And The End.

Well, it happened. After those long and tedious hours of work, I finally felt confident stepping foot into that AP Exam. The multiple choice seemed sort of harder than I thought it would be. I mean I have always been bad at those type of questions when it comes to Lit, just because.... ? But, once I got to the essays I felt a little better, well alot better since the first essay was very easy. Second was a challange, and third was kinda ironic. Besides that, I think the best activity that helped me prepare for this exam was probably the essays that we got to pick ourselves (3 of them) and make outlines of. I don't know if that worked for everyone, but  I ended up using one of the outlines I had worked on for class, which helped me review the book for the exam. It really was good review. Also, the charts are tedious but they do really help out when you try to go back and hit the main points of each novel. I am pretty sure I passed this exam and I feel as if I have grown as a writer, even if my blogs don't prove it. Cheers to a good year!

Act II-Ernest

I would like to discuss the important matter regarding Jack’s cigarette case. Jack’s case exposes his secret identity leading Algernon to develop suspicions about his other life. That life itself is a lie to the extent that Jack has always lied to Algernon about what it really is. Moreover, “three-volume novel” in the dour Miss Prism’s past suggests that Miss Prism herself has had an alter ego at some point. Miss Prism tells Cecily not to “speak slightingly of” fiction. She says, “The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily.” Even before this exchange, Cecily avoids her schoolbooks. She would rather write than read and pulls out her diary, where she records her “wonderful secrets.” This leads me to conclude that these are themselves lies. Cecily’s schooling is part of Miss Prism and Jack’s desire for Cecily to “improve herself in every way,” and Cecily continues this attempt to continue her writing. This is also ironic in the text as it poses a reason for Cecily avoids the schoolbooks and writes in her diary instead.

Moreover this quote is of great significance to the novel: Algernon:  “Oh! I am not really wicked at all, cousin Cecily. You mustn’t think that I am wicked.” Cecily:  “If you are not, then you have certainly been deceiving us all in a very inexcusable manner. I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.” Here, Algernon, who is presenting himself as Jack’s brother Ernest, is shown into the garden. He greets Cecily, calling her his “little cousin,” and she greets him as “my wicked cousin Ernest.” The moral status of Jack’s fictional brother  undergoes a change between Acts I and II. At Algernon’s flat in Half Moon Street, “Ernest” was merely “profligate”.  As Jack says, he got into “scrapes,” which is to say “jams” or mischief. They are, however, something Algernon is fond of. When Jack warns him that Bunbury may get him into “a serious scrape some day,” Algernon replies, “I love scrapes. They are the only things that are never serious.” This is a bit ironic to the text I would say as well because it clearly shows how Algernon and Jack have a play on words here and just how detailed the language between them can get. They sort of talk sarcastically about “scrapes” and this is ironic to the text.

Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde seems to be one of the funniest plays we have read this whole year. Even though we are still on the first act, it already appears that this play has some funny criticism about society in those days. Some of the themes that are already evident are double life, social criticism, marriage and appearances. The language and wit consists of chiasmus, contradiction, and puns.

The author seems to make fun of marriage a lot in the play through criticism that is spoken by Algernon. For example he says, “I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If I ever get married, I’ll certainly try to forget the fact”. Later he goes on to say that “divorces are made in heaven”. Both of these quotes show contradiction and criticism of marriage. As marriage should be happy on earth and the fact or proposing should be one of the most important and romantic things in life, Wilde makes it seem that they are quite the opposite.  Later on Algernon says, “then your wife will. You don’t seem to realize, that in married life three is company and two is none”. Algernon perhaps seems to be representing and mocking society in which he resides in. While he represents the society, he seems to be mocking through the use of contradictory statements in his speeches.

Moreover, Algernon seems to criticize women in his society by saying “well, in the first place girls never marry the men they flirt with. Girls don’t think it right”. I think that is one of the funniest things I have read all semester! But why is Wilde making this one character say all of these things? Why is he mocking society and females? Later he goes on and mocks dentists by saying that “it produces a false impression”. How ironic and funny is that?

Another, theme is double lives. Jack seems to also be Earnest. What is the importance of double lives though?  Is he stating that everyone in society is two-faced and changes their personality based on where they are and who they are with, such as being in the country or in town? Country seems to represent a high moral tone, while the town is represented as scrapes. Is this true in real life as well?

