the Chimney Sweeper

Characterize the boy who speaks in this poem. How do his and the poet's attitudes toward his lot in life differ? How, especially, are the meanings of the poet and the speaker different in lines 3, 7-8, and 24?

The boy in this poem is kind of the kid that just wants things to be over with. Because he is very optimistic and always looking for the bright side in things. For example, when Tom was getting all his hair shaved off Tom did not like it and the speaker just said that without his hair the soot from the chimney would not spoil his white hair. The poet sees the story as a horrible thing because it is not right for little kids to be sold and they have to lead terrible lives of cleaning chimneys out. It just sucks. The speaker in the poem just goes with the flow of things. He tries to always stay positive and he knows that his and his friend's lives are crap but they just have to deal with it.

Ozymandias

The speaker of this poem is some guy that heard of a visage that are in the desert. He hears about this visage through some traveler from an antique land. The situation in this poem is that the traveler told the speaker of some visage in the desert and the statue is of some, "great" king that lived a long time ago. The pedestal says, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" So he's basically saying that he is so great and so amazing and that he will be remembered forever and just to give up hope. The irony about that though is that his great kingdom crashes and now all there is is a statue of him and he has nothing.

Barbie Doll

1. "dolls that did pee-pee..." this is an example of an apostrophe.
2. "wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy..." this is an example of a metaphor.
3. "in the magic of puberty..." this is an example of metonymy.
4. "Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs." this is an example of metonymy.
5. "her good nature wore out..." this is an example of personification.
6. "like a fan belt." this is an example of a simile.
7. "doesn't she look pretty?" this is an example of irony.

Toads

The speaker in this poem is a very lazy man! He is not willing to work for what he wants and he just wants thing to be handed to him. He says that he does not need to work and that if he just uses his wits than he can make it in the world and support himself. He looks at people and sees them living in leisure and wants to yell at them, "stuff your pension!" The easy life is what he wants but its not going to happen. This is the toad that is keeping him from getting the fame and the girl. He has to work for what he wants and can't be lazy.

The Victims

Explain exactly who the victims are in this poem and how you know.

The victims in the poem are the children and they witness all of these horrible things that are happening to their father. The sad things though, is that they are enjoying it and are amused with the pain that their father is going through. The mother taught the kids to hate their father and that's just not right. I can understand some what of a dislike for their father but nothing as drastic as hating him. All these unfortunate events that happen to their father are being enjoyed by the kids and they are the true victims because it is as if their hearts have turned black with a hate for their poor old man.

"Out, Out-"

The speaker of the poem is an onlooker of the accident from the start until the end. In the poem a little boy probably around the age of twelve is cutting wood with a saw and the blade comes flying out and cuts his arm off. This takes place in the past when saws were extremely unsafe and when little kids worked. Tone of the poem is kind of dreary and sad because this young kid loses his life because his arm get cuts off and he bleeds to death. The theme of the poem is that life is very unpredictable and that you never know what could happen. Just like in the poem I'm positive the boy never thought he'd die that day while he was working with the saw. The author achieves the overall affect of the poem because of way the poem never has pauses or breaks so it just flows and is sort of fast. Just like life you can't slow down, you can only do what you have to.

Woman Work

Most of the chores in the first 14 lines are associated popularly with "woman['s] work," but two are not. What do these exceptions reveal about the situation of the speaker?

These exceptions reveal that the speaker is doing what she has to do in order to live. She's got to do what she's got to do and I'm guessing that she is a slave because she has so much work to do and also she has to pick cotton. Most likely she is treated harshly and she just wants to leave the life she has right now and she reveals this when she says, "storm, blow me from here with your fiercest wind let me float across the sky 'til i can rest again." She wants to rest and at least rest every now and than but the sad truth is that she can't.