metaphors in facing it

My clouded reflection eyes melike a bird of prey, the profile of nightslanted against morning. He doesn’t even see the speaker, but obviously has his own harsh experiences of the war as he looks through the speaker at the wall. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Life’s a Game. Last Reviewed on June 19, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. The lines between past and present begin to blur, as his memories from the war begin to resurface. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. A metaphor is very expressive; it is not meant to be taken … This bill literally took 100 years to be passed, and when it was passed in 1964 the Vietnam War was just getting started (Poetry Foundation). The main obligation of the translators when facing cliché metaphors is to replace it with its cultural equivalent in the TL. Speaking of the game of life, here’s another metaphor that comes in handy. Yusef begins the poem by using visual imagery to describe his face reflecting in the memorial wall. About this Poet Yusef Komunyakaa was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana. There is a conflict and internal struggle depicted that the speaker has to face due to the resurfacing of past experiences. Our site includes quite a bit of content, so if you're having an issue finding what you're looking for, go on ahead and use that search feature there! Metaphors are featured throughout the speech, with a heavy emphasis on light and dark. The theme of this poem, through the speaker, gives us a peek into one of the most difficult phases a person can face in a lifetime. "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyaa is a poem about Vietnam. I go down the 58,022 names,half-expecting to findmy own in letters like smoke.I touch the name Andrew Johnson;I see the booby trap’s white flash.Names shimmer on a woman’s blousebut when she walks awaythe names stay on the wall. Despite anticipating the emotional reaction he might have—“I said I wouldn’t”—to facing “it” (the Wall itself, but also the war and his role in it), the poet tries to maintain composure, but is split: both “stone”—stolid, wary, and restrained, as if such vigilance could dam the flood of emotion he feels—and yet also “flesh”—human, fragile, and vulnerable. With this visual imagery and metaphoric language the speaker helps us understand how he feels about the war and the affects it’s had on him and all others that were involved. Then, with the metaphor “I’m a window”, he expresses how, since being at the memorial wall, his self-perception has now lessened even more (line 27). Also, on a ship, the captain decides direction. You might not have even realized they were originally metaphors at all! Like any other part of the … Works Cited: Komunyakaa, Yusef. Then, by using more visual imagery and some personification of the stone memorial wall, the speaker describes how he is a prisoner to the wall and that his only escape from it is to turn away from it. But the other, more important, thing it tells us is that he understands that, as his face faces into the dark granite, he wasn’t the only person affected by the war. This helps the reader understand how lucky the speaker felt about somehow escaping the war still alive. He is reminded that, as much as he can try to ignore or mask his emotions he was going to fall prey to them. This post brings to you a summary and analysis of the poem ‘Facing It’ by Yusef Komunyakaa. The metaphors used in Sub-Saharan Africa are even less militaristic; rather, the metaphor of journey is what has become common (even “Africanized”). Frequent objections to the use of metaphors in doctor-patient communication often lead to the use of an ‘inappropriate’ or ‘imprecise’ language. You may see a battle as a metaphor for your life if everything is a competition or a … I turnthis way–the stone lets me go. The ship metaphor does not fit very well with empowerment. By Yusef putting this in the poem it shows how ironic he must have felt fighting alongside white soldiers and dying next to them even though they didn’t share all of the same civil rights just yet. 6789 Quail Hill Pkwy, Suite 211 Irvine CA 92603. This post brings to you a summary and analysis of the poem 'Facing It' by Yusef Komunyakaa. 2… View Resources. A Metaphor is a figure of speech that makes an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated, but which share some common characteristics. The speaker, a war veteran, visits the ‘Vietnam Veterans Memorial’, which has been built to commemorate the personnel who were killed or have been missing in action in the war. Web. This name mentioned in the poem was so significant because it gives us a sense of visual and emotional imagery. I’m flesh. It doesn’t matter which direction he tries to go in life, the memories and effects of the war are always unavoidably with him. Body of an essay: Here the structure of an essay is compared to that of human anatomy, and so the "body" of an essay is the main part of the essay. "Facing it" by Yusef Komunyakaa reveals to us other sides of the war, using vivid images and metaphors. 