A little lesson about AP Lit

With the end of the school year right around the corner, I must admit this year went by pretty fast. I believe my writing skills have increased a whole lot since I first stepped foot into AP Literature class. I must mention a few if the skills I have gathered over the course of the past 9 or so months.  Well, for starters, I stopped limiting my thesis statements down to the basic “simile, metaphor, personification” items that I would usually mention in my thesis. Now, I mention these items in the actual essay of mine, not in the thesis statement, because this way I am not limited to just those three components when writing my essay. Next, I learned that I should not use “one” as in reference to a person when writing my essays. For the most part, that is “too cliché”. Hmm, well it is hard to not refer to someone as “one” when you are not sure of who the audience or the subject is, but hey, in order to pass the class, you gotta do what you gotta do. Moreover, I have also increased my verbal skills drastically; well at least I think I have. I seem to have a variety of words in my essays now and perhaps I am less repetitive. With that being said, I believe that my analytical skills have become much stronger overall. I seem to comprehend poetry a bit better now and I somewhat became better at reading Shakespearean stuff. I nitpick each line one by one and try to really reveal the “so what” with textual support. Oh! Almost forgot! Never say “the author uses similes”, haha. No, “the author does not simply pick them up out of the ‘magic tool box’ and sprinkle them on his or her paper”, said Mrs. Clinch. NONONONO. Is that clear enough? Instead of saying that, simply reveal how and why the author uses his or her simile in the text J Yes, simply. It is not that hard. And, do not ever evaluate the author in your essays! You are writing an essay about how you think the text does what, not about what the author could have done or should not have done. It is pointless. Of course when you begin your first paragraph on your paper, you must identify the author and the work as well. If you can buy it at Barnes and Nobles then it is underlined! If not, put those quotation marks on it :D And of course there is the simple rule of “do not merely summarize the text”! But you must and should use the text to help you out with your analysis of the work as a whole!

Oh the tedious Emma...

The end of Emma, made me sit back and finally praise the almighty that after hours of reading and days spent annotating that this book is finally done. On the first day of school I was so excited to hear that we will be reading this book, in fact, I thought it would be my favorite. But my God, as the hours went by, the pages and chapters seemed to become longer and longer. I did not enjoy reading this book at all, as the whole novel seemed to be a bunch of women gossiping and chit-chatting about who wore what and who said what. I mean it is great that Emma goes on a great “maturation” journey and discovers, or at least is supposed to discover what the true values in life are, but really? Why write such a long book about a bunch of women having nothing better to do in their lives except gossiping about each other? Now it might seem as if I am going on a ram-page or something, but really, I am most certainly glad this part of my life, is almost over. At one point I even made myself and my parents watch this movie, in hopes of getting a better sense of what the novel is about and how things were back then, but midway into the movie, my dad fell asleep, my mom pretended to be interested and I was just trying to keep up with all the gossip the women were saying, in order to better understand the book. But honestly, that was a horrible experience. I mean usually movies are supposed to make boring books seem more interesting, but in this case I do not know which one was worse.

 Now to get more into the analysis of the book itself, I was hoping that Emma would ultimately learn her big mistakes and get to the point of which we were all waiting for, but at the end she “must sink; their friendship must change into a calmer sort of good-will”. Really?! I mean this whole time we were all waiting for Emma to finally learn that rank and class order should not matter, but in the end after all that she still sticks to her “higher status in society” and decides to fade her friendship with Harriet away! I am furious! Not is the whole book a big gossip scene, but the end of it doesn’t even get to the point of the whole journey! And oh yay, she marries Mr. Knightley, as expected! What a terrible ending. I am so disappointed that this is the true story of Emma, as I was hoping for something much more different.

