Golden Retrievals free essay sample

The elements of poetry in Golden Retrievals help Mark Doty bring the reader to seeing through the dogs view. The poem is overall a happy poem but there is more than what meets the eye in this poem. The theme of this poem has a lot to do with the overall meaning of the poem. Which is to never waste time thinking about the past or future and just live in the present. The reader must be thinking about all the time they have wasted thinking about the past not realizing theyre thinking about the past. Mark Doty opens the poem with Fetch? and Catch? which is what captures the attention of a dog and by this the reader can tell we are reading through the eyes of the dog. Mark Doty goes on to talk through the dogs eyes but talking about the owner of the dogs activities and you, either youre sunk in the past, half our walk, thinking of what you never can bring back. We will write a custom essay sample on Golden Retrievals or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The reader can tell that the dog is happy with the easily things that can distract you when one is alone or waiting for their partner. The way Mark Doty uses words to bring images to the readers mind is making you live in that moment.Mark Doty also uses telling through the Golden Retriever eyes to make the poem cheerful but have an overall meaning to it. The dogs way of talking is used into four stanzas. The first stanza was mostly cheerful about doing things that make the dog happy then the second stanza gets more serious. The way Doty shifts between the first and second stanza by talking about the dogs activities to saying something about the haziness of his owner. In the second stanza he says Im off again: muck, pond, residue of any thrillingly dead thing. This is more of the dark part of the poem where he uses implication. He says dead thing which means the dog is talking about something that has lived previously something that was once alive which is dark. Which brings to the conclusion that dogs do not pay much attention to the past or do not hold on to it at least. This is being the poem gets more serious. This is the dog talking about the companion and what they spend their day and what he/she might be doing. The dog just wants more attention from his companion.Mark Doty uses many elements of poetry, but he uses words that capture the readers attention as if they were living the life of the dog. The golden retriever states Either youre sunk in the past, half our walk thinking of what you never can bring back, or else youre off in some fog concerning tomorrow. This brought the idea of that the dog is having an image of a walk they had in the past and is an idea of where his companion could be. He also has Onomatopoeia in the also in the third stanza of the poem woof this is portraying the bark of the dog. The dog is using little things to distract itself while it is waiting for its owner. In the third stanza the reader can put together that the dog is tired of his owner dwelling in the past and wants more attention of its companion. The dog also says My work to unsnare times warp, this is the dog telling his companion he can help him. This helps insure the theme of the overall poem being to never waste time thinking of the past or future. The last two lines of the poem a Zen masters bronzy gong, calls you here entirely, now: bow-wow, bow-wow, bow-wow. This is the dog coming back to talk about the happy things of the poem. These two lines of the poem also play a big role in the wrap up of this poem. This is ironic because this is saying that the dog is itself master, and usually the are being owned by their companion. This helps with the moral of the story because it goes with the theme that Golden Retrievers are living in the present and having the most fun in their lives.Mark Doty used Golden Retrievers for this poem to help with the overall theme. Now realizing how much time people do actually waste thinking of what could happen and what has already happened that adds up to a lot of wasted time. Dogs can keep people happy and distracted from dwelling on things and just thinking to much. He is trying to get the reader to understand that life is only so long so why think of the past when it has already happened or think of the future which can not always be predicted.