Running head: POETRY ANALYSIS 1 Castille1 Lauriana Castille Professor Ford English 1302 April 14, 2019 Perfect Imperfections Poets use many symbols in poetry to create a specific meaning for the audience and many poses use literary devices to convey the meanings for example if a poet says, "I am alone" he often refers to the moon in dark night, he just symbolizes for the sake of giving meanings to the poetry. Symbols can be objects, representing the other objects and they can change meanings according to the contexts. Hawthorne, the writer of the poem says that birthmark is used as a symbol. In birthmark Georgiana’s humanity is described which equal to the flaws as Hawthorne. According to him, it is the nature of human being to be mortal and imperfect. He wants to remove the unattractive birthmark from the face of his wife, he actually wants to remove her flaws. He was successful in doing so. There was the singular mark on Georgian’s left cheek, so he describes it very beautifully in the poem. He says that this mark is "deeply interwoven" on Georgiana’s face and it represents that flaws of human beings are related to its character. He says in one line that Georgian,s birthmark is like a "tiny hand" so we can assume that he is representing towards the hand of God who made it perfectly but later he says that is like a hand of the human, so here idea gets complicated but actually, it shows that is the sign of mortality and humanity of Georgiana (Hawthorne, 2015). In this short hot air balloon is used as a symbol with the moon, it shows that the guy dreams about a better life. He says that moon is giving light to the chores, he wants to fly with the balloon and want to start a new life and after his death, the moon gives meaning when it is related to the hot balloon and gives meanings. The balloon also represented the dreams that never came true. It is about freedom from slavery and the poverty. The boy wants to come out of these situations. (Lark Catalpa, 2017). Byatt chooses a forest in which penny and prime roses are present with mystery, and day and night came and opens new chapter of mystery and a girl wanders there and it is a symbol of mystery, she feels traumatic experiences and in this whole story forest is represented as a symbol and symbolizes the forest as a dark place where access is very difficult (Byatt, 2011). All the above three poems use symbols and the center point for them is the freedom and desire of being perfect. Hawthorne wants to vanish the birthmark from his wife because he wants to make it perfect, both in shape and in character and symbolizes the word "birthmark" ion his poem. In wall of fire rising the writer uses a symbol of hot “balloon", he wants to use this balloon to fly away in a place where he can start his new and perfect life, in the thing in the forest writer uses the word "forest" as a symbol and a girl wanders there, forest is a dark place where she wandering around, her experience is traumatic and sh.

1. Running head: POETRY ANALYSIS 1
Castille1
Lauriana Castille
Professor Ford
English 1302
April 14, 2019
Perfect Imperfections
Poets use many symbols in poetry to create a specific meaning
for the audience and many poses use literary devices to convey
the meanings for example if a poet says, "I am alone" he often
refers to the moon in dark night, he just symbolizes for the sake
of giving meanings to the poetry. Symbols can be objects,
representing the other objects and they can change meanings
according to the contexts.
Hawthorne, the writer of the poem says that birthmark is used
as a symbol. In birthmark Georgiana’s humanity is described
which equal to the flaws as Hawthorne. According to him, it is
the nature of human being to be mortal and imperfect. He wants
to remove the unattractive birthmark from the face of his wife,
he actually wants to remove her flaws. He was successful in
doing so.
There was the singular mark on Georgian’s left cheek, so he
describes it very beautifully in the poem. He says that this mark
is "deeply interwoven" on Georgiana’s face and it represents
that flaws of human beings are related to its character. He says
in one line that Georgian,s birthmark is like a "tiny hand" so we
can assume that he is representing towards the hand of God who
made it perfectly but later he says that is like a hand of the
human, so here idea gets complicated but actually, it shows that
is the sign of mortality and humanity of Georgiana (Hawthorne,
2015).
In this short hot air balloon is used as a symbol with the moon,

2. it shows that the guy dreams about a better life. He says that
moon is giving light to the chores, he wants to fly with the
balloon and want to start a new life and after his death, the
moon gives meaning when it is related to the hot balloon and
gives meanings. The balloon also represented the dreams that
never came true. It is about freedom from slavery and the
poverty. The boy wants to come out of these situations. (Lark
Catalpa, 2017).
Byatt chooses a forest in which penny and prime roses are
present with mystery, and day and night came and opens new
chapter of mystery and a girl wanders there and it is a symbol of
mystery, she feels traumatic experiences and in this whole story
forest is represented as a symbol and symbolizes the forest as a
dark place where access is very difficult (Byatt, 2011).
All the above three poems use symbols and the center point for
them is the freedom and desire of being perfect. Hawthorne
wants to vanish the birthmark from his wife because he wants to
make it perfect, both in shape and in character and symbolizes
the word "birthmark" ion his poem. In wall of fire rising the
writer uses a symbol of hot “balloon", he wants to use this
balloon to fly away in a place where he can start his new and
perfect life, in the thing in the forest writer uses the word
"forest" as a symbol and a girl wanders there, forest is a dark
place where she wandering around, her experience is traumatic
and she wants to get out if it and want her life better.
In these poems, there are three pots, Hawthorne, Byatt, and
Edwidge Danticat. All these three poets used different symbols
in their poems but the theme is the same for them, a perfect life,
freedom, and life with high morale. Purpose of all of them was
to use the symbols to give ideas and to enhance the meanings of
the scenarios. Symbols can define the meanings, for example, a
smile is a symbol of friendship. So, these poets used symbols in
their poetry and gave a lot of clear meanings.