Second Volume of Emma

As I approach the middle and almost the end of the novel, I start to make more connections of whom is with whom and what each character’s role is exactly in the story and towards Emma. It is evident that Emma makes a few mistakes by continuing her matchmaking business, even though she is many times proven to be wrong, such as when Mr. Elton ends up marrying Ms. Hawkins. It is a bit ridiculous that Emma continues her falsehood matchmaking business even though she is proven to be wrong numerous times. Moreover, it is strange to me that Mr. Knightley is throwing out random signs of having affection for Jane, such as by sending her apples, but at the same time he denies any feelings towards her when Emma confronts him about it. What is he up to?  Why is he acting like this? I do not understand. Maybe he is trying to make Emma jealous in order to find out if she has any feelings for him or maybe he is just plain out bored and trying to find something to entertain himself with. Who knows. Furthermore, the way that Mrs. Elton tries to change Jane Fairfax can parallel the same way that Emma was earlier trying to change Harriet. It is ironic that Emma judges Mrs. Elton in a negative way even though she herself acts the same way towards Harriet. One would think that Emma and Mrs. Elton should become best friends based on their interests and personalities but I guess in this case it is the opposite. What is the purpose of the author for doing this? What is Austen trying to reveal here? What significance does Mrs. Elton have to this novel and what does she represent? All these unanswered questions yet again haunt me as I approach the end of this novel. I hope more of the facts and clues tie up in order to reveal and help emphasize the big “so what” of this novel. Does Austen have another idea playing here besides the fact that Emma’s stubbornness and stupidity cause her pain and pain to others as well? The change in Emma is present as she begins to notice how badly Mrs. Elton treats Jane and when Emma herself sees that Harriet has a heart, which is more valuable than anything, and on the contrary Emma is cold-hearted. But if Mr. Knightley does have feelings for Emma, what does he see in her?

While doing my poetry notebook...

While working on my poetry notebook I learned many new things. First I learned that procrastination is never a good thing. If you wait until the last few days to do a huge assignment, you will go crazy, you will be deprived of sleep, your fingers will be numb from typing, you will not function properly anymore and all the words will begin to blur together. Second, I learned that there are different types of structures of poems. There is the Sonnet, which consists of 14 lines and is usually about love, there is the Blank verse, which is unrhymed, similar to a Free verse, and there is the Didactic, which teaches a moral lesson. The meter of a poem counts how many syllables are present. Moreover, I became introduced to many different poets and writers that I did not know of before. Each one came from a different time period and represented a different part of time with a different idea. While some poets came from the Harlem Renaissance others came from 1970’s. One particular poet stood out to me by the name of Paul Dunbar, an African American poet. He wrote the poem “Life’s Tragedy” in which he contemplated the attitude of society, by ignoring the accomplishments and emphasizing on disappointments. His poem spoke to me and made me sit back and realize that truly bad things happen, but worse ones could happen as well. I realized that I should not get so upset with the little bad things that occur on a daily basis, because the next day something even worse could happen. The real tragedy of life that Dunbar says is failing to attain perfection. Now what makes me so emotional about this poem is the fact that Dunbar came about during the Realist literary movement. It is clear that his poem does fit this time period, as realists tried to write about ordinary things that happen to ordinary people every day. But was Dunbar’s own life filled with tragic events and he wanted to express his feelings out on paper? Or did he just have a lot of altruism? We may never know. The questions I am faced with while reading all kinds of poem’s for this assignment make me really gain knowledge about the past and about how certain people thought and related their own lives to poetry. Really makes me appreciate all the great poems that we have as of today and all the contributions that people have made throughout the years in order to help lead literature forward.

My First Experience With Emma

The first few chapters of Emma have been a pleasant experience. From what I have observed, Emma appears as a rich, and confident young lady who seems to always get things “her own way” and “thinks a little too well of herself”. Will she continue to think this way throughout the novel or will she learn something along the way and change into a more mature, older female? Emma believes that she is a good matchmaker, as she married Miss Taylor off to Mr. Weston. Emma was raised by Miss Taylor, since her mother died, therefore, they have a close relationship going on and the part of Miss Taylor going away has a sudden turn on her and Emma is not sure if she can handle it. But again, we are introduced to Emma’s confident mind as she believes that she has a “great regard” for Mr. Elton.  Will Emma’s confidence lead to her own downfall?

The relationship that Emma and Mr. Knightley have going on is a bit sarcastic and flirty to me. Even though he is Emma’s brother in law, it seems to me that something will happen between the two of them. He appears to try to lead Emma the opposite way from which she is trying to go. He tells Emma, “but leave him to chuse his own wife”.  Will he lead Emma the right way or somewhere where she will be depressed and devastated? What will happen between the two of them? Only time and chapters will tell! I personally enjoy these type of books because they have to do with love, sarcasm, social status, and a strong female lead. So I am very thrilled to read this book, especially as part of a school reading. Though at times, I did get confused in chapter 2 as all these new characters kept being introduced and I am not very good at remembering a lot of names in a book. Hopefully all these somehow connect together by the middle or end, as they always do. I can’t wait to figure out what happens between Emma and Mr. Knightley, because so far they seem to have something going on there. But what will happen to Mr. Knightley and his current wife, the sister of Emma? That is a bit weird I would say, but hey life happens. A lot of characters are introduced and there seems to be a lot of weddings going on. Is that part of the social norm at that time period? Is it in style or something?

