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I thought this poem was interesting but There was something about it that I couldn't quite place and I just didn't quite understand I don't think. Even though the title of the poem is "Hand Shadows" while reading it I focused more on the light rather than the shadows for some reason.
I felt it had an overall tone of hopefull, light or bright, and a strange positiveness. It starts by saying "My father put his hands in the white light" and the words "white light" to me are bright positive words but also have a little bit of an ominous feeling because the "white light" kind of makes me think of when you die how people say you go into the light. That makes me feel like her father has past away and shes remember the good times they had camping or something along those lines.
Then the poem focuses on four animals, a horse, an alligator, a swan, and a skunk. A horse is srong but also kind and can be playful and it says the horse "flicked its ears and bucked" the word flicking evokes a sense of playfulness or lightness and the bucking seems like it's asserting it's strength. An alligator is also strong but it's ferocious as well, it says the alligator "leapt up and snapped its jaws" the word snapped quickens the pace of the sentence making it sharper and more fierce. A swan is elegant and gentle and it said the swan "would turn its perfect neck and drop a fingered beak toward that shadowed head to lightly preen my father's feathered hair" the words perfect, lightly preen, and feathered give it a light positive gentle feeling showing the quaint elegance of a swan. And a skunk is thought to be very negative due to it's rank scent, but it's also fluffy and can be quite nurturing. I think that by mentioning these four animals she is talking about her father's qualities, how her father is strong, kind, ferocious when need be, elegant, gentle, nurturing, and protective.
Then it also says "a star that died a little every day, and from a nebula of light diffused inside Orion's sword, new stars were born". So basically when one life is lost another is born, which makes me think that when her father past another life was brought into her life.
And the last two lines are "My father's hands became two birds, linked by a thumb, they flew one following the other" which I take to mean that her and her father will always have a connection like being "linked by a thumb" and that one day she'll follow his path and they'll be together again that being the birds flying "one following the other". That's just my take on it though.
The focus of this poem seems to be on the father-child relationship and the imagination that is often involved in this type of relationship. The speaker establishes the tone of this piece by embodying the childish wonder that he/she has from the interaction with the father. The diction in the line "My father put his hands in the white light" serves to emphasize this wondrous tone. White has a connotation of being bright, as well as pure, which represents the innocence and curiosity of a child like the speaker. The verbs within this poem are full of action, symbolizing the activeness of a child as well. Words like "flicked", "bucked", "snapped", and "shuffled" yield powerful imagery that would appeal the the ears of a child, almost like a storybook. The final lines "My father's hands became two birds, linked/ by a thumb, they flew one following the other" represent the theme of this piece, with the birds/hands representing the child and father. Birds often represent freedom and the child is in fact, "freed" by the father, who is wanting to lead and guide his child through life as long as he is needed. Strong literary devices in this piece appear to be diction and imagery mainly, with figurative language such as metaphor and personification also playing a role. Hope this helps Rebecca!
The tone to this seemed very nostalgic to me. It looked to me be a poem about a child reminiscing on her father, who would make shadow puppets for her when she was little. No dark words or images plague the poem, just happy things like "white light," "perfect neck," and "new stars." The images made are very fantastical, and they explore the imagination of a child. The description for the images is very vivid, even though what is seen is just the black outline of the creature. That contrast is very powerful.
This poem has a lot of imagery and concrete diction. Since I am a reservoir of relatively useless information, heres all I know about the significance of orion. Orion is the hunter. He has two hunting dogs. So that could have something to do with the animals. Also, orion is an important navigation tool. This is because it can be seen from almost all over the world. Also whats very important is that orion is made out of supergiant stars, which makes it so bright, which make it a good navigation tool. Also by orions belt near his sword stars are several nebulas. This reference in the poem probably deals with the cycle of life. Everything is so easily visible that on a dark night you can see all the stars and nebulas with a decent telescope. I hoped the reference explanation helps.
I like star gazing so Orion was a major part in the poem that stood out to me. It must have a significance because the author could have chosen any other constellation. Orion also is only seen during the later half of the year. They must be camping during the fall to winter time then because Orion is visible during this time of year. If the author chosen the Big or Little Dipper, it would mean that they are camping during the summer because that's when those constellations are visible.. well, at least in this part of the world.
Even though I want to say the poem is nostalgic, like a person who misses spending time with their dad, there is something that's not right.
The animals chosen to be represented by the hand shadows seem a little angry. The horse bucks, and the alligator leaps up and snaps its jaws. I didn't even realize that alligators could leap which makes the action seem that much scarier. Then, I would be really paranoid if I knew a skunk was outside my tent because I wouldn't want to scare it and stink up the place. A star dying is not a pleasant event either. Usually, stars don't just turn off but blow up. There is something about the poem that just is not happy go lucky.
