’s “Marks Essay, Research Paper
The Use of Tone and Metaphors in Pastan’s “Marks”
Linda Pastan’s poem “Marks” is unusual because it addresses the frustrations of a typical
housewife. Few people consider being a wife and mother a full-time job in itself, and it is not
uncommon for a woman who plays both of these roles to feel overworked and unappreciated.
What is unusual about Pastan’s poem is the way she effectively conveys these sentiments by the
use of metaphors, tone, and informal diction.
The speaker’s attitude is one of indifference, and this is made apparent by the metaphors she
uses to compare her family’s regard for her duties as a wife and mother to school grades. The
poem opens with, “My husband gives me an A for last night’s supper, an incomplete for my
ironing, a B plus in bed. My son says I am average…”. There is no emotion used in these lines, as
if the speaker wishes to convey to the reader that she is so tired of serving others that she does
not have time to consider her own personal feelings. She may believe that she is constantly being
evaluated, and the fact that she makes an effort to care for her family is not always good enough.
In a school setting, students usually strive for perfection through their grades, and sometimes a
student who has worked very hard still does not achieve the grade he or she wanted. This raises
the question, what do grades really measure? Obviously, good intentions or the amount of work
done are not all that is measured. Thus, these metaphors seem to suggest that the speaker feels
she will be taken for granted by her family no matter how hard she tries to please them.
The tone of this poem is established by the way the lines seem flat and void of emotion. The
speaker simply states the facts the way she sees them, with no reference to her feelings or
thoughts. Most of the words are dull and ordinary, much like the attitude of the speaker. Pastan’s
choice of informal diction is effective in comparing the differences of the lifestyles led by
housewives versus the lifestyles led by other women. The last line of the poem (“Wait ‘til they
learn I’m dropping out.”) leads the reader to assume that she has evaluated her lifestyle, and has
decided to change it. The fact that she is “dropping out” could have a variety of meanings. She
could decide to seek employment and start her own career, or she could be making a more radical
change, such as leaving her family altogether to start a life of her own. There is even a possibility
that she may remain a housewife, but change the way she caters to her family. Despite all of the
possibilities, Pastan’s true intention is to convey to the reader her speaker’s plans of making
changes in her life to satisfy herself, not anyone else.
“Marks” is an unusual poem not because of its subject matter, but because of the way it
addresses its subject matter. Pastan’s use of metaphors to develop comparisons of her speaker’s
family relations to school grades is effective in showing the speaker’s attitude of indifference. The
use of informal diction is helpful in establishing the dull, ordinary tone of the poem, and also
further develops the character of the speaker. This poem presents readers with ordinary
circumstances, yet it gives them a different way of viewing them. It suggests that maybe a grade
of A should be given for effort more often.
Другие работы по теме:
Hamlet Explication Essay Research Paper The purpose
Hamlet Explication Essay Research Paper The purpose of this paper is to explicate a soliloquy spoken by Hamlet in Act IV scene IV lines of Shakespeare s Hamlet Prince of Denmark This soliloquy illustrates a significant change in Hamlet Explication Essay Research PaperThe purpose of this paper is to explicate a soliloquy spoken by Hamlet in Act IV scene.
DickinsonS Poems Essay Research Paper Dickinson Explication
Dickinson`S Poems Essay, Research Paper Dickinson Explication #130 This poem speaks of the final summer days of the year, possibly coming after the initial fall cool down. The speaker begins by saying “These are the days when Birds come back—A very few—a Bird or two—To take a backward look,” referring to the few remaining birds in the last of the warm days of the year.
Marks Essay Research Paper MARKS My husband
Marks Essay, Research Paper MARKS My husband gives me an ?A? for last nights supper, an incomplete for my ironing, a B plus in bed. My son says I am average, an average mother, but if
Sonnet 29 Essay Research Paper Rob BenkovicMrs
Sonnet 29 Essay, Research Paper Rob Benkovic Mrs. Stahl Period 8 5/8/00 Explication of “Sonnet 29” The reader can find Shakespeare’s dilemma in the first two stanzas. His problem is quite clear: he is lonely and depressed. As an outcast of society, he feels unlucky and thinks that there is no hope for him. Not even God can help him.
