem he talks about self-discovering and shows us a side of it that isn’t very pretty. Life is always hard and never easy and we have to fight through whatever comes in our way.               “Santiago was born in 1952 in Mexico City, abandoned by parents, lived with grandparents, then became an orphan. At age 21 lived on the streets, convicted of drug possession and sent jail for 6 years, 4 was isolating taught himself how to read and write which got him into poetry.” Sa...

"The Black Finger"                              In “The Black Finger ” the author Angelina Grimke uses imagery to express her thoughts about nature and tree shaped finger as she questions their shapes but still admires them and call them beautiful. “/I have just seen a beautiful thing/ slim and still/ Against a gold, gold sky, / A straight cypress/ Sensitive/ Exquisite, /. In these lines the author talks about a cypress tree being so beautiful and compares it to gold. “/A black finger/ Pointing upwards. /why, beautiful, still finger are /you black? / And why are you pointing /upwards? /”. Also in these lines she talks about the finger how it can face upwards like the tree and a beautiful creation although she questions the finger facing upwards. Grimke doesn’t go into much details about anything in the poem as the poem is short and to the point. There is not a lot of rhyme and d...

"Facing It"                                         Yusef Komunyakaa in his poem ‘ Facing It ’ talks about his own journey and experiences of the the Vietnam war and its memories which was one of the most controversial war the US was involved in the history. First he reveals his ethnicity of being African American at the beginning of the poem where he says “/My black face fades/ hiding inside the black granite/”. He talks about his skin color and the war memorial through color similarities. The word choices such as his ‘Face fades’ and ‘hiding inside’ the granite that allows him to be recognized as such and be differ from the memorial vanishes.                         “/I said I wouldn’t/ dammit: No tear...

"The Lie"                                                                 Anne Waldman in her poem “The Lie” illustrates that everything in this world is illusion and nothing is what we think of them and how they are. Even Art, you can make it what you want it to be in your own eyes but other people might see it differently and have different views, so Anne tells us that it can be lie, because Art is just an illusion and not real. People can disregard lies in larger ideas for their own sake like the messages Art sends about people having different views on one thing.  Anne starts her poem saying “//Art begins with a lie/ The separation is you plus me plus what we make/ Look into light bulb , blink, sun’s in your eye// I want a rare sky/ Van...

Harlem   by; Langston Hughes      What happens to a dream deferred?       Does it dry up       like a raisin in the sun?       Or fester like a sore—       And then run?       Does it stink like rotten meat?       Or crust and sugar over—       like a syrupy sweet?       Maybe it just sags       like a heavy load.        Or does it explode?         Langston Hughes in his poem “Harlem” talks about peoples dreams, how people stops dreaming and why it is very important for people to dream. He talks about what happens if people stop dreaming and have no ambition in life to achieve anything. People sometimes hold their dre...

           BARBIE DOLL                                In " Barbie Doll "  Marge Piercy talks about a woman's life how she goes through her life. It is not always easy in life especially for women. They go through so much in life. When a girl first is born she is given dolls and other toys to play and whatever goes along. As a girl grows up she will face criticism and hate especially when she hits puberty, because at that age she will start to change and face new people everyday. Despite everything she is the one who has to play nice and carry on. Because of these kind of criticism women are forced to think in particular ways. They have to look good and take care of their body. To much criticism, hate towards a woman leads to tragedy sometimes as they commit suicide to be free. In this crazy world these things are still happening. People should be loving and car...