Narrative Poetry

Unending Love

Rabindranath Tagore

Discussion:

One of the elements of Tagore's writing in the playing around with the concept of time. Tagore is
interesting in being able to identify conditions in the present tense and examine how these "moment"
are part of a larger scope, something that reflects the past and the future. In doing so, Tagore
reconfigures time and our perception of it. The experience we experience now is a part of something
else, something larger, and in this we care enveloped with who we are now, who we might have bwen ,
and who we might be. This where "Unending Love" find itself.

The love that the writer is experiencing with his beloved is something that is of the age. This vision of
love is one that is experienced right now, in its current form but was something that is indelibly
imprinted in the consciousness of time. The idea of "age after age" and the concept of love being
"remade" almost brings to life that there is a spiritual connection between the two lovers, or at least felt
by the writer, that they have stood in their midst of this love"before" in a previous time. While the love
that is spoken is specific between two people ,it is also reflective of a universal construct that applies to
"millions of lovers", bringing out the idea that the love shared is in fact, "un ending".

One of the implications of this that individuals are not on ownership of the love they share. Rather, they
are a part of something infinitely more cosmic and experience that is a small of a feast. It is a very
interesting conception of the individual self that is rendered on the poem. The writer articulates a
condition of love that is felt towards another, indicating it is a part of something larger. However, herein
lies a potential paradox in that while it is expressed as something the speaker feels and something that is
experienced, it is not the writer, and it does not belong to him. It is something that is universal, and
something of which he and his love is a small part and has been a small part for me encompasses both
the specific and the universal , the present and all of time.

Dramatic Poetry:

I Am A Rock

Simon and Garfunkel

Figurative language uses methapor and simile to convey ideas and feelings and to give descriptions.
Figures of speech are not to be taken literally but can communicate pictures and emotions clearly and
poetically, and song lyrics are an ideal place to find them.

The very title of this poem is figurative language in the form of metaphor. The writer is not saying that
there is some important way which he is rock like "I am a Rock" could mean "I am gray and cold" and "I
am solid" or "I will not be moved". Within the line of the poem , the writer pairs his" I am a Rock"
metaphor help illuminate each other's meaning. He is using figurative language to describe feeling
isolated and hardened. We also can clearly understand his meaning from other lyrics in the song where
he says more literally, "I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain".

I see additional use of figurative language in the song when the writer speaks of a " fortress,"armor", and
a "womb". All of these nouns are used in methapors, which can be translated into literal emotional
terms in line with the primary metaphorical theme of the song-" I am a Rock."

The poem points out the emotional cost of living, no matter what you do: If you trust and offer
yourselfup to others, you expose yourself to the cost of being hurt. If you want to avoid that by
withdrawing, hiding behind your defenses, and alienating yourself, then the cost will be loneliness and
sadnes , because in the end we nedd others to validate our worth, From this perspective, you can't win:
winter, dark, alone, silence, shroud and pain.

Lyrical Poetry

Oracle

Seamus Heaney

Discussion

In a poem that foretells (Oracle) of a poet-in-the making Heaney relives a childhood moment that
demonstrate his strong spirit of independence, his sensivity to the world around and his busy
imagination.

Once upon a real time, child Heaney's eagerness to wriggle free of parental control, run ahead and play
hide-an-seek "in the hollow trunk/ of the willow tree" provided a passport to a secret spirit world in
which he would commune with nature "its listening familiar".

This moment of first communion was immediately disrupted by intrusive, repetitive calls: x as usual/
they/ cuckoo your name/ across the fields".
He recognized the sound of family closing in, navigating the barriers separating them from him: " You can
bear them/ draw the poles of stiles/ as they approach" urging him to give himself away "calling you out".

Child Heaney is reluctant to leave his hide-out and break the spell: " small mouth and ear in a woody
cleft", "ear and voice" " lobe and larynx of the damp Mossbawn" "mossy places".

Heaney's poetry will, as the title prophesies, echo the sound of nature and express its lyrical beauty.