Explication Of Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay
, Research Paper Explication of “Dulce et Decorum Est” In Dulce et Decorum Est Wilfred Owen explores the harsh conditions and realities of war. The burdens of war and the overwhelming weariness faced by soldiers are described in the first ten lines of the poem. Many soldiers in World War I did not have the proper training and equipment to fight a war.
Explication From Hamlet Essay Research Paper Assignment
Explication From Hamlet Essay, Research Paper Assignment 1: Explication from Hamlet (1.3.111-137) (?My lord, he hath importuned me with love? ? [end of scene].Ophelia and Polonius have a father-daughter discussion toward the end of Act 1 where Polonius, concerned father that he is, warns his daughter Ophelia of becoming too involved with Hamlet.
Hamlet Explication Essay Research Paper Hamlet Explication
Hamlet Explication Essay, Research Paper Hamlet Explication In Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Rosencrantz speaks Act 3 Scene 3 lines 11-23. The lines that he speaks are in response to the Kings request that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern take Hamlet to England immediately. The king feels that Hamlet’s madness is a threat to him and tries to convince the men that it is a threat to the kingdom and that it would be in Hamlet’s best interest to go to England.
Explication Of Ezra Pound
’s In A Station Of The Metro Essay, Research Paper The Explication of Ezra Pound s In a Station of the Metro Ezra Pound s words portray a moment frozen in time. The poem, In a Station of the Metro, is a poem of imagery. Through imagery, Pound imbues his vision and thoughts of his surroundings while on a subway train.
Explication Of Lord Byron
’s She Walks With Beauty Essay, Research Paper Explication of Lord Byron s She Walks In Beauty Lord George Gordon Noel Byron, or Lord Byron as he preferred to be called, was a known philanderer with an insatiable appetite. In letters to Percy Shelley, he told of short-lived romances with women he claimed did not understand the wants and needs of men.
Love Song Explication Essay Research Paper The
Love Song Explication Essay, Research Paper The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Lines 37-52 In this stanza the man regrets some of the decisions that he has made in his life. The man feels that if he allows himself to reflect upon his past he will have to deal with the emotions and consequences of a life of poor decisions.
Explication Of Blake Essay Research Paper The
Explication Of Blake Essay, Research Paper The poetry of William Blake is renowned for its critique of society and injustice as well as expressing strong religious influences. Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience were written concerning the destiny of the human spirit and the differences between how children and adults view and understand the world.
Come In Explication Essay Research Paper Come
Come In Explication Essay, Research Paper Come In by Robert Frost Robert Frost is a well known American poet often associated with beautiful scenes from the New England area. However, the deeper meanings of his poems is often
Explication Briches By Robert Frost Essay Research
Paper Explication: Briches By Robert Frost “Birches” is a poem that is interesting enough to give more than one reading. Robert Frost provides vivid images of birches in order to oppose life’s harsh realities with the human actions of the imagination. “Birches” has a profound theme and its sounds, rhythm, form, tone, and figures of speech emphasize this meaning.
Wallace Stevens And Religion Essay Research Paper
Wallace Stevens and Religion This essay offers an explication of Wallace Stevens’ poem “A High-Toned Old Christian Woman.” Addressing A High-Toned Old Christian Woman, the speaker proposes poetry as the supreme fiction (line 1) rather than God or religion. Stevens considered religion as fictions, imaginative creations that made it possible for people to feel at home in a world that is not naturally homelike and hospitable.
Frost 2 Essay Research Paper Explication of
Frost 2 Essay, Research Paper Explication of The Road Not Taken Robert Frost, a poet from the early Twentieth Century, is well known not only for his elegant style, but for his use of great symbolism throughout his works. In The Road Not Taken , he depicted his theme and meaning through a four stanza poem which consisted of a set rhyme scheme (A, B, A, A, B).
Explication The Road Not Taken Essay Research
Paper Explication: The Road Not Taken “The Road Not Taken” is a poem written by Robert Frost. In his poem Frost describes a traveler’s choice between two roads and how this choice effects his life later.
Explication Of
“A Study Of Reading Habits” Essay, Research Paper Explication of “A Study of Reading Habits” “A Study of Reading Habits,” is Philip Larkin?s poetic warning that escapism and ignoring reality only makes real life less fulfilling. Larkin develops this idea via a narrator who prefers to escape from life rather than deal with it, as well as through changing use of language and subtle irony.
