Course Work: Poem Analysis

Theme 1

The theme of the poem concerns the failures that can understand the meaning of success; it further asserts failure is the mother of success. The poem is explaining how something that you consider to be less important can be much important to the other one. The poetess used an announcement on the theme of the poem by the use of the direct quote, "Success is counted sweetest / by those who [never] succeed". It can be viewed that, the people who had never been succeeded will be excited once they get successful. Actually, people will consider those successful people are the ones who celebrate the success the most.

The point of view

Third-person point of view has been used throughout the poem and the narrator has established a battle, whereby the defeated fighter is the only one who can hear the noises of triumph rising from the enemies, this way they will have a clear understanding of success.

Tone

The tone used in the poem is unemotional one, whereby, the speaker is explaining and reporting what she can see, without demonstrating impulses of compassion. The tone is also sad in the stanza where the writer said, As he, defeated, dying which evokes sad emotions since death is always viewed to be a sad matter. Furthermore, the question poses as an example of alliteration since dying and defeated is repeated with the d sound.

Paradox

It explains to the reader that those who are unsuccessful are actually the one who celebrates success more. The first stanza can be considered to be the most prominent since it is the one that carries the powerful thought of the poem, as it shows the main message of the poem.

Task 2

The key idea of the poem is more connected to my personal real-life situation. Going back some years ago when I was still young, my father insisted that I should be admitted in different tutoring classes, in order to improve my academic grades. Each time, he used to do the comparison between me with the other students who were of my level, he always forced me to fulfill his expectation and do everything aligned to his thoughts, without considering my ambitions in life and what I wanted to be. He considered academic more than happiness, as, for me, I wanted to pamper myself with happiness.

I was brought up in a traditionally governed family that was guided my strict rules which were instilled by my father. He was a sober man and he believed in perfection, his expectation was that I get higher grades than my fellow classmates. His strictness made me become much frustrated, more especially when I was in grade 6. He could not spare me for minor mistakes such as waking up late or dropping a bottle while walking, in such cases he used to scold me. Due to the attitudes he had towards me, I gradually lost interest in him and began disliking him, instead, I preferred my mother more; my father was less concerned with how I feel or even realizing things that made me unhappy. He believed that what he used to do was right and justifiable.

I used to cry a lot during those times while I was alone, though, my only medicine was my laughter. I used to face my pain with my smile and I never told anybody about it. All that I desired during that time was just having a happy feeling like the rest of the kids. The paramount thing that I wished to have at that stage of my life was only happiness. In the subsequent period, my father became lovelier and friendlier than before; this was after I talked to him about my feelings regarding his series of behavior. After that time, I had a feeling like I was on the top of the world.

Task 3

The poem might appear to be simple and easy to understand, but, while reading the poem, it was hard for me to get the clear meaning of the poem, it appeared to be much complex and hence I did not enjoy reading it. However, the writing skills that they were used in the poem were outstanding and I appreciate them, but I still prefer reading the short story rather than reading poetry due to its complexity. While completing my assignment on this order I was forced to do extensive research in order to come up with the central theme of the poem. I don't know whether I have to blame myself because I am an English learner and not a native speaker, but I can confess that it was not much easy for me to come up with the comprehensive analysis of the poem. Some of the areas such as literary devices and analytical analysis of the poem were not much clear for me.

I can't finish without giving my appreciation for the role the assignment has played in enhancing my skill in poem analysis and interpretation. Now, I can randomly pick a poem, read it, and identify its major theme and identify some of the key literary devices used in it. With time, I will be able to boost my skills in English, as well as my knowledge in literature. Now, I am able to see the essence of every literary device in the poem, and how effective they are ensuring that the poem's main idea is understood. Such of the literary devices I was able to learn about are, the point of view, tone, paradox, symbolism and so on. I also realized that the literary devices used in the poetry are the same ones used in poetry.