Figurative Language 2- The Joy of Cooking

"I have prepared my sister's tongue." line 1

The first time I read through Elaine Magarrell's, "The Joy of Cooking," I was completely disgusted! But all grotesque details aside, I saw the speaker was indirectly characterizing her siblings.The tone that was implemented was very negative and condescending. The brother and sister seem to have opposite personalities with the same core issue. Neither of them can properly communicate with others. The sister often says too much, and some of what she says causes issue. I determined this from the line, "I have prepared my sister's tongue, scrubbed and skinned it." This implies that the speaker is attempting to change the way her sister speaks. The way in which her tongue is prepared simulates a punishment. It is "trimmed and gristle" and topped with spices. To me, this seems to be torturous like a punishment. The brother on the other hand seems to have no emotion. "[His] heart, which is firm and rather dry," expresses a guarded, emotionless soul. The way it is prepared seems to try to be evoking a reaction. "An apple-onion stuffing" and "sour sauce" are attempts to stimulate the brother's heart. The end of this poem seems to reflect an inevitable lack of change. The speaker sees that no matter how they are prepared, their personalities will never change.

Imagery Poetry 5- The Convergence of the Twain

"And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres."  line 33

I don't think this poem takes place in chronological order. It begins with the ship, the Titanic, already sunken below the sea and ultimately ends with the devastating collision. When many people think about the tragic Titanic shipwreck, they think about all the lives that were lost. But, in this poem, it seems that the author is more concerned and hurt by the loss of the ship itself. I think that this author must have had some sort of connection to the ship. Perhaps he was a staff member or craftsman. I highly doubt he was a passenger due to his judgement of them, "Deep from human vanity." Either way, he had some passion about the ship. His tone seems distraught when saying, "The sea worm crawls--grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent." As the poem progresses, I feel like the author saw some sort of inevitability to the crash. Based on my background knowledge of the Titanic, maybe he knew about the ignored ice warnings. Lines such as "A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate." and "In shadowy silent distant grew the Iceberg too," support my thinking of inevitability. I think that this poem is reflective upon the popularity and status of the ship. Looking back, the author can see how unimportant vanity was, because ultimately, the ship ended up under the sea.