1. 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In other words, a resemblance of two contradictory or different objects is made based on a single or some common characteristics.In simple English, when you portray a person, place, thing, or an action as being something else, even though it is not actually that “something else,” you are speaking metaphori… ... Oftentimes, the solution lies in facing whatever it is you’ve been avoiding. The poem is inspired from the experiences of the poet during the Vietnam War, where he worked as a correspondent and managing editor of a military newspaper. “Facing It. The act is not an end". Yusef Komunyakaa is an American poet who has served for the army as well. The ship metaphor explains why we welcome newcomers on board and talk about running a "tight ship." Let's take a quick look at some of the most popular forms: Absolute Metaphors - These metaphors compare two things that have no obvious connection, in order to make a striking... Dead Metaphors - Like clichés, these metaphors have lost their punch through over-usage. The poem begins with the speaker facing the black granite wall of the memorial. As he goes down the list of names he comes across one in particular, Andrew Johnson, that has important meaning for several reasons. Here is the summary and analysis of the poem. It's not actually true but it gives the reader a clearer idea of what it is like. Word Count: 488 "Facing It" is a poem that encapsulates numerous themes and points of view regarding the Vietnam War and related issues. Facing it by Yusef Komunyakaa, 2011. The speaker is also able to show how he is not the only one so deeply affected by the war. He writes of a white veteran who approaches him while at the wall. The metaphors “I’m stone. As he reads down the names he uses the visual imagery and simile to describe how he expected to find his own name in “letters like smoke” (line 16). He is deeply lost in his thoughts, and his overwhelmed mind starts having flashbacks, which reduce the difference between memories and reality. 8 We can cite many more examples of the same literary motif or conceptual metaphor because facing a crossroads happens to be one of the most common metaphors with which we think about challenges, possibilities, and decision-makings in life. Then, they have to … He is also a winner of many prestigious awards, that include the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, Ruth Lily Poetry Prize, and Louisiana Writer Award. The poem is inspired from the experiences of the poet during the Vietnam War, where he worked as a correspondent and managing editor of a military newspaper. Therapy metaphors use a story or illustration to see alternative ways of looking at something. The speaker says he is stone, almost as if the he is talking to himself and coaxing himself along not to cry. There is a very personal connection to this Andrew Johnson as he is from the same hometown of Yusef (Poetry Foundation). By continuing we’ll assume you’re on board with our cookie policy. Sometimes entire poems can be written in the form of a metaphor. Metaphor and visual imagery are heavily relied on literary devices in ‘Facing It’, by Yusef Komunyakaa. But, more importantly, this person also shares his name with the 17th president of The United States Andrew Johnson. Here are three popular examples of metaphors: Love is a battlefield. It was 14 years after the war that he finally wrote the poem. He broke my heart. The son of a carpenter, Komunyakaa has said that he was first alerted to the power of language through his grandparents, who were church people: “the sound of the Old Testament informed the cadences of their … By using visual imagery and metaphoric language throughout the poem, Yusef is able to reflect the sad and confused emotions he felt while visiting the Vietnam memorial. He finds a familiar name on the memorial wall, and is reminded of how the person, Andrew Johnson, had died. To get a better grasp on this figure of speech, take a look at these examples of dead metaphors. This simple phrase shows that love can be very challenging – even deadly! These kinds of thought exercises require a series of psychological processes that are very helpful during the therapeutic process. In the end, the speaker also shows his ambivalent feelings that seem to start to evolve for the better when the visual imagery is used as he sees a woman who is “trying to erase names:/No, she’s brushing a boy’s hair” (lines 30-31). I welcome the authors’ turn away from military metaphors as the dominant way to conceptualize HIV cure and research. We know that sometimes it's hard to find inspiration, so we provide you with hundreds of related samples.

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