Highwayman

Annotation

TIEA

In the poem “Highwayman”, Alfred Noyes described the thoughts and actions of the characters with imagery to imply the change in mood in order to further bring affection to the readers. When King George’e men first showed up in the inn, Noyes described, “For Bess could see, through the casement, the road that he would ride.” (Noyes, line 48). As Noyes described the road as something that the highwayman would ride, it showed the readers how Bess still had a little hope and still expected the highwayman to return even though the moon had already rose.  However, as the king’s men tied Bess up and started to kiss her, Noyes stated that Bess heard the dead man say “look for me by moonlight.” (Noyes, lines 52-53) As Noyes described, the highwayman seemed to be “dead” to Bess, which indicated how she had lost her hope by then. Instead of directly describing the character’s emotion, the author decided to use imagery to describe the actions and thoughts of the characters. This not only allows the readers to get to know about the characters more, but also allows the readers to create a vivid picture in one’s minds with the imageries in the poem. Additionally, the poem would also become more realistic as the readers know what happened to the characters. In line 48, even though  King George’s men had invaded Bess’s inn, she still firmly believed that the highwayman wouldn’t let her down. However, in line 52, the readers could tell how her hope had diminished seen as the highwayman was “dead” to her. By describing the change in Bess’s action and thoughts, readers are able to sense her change in mood. As Bess’s actions and thoughts brought the poem emotion, the readers are more able to feel affected. Moreover, her change in mood also implied her love and confidence towards the highwayman.

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From “summer, somewhere”

Annotation

TIEA

In the poem “From ‘summer, somewhere'”, Danez Smith used paradoxes to describe contradictions in order to enable readers to relate to the conflicting feelings when making choices based on moral standards and personal privileges. After the speaker’s death towards the end of the poem, he stated, “we earned this paradise by a death we didn’t deserve.” (Smith, lines 131-132) Paradoxes are often used to reveal unexpected truths with contradictions. The speaker stated that he earned this paradise, indicating that he considered paradise as something he worked hard to pursue. However, the speaker later contradicted his own statement as he thought he didn’t deserve death. The speaker used paradox to show how everything is a two-edged sword. Positivity and negativity often exist together. Such paradox enables readers to consider and reflect on themselves when they make moral decisions. Paradise is somewhere people consider to be always free, harmonic, and joyful. However, before getting into paradise, death is guaranteed. This implies some hard work must be paid-off when one wants to achieve greatness. This paradox also suggests how human-beings are often not capable of the sacrifices that are made despite the fact that one wants to gain privilege. Smith uses “paradise” and “death” to symbolize the great contradictions in one’s life. 

Compare/Contrast Paragraph

In the poems Highwayman by Alfred Noyes and from “summer, somewhere” by Danez Smith, both poets implied the mood of and the relationships between the characters by using descriptive language with tones to illustrate the actions and thoughts of the character(s) to further stir empathy and evoke the readers’ sensation. When the highwayman first visited the inn, the author described how he tapped with his whip on the shutters, how he whistled a tune to the window, and how Bess was waiting for him. (Noyes, lines 14-15) Since the shutters were actually locked, this indicates how the highwayman was not welcomed to visit the landlord’s daughter, Bess. Therefore, he sneaked in from the window in order to meet her. His sneaky actions implied how he was trying his best to keep his volume down and how he was excited yet nervous and cautious to meet Bess. By portraying the highwayman’s actions, the author not only intimated his mood, but also suggested how he wanted see Bess, although with a guilty conscience. In addition, such description how the love affair between Bess and him was not permitted and accepted. Noyes implicitly described their relationship in order to stir empathy to further hook the readers into the poem. The speaker of from “summer, somewhere” allowed the boys to visit the old world, but the speaker also told the boys, “cry if you need to” when they come back and if they were hurt from the old world. (Smith, lines 105-106)  Even though the old world and their new world are possibly just virtual places that the author used to symbolise abstract concepts, as author described how they could cry if they want after they had been attacked in the old world, this indicated how the old world was possibly cruel and brutal. The speaker first allowed the boys to visit the old world, which indicated how he granted the boys freedom. However, as the speaker said “cry if you need to”, he showed his empathy to the boys. This illustrated how the speaker show his understanding towards the boy and how the speaker acts like a wise elder to the boys. The speaker understood the boys’ desire while he allowed them to do what they wanted. Both Highwayman and from “summer, somewhere“ used the words and/or actions done or spoken by the characters in order to imply the relationship or mood between the characters.

 