Confronting His Mother

It has become evident to me that the Queen is “seeming”, for many obvious reasons.  I began to pick her deceptive signs up in Act 3 Scene 4. Hamlet begins to throw around obvious hints about how the new King has killed his father, and right away she says “As kill a king?” She plays her role as an “innocent mother” very well,  but in fact she is disguising Hamlet in every single way. But is the Uncle worth more to her than her own son? She says “To whom do you speak this?” As if she does not see the ghost, but I think she is only saying that to make Hamlet seem crazy. But in fact he is not crazy because he says “bring me to the test and I the matter re-word, which madness would gambol from”. And a mad and crazy person would never be able to re-word him/herself in such a way. This shows that Hamlet still has a stable state of mind and in fact does know what is going on. Moreover, when Hamlet threatens her to not say anything, she does manage to breathe out “I have no life to breathe what thou last said to me”. This seems a bit suspicious as she tells hamlet that she will not say a word to the King of what has happened tonight or what Hamlet has said.

Now once we get to act 4, the Queen right away tells the King of what has happened. Is that not deception, lying and betrayal towards her son? She insists to the king that Hamlet is “mad as the seas, and wind, when both content which is the mightier: in his lawless fit behind the arras, hearing something stir, he whips out his rapier, and cries a rat, a rat and in this brainish apprehension kills the unseen good old man”. What a betraying woman! She has been “seeming” all this time. Who else knows something or doesn’t and pretends to know other things? Has she gone mad, because her husband has died and now she does not know what to do? Why would she betray Hamlet, her own son? I do not understand. Is the new King really that much to her? This leads me to wonder on what is to happen in the rest of the play. Will Hamlet kill his mother because she has done what he threatened her not to do? He did say, “to try conclusions in the basket, creep and break your own neck down”. Will Hamlet be the one do “break” his mother’s neck? And what will happen after that?

"To Be or Not to Be"

To be or not to be? Perhaps one of the most famous lines from the Skakespearean times. Hamlet gives his soliloquy, as it appears to me, in a depressed suicidal mood. He mentions things such as “mind to suffer” and “to die to sleep” is in a way mentioning that he does not see the point in suffering in this world anymore. “That flesh is heir to?” He questions himself and later mentions “for who would bear the whips and scorns of time”. The scorns could represent the bad sins that occurred in Hamlets life. By whips he might mean that he will take revenge on his uncle and get him back for killing his dear father.

As soon as Ophelia comes in, she acts cold and returns the “remembrances” to Hamlet. He then switches his mood around and tells her that he never loved her, in attempt to make her mad. She tries to pretend that she does not care, because her father is watching her, but deep down she is heartbroken. At this point the audience is not sure whether Hamlet knows that he was being watched or if he doesn’t. He does ask “where is your father?”, but maybe he only does it to be sarcastic, or perhaps he really is curious. According to my group’s version, he is not aware at all and therefore does ask with a mere concern. Later, Ophelia sort of has a soliloquy in a way as she expresses her own thoughts in a sad depressed manner. Perhaps Ophelia is so depressed because she has been used by almost everybody. Hamlet might use her to make her look bad in front of her own father so that her father would get mad. Her father might use her to “do her duty”, but in reality he is only trying to make Hamlet suffer. What will become of Ophelia? Will she commit suicide herself or was her speech just a cover up in front of her father to make him feel sorry for her, because Hamlet insulted her so that way her father would get even madder at Hamlet and perhaps kill him. Now what will become of Hamlet? Will he eventually take revenge or will he just end up killing himself? Is his “to be or not to be” speech a sign of revenge or a sign of suicide? He could act or not act, as in take revenge or not take revenge. Will we not find out until the very last scene because this is honestly killing me!?

Possible Tendencies of Suicide?