3. Works Cited
Byatt, A. (2011, April). Long story, short story: A. S. Byatt’s
‘The Thing in the Forest’. Vintage Digital. Retrieved from
Research Gate:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272138555_Long_stor
y_short_story_A_S_Byatt's_'The_Thing_in_the_Forest'
Hawthorne, N. (2015). The birthmark. e-artnow sro.
Lark Catalpa. (2017, july 23). The Symbolism behind A Wall of
Fire Rising. Retrieved from Deviant Art:
https://www.deviantart.com/lark-catalpa-royal8/journal/The-
Symbolism-behind-A-Wall-of-Fire-Rising-694415529

4. Podcast Transcripts
ENGL 1302 Online-Spring 2019
Week 5: April 15-19
Hello, all. This is going to be a slightly longer podcast than
usual—around 20 minutes or so, so get somewhere that you can
be comfortable and take some notes. We’re moving into the
second half of our 8-week term, and it’s time to write our
research project. We will move through the process together
step-by-step, so don’t rush too far ahead. For this week, you
need to work on coming up with your research question and
finding some secondary sources so that you can write an
annotated bibliography. Your research question, if it is well-
designed, may become the thesis of your research paper.
There are multiple strategies for coming up with a research
question, and you have plenty of resources to be able to do it.
I’m going to make some recommendations here, but remember
that you need to get this done this week.
Here’s the process that’s in Little Seagull. To get to your
research question, follow these steps:
1. Narrow your topic. Think about the play you read, the short
story, the poems. Which of those three was the most interesting
for you to read and then to write about? Choose one: drama,
fiction, or poetry. Go to that essay and pull out the thesis
statement. If I were you, I would go back to my first essays and
extract the thesis statements. Examine those thesis statements
for any threads that you would like to pull on, taking those
threads or ideas into spaces where you can think and write about

5. them in expanded ways.
2. Start asking “little questions” around the thread you decide to
pull. Use the journalistic questions to help you. If your thesis
was about symbolism, for example:
a. Ask, “Who?” Who was the author, who was the protagonist,
etc. Why would that matter in determining which symbols to use
and how?
b. Ask, “What?” What were the symbols used? Why is that
particularly interesting?
c. Ask, “When?” When was this written? When is it set/time of
day?
d. Ask, “Where?” Where was this set? Where was the author
from?
e. Ask, “Why?” Why were these kinds of symbols used?
f. Ask, “How?” How is the reader supposed to react? How am I
to interpret the author’s intention?
3. From those journalistic questions, other questions will
emerge. See what ideas reveal themselves that you can then turn
into one final critical research question.
For example, one thesis statement from a student essay was,
“Although the underlying
conflict between the couple is never truly revealed, the third
person narration and the point of view of the characters reveals
their struggle.”
Some “little” questions that come up for me are, “What,
possibly, was the unrevealed underlying conflict?” “Why
doesn’t the author reveal the specific conflict?” “When was this
story written, and was the conflict something that people didn’t
talk about during that time?” “How does the author achieve
understanding without revealing such an important aspect of the
couple’s struggle?”

6. My big research question would probably be something like,
“How does the author tell the reader exactly what the nature of
the couple’s conflict is without naming it specifically, and why
is subtlety the more impactful literary technique than coming
right out with it?”
This then sends me to the library databases where I can start to
do some research to see whether other scholars have addressed
my research question. If so, then I can begin pulling sources
that will support any claim I decide to make.
For example, I might claim that in the short story, “Hills Like
White Elephants,” Hemingway powerfully evokes the problem
of abortion without coming right out and using that specific
language, because through symbolism, the reader has a more
complete sense of the woman’s emotional struggle. If that is my
claim, then I need to be able to find some support for my claim
in other sources by literary scholars. I weave their claims into
my own in order to lend credibility to my analysis.
I would like for you to have a research question written (not
your thesis statement, but your preliminary research question)
by this Friday, and I would like you to find and save 5-6
secondary source articles from the library databases. Only 3
sources are required for the research paper, but you need to find
more than 3 in case one or two of your sources ends up being
bogus.
If you need help using the library databases, you can let me
know, you can ask a librarian, or you can Google it. I’m
creating a separate little screencast to show you how to start
drilling down to find sources; check it out in the Podcasts
folder.
You need to find your sources this week, because next week

7. you’ll write an annotated bibliography. You do not want to fall
behind here, so please let me know if you are having any
difficulties writing your research question. I’d like you to post
your research question in the discussion boards by Friday night,
please.
Talk to you guys next week! Happy researching!