The Red Fox...

In Margaret Atwood's, Red Fox, Atwood uses imagery and use of tone to help with the them of hunger in this poem. She uses the extended metaphor of a fox that is usually associated to sly and cunning characteristics to create the tone of paranoia. Foxes are usually very sneaky and steal to get their food in order to survive. So when the speaker sees the fox, she addresses it with a very watchful eye. "but really watching the fox who could care less". Atwood characterizes the fox with humanlike qualities calling it a, "sly trickster" and smart and carefree when it's hungry. It is evident that the speaker is uncomfortable with the fox there because of the paranoid tone and how they keep a watchful eye and analyze it, "She's a lean vixen: I can see the ribs, the sly trickster's eyes, filled with longing and desperation...".

The tone, however, changes in the last three stanzas to a sort of cynical expression because the speaker addresses the problems of hunger and how a human reacts when they are hungry in desperation. Atwood speaks about how hunger is corrupt in society and yet the fox (or man) is still "in it for himself" eventhough "there are mothers squeezing their breasts dry" just to feed their children. Just like a hungry fox, when people endure the horrors of hunger, they become as sly and kiniving just to survive, "we'd all turn theif and rascal" just to get ahead and we "could care less"...

These are getting easier...

In Seamus Heaneys, From the Frontier of Writing, Heaney uses descriptive imagery and the literary technique of extended metaphor to describe his struggles in writing. The title, "From the Frontier of Writing" displays how Heaney refers to writing as a type of war zone showing the struggle perhaps that he goes through when writing his poems. Words like, "tightness", "nilness" and "inspect" shows the pressure he feels as a writer. The extended metaphor of how writing is a war to Heaney is represented by references like "troops", "rifles" and "sergeant". Heaney also shows how he may seem a bit held back from writing, "and everything is pure interrogation until a rifle motions and you move with guarded unconcernec acceleration." The troops can be seen to represent the publishers because they are "inspecting" or interrogating his "make" and "number" and Heaney feels as though these troops have all the power and the choice to decide whether they should publish his work, so he feels a little restrained with "guarded unconcerned acceleration".

He identifies how these pressures or obstacles like the "frontier" and "troops" act as difficulties in his "journey" of writing. At first he is stopped at a border while the troops inspect the car, or his work. Then further on in the poem he states how, "suddenly you're through, arraigned yet freed, as if you'd passed from behind a waterfall on the black current of a tarmac road" showing how he may have finally been able to overcome those obstacles of writing.

I'd like a break right now...

In Mid-Term Break, by Seamus Heaney, Heaney uses a somber tone and the reference to old and young/ big and small to describe the theme of separation and distance he feels towards his family. He uses references like "baby" and "old men" in the second stanza, describing both extremes of life and not really placing where he stands. The funeral occuring in this poem is noticeably of his younger brothers and being away at college, "I was the eldest, Away at school..." he feels very distant from the rest of his family because he's been gone for quite a while. The theme of separation is also seen when he describes the people at his house for the funeral as "strangers" and even identifies his own younger brother as a "corpse" rather than stating his name showing how distant he feels towards a family member,"I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now..."
The theme is also represented in the diction used and how in each stanza, there are many cuts or breaks in the sentence when going to the next stanza, like for instance, "...as my mother held my hand/ In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs." This break in the stanza shows his disconnectioin with his own mother. Heaney presents his emotions of the event in a very somber tone. He doesn't clearly let the reader know how the author is feeling about the situation and creates a theme of separation ocurring during this funeral. He describes the death just as how it is, "I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now, Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple, Hey lay in the four-foot box as in his cot." This shows clearly the separation and distance the author is feeling towards the family, because even at his own brothers funeral- he is unable to release emotion or feelings about the situation.