|
ESL Forum:
Techniques and methods
in Language Teaching
Games, activities
and teaching ideas
Grammar and
Linguistics
Teaching material
Concerning
worksheets
Concerning
powerpoints
Concerning online
exercises
Make suggestions,
report errors
Ask for help
Message board
|
ESL forum >
Ask for help > Help plz!
Help plz!
|
caren_630
|
Help plz!
|
|
Dear colleagues, would someone please help me paraphrase the following?!!
|
15 Dec 2021
|
|
|
|
cunliffe
|
|
In this poem, a young boy drifts through his everyday life, not really being there. Important, devastating events (death of father, brother) take second place to his fantasy life. Is he attracted by the wonderful names of those volcanoes - wonderful to repeat -, or the spectacular imagery they conjure up? Scenes of everyday life - houses, people, traffic - are barely real to him, because his heart and mind are captured by the beauty of Chimborazo, Cotopaxi and Popocatapetl. His vision extends from the volcanoes to a dark, gold boy who he imagines is with him on his dull and boring walk to school. The magic of those faraway places is juxtaposed with the ordinary, humdrum existence the young boy leads. The repetition of golden, along with gold and sunlight gleams, shining contrasts starkly with the dusty streets. To sum it up - a thirteen year old boy has a fabulous fantasy life which he retreats into. I found this discussion about it. |
16 Dec 2021
|
|
|
maryse pey�
|
|
Sounds like a gothic despair.... |
16 Dec 2021
|
|
|
caren_630
|
|
A million thanks canliffe. But is there such a thing as fantasy poerty?
|
16 Dec 2021
|
|
|
cunliffe
|
|
It�s my pleasure, caren. I really like the poem. There is indeed a fantasy genre, just like there is science fiction, romance, horror, dystopian, adventure etc. So, I guess in the same way as fantasy is applied to novels and films, it can be applied to poetry. Poems are usually classified according to their form, rather than their content, for example - sonnet, haiku, epic, free verse and so on, but we can refer to fantasy poems. I googled �fantasy poems� and a long list came up. And here is a text book definition. What is a fantasy poem? Fantasy is a literary genre that includes talking animals, magic, and other worlds. It includes plots that couldn�t take place in the real world. Lynne |
16 Dec 2021
|
|
|
caren_630
|
|
I am so grateful, Lynne. Thanks a lot. |
16 Dec 2021
|
|
|
caren_630
|
|
In the first stanza
I went into a golden land,
Chimborazo, Cotopaxi
Took me by the hand
Is that a personification? Why would these mountains take him by the hand?
What does he mean by golden land? Does it mean a land covered by lava?
|
16 Dec 2021
|
|
|
cunliffe
|
|
Yes, that is personification as mountains can�t literally take you by the hand. They have taken him by the hand metaphorically and led him to them - he is entranced by them, in their awe. They have stolen him away from his everyday existence. He has just been grasped by their lure, their beauty. The golden suggests to me the effects of the sunlight, bathing everything in a golden glow and this image is reinforced by sunlight gleams in line 8. But it could refer to the mountains being volcanoes and so I suppose at one time, they were spewing lava, which glows gold. The boy also is referred to as gold, so maybe this is the tone of his skin, bathed by the sun, or maybe the repetition of gold is to infer something precious and rare, like the metal. The first two mountains are in Ecuador, apparently and the third in Mexico. Maybe he has chosen these three because of their names - repeating Chimborazo, Cotopaxi and then Popocatapetl has a mesmerising effect - the words sound beautiful. Remember, this is a thirteen year old boy. If he has lost his father and brother, he is retreating from terrible reality into a magic world. This is a coping strategy to get him through. Many younger children have an imaginary friend, too as the poet has this young gold boy. I have searched the inernet and I know you have, Caren, but can�t find any full analysis of this poem:( Lynne
|
17 Dec 2021
|
|
|
caren_630
|
|
I have four more questions:
How does the poet use the sense of vision in the poem? (i believe this question is wrong and does not belong to this poem despite being added by a colleague in a question sheet for students to answer)
Explain the image in the�like a fleeting dream�. It is a simile but what does it compare fast dream to?
What is meant by the master�s voice? Who is this master?
And what does enteranced mean in the sixth paragraph?
|
17 Dec 2021
|
|
|
cunliffe
|
|
The master is his school teacher; boys far-off to play are schoolchildren. like a fleeting dream - this reinforces the power he has given to his visions of the mountains; these deaths - which must have been a crushing blow - are as nothing, just a fleeting (passing very quickly) dream, not real. He has inverted reality and imagination. The mountains are more real than reality itself to him. I took the gold dark boy for an imaginary friend, but it�s a poem, it could be an image of himself. Is there an element of sensuality to it? Awakening sexuality? He is entranced - it is as if the vision of the gold dark boy has enraptured him, put a spell on him. This idea is reinforcing the previous lines that the mountains have taken his speech away. Sense of vision? Dream/dreams, with adjectives fleeting, golden, fading lets us know the poet knows this is not reality. The image created has a dream-like quality. Nothing is very clearly described, it�s rather vague, just as in a dream. He hasn�t described the mountains in any detail, just left us with this vision of gold and sunlight and unreality. |
17 Dec 2021
|
|
|
caren_630
|
|
One last question:
What is meant by �the dusty street did rule�? |
17 Dec 2021
|
|
1
2
Next >
|
