Chaya's AP Lang Blog

  Laurel Blossom uses emphasis and repetition to convey a conflicting, tension-filled tone that expresses how although opposites can attract, not always does that type of relationship work out. The speaker starts off strongly by telling the reader “That this is the difference between me and you,” making it clear to understand that these lovers have many differences and conflicts in their relationship, and goes on to list these differences in the following lines. She is confronting her lover with the blatant truth that they are so immensely different from each other that they cannot possibly continue their relationship. She goes on to repeat their differences in weather, hobbies and clothing, like the “red flannel shirt,” and “you like to wear wool,” emphasizing that these crucial parts of each of their personalities clash with one another. When in a relationship, although it is said that opposites attract, the two people need to have a common ground on certain areas for them to hav...

Billy Collins' resigning yet lighthearted tone in “Introduction to Poetry,” along with his use of vivid imagery, helps convey the message that analyzing poetry must be done by actively reading the poem to slowly uncovering its meaning. In the first stanza the speaker asks their students to hold the poem up to the light “like a colored slide.” Just like a slide must be looked at through rays of light to reveal its true colors, so to a poem must be held up and analyzed to reveal its clarity and meaning. He says that they should “walk inside the poem’s walls” and feel around for the light switch , conveying the sense of groping in the darkness, struggling to find the meaning of the poem. When one actively reads and analyzes a poem and truly immerses themselves in its words, they are able to switch on the light bulb in their heads of what the poem is trying to tell them. The imagery continues as the speaker wants his students to “ water ski across the surface of the poem” painting ...