The last image of the birds that fly away do seem peaceful in a way, but birds that fly, fly for a reason. A lot of the times, birds migrate to a new place because winter has settled.
There's something fishy about the poem that I can't understand.. Like the author has a deep secret hidden inside that's tearing her apart but she's trying really hard to keep her composure.
This poem is extremely nostalgic. The poem shows the speaker has a great appreciation for their father. The imagery of the animals, stars and shadow puppets help explain the author's feelings of her father. The poem ends with:
"My father's hands became two birds, linked by a thumb, they flew one following the other."
This shows the speaker wants to be just like their father when they grow up. The tent they are in is also symbolic. The speaker tells how all these bad things are outside the tent, but inside, none of them are noticed because they are with their father. The father is almost like a protective shield for them for everything that is happening in the world. As long as the father is around, they will be safe.
I think this poem is very nostalgic in a way. After reading Jacob’s explanation of Orion, I got a new perspective. Now, I think that this poem is about anger and the circle of life. The animals that the father uses seem very angry, even the swan. Horses, alligators, and swans are completely different in terms of their anatomy, one is a mammal, one is a reptile, and one is a bird. I think the author did this to show that even if all of us aren’t the same anatomically, we still all go through the same cycle. The horse is described as flicking its ear and buckling, while the alligator is snapping its jaws and the swan is peaking at the fathers head, trimming the hair. The father’s hair is compared to feathers which I kind of found significant. The fact that the swan is picking off the hair with its beak shows that maybe the swan is trying to get some of its own feathers back since some have been lost due to aging? Also, the author includes skunks in this poem and they are associated with a dying star. The next line talks about a new star being born everyday from Orion’s sword. Orion’s sword is said to contain a lot of nebulas so therefore it represents birth as death occurs. Like stats show, every 7 seconds someone dies, every 12 seconds is born (or maybe the other way around?), so this could be like the nebula in Orion’s sword. The nebula is a cloud of gas and dust, which is kind of deadly and negative, but coming out of it is life. I think the end is very liberating, as if the father is escaping. I think the ending is talking about acceptance and death in a sense. The tone is very nostalgic because of the child-like imagery, but yet it is very accepting by the end. The main literary devices are imagery, diction, and syntax. -KATIE HARRIS
I interpreted the poem in a different way. I agree that the tone very nostalgic, as seen through the speaker’s use of imagery to create lively images of different animals, but I also interpreted it in a way that the speaker is reminiscing on the past that he or she shared with his/her deceased father. The first line breaks after white light in a way that reminds me of how people say they see a white tunnel when they’re about to reach death, “my father put his hands in the white light” the speaker’s father is encountering death and at the end, “my father’s hands became two birds, linked by a thumb, they flew one following the other” the father peacefully passes on. The speaker’s father is the “star that died a little every day” and the speaker is the new star, who will pass on the tradition of the hand puppets.
I think that this poem is very nostalgic. Using imagery about hand shadows and animals is very child-like and whimsical which makes the poem nostalgic. Clearly the speaker had a bond with her father as a child and this is one of the speaker's memories. I also think the speaker is somewhat sad looking back on such fond memories because the speaker says they were, "beneath a star that died a little everyday," which instantly made me think that the speaker has grown up now, and her father-daughter relationship or something has died or lost its light like the star. I felt as though the star was being compared to growing up, and everyday as the star dimmed more and more, the daughter grew further and further apart from her father.
The tone of this poem is nostalgic, reflective, positive, and strives to convey a message worldly knowledge and understanding to the reader. The imagery of the "white light" in the first line makes you thinking of something heavenly and enlightening, as if the simple things that her father did prepared her for life and taught her important lessons through insignificant daily activities. There are also many allusions to the sky and outer space to show how her father made her wonder and expanded her thought into things unforeseen and undiscovered. He pushed her to explore and reach beyond her limits. This along with the "white Light" may also suggest that her has since passed away. Katie, I liked what you picked up on the different types of animals discussed in the poem. This can also reference the different nature that the speaker and her father's interactions took on, and how vastly different they could be each time. The syntax in the poem leaves you hanging on the end of every line such as "in the white light..." of what? or "two birds, linked..." by what? This keeps the reader hooked and anticipating the next line to give it more significance. The diction is all very light, flowing and heavenly such as "perfect", "silhouette", "lightly", and "linked".
