Maxine A Daughter Leaving Home, By Linda Pastan - 1034 Words

When thinking about love, we usually think about a gushy feeling between two people. When reading the two poems, â€Å"To a Daughter Leaving Home† and â€Å"Dover Beach,† I found a new definition of love. Love is an intense feeling of deep affection. Both of these poems exhibit a tough love and show excellent examples of concrete images and figurative language. Along with love, they also show a new meaning of beauty and nature. The poem â€Å"To a Daughter Leaving Home,† by Linda Pastan, showed a great deal of concrete images and figurative language. There was a slight conflict towards the end of the poem, especially when it said, â€Å"I kept waiting/ For the thud of your crash as I/ Sprinted to catch up† (11-14). In this example, it appeared the speaker was having an internal conflict within herself. She wanted to be able to go comfort her daughter, but the daughter had already left without turning back. The way the speaker uses similes is astounding, â €Å"The hair flapping/ Behind you like a/ Handkerchief waving/ Goodbye† (21-24). Here the speaker is comparing her hair flying in the wind as she rides away to a handkerchief as she is forced to say good-bye. The way Linda Pastan uses onomatopoeias in the poem is also helpful. It makes the reader really understand and feel the pain the speaker is experiencing. For example, â€Å"As you wobbled away,† (5) and â€Å"I kept waiting for the thud† (11-12). These words made the lines feel alive in a way that made the reader feel present in the situation.