Sailing Home from Rapallo, Poetry, College Term Papers.com


		Data Bases
		• Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism?

		Links
		• Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com

		Free Essays
		• Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers

Search Lots of Essays

Back to Subjects - Poetry

Sailing Home from Rapallo

Sailing Home from Rapallo "Choose your favourite journey poem. What are the distinctive qualities of this poem? How are poetic techniques used to achieve the poets purpose?" “Sailing Home from Rapallo” There are many distinctive qualities in the poem “Sailing Home from Rapallo” by Robert Lowell. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the poem is the fact that the reader experiences Robert Lowell’s personal journey. Lowell focuses on a specific event rather than emotions, and he constantly changes his tone of voice, interrupting the poem. Lowell also brings other exterior characters and emotions into the poem. Lowell uses many poetic devices to bring his poem to life; Lowell uses onomatopoeia and extreme juxtapositions to enhance his poem. He also uses symbolism and irony to convey his ideas and emotions. Robert Lowell likewise uses irony and sarcasm to enrich his poetry. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the poem is the way the reader experiences Robert Lowell's personal journey. At the end of the poem Lowell shocks readers with the reference to his mother, whose corpse is "wrapped like panetone in Italian tinfoil". By this stage it can be seen that the poem itself is a journey through Lowell's emotions, from the initial suffering to the final callousness and apathy. Lowell is initially overcome with grief, but as he takes a physical journey back to New England, he is forced to take an emotional journey into the complex relationship he has with his mother. It is only after he embarks on this emotional journey that he comprehends his true feelings towards his mother, and completes the journey by the end of the poem. Robert Lowell reaches the conclusion that he was never very close to his mother, and is not as affected by her death as he thought he was. Robert Lowell's emotional voyage and evolving character combine to make a journey, which is a distinctive quality in the poem "Sailing Home from Rapallo". One distinctive quality of the poem "Sailing Home from Rapallo" is the fact that it focuses on a particular event, Lowell's mothers death in Italy, and the emotions associated with the event, rather than the poets feelings on a subject, or their own self expression. Lowell's mother is the principal character in this poem. Her death in Europe and her final journey to the family graveyard in New England give the theme, which invokes a variety of emotional responses in Robert Lowell. Another distinctive quality of the poem is that Lowell abruptly changes his tone of voice, interrupting the feeling of continual forward movement in the poem. He never allows himself to get too emotional; once he begins to release his feelings he immediately changes tone and presents the facts. The poem begins in a detailed way, establishing the scene: "Your nurse could only speak Italian, but after twenty minutes I could imagine your final week, and tears ran down my cheeks…." This compassion is striking, but the moment of sympathy is not savoured, as Lowell immediately slips into a more objective tone: "When I embarked from Italy with my Mother's body…." This shows Lowell’s continual change of tone in the poem “Sailing Home from Rapallo”. Yet another distinctive quality of the poem is the way that Lowell focuses on the bigger picture, other family members, rather than just his relationship with and emotions for his mother. It is peculiar that in a poem written specifically about the death of his mother, Lowell chooses to express derogatory feelings about his father. Although his mother is the principal subject of this poem, Lowell takes the opportunity to portray his father to the readers. His depicts his deceased father as a misfit in life, who is also a misfit in death. "The only 'unhistoric' soul to come here was Father…. Even the Latin of his Lowell motto: Seemed too businesslike and pushing here." Thus, the poem can be seen as distinctive because Robert Lowell allows us to follow his train of thought by bringing other events and a range of new emotions into the poem. this gives the reader a greater understanding of the current situation, rather than focusing solely on one event, or one emotion. Robert Lowell brings his poem alive through the use of onomatopoeia. He expresses that: "The crazy yellow and azure sea-sleds the spumante-bubbling wake of our liner, recalled the clashing colours of my Ford." Onomatopoeia is used in words like "blasting" and "bubbling" to help establish the scene and add to the mental image by creating sounds and images. The use of onomatopoeia contributes to the passionate tones used in the poem, which as a direct result, allows the reader to be deeply moved by "Sailing Home from Rapallo". The poem works through juxtapositions and contrasts. As the lifelessness of his Mother's corpse is contrasted with the vitality of the gulf, as the ship moves out to sea: "The whole shoreline of the Golfo di Genova This contrasts with his mother's condition, as there is a passionate description of liveliness in nature. There is also juxtaposition between seasons and places, as seen when it is said "Spring already beginning in Italy while Dunbarton By using juxtaposition it helps to emphasize and convey the extremes of emotion and the confusion that Robert Lowell is feeling. In addition, Lowell uses symbolism to achieve his purpose. The wintry world and the "sub zero weather" are symbolic of sterility and hopelessness. This is used to help emphasize how bored and barren his life has become, and how much emptier he feels without his mother. Symbolism is also seen in the fact that, in a poem about a journey, the graveyard is seen in nautical terms: "Dour and dark against the blinding snowdrifts, its black brook and fir trunks were as smooth as masts." By using symbolism, Robert Lowell is able to accent his feelings and bring multiple and hidden meanings into his poem. In "Sailing Home from Rapallo" irony is a poetic device often used. Rich irony is used in the idea that leaving an energetic, exciting Europe with a corpse for burial in the New World, which reflects Lowell's opinion that in Europe everything was happy and life was celebrated, where as in America vitality and energy was dead. By using irony, Lowell conveys to the readers how passionate he is about his relationship with his mother, as instead of writing how he felt, he used extreme sarcasm to emphasize how earnest he is, consequently enhancing his poetry. As well as irony, Robert Lowell uses some sarcasm in his poem, as a poetic device to enhance his poem. He is very dry as he writes: "Mother travelled first-class in the hold, her Risorgimento black and gold casket was like Napoleon's at the Invalides…." Lowell's attitude here is a very stale one, as he is conveying that his mother is as pretentious in death as she had been in life. In this stanza his true feelings of resentment towards his mother are starting to surface. Lowell leaves his most devastating observation about the casket to the end of the poem, as he says: "In the grandiloquent lettering on Mother's coffin, Lowell had been misspelled LOVEL." This is sarcasm because he associates love with a Lowell in death, which he felt who, in life, was capable of neither giving love nor stimulating it. Sarcasm is a prominent poetic device used in "Sailing Home from Rapallo" it is used because it highlights the situation, and the emotions felt as a result of the poetry, in a subtle, shocking way. Thus, in conclusion it can be seen that there are many distinctive qualities in the poem “Sailing Home from Rapallo” by Robert Lowell. Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the poem is the fact that the reader experiences Robert Lowell’s personal journey. Lowell also concentrates on a specific event rather than emotions, which allows the reader to understand Lowell’s situation. Robert Lowell constantly changes his tone of voice, interrupting the feeling of continual movement in the poem, in order to constantly remind the reader of reality. Lowell also brings other exterior characters and emotions into the poem to help establish the scene better. Lowell uses many poetic devices to bring his poem to life, Lowell uses onomatopoeia and extreme juxtapositions to enhance and strengthen his poem. He also uses symbolism and irony to convey his ideas and emotions. Robert Lowell also uses irony and sarcasm to enrich his poetry. Robert Lowell indeed had many distinctive qualities and a profound use of poetic devices in his poem “Sailing Home from Rapallo”. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1452