I sense some suicidal tendencies arising upon Hamlet. So in Act 1, Hamlet ends the act by being completely confident in his sudden urge to revenge back upon the uncle. That act is filled with haste and anger. However, at the end of Act 2, Hamlet is not so sure of himself anymore and his intentions. He seems cautious at the end as he wonders if his soul is possessed by the Devil and if he should let the uncle’s conscience come out by making him watch the play, which would resemble his father’s death.

Moreover, Hamlet many times throughout the play has made references to death. Not just the death of his father, but also his own death. Just as he replies sarcastically to Polonius questioning him if he shall go “into (his) own grave”. Or when she mentions that humanity is nothing more than dust to him and he has lost all purpose and hope. To him the beautiful things in life seem to appear black and white and he mentions them looing nothing more than a pestilent filled air. Therefore, the motif of death seems to appear often times around Hamlet’s speeches and in the play as a whole.

This leads me to conclude that Hamlet might possibly commit suicide by the end of the play. He seems to be losing his state of mind by the end of Act 2. His once confident soul seems to lately be degrading as he begins to question his own identity and his own purpose. The fact that Hamlet questions on if the Devil is really inside of him making him do these things and think in such ways, shows that he is becoming less and less confident in his own identity. So this leads me to question if he will take revenge on his uncle and then kill himself because his conscience will slowly be killing him? Or will he just commit suicide before killing his uncle, because his soul would not be able to handle the scene of the murder and his own mind will not be able to handle it? How will his mother feel if her own son commits suicide just because her new lover came around and killed Hamlet’s father? Will that cause her to commit suicide herself because then she will not be able to handle all the stress that has occurred in her family? Many questions are left yet unanswered.

The Murder of the King

Today in class we found out that Hamlet’s uncle is responsible for the murder of the father. Unbelievable.  Is it not preposterous that a brother would kill his own brother? What has this world come down to? I’d really like to find out why the uncle would do such a thing. Was it because he truly was in love with the Queen? Or did he do it for the title of being the new King? I think it is a bit extreme and sorrowful that the King would expect Hamlet to let go of his father’s death and completely accept his new father. What will Hamlet do now that he has found out about this tragedy? Will he seek revenge and go after his uncle and kill him? Or will he also do something to his mother if he finds out that she had something to do with this murder? The fact that his guards came by and witnessed Hamlet’s absurd behavior once he told them about talking to the ghost, foreshadows that maybe they will too be involved in this tragic revengeful story. I look forward to finding out on what Hamlet will do in revenge. He might be secretive until he comes up with a master idea of how to really make his uncle suffer. Will the rest of the society consider Hamlet a tragic hero or an evil revengeful man? I think he should be considered a hero if he gets his uncle back, because all bad deeds must be punished and even Hamlet believes that “nothing good will come out of this”.

When we saw the scene of the funeral, the “look” that his mother gives to the uncle is a bit questionable. We could either interpret that as her gazing at him furiously with the fact that she knows that he is the one who killed her beloved husband. Or we could view that “look” as her way of disguising herself by crying, meanwhile she actually is happy to be with the new King. Is there some sort of a scheme going on here? Which leads me to question the idea that perhaps the Queen and the uncle had some affair going on before the uncle had killed the King. If that is what was going on, then I am guessing the King was killed because the reputation might have been in stake of the royal family, which is a terrible thing which society despises. Was he killed because he knew and didn’t do anything? And the only way for the uncle’s happiness to thrive on would be to end the life of his dear brother?

Oh Hamlet

Hamlet is a very confusing novel to me. At first I had no idea what was going on or what the characters were saying. I am actually not a fan of what type of old English, just because it is so frustrating to really understand what is being said. However, throughout class reading time and activities we have been doing, I can somewhat now understand parts of it more clearly. Based on the activity we did in class on Friday I can now clearly understand what Hamlet is saying about his mother. He feels as if he wants to disappear and dissolve into mist. He is questioning God, which is a very unique and absurd thing to do back in those times, because everyone was so caught up in the existence of God. But due to the fact that Hamlet’s mother has done such a dramatic thing, Hamlet is forced to question God’s presence. Hamlet feels as if his whole world has turned upside down. His father has only been dead for two months and his mother has already married his uncle. However to look at it from the mother’s perspective, perhaps she felt so weak and she really needed a sense of security. Perhaps the uncle is the closest resemblance to the father and therefore, the mother picked to marry him. Perhaps she misses her dead husband so much that the only option for her was to grab his brother. Maybe he reminds her of her dead husband. And that is not a bad thing…? But two months is a short time. Did she not think of how Hamlet would feel? Is she that selfish? How did she think Hamlet would feel having his own uncle as his step-father? Strange. Kind of disturbing. And as of Hamlet, all he can do is keep his mouth shut. He knows it’s not his place to say anything. But maybe later on in the novel he will stand up for what he believes is right? Will he kill his uncle? Or will he run away from home and never speak to his mother again? All of these questions I have that need to be answered. Hamlet feels angry, hurt, and mournful. Is that the opposite of his mother? Or did she marry the uncle just to cover all of these feelings up? Is she using the uncle as a replacement for her lost loved one? I can’t wait to read more of this confusing novel and hopefully figure out what is happening is at happens!