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I thought this poem was interesting but There was something about it that I couldn't quite place and I just didn't quite understand I don't think. Even though the title of the poem is "Hand Shadows" while reading it I focused more on the light rather than the shadows for some reason.
I felt it had an overall tone of hopefull, light or bright, and a strange positiveness. It starts by saying "My father put his hands in the white light" and the words "white light" to me are bright positive words but also have a little bit of an ominous feeling because the "white light" kind of makes me think of when you die how people say you go into the light. That makes me feel like her father has past away and shes remember the good times they had camping or something along those lines.
Then the poem focuses on four animals, a horse, an alligator, a swan, and a skunk. A horse is srong but also kind and can be playful and it says the horse "flicked its ears and bucked" the word flicking evokes a sense of playfulness or lightness and the bucking seems like it's asserting it's strength. An alligator is also strong but it's ferocious as well, it says the alligator "leapt up and snapped its jaws" the word snapped quickens the pace of the sentence making it sharper and more fierce. A swan is elegant and gentle and it said the swan "would turn its perfect neck and drop a fingered beak toward that shadowed head to lightly preen my father's feathered hair" the words perfect, lightly preen, and feathered give it a light positive gentle feeling showing the quaint elegance of a swan. And a skunk is thought to be very negative due to it's rank scent, but it's also fluffy and can be quite nurturing. I think that by mentioning these four animals she is talking about her father's qualities, how her father is strong, kind, ferocious when need be, elegant, gentle, nurturing, and protective.
Then it also says "a star that died a little every day, and from a nebula of light diffused inside Orion's sword, new stars were born". So basically when one life is lost another is born, which makes me think that when her father past another life was brought into her life.
And the last two lines are "My father's hands became two birds, linked by a thumb, they flew one following the other" which I take to mean that her and her father will always have a connection like being "linked by a thumb" and that one day she'll follow his path and they'll be together again that being the birds flying "one following the other". That's just my take on it though.
The focus of this poem seems to be on the father-child relationship and the imagination that is often involved in this type of relationship. The speaker establishes the tone of this piece by embodying the childish wonder that he/she has from the interaction with the father. The diction in the line "My father put his hands in the white light" serves to emphasize this wondrous tone. White has a connotation of being bright, as well as pure, which represents the innocence and curiosity of a child like the speaker. The verbs within this poem are full of action, symbolizing the activeness of a child as well. Words like "flicked", "bucked", "snapped", and "shuffled" yield powerful imagery that would appeal the the ears of a child, almost like a storybook. The final lines "My father's hands became two birds, linked/ by a thumb, they flew one following the other" represent the theme of this piece, with the birds/hands representing the child and father. Birds often represent freedom and the child is in fact, "freed" by the father, who is wanting to lead and guide his child through life as long as he is needed. Strong literary devices in this piece appear to be diction and imagery mainly, with figurative language such as metaphor and personification also playing a role. Hope this helps Rebecca!
I dunno dude.
OOOOOOOOOOOOKAY Let's do this.
The tone to this seemed very nostalgic to me. It looked to me be a poem about a child reminiscing on her father, who would make shadow puppets for her when she was little. No dark words or images plague the poem, just happy things like "white light," "perfect neck," and "new stars." The images made are very fantastical, and they explore the imagination of a child. The description for the images is very vivid, even though what is seen is just the black outline of the creature. That contrast is very powerful.
I'd focus on diction and imagery for this one.
This poem has a lot of imagery and concrete diction. Since I am a reservoir of relatively useless information, heres all I know about the significance of orion.
Orion is the hunter. He has two hunting dogs. So that could have something to do with the animals. Also, orion is an important navigation tool. This is because it can be seen from almost all over the world. Also whats very important is that orion is made out of supergiant stars, which makes it so bright, which make it a good navigation tool. Also by orions belt near his sword stars are several nebulas. This reference in the poem probably deals with the cycle of life. Everything is so easily visible that on a dark night you can see all the stars and nebulas with a decent telescope. I hoped the reference explanation helps.
That poem just messed up my mind so bad....
I like star gazing so Orion was a major part in the poem that stood out to me. It must have a significance because the author could have chosen any other constellation. Orion also is only seen during the later half of the year. They must be camping during the fall to winter time then because Orion is visible during this time of year. If the author chosen the Big or Little Dipper, it would mean that they are camping during the summer because that's when those constellations are visible.. well, at least in this part of the world.
Even though I want to say the poem is nostalgic, like a person who misses spending time with their dad, there is something that's not right.
