Towards the Better Light Essay Example for Free

Towards the Better Light try onThe vocalizer in Elizabeth Bishops poem The Fish portrays someone who is rather inexperienced to what he is doing. An inexpert in fishing if I may say due to several lines in the poem that suggests the utterer is confused with conscience upon catching the fish. The poem narrates a series of striking turns of emotions felt by the speaker towards his catch.First is the excitement and thrill of true(a)ly catching a fish, followed by being dumbfounded by the fishs state weak and powerless due to the many battles and struggles it world power have been through and through before. The speaker becomes extremely at awe with the features of the fish, given a prospicient list of descriptions all end-to-end the poem appealing to all senses for optimum understanding of the readers. It is as if the speaker desperately wants everyone to understand how he exactly saw the fish and how he actually felt at that moment. Looking at the long list of detailed des criptions, it is evident that the speaker is moved and is renewed by this experience. In fact, he was so moved that confusion overtaking him has led to the decision of finally letting the fish go. Epiphany, as Levin might define it, has overtaken the speaker in such a way that the experience is almost, if not life changing. thought the life of the fish somehow illuminated him, giving him a huge revelation to the meaning of life. Changes in ones life, as the speaker in Larkins poem A consider of development Habits may not be as moving as the amateur fisher in Bishops poem sees it. Rather, it may be more on deteriorating and depressing.The second poem entitled A Study of Reading Habits is also in a narrative form. It tells of the story of a person in third major points of his life- as a young boy, as a teenager and as an bragging(a). The speaker express his emotions during these points through his portrayal of his class period habits during that time.Irony is present in the po em, as the decency and formality of the title contrasts the actual content of the poem, which is filled with slang terms such as ripping and stewed. This somewhat creates an two-bagger of sarcasm to give emphasis to the unfolding of a series of turmoil and depression through turn out the speakers life.In the first stanza, reading serves as a way to brighten up his mean solar day if he is bullied and picked on by bigger kids in school. Using the term cured, the speaker points out that as a child, the books have comforted and soothed his fears of being oppressed because each time he reads, he enters a different world where he can be as strong and as first-class as he wants to be.At adolescence, described in the second stanza, the speaker views the act of reading as a means of fantasizing sex in a dark, evil way. His sexual urges are probably triggered by erotic and ecstatic readings, as a naturally occurring part of puberty and adolescence.During these two stages in his life, readi ng has become his escape. He is very much relieved and transformed by the act of reading and any(prenominal) trouble and sadness he experiences in the real world is somehow erased by literary works. At these two stages, reading is still considered a good thing for him.However, as the speaker reaches adulthood, he came to a point of realization where his views have changed due to possibly more unfavorable even outts. At his point of realization, he now sees that reading cannot solve or even change whatever is happening in his life. even out his escapist tendencies in the form of reading cannot save him from believing that he is a loser, a chastisement of some sort. Proofs to this are lines like the dude who lets the girl down and the chap whos yellow, suggesting that even in his fantasies and made up world of stories, he still ends up being bad at what he does. The way I see it, it is not a form of depression but plainly sadness. The speaker does not feel empty at all, but he fee ls terribly sad to the highest degree not getting what he wants the way he has imagined things to turn out, or not getting what he wants at all. He does not blame the books for his sadness, but he now believes that he cannot rely on it as an escape from his sadness.Contrasting the amateur fisher with the troubled adult, the poems create two opposing attitudes towards life. The amateur fisher, a hopeful and inexperienced person that he is, finds beauty even in a minor creature as the fish. He is able to empathize with the state of the fish and appreciate life in a better(p) light through what he has witnessed.Being able to understand and feel the tune experienced by the fish, the amateur fisher is moved and blessed that he is in a better state. He let the fish go in exchange for a new lesson in life.The adult who has turned his back on reading, on the other hand, is more of a pessimist. He creates a detrimental aura in his life because he has let the drastic changes in his life g et in the way of his joys.From finding it as a cure for sadness and oppression, A load of crap is how he now views the act of reading. Along with his maturity is the change in his attitude towards things.One is optimistic schooling from his experiences towards the better light while one sticks to his one- sided view of life, letting his self to be caught up in a dark, cold corner.ReferencesBishop, Elizabeth. The Fish. The Compact Bedford entree to Literature. Meyer, Michael.5th Edition. Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 509-511.Larkin, Philip. A Study of Reading Habits. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Meyer, Michael.5th Edition. Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 511-512.Levin, Harry ed. The Portable James Joyce. New York Viking, 1947..