Poets often use poem organisations to demonstrate their own style and thoughts; for example, poems Highwayman, a narrative poem, and from “summer, somewhere”, a dramatic poem, are poems with different genres and have different poem organizations. The poem Highwayman have plot twists, Noyes used different stanzas to describe how the highwayman first visited Bess, Bess later got abused by the king’s men and died, and the highwayman was later shot when he returned. (Noyes, lines 24, 49-50, 79, and 89) Highwayman is a poem that has an exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution. The author used stanzas to describe incidents that happened to the characters. In the exposition, the author described how the highwayman sneaked into the inn just to visit Bess and promised Bess to return to her by night. In the rising action, King George’s men invaded the inn, tied Bess up very tightly, and kissed her forcibly. As the story reaches the climax, the highwayman returned by night, and Bess was killed and lied in her own blood. The highwayman later escaped but was also shot on his way, ending the story. The poem was divided into two parts, and stanzas were written based on time order. This allows the readers to follow the storyline effortlessly and enables readers to experience the plot twists within poetically. The highwayman could be a reflection of the author himself, implicitly indicating how challenges are getting in his way. It could also simply be a tragic romance that guides the readers to reconsider about love.  On a contrary, unlike the Highwayman, the poem from “summer, somewhere” discusses about philosophies related to life and death as the author described how they were “alive somewhere better” instead of dead and how paradise is a place where everything is sanctuary and nothing is a gun; however, the author also described how he was drowning towards the end of the poem. (Smith, lines 13-14, 53-54, and 113) The stanzas in the poem from “summer, somewhere” doesn’t necessarily follow a time order. This poem is a dramatic poem seen as it could be a monologue of the speaker, who tells the story of the afterlife of him and the boys. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker stated how he and the boys didn’t want to be recognized as “dead”, which indicated how they were possibly dead already. This also implied how the speaker had a different definition of death, showing how he thought “death” could be a rebirth at a better place. Later, the speaker portrayed paradise as somewhere peaceful and no violence existed, which is evident that the poem is describing the afterlife of the speaker and the boys who were mentioned in the poem. Towards the end of the poem, however, the speaker started to describe how was drowning, which could be the process of his death. The author of from “summer, somewhere” used fictitious settings figuratively to describe his personal interpretation of life and death. In addition, as the author described how he wanted to be recognized as “alive somewhere better”, it indicated how the author was concerned about the significance of one’s identity and considered death as an event that should be respected or even appreciated. Poems Highwayman and from “summer, somewhere” both communicated the author’s thoughts in different ways, whether as a story or as a monologue. While Highwayman tells the story of the highwayman and Bess and implies the unforeseen negativities that could occur in life, the poem from “summer, somewhere” conveys philosopical concepts about death through a monologue of the speaker. 

Slam Poem

Called it D R A M A, Call it L I F E

who’s gonna guarantee you eternity?

who’s gonna promise you forever?

hey, let me tell you-

ain’t nobody got time for that.

 

met a man in college,

got married, got two little angels

heart shattered after fourteen winters,

two little kids had grown into teens and followed her-

to a new place, a new start, a new life-

but there was no longer a complete family

 

Guess what did her mom say?

Oh no, she didn’t comfort her

she didn’t freak out.

nor did she say, “you should’ve listened to me”

– as she always would. instead,

she kept murmuring, murmuring about how

she wouldn’t have a son in law attending her funeral.

again, her heart was completely shattered-

but not by love this time

 

She then met a man, powerful, rich, and wise

if the ground’s the standard line,

he would be a skyscraper.

thanks to her business,

she thought she found her second spring-

after her first was frozen after fourteen years.

but guess what?

she’s like a young, red rose in the garden,

blossoming, shining, prettier than all the other ones,

yet she turned out to be a mistress.

true that she’s more enchanting than others,

but still he drifts, drifts away.

like a cloud, disappearing at the end of the skyline and

never coming back.

half awake, she has not yet realized that

this is not a novel, this is her life.

 

rose with fetching appearance,

tempting smell,

attracting the world to have a taste.

the next one came, faster than expected.

he tasted her, and got drunk with her charm.

their lives, bonded by love;

but their hearts, disconnected by their thoughts.

she revealed her thorns and forced him to leave, faraway.

 

What is she demanding?

“O! why is it so hard to find someone who

understands, who

loves, who

promises me forever!?”

she cried until God hear her words,

until her eyes dried out,

until her heart became numb…

 

until one day she finally met another man

– as if God heard her crier –

he understands,

he somehow loves,

but he never granted her eternity.

oh, didn’t I mention?

beside him was another rose, but this somehow

doesn’t change her love for him.

oh, couples living in their 40s, acting like 18.

yes, 18, literally teens,

as they planted an unexpected seed

           …that was later taken away

 

he wasn’t brave enough to

let the seed in her grow

as the seed died

their love started to fade

 

still, things stay the same.

still, he was her sun and she’s

the planet that orbits around him.

still, he’s her definition of love,

what she valued more than her life.

 

she would risk anything for her love-

yes, she tried to end her life with pesticide

for a love she couldn’t get enough of

for a love she desired too much

yet he’s still indecisive

yet he loves himself the most

she’s wise, wise enough to

make herself dumb, dumb enough to

believe that he’ll always be hers

 

love is always her first place in life

you could say she brought herself self-humiliation

you could say she sew herself a scarlet letter

you could say she’s wasting her life on unworthy men

I don’t care how you judge her-

she’s my mom

the person who brought me life

the person who made me

me.

 

that is and-

will always be

an universal fact.

 

she eventually stopped demanding

eternity, ‘cause

she finally learned that it’s only a myth

 

she’s a divorced woman

she makes mistakes

but at the very least,

she’s not afraid of chasing her dreams, her love

 

if she can, why couldn’t you?

 

 

 

 

 

Hope/Dream Poem

《Dream》

My dreams, they taste like chocolate from

Western Africa, bittersweet

with countless sweats and tears behind,

unseen by the world

 

My dreams, they visualise as a kaleidoscope of

beautiful life, mesmerising

as it rotates with different sparks,

telling readable stories that seemed to be unlikely

 

My dreams, they smell like stinky tofus from

night markets, unappealing

to people who are too scared to make an attempt

and try to understand

 

My dreams, they sound like a composition by

Paganini, played roughly by me-

the melody will never sound perfect,

unless I play it on repeat…

up to millions of times

 

My dreams, they feel like a cactus in

the desert, people bleed because of

misunderstandings

the precious that is kept in the inside, couldn’t be seen