English
For English this quarter we study about poems. We studied all kinds of poems, from acrostic, to shape, to rhyme, and even narrative poem. Personally, the poem that was hardest to write was rhyme and narrative poem. Rhyme poems were difficult because we have to find a perfect words for the rhyme, narrative poems on the other hand were so long. We also learned about poetic devices such as meter, personification and metaphor. The task I selected is how I analyzed a poem called As I Grew Older.
Aditya
English Lit
30/04/2012
As I Grew Older
It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun--
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky--
The wall.
Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down in the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the thick wall.
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!
Langston Hughes
Tone: In the begining of the poem, the tone or mood that I wanted to project the feeling of happiness and hope because the man just remembered his dream. The prove is because the dream was described as bright as the sun and the sun provides light and warmth for living things. Which meant the dream that he remembered must have been positive. However, towards the middle of the poem, I wanted to give the feeling of dissapointed to the mood because the man came across a wall which made a shadow. Walls and shadows resemble defeat and loss, it probably means that the man came upon a obstacle which is why it should be dissapointing. For the last part of the poem, the tone is a little angry because he forced his way across the wall. The poem states how he smashed and shattered the wall into pieces.
Poetic Devices
- 1st Person Point of View: The character is in the poem, lots of “I” and “My.” The word “it” appears but it wasn’t describing the character, it was describing something else. The poet probably used 1st person because a dream is usually told by the person who experience it. If another person tells a dream that he didn’t experience, it will not sound as convincing as the one who actually had the dream.
- Simile: Brigth like a sun, it is a simile because there is the “like” and it’s comparing two objects.
- Personification: “And then the wall rose”, the line is a personification because walls can’t rise on their own, they can’t move. Walls can only be improved or upgraded in order to make it taller. “Rose until it touched the sky--The wall”, the line is has similar meaning but it’s still a personification because walls can’t rise until it touches the sky without adding more bricks.
Rhyming Scheme
This poem isn’t a rhyming poem, there is no pattern of similar ending sound. The only words that have similar ending sounds are “Rose slowly,Slowly” and “My hands! My dark hands!” However these lines doesn’t rhyme consistanly, the poet did this maybe to emphasize the meaning of the lines. Like he wanted to make sure that the reader would understand that the wall really rose slowly. Same with the hands, the poet wanted to make sure that it was his hands that shattered the darkness, the hands that were once covered with darkness. There is one more irregular rhyme and its the last three lines, actually the last two lines from the three lines. The word “sun.” Again, this doesn’t include in the rhyme scheme because the rhyme doesn’t appear constantly, the poet probably wanted to emphasis the what is beyond the darkness. Which turned out to be a thousand lights of sun.
Theme
The overall theme of this poem is to never give up because based on my explanation of the poem’s meaning, it is a tale about a man who wants to chase his dreams. He wants to accomplish his dreams however obstacles haunt him in the journey. But the man didn’t give up, even though the obstacles appeared slowly, the weigth of the problems slowly grew tougher and tougher. But the man didn’t leave his dream, he worked hard and overcomed it. The poet used hands to describe the way he shattered the darkness because hands can resemble hard work. We use hands to lift objects, to draw, to write and many other actions that resemble hard work.
Meaning
There are two ways to look at this poem. The first way is the literal meaning, the literal way of seeing it is quite simple. The guy must have had a dream when he woke up, he couldn’t remember this dream (line one and two). When he did remember, it was about how he saw a brigth sun in front of him. It was bright and amazing, but then a wall rose and blocked the sun light. It made a shadow and covered the man with darkness. The man then forced his way across the wall by smashing it with his bare hands, the wall shattered and sunlight appeared. That is the literal way to see this poem.
Another way to understand this poem is that the man is a old man. Based on the title and the first two lines, he must have been remembering his dream. Like what he wished for, his life long dream. When he did remember it, he knew that he had a wonderful dream because the words “Bright like a sun” was used to describe the dream. But that a wall rose and covered him, the wall must have been resembled the obstacles that prevented his dream to come true. There must have been a point in his life that delayed him to accomplish the dream. But the obstacle didn’t appear suddently, the obstacle slowly got bigger, the problem grew because the poet said “Rose slowly.. Slowly.” It must have been some problem, but the man didn’t give up. He worked hard and passed the obstacle that was preventing him to accomplish his dream. I say work hard because the poem states that the man used his hands to shatter the darkness. Hands are used to do countless things, to work, to lift objects and others. Which was why hands meant hard work for me, the man then succesfully achieved his dream because in the end he shattered the darkness and saw the sun. The same sun that was used to describe his dream.
English Lit
30/04/2012
As I Grew Older
It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun--
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky--
The wall.
Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down in the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the thick wall.
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!
