Its a Hard Knock Life

Its a hard knock life and was a tough one for one of my favorite poets Dorothy Paker. She started writing many poems at a young age and did not even get to finish school, being a high-school dropout at age 14. However this did not stop her one bit from becoming a successful poet, hence the fact that her childhood was a very unhappy one. Her mother and step-mother died when she was young; her uncle, Martin Rothschild went down on the Titanic in 1912; and her father had died the following year. In the year of 1914 she sold her first poem to Vanity fair and took an editorial position at Vogue. Even though she had such a harsh life following all the deaths she lived a successful life but did suffer from depression and alcoholism and attempted suicide.

Parker is one of my favorite poets without a doubt. She uses Parallelismus Membrorum in which she evokes many different emotions by the different words and phrases that she uses. An example of this would be the poem "Resume". This is a direct connection of her life, she uses deep imagery by using these powerful words to allow to reader to feel a certain way. This is a very strong poem especially because she is talking about suicide, and the various ways that one can take their life through this poem. When she states "razors pain you... gas smells awful: you might as well live". She is telling her readers that she has been through a very tough life. She describes the pain that she's been through with the razors and says that even though even though her life has been a huge downfall she lived through it and was successful. Her poems give me the chills because of how she writes. I feel like i am viewing her life through her eyes because of how vivd she makes her poems.

Another example would be "The Lady's Reward" because of the rhyme scheme that she sets up. She does such a great job with this because she is able to give the reader a snapshot of her life within this poem. I feel that i can relate to this poem because of a specific line within the poem which was to "never speak of the tears that burn your cheek". This shows me that no matter how much something is bothering you, don't be yourself around other people. It just makes me feel like i can relate because sometimes one doesn't want to express themselves about what is going on in their life because it is just to painful to tell to other people. However i feel that there is hope to let certain people know about what is going on so it just doesn't build up inside and become worse. She makes me feel this way because i don't want to have the same thoughts about leaving this earth before my time.

I have to say that Parkers is a very powerful poet in general because of what she is able to express through her poems. She evokes several feelings and even though she had a "hard knock life" she was able to be successful. Everyone has rough times in life and nothing is ever perfect. However it all gets better in time.