Repetition, Tone and Imagery in "Knock Knock" by Daniel Beatty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eYH0AFx6yI

At the start of the “Knock Knock” by Daniel Beatty the actual words “knock knock” are simple. They are just a child’s game shared between father and son. Later in the poem it becomes the boy and his mother knocking on a door to visit the father, before the boy gets to speak a word his mother pulls him away, all the contact he had was a simple “knock knock.” As the boy grows up without a father he learns to teach himself and be his own role model. The “knock knock” soon means to go forward and teach people that they are not their parents choices. As long as people are free they can change the world. No one and nothing can hold them back. Be proud of who you are and what you have accomplished. “Knock knock” means to go forward and do brilliant things for your people because they didn’t have the chance to. To go forward and teach your children what it is like to be a respected adult. “Knock knock” because we are the future.

The tone of the selection is inspiring, this poem is a message to readers that even though they may have suffered as children that does not account for who they will grow to be. “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.” ( Albus Dumbledore.) Your past does not dictate your future. Daniel Beatty does an excellent job of delivering the message of this poem through the use of tone.

Daniel Beatty’s use of imagery helps create different moods throughout the poem, at first he makes it seem joyful with an early morning “I love you” then later the images of long roads and high rusty gates seem freighting against the innocence of a young boy. In the poem the mood is quite pitiful. It is difficult for the reader to not pity the young boy. Later in the poem this mood changes because we see the young boy grow into an adult and overcomes the adversity he faces as a minority in his town.

Daniel Beatty does a terrific job at inspiring people with his use of repetition, tone, and imagery in the poem “Knock Knock.”

Imagery by Billy Collins

Today by Billy Collins is a poem that demonstrates the use of imagery. The entire poem is describing the world around us. “If ever there were a spring day so perfect, so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze.” In the first line of the poem the reader automatically can imagine a soft breeze whipping their hair around their face and the sun beating against their back. In the lines “and unlatch the door to the canary's cage, indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,” and “releasing the inhabitants from their snow-covered cottage, so they could walk out, holding hands and squinting” also bring in the theme of freedom by the use of imagery. The reader can picture the tiny canary flying free into the bright blue sky of the summer day. Along with the people from the glass paperweight, they are free from the cold and are walking into the sunlight squinting. I think this poem is fantastic for stimulating the senses. It makes no wonder why Billy Collins is so famous for his use of imagery. 

Books vs. Music

As young children, we are all introduced to the world of music and he world of literacy. No matter how young you were, nearly every child can recall their mother singing them to sleep with “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or their father reading them stories of princesses and kingdoms on a rainy Sunday afternoon. As we grow, we fall in love with new hobbies and find out about our abilities. Whether it be sports, painting or dancing. When we reach the struggle of teenage years, we all seem to pick our favourite and roll with it. But what if you had to choose? Would you give up the soulful voice and bass for fluent writing and extreme use of diction? Perhaps you would toss aside the worn-out spine and pages for a your iPod. The influence of music and books can affect everything about us or nothing at all.

Just as our closest friends can play at our emotional heart strings, so can music. The artists of today have one goal, to connect with their audience, similar to that of authors. However, singers and musicians are reaching out to the girl crying in her bedroom over her ex-boyfriend. Perhaps they may try to get the adrenalin flowing through a teenage boy’s veins while at his first time at a club through the use of music. The difference between the emotion of listening to the music and reading a book is that while reading, you are upset over someone else’s pain, or feeling excited for them. Whereas with music, you feel connected, like the song was written for you and everything you feel is wrapped up into a 3 minutes of tempo and vocals. This is why people are so influenced by music.

Nevertheless, one should never underestimate the power of a book. With the right novel in hand, you can be easily inspired. I believe that there is truly no better way to let your imagination wander than picking up a book and losing yourself in it for hours. Our imagination is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal that we sometimes seem to forget about as teenagers. Sometimes we can connect so well with a character that it’s hard to come back to reality. Sometimes the tears we leave on the pages help us realize a little something about ourselves. Sometimes reading is for pure pleasure after a long day of graphing parabolas and studying the axon terminal. When your mind is set free with no stress, worries, or anger, you can imagine endless possibilities. I think that expanding your vocabulary and opening up your mind to a new world is good for your overall well-being. Books give us our imagination, our imagination forms our dreams, and our dreams become the goals we live to achieve.

However, both books and music have one major thing in common. Both provide an escape. While on a long car ride or being left home alone for the night, both music and books can let us be free from ourselves. This doesn’t just apply to teenagers who are stressed over exams and want a break. Literacy and music can do amazing things. It’s why a music therapist will play a love song on guitar to a patient with Alzheimer’s, it can help him escape the mind he is trapped in and connect to a memory of him and his wife on their first date. It’s why a nurse will read a five year old girl dying with leukemia the story of Cinderella to show her that dreams do come true and that miracles happen once in a while. The influence of music and books has an effect on all of us and sometimes works little wonders when we least expect it.

In the end, neither is greater than the other. Both are powerful, both have influenced everyone’s life at one point or another. Perhaps reading this, you may find yourself thinking you like neither music nor books, but I beg you to think again the next time you walk past an old book store or turn on the radio. The influences these two things have over us is strong, but why try and control it? Free yourself in music, and get lost in the pages of a book.  

"It is impossible to live without failing at someting. Unless you live so cautiously you may not have lived at all. In which case, you fail by default."

An author’s past can really influence their writing. J. K. Rowling demonstrates this with her use of imagination when creating the Harry Potter series. The magic was tempted by sorrow and loss in the author’s life.

