Red Fox

In Margaret Atwood’s red fox we see the use of conceit to portray a sense of savage actions that humans take in life, and diction to highlight specific characteristics of that conceit. We are humans savage and cunning to get a scrap of food and survival.
The conceit in this poem is very clearly the red fox, hence the title, as carrier for the symbol of humans, and the savage things we do as humans. The first stanza shows that the fox is not bothered by what is going on in her life, but only focused on one thing, survival. This is compared to how when humans see something that they lust after, that they think they need and desire, they don’t stop to wonder about the collateral damage that could b done and just focus on attaining that goal.
Another notable instance of this conceit and diction is in the third stanza where the speaker talks of the slyness and the lies that this trickster can tell. This shows that humans are liars and tricksters to get what they want, and are as sly as the Grinch to get it. This further highlights the savageness of humans and how we will do anything to get what we want, to get what we think we need to survive.
Another wonderful instance of diction that adds to this conceit is the line about the white knife of a smile. This shows that humans ill be nice and sly when they are trying to get what they want, but when they don’t get it they will turn on you and stab you in the back. Behind every nice gesture is a dangerous and savage motivation that drives the human to act.
The key line that underlines the thesis is “hunger corrupts, and absolute hunger corrupts absolutely”. This beautifully shows the savage nature of animals and beasts when survival is brought into the question, and for humans, for Americans, survival is the material worth that we often kill for. This line best shows that the human being is a savage monster that will do anything when it wants to get something of value that it desires.
Red fox by Margaret Atwood is a wonderful social commentary on what we as humans have become. She shows this through her use of conceit and diction to show humans as savage conniving creatures that will do anything to get what they want, and to survive.

Blackberry picking by Seamus Heaney

In Black Berry picking by Seamus Heaney we see the speaker reminisce about the childhood memories he has about picking will black berries. we see him recalling the beauty and the joy of picking them and delighting on the sweet flesh. We then see the speaker turn from unbridled joy to sadness as the berries are devoured by mold, and his acceptance of this, thier sad fate. Below the surface the speaker is actually commenting on the fact that in life it take time to reach our prime, and once we are there, we love it and experience a nirvana never before experienced, and it seems like it will never and, then just when you least expect it, you have began to age and your body decay, and although you wich it to never happen, you realize that its part of life and accept it. He does, namely, this through the uses of structure, imagery, and symbolism.
Heaney uses structure to show the transitions of life with the breaks in stanzas. The first stanza, or more like paragraph, is long and very descriptive, mostly emphasizing the prime of ones life, as it is full of beautiful imagery and its lasts a very long time without changing topics, it stays on how wonderful it is that the blackberries are ripe (blackberries act as a symbol for ones life). This is then contrasted with the second stanza, which is significabtly shorter, which talks about the decaying of the berries, and thus our life. The shortness and the topic of the second stanza signifies how in life, when we reach our end, it comes abruptly, and while we know that it is coming it alsways come too soon and is over too quickly.
Imagery is also used to show the progress of ones in and out of ones prime. When we first are in our lives we have obviously not hit our prime, we are still maturing, still ripening, just like the "bunches of red and green ones that were hard as knots". Then when we begin to matuer, we ripen likle the berries, and just as the berries become sweet like summers blood, we find the beauty in ourselves and have the time of our lives. then as we die and age, we begin to decay like the berries, and realize that nothing is forever, and the good times do eventually end.
Imagery is probably the most widely used literary technique in this peom. It is the basis for all of my interpretation as they provide the evidence for the interpretation that the poem is about the passage of time through one life and ones prime. THis largest use of symbolism is the use of barries as a symbol for ones life, and the transformation fot eh berries symbolizes the transformation of someones life through stages in and out of ones prime over a period of time.
Blakc berry picking is one of my personal favorites of Heaney. His use of structure, imagery, and symbolism create a passage of time through ones life in and out of ones prime, and also add to my personal thoughts on this poem.

"Punishment" by Seamus Heaney

In punishment by Seamus Heaney, the author uses diction, and enjambment to underline the feeling of a distant and disconnected intimacy between the speaker and and victim in the poem. The poem itself is about the young women that is found in a peat bog compressed under branches and stones who is naked and was killed for being an adulteress. This alludes to not only the historical finding of a girl in a peat bog that had been there 2,000 years, but also a reference to an adulteress being tied to lampost and being tarred and feather. The two situations were ocmbined into Heaneys punishment.
When reading a peom, you can determine alot about the poem from its structure. The most obvius example of literary structue is enjambment, which is the breaking of clauses between lines of verses(stanzas in this case). This shows the distance between the two, the speaker and the victim, as the broken thoughts between stanzas shows a disregard for intimacy and closeness, and is written in a form of broken thoughts. These breaking of thoughts show the distancing between the two as the speaker is reluctant to break convention and what is a set stencil of the peom for his lover/the adulteress.
Diction is used to not only create intimacy, but also show a distancing between the speaker and the vctim. Intimacy is creatd between the two the the uses of sexual an dintimate word such a nipples, beauty, adulteress(passion), and finally intimacy in the last few lines. This shows that there was some connection between the two and they were close. He also speaks of her in a possesive voice as if she is his. This further highlights the closensess between the two. Diction however also creates a distancing between the two as he almost objectively describes how she was found. He seems to be using a catalouging technique as if he were writing and article about her, thus, as journalists write, he reports the information devoid of emotion.
Seamus Heaney's Punishment has both and intimate and as distanced feel to it. This is created through the diction of the poem and the enjambment of the stanzas. The reasoning for this could but multitudinous. The speaker could have been ashamed for being invloved with an adulteress, and not want to tarnish his name. He could have had his heart broken by the victim and although he hated her for it, he still had a feeling of longing and forlorn for her. All we can deduce is there is an internal struggle on the part of the speaker that is harnessed in the thoughts and feelings captured in the poem.