The animals chosen to be represented by the hand shadows seem a little angry. The horse bucks, and the alligator leaps up and snaps its jaws. I didn't even realize that alligators could leap which makes the action seem that much scarier. Then, I would be really paranoid if I knew a skunk was outside my tent because I wouldn't want to scare it and stink up the place. A star dying is not a pleasant event either. Usually, stars don't just turn off but blow up. There is something about the poem that just is not happy go lucky.
The last image of the birds that fly away do seem peaceful in a way, but birds that fly, fly for a reason. A lot of the times, birds migrate to a new place because winter has settled.
There's something fishy about the poem that I can't understand.. Like the author has a deep secret hidden inside that's tearing her apart but she's trying really hard to keep her composure.
This poem is extremely nostalgic. The poem shows the speaker has a great appreciation for their father. The imagery of the animals, stars and shadow puppets help explain the author's feelings of her father. The poem ends with:
"My father's hands became two birds, linked
by a thumb, they flew one following the other."
This shows the speaker wants to be just like their father when they grow up. The tent they are in is also symbolic. The speaker tells how all these bad things are outside the tent, but inside, none of them are noticed because they are with their father. The father is almost like a protective shield for them for everything that is happening in the world. As long as the father is around, they will be safe.
I think this poem is very nostalgic in a way. After reading Jacob’s explanation of Orion, I got a new perspective. Now, I think that this poem is about anger and the circle of life. The animals that the father uses seem very angry, even the swan. Horses, alligators, and swans are completely different in terms of their anatomy, one is a mammal, one is a reptile, and one is a bird. I think the author did this to show that even if all of us aren’t the same anatomically, we still all go through the same cycle. The horse is described as flicking its ear and buckling, while the alligator is snapping its jaws and the swan is peaking at the fathers head, trimming the hair. The father’s hair is compared to feathers which I kind of found significant. The fact that the swan is picking off the hair with its beak shows that maybe the swan is trying to get some of its own feathers back since some have been lost due to aging? Also, the author includes skunks in this poem and they are associated with a dying star. The next line talks about a new star being born everyday from Orion’s sword. Orion’s sword is said to contain a lot of nebulas so therefore it represents birth as death occurs. Like stats show, every 7 seconds someone dies, every 12 seconds is born (or maybe the other way around?), so this could be like the nebula in Orion’s sword. The nebula is a cloud of gas and dust, which is kind of deadly and negative, but coming out of it is life. I think the end is very liberating, as if the father is escaping. I think the ending is talking about acceptance and death in a sense. The tone is very nostalgic because of the child-like imagery, but yet it is very accepting by the end. The main literary devices are imagery, diction, and syntax.
-KATIE HARRIS
I interpreted the poem in a different way. I agree that the tone very nostalgic, as seen through the speaker’s use of imagery to create lively images of different animals, but I also interpreted it in a way that the speaker is reminiscing on the past that he or she shared with his/her deceased father. The first line breaks after white light in a way that reminds me of how people say they see a white tunnel when they’re about to reach death, “my father put his hands in the white light” the speaker’s father is encountering death and at the end, “my father’s hands became two birds, linked by a thumb, they flew one following the other” the father peacefully passes on. The speaker’s father is the “star that died a little every day” and the speaker is the new star, who will pass on the tradition of the hand puppets.
I think that this poem is very nostalgic. Using imagery about hand shadows and animals is very child-like and whimsical which makes the poem nostalgic. Clearly the speaker had a bond with her father as a child and this is one of the speaker's memories. I also think the speaker is somewhat sad looking back on such fond memories because the speaker says they were, "beneath a star that died a little everyday," which instantly made me think that the speaker has grown up now, and her father-daughter relationship or something has died or lost its light like the star. I felt as though the star was being compared to growing up, and everyday as the star dimmed more and more, the daughter grew further and further apart from her father.
The tone of this poem is nostalgic, reflective, positive, and strives to convey a message worldly knowledge and understanding to the reader.
The imagery of the "white light" in the first line makes you thinking of something heavenly and enlightening, as if the simple things that her father did prepared her for life and taught her important lessons through insignificant daily activities. There are also many allusions to the sky and outer space to show how her father made her wonder and expanded her thought into things unforeseen and undiscovered. He pushed her to explore and reach beyond her limits. This along with the "white Light" may also suggest that her has since passed away.
Katie, I liked what you picked up on the different types of animals discussed in the poem. This can also reference the different nature that the speaker and her father's interactions took on, and how vastly different they could be each time.
The syntax in the poem leaves you hanging on the end of every line such as "in the white light..." of what? or "two birds, linked..." by what? This keeps the reader hooked and anticipating the next line to give it more significance.
The diction is all very light, flowing and heavenly such as "perfect", "silhouette", "lightly", and "linked".
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