J. K. Rowling invented the wizarding world of Harry Potter while traveling back to London on a train. When the train was delayed, Rowling thought of the messy, black hair boy with glasses that would change some people’s lives. Of course Rowling has an extraordinary life now. Being the first person to lose her billionaire status by making a donation to charity makes it seem like her life must be carefree; however is was not always this way. Some of the true terrors in JKR’s life inspired the key points in the series like marriage, divorce, loss, and single parenthood.

While teaching in Portugal JKR met her first husband. They were blessed with a beautiful baby girl. They were later divorced 13 months later. JKR and her daughter left for Scotland to be near JKR’s sister. This all occurred 7 years after JKR had graduated from university. Rowling described herself as “the biggest failure she knew.” With no job, a failed marriage, and facing single parenthood, Rowling describes her failure as liberating. Rowling says this at a graduation speech at Harvard University:

“Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy to finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter, and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
 – J. K. Rowling, "The fringe benefits of failure"

Later JKR also lost her mother. Who on multiple occasions she states she owes the entire series to her mother and the magical world would not have been created without her. It is rather touching when you read about the strong and touching relationship between Harry Potter and his deceased mother Lily Potter and you can only imagine what JKR was thinking while writing. After all this JKR signed up for welfare benefits and had absolutely no money and had been diagnosed with clinical depression and also contemplated suicide. However she had a daughter whom she loved more than life itself. Instead of becoming victim to the depression she decided to use it as an idea; with this dementors were created. Dementors are a soul sucking, black cloaked creature that takes away all the happiness around someone. An idea that had been made due to the horrors in Rowling’s past.

After JKR had been stripped of everything she had besides her daughter and an old typewriter, the Harry Potter series were created. Like the famous phoenix Faux in the series, JKR rose from the ashes with a new power and ignited as her new career of writing about a young wizard would help her on her way to becoming one of the most influential women in the entire world.

Right or Wrong? - My Sister's keeper

One of my favourite authors is Jodi Picoult. Writing tons of excellent novels and impressing people all over the word with her plot twists and cliff hangers. She has made reading a pleasure for many. One of her most popular novels had been adapted into a movie. “My Sister’s Keeper,” brings up controversial issues which makes the reader ask what is right and what is wrong.

Anna is a young girl with a normal life besides for the fact that her sister is dying wit leukemia. Anna was specifically created though invitro-vertilization for her sisters medical needs. As Anna grows she decides she does not want to be Kate’s donor anymore. Anna’s conflicting need to put Kate’s interest first forms the main issue of the novel.

During the trial in the novel, not many readers can take a side. It is difficult to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. A reoccurring theme in the story is the choice between right and wrong. Anna does not have to donate her kidney, and doing this could cause her major health problems, but without Kate will die. Anna is tired of feeling like her sister’s keeper. Anna wonders how loved she really is if she was created for the sole purpose of keeping her sister alive. Multiple characters argue valid points throughout the story and it seems as if no one can come to a conclusion. Until Anna reveals in court, Kate’s wish to die and Kate does not want her sister’s kidney.

In the movie the ending is changed and does not play along to Picoult’s traditional twist at the end of her novels. However the theme of what is wrong and right is still quite blatant in the story and move. Who is to say someone is “forced” to do anything, even if someone’s life is depending on it. It is for the reader to decide what they do or do not agree with. Picoult writes with an excellent story line and has very distinguished characters that help contribute to drawing the theme of what is right and wrong. 

Imagery in Oranges- Gary Soto

In “Oranges” written by Gary Soto it is hard not to find the beauty in such a simplistic love between a young boy and girl. Similar to how Julie Martinez writes about love in my previous posting. The story within the poem is exactly that, simple. That is what makes it extremely relatable and adorable. Once upon a time we were all young and we all remember our first time alone with our first crush.

The girls house “the one whose porch light burned yellow, night and day in any weather,” causes the reader to easily picture the street they grew up on. For me it gives a perfect picture of exactly where I grew up and where I live today. “Fog hung like old coats,” this imager is what makes us feel the dampness weighing down the young couple. The use of imagery and diction makes the reader feel as if they are joining the young boy and girl on their December stroll. The reader feels invited back to their childhood which demonstrates the talent of Gary Soto’s use of imagery. Oranges is a simplistic love story that can give a warm fuzzy feeling in one’s tummy and bring “rouge to their cheeks.” Gary Soto reminds us all of innocent love though a fantastic use of imagery. 

Julie Martinez-So Easy to Love

This poem is shares something with sonnet 130, the theme of unconditional love. Although this poem does not tell a story or have a deeper meaning or even have the diction of Shakespeare’s sonnet; to me it seems Julie Martinez writes exactly what love should feel like. To “trace scars” and “memorize birthmarks” sounds like the speaker knows every single detail about their lover inside and out. Their love is unyielding and everlasting. There is no boundary on their love. It just seems to grow and will never vanquish. Love will not disappear; it is people who do not appreciate love that decide to push it away. Love can creep upon someone and be laying the bed next to someone after a wild night at a club. Love can creep upon you when you glance at someone sitting in the window of a coffee shop. Love can creep upon you when you first hold hands with your life long best friend. What’s special about love is when it stays so long and is as loud and powerful as your wedding song playing in the background at your 50^th anniversary. This poem reminds readers what it is like to really feel love. It reminds readers of the butterflies that swarm their tummy because they are desperately and hopelessly in love with someone. Love can make you go crazy and make you feel pure bliss at the same time. “I want you imperfections, raw and tender so easy to love.” The speaker is truly in love to the point where flaws are attractive to them. Julie Martinez, in my opinion is a "typical" writer. She writes what the majority of teenage girls want to read when they have a broken heart; however it will not make them stop and think. Overall this poem shows true passion. This poem gives cold shivers and can tug on their romantic heart strings to make their heart skip a beat. This poem is simple yet beautiful.