(solved) Analyzing Poems PDF
Added on 2020-03-16
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Running head: ANALYZING POEMS ANALYZING POEMSName of the Student: Name of the University: Author note:
1ANALYZING POEMSIntroductionThe state of total or nearly total lack of connection between the society and anindividual is termed as social isolation. A person when isolated from his or her community,he or she is in the state of social isolation. The modern individual is facing problems relatedto social isolation where individuals are suffering from aloofness, self-centeredness, lack ofconcrete identity (de Jong Gierveld, Van Tilburg & Dykstra, 2016). Thus, the modernindividuals are socially isolated being. The purpose of this essay is to show the similaritiesand differences between Pablo Neruda’s Ode to Salt and Paul Simon’s The Sound of Silencecentralizing on a theme called social isolation. The thesis statement: The social isolation isthe most common theme of the modernist writers.The Comparison of the Poems Based on the ThemesOde to Salt and The Sound of SilenceThe Latin American poet Pablo Neruda writes Ode to Salt. In his poem, the poet hasillustrated the story of salt in the context of the vastness of the world, thus the salt is isolatedfrom its root in the salt mine. The salt is confined in the saltcellar now and before that, it wasin the salt mine. The salt mine is the vast family of the salt and so to speak it is the birthplaceof the salt. However, the salt is taken from the salt mine and used for domestic purpose. Thisimage is similar to portray an individual’s feelings of isolation. The poet hears the solitude ofthe salt and the poet has been shivered by it. The poet sated, “I shivered in those solitudes /when I heard / the voice of the salt in the desert”. The poet is very respectful towards salt andexpressed the long history and necessity of the salt. He wrote, “Preserver/ of the ancient /holds of ships”. The salt carries much details of the finite world, which was expressed in thelast line. However, its voice is broken and it sings “a mournful song”, when it is isolated from
2ANALYZING POEMSits association. The pain of isolation is expressed in the metaphor of the individual’s pain inisolation. From another perspective, the poem is the representation of the glorification of thehistory of the salt. It portrays the importance of the salt in the history and the author isinspired by the salt’s history. Paul Simon’s poetry The Sound of Silence expresses the pangsof isolation in the modern world. The poem has been started with addressing the darkness,which is the old friend of the poet. The poet wants to talk with the darkness “Within theSound of Silence” (Simon, 2016). However, the poet walks alone in some restlessness, whichis the symbol of modernity. The poet might express the crowd by the restlessness. Theisolation has been expressed in the lines, “ People talking without speaking / People hearingwithout listening / People writing songs that voices never shared / And no one dared / Disturbthe Sound of Silence” (Simon, 2016). The situation is like that where people’s interaction ismeaningless, weightless and people are unable to communicate with an understanding. Thesongs in this world are meaningless where the oppressed voice is not shared and no one inthis world is dared to write this kind of song. The silence sound of isolation is still there.Along with the representation of social isolation, the Paul Simon’s poem is the representationof the conflict between material world and the spiritual attraction, which transcends thismaterial world. The voice in the poem plays a role of visionary who feels and makes cautionabout the lack of spirituality among modern people. The comparisonThe theme of social isolation is present in both the poems. Ode to Salt has representedthe factor of social isolation in the metaphor of salt, The Sound of Silence has portrayed it byshowing the modern man’s situation where sound of silence is there, and no one is actuallycommunicating to the others social being. The poet in his poem Ode to Salt has discussed thesocial isolation, though the salt shares long history with human being. The salt sung when it
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