Commentary on "A Sad Child"

In, "A Sad Child" Margret Atwood uses diction and cataloguing to support the struggles of womanhood. By using the word chocie, Atwood builds up two tones, a sarcastic forgetful one displayed in the beginning of the poem, and a compassionate wise one at the end. Throughout the entire poem Atwood supports what she is trying to say by repeating the word "sad" or "sadness" throughout the poem relating to the subject - women.
Atwood uses the diction to show that women are oppressed, as they have been throughout history. She shows that women bring this upon themselves and enforce the idea, as society has originally placed in their heads, when in stanza three she states, "[you] said to yourself in the bathroom, I am not the favorite child."
Atwood then uses diction and cataloguing to show what people generally feel or the way they act towards this emotional sadness women may generally express. She shows this in the beginning stanzas when she states, "Its psychic. It's the age. It's chemical, Go see a shrink or take a pill," and these happen to be man "cures" society may give for this emotional sadness women have brought upon them by society and history and then eventually, themselves. She also states, "but a hat. Buy a coat or pet. Take up dancing to forget," giving the idea that happiness can be brought and will easily make this sadness go away. She states these words to show how society doesn't take women seriously when they express this sadness which seems to be what Atwood is commenting on when she speaks of the subject, women, as a "child" or in general children when she states "all children are sad". When children are sad, they are usually not taken seriously because adults feel they might have actual serious problems.
In using diction and cataloguing, Atwood has been able to display a poem showing the difficulties women have had to face in their history, and what women have had to face in their individual lifetimes.

"Follower" Commentary

In the "Follower" Seamus Heaney uses imagery and structure to create a narrative, and reminicent tone. Heaney walks through images of his childhood and memories of his father working on the farm in this poem. In using imagery, he choses words to make the reader feel as though they are really there, making them feel closer to the stories he is telling, which helps to create the narrative reminicent tone. Structure also happens to be a very important part of the development of the tone in the poem. The specific punctuation and style of sentence and rhyme help Heaney also create this narrative tone.
Heaney uses specific words to create the imagery within the poem. In the first few stanzas he states, "shoulders globed", "strained", "sweating", "eye narrowed and angled", and "stumbled". All of these words create an idea of hard work, as though the reader is there on the farm with the speaker and his father. They give detail and strength to the foundation of the poem. One of the most important parts of good stories happen to be detail and a way of making the listener, or in this case the reader, feel as though they are there. In using this imagery Heaney does this, and gives the poem a narrative tone.
Structure is the second way Heaney is able to display a narrative and reminicent tone. He uses punctuation to create a very unique sense of structure. He uses a combination of long and short sentences and phrases as though he is adding more information and memories as they come to him. This helps to create a highly narrative tone in that this is what people do as they tell stories of events in their lives.
In the "Follower" Seamus Heaney uses imagery and structure to create a narrative, and reminicent tone. The combination of these two help to make the reader feel as though they are really there in the story the speaker is telling. Without the help of the unique structure and imagery Heaney uses, the poem would lose a great deal of what makes it interesting and unique to Heaney in style.

Commentary on Mid-Term Break

In "Mid-Term Break" Seamus Heaney uses structure and diction to create a bland, sad tone. Through the way Heaney structures his poem he is able to create a sort of narrative feeling, as though the speaker is telling a series of events from his life, with an absence of emotion. His word choice also aids to the narrative format of the poem and bland, sad tone relating to the content within the poem.

Heaney uses a unique structure to create the tone and narrative feeling. He breaks the poem up into 8 stanzas, each 3 lines long until the last line which is only one line. Heaney does this to break the poem up as though it is telling an ongoing story, just as chapters break up a novel into parts of an ongoing series of events. In the structure Heaney does not bring in rhyme scheme until the very last line that he makes rhyme, relating to the death of a young four year old boy to make a very strong impact, though the poem may not contain great description or emotion.

Heaney also uses diction to create a bland, sad tone. His absence of highly descriptive words and adjectives make the tone bland and aid to the narrative aspect of the poem. Though the poem is bland, it is also sad because of some specific words Heaney uses which relate to the actual content of the poem. He uses words such as, "sick", "crying", "funerals", "corpse" and "sighs". Though the poem as a whole is bland and more narrative than connected and full of emotion, these words all relate in some way to a sad, depressing emotion/feeling. In this, Heaney is able to relate the poem to the content, the death of the young boy, and give the poem a bit of a dramatic effect at the end.

In "Mid-Term Break" Seamus Heaney uses structure and diction to create a bland, sad tone. Donne uses unique structure of three line stanzas and specific nondescriptive creating the bland tone as well as words creating the sad tone. Through this, Heaney is able to effectively create a bland yet impactful narrative poem dealing with a tragic loss.