Explication
: “Ballad Of Birmingham” Essay, Research Paper Explication: “Ballad of Birmingham” In the poem “Ballad of Birmingham”, by Dudley Randall, many different things can be analyzed. The difference in the two translations; one being a literal translation, telling the true meaning of the poem, and the other being a thematic translation, which tells the author’s theme and symbolism used in his/her work.
King Lear Explication Essay Research Paper King
King Lear Explication Essay, Research Paper King Lear s speech in Act IV Scene 6 marks the point in the play where Lear reaches a revelation. Although he is mad, in his madness he finally realizes the truth about life and about his daughters. The themes that emerge through the use of imagery, sound, and diction are mainly social justice and appearance versus reality.
My Last Duchess Essay Research Paper Explication
My Last Duchess Essay, Research Paper Explication of:”My Last Duchess” by: Robert BrowningThis piece of poetry is about an Italian duke who ordered the murder of his wife and is currently showing her portrait to a servant or envoy of his future father-in-law. The duke shows this painting only to select strangers in order to flaunt his prize, and he enjoys telling them the story of why he ordered her death.
A Poetry Explication Of Option By Robert
Morgan Essay, Research Paper Poetry Explication Option by Robert Morgan Written in free verse, this poem dramatizes the chance confrontation of a groundhog and terrier.
The Explication Of No One Essay Research
Paper The poem “The Monument,” by Elizabeth Bishop can be thematically deconstructed in many ways. At first glance, the poem is about a tangible and solid object. The speaker describes this object, a monument, very thoroughly. After further examination and explication it is evident that the poem is not about one object, but about many intangible things such as creativity, art, and intuition.
Explication Of Roll Call (A Poem By
Yusef Komunyaka Essay, Research Paper Explication This poem is written in free verse containing twenty-two lines. In line two there is a simile (“we must’ve looked like crows”), and also another simile in lines eight and nine (“a helmet on it’s barrel as if it were a man.”) In lines 5-9 it shows how the boots, helmet, and rifle look like a person, representing the dead people.
An Explication Of The Poem 2
An Explication Of The Poem "If" By Alan Ware Essay, Research Paper If If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance
Linda Pastan And Sharon Olds Essay Research
Paper The poems ?Ethics? and ?35/10? by Linda Pastan and Sharon Olds are surprisingly alike. Each poem tells a story with the speaker being the author. She speaks directly to the audience. Although the number of lines differ, the
My Explication Of
“The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock” Essay, Research Paper My Explication of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Prufrock begins his “Love” song with a peculiar quote from Dante’s Divine Comedy. It reads: “If I believed that my answer were to a person who could ever return to the world, this flame would no longer quiver.
Poetry Explication Essay Research Paper Poetry ExplicationThe
Poetry Explication Essay, Research Paper Poetry Explication The second sonnet in Mark Jarman’s group of sonnets entitled The Word “Answer” can be interpreted two different ways. Is there a “right” way from which to view this poem, or is the poet simply exercising his God given right to ambiguity? Sonnet 2, as I will refer to it, revolves around someone sitting in a bathtub when suddenly there is a knock at the door, which soon turns into ringing and pounding, and finally the sound of breaking glass.
Explication 2
Explication: “It Sifts From Leaden Sieves” Essay, Research Paper Tess Purnell T. Arnold ENG-157W Explication #3 8-11-00 “It Sifts from Leaden Sieves”: Explication
An Explication Of The Poem
“If” Essay, Research Paper An Explication of the poem “If” written by: Alan Ware Tuesday, November 2, 1999 English II (H) If you can keep your head when all about you
An Explication Of To The Virgins To
Make Much Of Time Essay, Research Paper The tiltle To the Virgins, to Make much of time, gives a hint as to the meaning of the work. We gleam from the title that Time is going to be significant. However, we cannot know what the context of time is without the benefit of reading further. We also learn that Virgins plays an integral part of this work.
Ethics 2 Essay Research Paper EthicsIn Linda
Ethics 2 Essay, Research Paper Ethics In Linda Pastan s poem “Ethics,” the speaker recounts a moral dilemma that her teacher would ask every fall, which has been haunting her for a long time. The question was “if there were a fire in a museum / which would you save, a Rembrandt painting / or an old woman who hadn t many / years left anyhow?” and the speaker tells us through the theme that ethics and moral values can be only learned from the reflection which comes through experience and maturity.