Life and Death
Poetry Performance Task
About These Poems
Introduction
Can you imagine being killed by a flying fruit, or happily dreaming in and out over a dozen times over the span of one night. One hit to the head or temple from a banana during a Hurricane and you're done. Well these things do happen, especially in the poems "Problems with Hurricanes", and "Sleeping in The Forest".
Tone and Word Choice.
In "Problems with Hurricanes" the topic or thought of being killed by a flying banana is funny yet the authors tone shows he isn't trying to make a joke out of it. The author never throughout the poem makes a joke or says something that would show that he thinks getting killed by flying fruit during a Hurricane is funny. In "Sleeping in The Forest", the poem is happy at the beginning but gets depressing as the poem goes on. The author talks about sleeping and waking and light and dark. When she is sleeping she is happy and light and while she is awake she is sad and dark. Lines 17-18 she says “ she had vanished at least a dozen times into something better “, so she means each dream gets better and better. Her opinion is that sleeping is good, awake is bad.
Figurative Language
In lines 6-8 in "Problems with Hurricanes" the author says “ It’s the mangoes, avocado's, green plantains, and bananas flying into town like projectiles.” It's a simile to compare the way the fruit flies through town to the speed a projectile flies.
In lines 4-5 in "Sleeping in the Forest" the author describes how the Earth may look, “...Arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds…”. Lines 14-16 she says “All night, I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling with a luminous doom". These both uses imagery to describe the way something looks and the way she struggles.
Structure and form
Both Poems are free verse and do not rhyme. "Problems with Hurricanes" Has short and thin lines but it is a long poem. In "Sleeping in The Forest" the lines are thin but get wider as the poem goes on. Lines 1-11 are thin but 12-16 get wider in the poem.
To Conclude
Both poems have a comparison. They both can have a meaning of life and death.
“Problems with Hurricane's” main idea is that beauty can kill, while the main idea of “Sleeping in The Forest” is sleeping to awake and light to dark. When she is sleeping and dreaming it is light because she is happy when she dreams. When she is awake it is dark and depressing because she wants to sleep and dream. The way they are both free verse makes them more of a story than a poem.