Poetry Question
1 Identity through Imagery and Emotion in “You Begin” by Margaret Atwood, and “Cycles Like a Shapeless Child” by Bryan Thao Worra. Introduction “You Begin” by Margaret Atwood, and “Cycles Like a Shapeless Child” by Bryan Thao Worra are two poems that deal with issues of identity and finding one’s own identity. The poems are very similar in many ways including their narrative, story like form and their overall theme, however, the two authors also express their views on identity in different ways. The two pieces have a similar feeling to them in terms of being more like a story than a standard poem we may have come to expect. While Atwood tells her story through the creation of imagery, Worra tells his story through the emotions we feel listening to him describe his own personal experiences. Both poems build a narrative for the reader to follow, but they do so in very different ways. Similarities in form Looking at the form of both pieces, there are clear similarities. Both of these pieces have a story like form, bringing the reader into a narrative piece about the poet’s search for identity. Both are quite long, being almost a full page in length and have varying line lengths throughout, giving them the feeling of a story as well, rather than just a poem. Neither of the poems use consistent rhyme schemes throughout, choosing to use sporadic rhyming or go without. However, neither work loses its poetic rhythm without the rhyme scheme, allowing the reader to flow through the story presented to them. Both Atwood and Worra make use of run-on lines consistently throughout their work, using breaks in the lines to control the rhythm of the piece very successfully. Both of these poems use a similar, somewhat limited amount of punctuation, using only what is absolutely necessary to the flow of the piece, and leaving out punctuation at the ends of some lines to denote their continuation. 2 Differences in form While the lack of rhyme scheme and the narrative feeling of the poems gives them a solid base of similarities, Atwood makes use of much longer verses than Worra chooses to. Each of these longer verses also features shorter lines to ensure that the flow of the poem stays largely the same. Worra chooses to use much longer sentences consistently throughout the poem, giving it an even more story like feel that the work of Atwood. Worra’s longer sentences and four-line verses help to break up his retelling of his own personal experiences into a clear story for the reader. Atwood’s use of longer verses but with shorter sentences allows her to better build images for the reader. Despite the longer sentence and more descriptive nature of Worra’s work, it is Atwood’s poem that makes use of more specific imagery. Atwood uses colors and textures throughout her work to build an image for readers of exactly what she is speaking about. Worra does not use this kind of representative imagery, choosing instead to describe personal experiences that are more evocative of emotion than images. While it is true that neither poem feature a consistent rhyme scheme, Atwood chooses to use some sporadic rhyming throughout both at the ends of lines and internally. She also uses repetition frequently to draw the reader in and help to create her images in a way that Worra does not. Atwood frequently mention’s colors throughout her work, matching them with similar sounds and images to help build pictures for her readers. For example, when using the color yellow, she describes the moon with its matching long vowel sounds, and when using the word blue, she creates fresh imagery of fish and water. This kind of vivid, easy to see, imagery is very different to the emotional narrative of Worra’s work. While both poems have a narrative feeling to them, it is the differences in the use of imagery and emotion that makes the way these narratives are formed and understood so different. 3 One of the major differences between these two poems stems from the viewpoint of each. Atwood writes in the second person, describing to the reader where they come from and how their identity has developed all the way from being a fish. She describes the body parts and traits of the reader in the second person, speaking to ‘you,’ the reader. Worra, on the other hand, speaks in first person, describing his own experiences with identity. Both of these give the poems a very personal feeling, one stemming from feeling as though the author is speaking to us personally, and the other stemming from personal experiences being shared with us. Despite the different ways in which these are created, they both allow the reader to connect with the work on a personal level. Similarities in meaning Differences in meaning Connotation and Word Analysis Thematic conclusions Conclusion
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