Sample Question

The passage of time and its significance can be handled in many ways in poetry. Consider
the ways in which at least two poets have included aspects of time in their poetry through their
effective use of stylistic techniques.

Time is an important topic or elements in Naomi Shihab Nye's poem. In her poem "Two Countries", time is represented by "skin" throughout the whole poem. "Skin remembers how long the years grow", skin here is the witness of time of what happened. Throughout the whole poem, she mentioned that "skin remembers" for three times, skin is always the one which remembers the time, heals the wounds as time passes by, and etc. In this poem, Naomi Shihab Nye has a significant symble to represent time. However, in her poem "My Grandmothe in the Stars", time is represented by memories, so time is not things that is happening now, time is the things that happened in the past, and use the memories to show her love towards her grandmother. In this poem, time left her good memories that she will treasure for the rest of her life, "only memories makind us rich" shows that the memories, the time that she had spent with grandmother is the thing that she will keep forever. Time is the topic to both two poems, and the poet shows time in really different ways in two poems, but both poems shows the imporance and significance of the time not only to poet herself, but also is like a lesson and reminder to all the readers. To letting us know how important time is.