The Simple Beauty of Poetry

Poetry to me means something that I can go to in order escape the present and become engulfed into a fantasy. A fantasy of either the past, present or future. It doesn’t necessarily have to be dramatic, but as long as it has meaning to ME, then I consider it a good poem. I enjoy poems consisting of love, life struggles, or inspiration. Because those topics are something I can relate to and I can actually feel the authors meaning. I like to become involved within the poem and experience the emotions that the author was trying to make the reader feel. Sometimes, I read poems and think the complete opposite thing of what the author might have been suggesting. That is the pure beauty of literature and writing. You can go on and on without many boundaries, besides the edge of the white paper on which you are writing on. Even if I do find unintentional meanings within the poem, I still wonder on what the author was really trying to get across. Perhaps the writer was merely writing just for the fun of it? Perhaps that is a way of expressing their own true feelings and thoughts?

I love the way poetry lets me get involved within the simple and small portion of the page. I can connect words with other ones in the poem and try to derive some type of a meaning. One connection leads to another and this lets me be free and write down any thought that I might be feeling. I love that simple act of reading that lets me feel a whole lot of emotions, based on what I am reading. That’s the beauty. I can read a poem each day to go along with my mood. Or sometimes I can read a poem in hopes of changing my mood from one to another. Once the poem changes me, I feel different. But with irony, I do not change the poem. The poem always stays the same and does not change. It’s funny how just a bunch of words on a page can provide so much feeling and completely change a person. Meanwhile the page is never affected, unless you burn it. But I’m sure these days there’s always a copy somewhere online or in another million books.

I am enjoying this unit of AP Lit. There’s really no wrong or right answer when you analyze a poem, as long as you have your evidence to support what you’re saying.

"The School Children"

"The School Children" written by Louise Gluck is a poem about the difficulties a mother has to face during the time of her child’s departure from home. A possible thesis for this poem could be: In the poem, “The School Children”, Louise Gluck explores the difficulties mothers face and reveals the sadness and lonesome they feel once their children leave home, through imagery, contrast and tone shift.

Right from the start the author explores the idea of “children go(ing) forward” as their mothers labor at home and do shores that are “unknown” to them. Possibly meaning that the only thing that mothers know how to do best is to take care of the children. To them the chores seem to be “of another language” as their kids go to school. The second stanza, suggests the fact that the kids are the “great offerings” which are received “on the other shore”, being teachers, schools etc. The mothers are left behind with all their efforts put into the children and the children just leave, leaving no credit behind. The mothers give apples to the children, as in they teach their kids the right from wrong. But all that the children do is, leave the home and take their knowledge elsewhere. Moreover, as the teachers “instruct them in silence” the children are spoiled by the teachers’ rotten traps and all of their innocence goes away. The mothers try to “scour…for a way out” as they feel trapped inside by their duty to stay at home. They show little ammunition, because they are tired of labor and they miss their children.

This poem is very true in most cases. The author did a great job emphasizing the importance of mothers upon the children. The real pain can be felt throughout the poem as the author displays imagery in various parts throughout the poem. Just as poetry does, this poem also interrupts the “stream of life” in order to let humans process it. This poem is concerned with a moment in life where the hardest part of being a mother is to watch your children leave the home. All your efforts and caring go out the door, without an idea of whether they will come back or not. The poem works by making the readers feel how mothers feel exactly and the pain that they go through. And this way the author does a great job capturing what really is going on at that moment of time in a mother’s life.