Friday, October 1, 2010

Red Shift essay

       In the poem "Red Shift, the author Ted Berrigan suggests that the speaker is a lonely person. This is shown through the words the writer chose for the speaker to say, the tone of the speaker is very emotional. The way the author wrote this poem, you can tell how the speaker is feeling. The meaning of the word red shift means the measure of waves. This whole poem goes from down to up back to down.
      The title being "Red Shift" can make the reader look at the poem with a different understanding. Since red shirt can be the measure of waves the title makes sense to what was written. In the beginning the words are choppy, and short, so the sound waves would be low. In the middle the sentence start to get longer and filled with more emotion, so the waves will be much higher. Towards the end of the poem, the speakers words start to die off again, causing the sound waves to go back down like before. So the tone of the speaker is down and up. The meaning of red shift can also apply to the speaker emotions because they to change from down to up. 
      From reading this poem, its pretty obvious what the tone of the speaker is. The speaker sounds disappointed, the he sounds like he's upset, sad, then he almost sounds like he's crying, and towards the end he actually sounds like he's about to die.  All these tones make him sound depressed, and most depressed people feel alone. So, going back to the beginning to what the author is suggesting, the speaker is alone, and filled with emotions. This also goes back to the meaning of the word red shift, his emotions keep changing, so that means the waves would keep changing as well.
      A way the author shows the speaker as being alone is in the line 28 and 29. The speaker says "nor even for stupid permanent estrangement which is only our human lot & means nothing." When breaking down this sentence you get a better meaning. The word permanent means forever, the word estrangement means taken away from or separated. When knowing those two meanings its like he's saying forever separated, or forever taken away from, therefore it's like no one is there, he's alone. 
      Right from the start of this poem the speaker was alone. He sounded better when he first started reading as the poem goes on he's is only talking about the past, not not because there nothing to talk about because he's alone. Towards the end, he forms some kind of attitude and he once again is still alone. Him being alone explains his tone and why is emotions are always up and down. The speaker is like a red shift, or a measure of waves.
      Red shift, the measure of waves, describes what this poem is about and who the speaker is. He is an up and down emotional person. The author Ted Berrigan tries to suggest that the speaker is alone with all these emotions. This poem was a good way of showing that. 



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