Langston Hughes
Tone: In the begining of the poem, the tone or mood that I wanted to project the feeling of happiness and hope because the man just remembered his dream. The prove is because the dream was described as bright as the sun and the sun provides light and warmth for living things. Which meant the dream that he remembered must have been positive. However, towards the middle of the poem, I wanted to give the feeling of dissapointed to the mood because the man came across a wall which made a shadow. Walls and shadows resemble defeat and loss, it probably means that the man came upon a obstacle which is why it should be dissapointing. For the last part of the poem, the tone is a little angry because he forced his way across the wall. The poem states how he smashed and shattered the wall into pieces.
Poetic Devices
- 1st Person Point of View: The character is in the poem, lots of “I” and “My.” The word “it” appears but it wasn’t describing the character, it was describing something else. The poet probably used 1st person because a dream is usually told by the person who experience it. If another person tells a dream that he didn’t experience, it will not sound as convincing as the one who actually had the dream.
- Simile: Brigth like a sun, it is a simile because there is the “like” and it’s comparing two objects.
- Personification: “And then the wall rose”, the line is a personification because walls can’t rise on their own, they can’t move. Walls can only be improved or upgraded in order to make it taller. “Rose until it touched the sky--The wall”, the line is has similar meaning but it’s still a personification because walls can’t rise until it touches the sky without adding more bricks.
Rhyming Scheme
This poem isn’t a rhyming poem, there is no pattern of similar ending sound. The only words that have similar ending sounds are “Rose slowly,Slowly” and “My hands! My dark hands!” However these lines doesn’t rhyme consistanly, the poet did this maybe to emphasize the meaning of the lines. Like he wanted to make sure that the reader would understand that the wall really rose slowly. Same with the hands, the poet wanted to make sure that it was his hands that shattered the darkness, the hands that were once covered with darkness. There is one more irregular rhyme and its the last three lines, actually the last two lines from the three lines. The word “sun.” Again, this doesn’t include in the rhyme scheme because the rhyme doesn’t appear constantly, the poet probably wanted to emphasis the what is beyond the darkness. Which turned out to be a thousand lights of sun.
Theme
The overall theme of this poem is to never give up because based on my explanation of the poem’s meaning, it is a tale about a man who wants to chase his dreams. He wants to accomplish his dreams however obstacles haunt him in the journey. But the man didn’t give up, even though the obstacles appeared slowly, the weigth of the problems slowly grew tougher and tougher. But the man didn’t leave his dream, he worked hard and overcomed it. The poet used hands to describe the way he shattered the darkness because hands can resemble hard work. We use hands to lift objects, to draw, to write and many other actions that resemble hard work.
Meaning
There are two ways to look at this poem. The first way is the literal meaning, the literal way of seeing it is quite simple. The guy must have had a dream when he woke up, he couldn’t remember this dream (line one and two). When he did remember, it was about how he saw a brigth sun in front of him. It was bright and amazing, but then a wall rose and blocked the sun light. It made a shadow and covered the man with darkness. The man then forced his way across the wall by smashing it with his bare hands, the wall shattered and sunlight appeared. That is the literal way to see this poem.
Another way to understand this poem is that the man is a old man. Based on the title and the first two lines, he must have been remembering his dream. Like what he wished for, his life long dream. When he did remember it, he knew that he had a wonderful dream because the words “Bright like a sun” was used to describe the dream. But that a wall rose and covered him, the wall must have been resembled the obstacles that prevented his dream to come true. There must have been a point in his life that delayed him to accomplish the dream. But the obstacle didn’t appear suddently, the obstacle slowly got bigger, the problem grew because the poet said “Rose slowly.. Slowly.” It must have been some problem, but the man didn’t give up. He worked hard and passed the obstacle that was preventing him to accomplish his dream. I say work hard because the poem states that the man used his hands to shatter the darkness. Hands are used to do countless things, to work, to lift objects and others. Which was why hands meant hard work for me, the man then succesfully achieved his dream because in the end he shattered the darkness and saw the sun. The same sun that was used to describe his dream.
Reflection
Well m y effort towards this work is quite a lot, I have done my best with analyzing the poem. Well this analysis was then turned into a oral presentation, when I did the presentation, it turns out that my analysis was wrong. However, I didn't really mind because I did my best in this analysis. What I could have done better would definitely be to have done a better analysis. The IB learner profile which I learned from this is to be reflective because once I knew that my analysis was innacurate, I reflected to know what's the true analysis. But in the end the teacher told me the true meaning.
Well m y effort towards this work is quite a lot, I have done my best with analyzing the poem. Well this analysis was then turned into a oral presentation, when I did the presentation, it turns out that my analysis was wrong. However, I didn't really mind because I did my best in this analysis. What I could have done better would definitely be to have done a better analysis. The IB learner profile which I learned from this is to be reflective because once I knew that my analysis was innacurate, I reflected to know what's the true analysis. But in the end the teacher told me the true meaning.