Preview

Beauty Runs A Pawnshop Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
556 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Beauty Runs A Pawnshop Analysis
Chu – Hsiang (1904 – 1933)

THE PAWNSHOP

Beauty runs a pawnshop,
Accepting only the hearts of men.
When the time comes for them to redeem their belongings,
She has already closed the door.

Kai-yu Hsu

World Poetry: An anthology of verse from antiquity to our time: - Katharine Washburn & John S. Major (1998 QBP club)

"The pawnshop" represents many things to me. Perhaps a timeless event such as wanting what one can't have and searching for a way to obtain it, a woman who can lure a man into anything with simple suggestion. On the other hand, the writer could be speaking, in fact, of just a pawnshop. The pawnshop metaphor embraces the reader to interpret their views within the reading of the poem.

"The Pawnshop" is only four lines long, yet speaks not only of a timeless subject but with volumes of feeling. I believe this is one of the best examples of implied metaphor I have come across. With the opening line "Beauty runs a pawnshop," and the last line of the writing "She has already closed the door," makes me believe this can only be about a beautiful woman. The second line also supports this with "Accepting only the hearts of men." Women the historical root of all evil, bringing the purity and strength of man down. Why not imply the beauty and entrapping power of a woman with the dealings of a pawnshop?
…show more content…
Most women would not take that option unless their dreams were crushed and the memories haunting. Down and out, for one reason or another, men take chances with their dreams, giving up something in hopes to receive riches of greater value, that one big break. The passing of time takes the toll when collection comes and the doors are closed. Life is short; you can't always get back what you lost or hold onto what you have. The pawnshop is classic of past and present human

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    text 6

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This text is aimed at people who have an interest in poetry or cross cultures. It’s a modern day…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Tang Dynasty Analysis

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Tang dynasty is one of the most spectacular dynasties of Imperial China. It saw its founding in 618 by the Li family and knew, thereafter a majestic expansion and an extremely diverse growth and development for almost the rest 200 years. From these developments, the abundance of poetry is particularly distinguishable, as it was an era of intellectual, artistic and literal productivity. Since poetry occupied a paramount position, it was also a reflection of the singular conditions of the Dynasty, the way people lived during that period of time, and most of all the way of thinking and their ideologies philosophies and doctrines. Therefore, those poems highlights the essence of Confucianism and Daoism, two major schools…

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The first symbolism encountered is the title of the poem itself. The title “Barbie Doll” is used to represent what society has long viewed as the perfect woman: tall, thin, and inhumanly beautiful. These are unreachable standards that the girl in the poem spends many years trying to achieve. The “dolls that did pee-pee” and the “miniature GE stoves and irons” all are used to symbolize qualities that a good housewife must possess (2-3). These show that from a very young age society attempted to train the girl in the story to fit into their perfect Barbie mold. Another item of symbolism that is used in the poem is in line 4 where it talks about her being given “wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy” (4). The symbolism here is that the lipstick she receives represents the fact that people do not see her as beautiful, that society believes that she needs to cover up her natural beauty to fit their mold of the perfect woman. Even the “pink and white nightie” is symbolism (22). The pink of the nightie is a symbol for her new found femininity; the white for her sexual purity. Both of these items are things that society deems highly important. The final symbolism in the poem is her death and funeral in the last stanza. This whole last stanza is a symbol for the death of every little thing that makes her herself, everything that sets her apart from other…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    English Poetry Analysis

    • 1062 Words
    • 6 Pages

    ending of the 2nd World War, not just because it is Australian, but because it also conveys a form of…

    • 1062 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    written in cuneiform on 12 clay tablets about 2000 BC. This heroic poem is named…

    • 1646 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author uses many literary elements in the short story. Some are personification, imagery, and similes. Personification is stated in the line that follows: "she was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression," This element shows how strongly she is in repression. It makes the reader actually feel how depressing her life with her husband was. She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. "The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves." Imagery is portrayed in these sentences. By using imagery, the author can help the reader see and feel the environment the character is in. This helps the reader understand the poem on a next level. "She carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory". The author uses simile to describe how calm and happy she is now. She really feels free of all negative vibes now.…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The class distinctions and moral codes placed upon women in the Victorian era have a large degree of irony. In the first stanza Hardy introduces two women: an unnamed, impoverished farm maid and a relatively wealthy “ruined” woman. The fact that the farm maid is unnamed shows her relatively insignificant life in comparison to the “ruined” woman who is named. The “ruined” woman (‘Melia) is said to have acquired “fair garments”, illustrating her affluence as the adjective “fair” suggests her clothes were of great beauty. The farm maid also wonders how ‘Melia has come across “such prosperi-ty” emphasising her newfound wealth. ‘Melia states that she has acquired this wealth as she has “been ruined”. By crossing the Victorian morality line and selling herself she has been rewarded instead of being looked down upon. In the second stanza Hardy contrasts the two women’s lifestyles to illustrate their vast differences. Hardy uses negative diction such as the noun “tatters” to describe the poverty-stricken woman clothing which contrasts to the description of the wealthier woman in the first stanza. Hardy also contrasts this in the second stanza where Hardy uses positive diction with vibrant connotations such as “gay bracelets” and “bright feathers” to again describe the “ruined” woman’s clothing. The use of juxtaposition between the poverty of one woman and the relative wealth of ‘Melia emphasises their class differences. The “ruined” woman, obviously gaining from her denial of normal moral codes, states “that’s how we dress when we are ruined”. This illustrates that all women in her profession wear wealthy clothing,…

    • 1011 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ironically, the entire poem is a huge metaphor for a different meaning. This is done by the usage of diction, tone, rhythm, meter, and, most important for a metaphor, imagery; all of which are in a way connected. Imagery is…

    • 1835 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Fall Protection

    • 8717 Words
    • 35 Pages

    Taylor, James. Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education. State University of New York Press: Albany, 1998.…

    • 8717 Words
    • 35 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gwynn has tended to and given verse readings at more than one hundred universities. He has been an employee at the Antioch Writers Conference. He was also employed by the Teaching Poetry Institute and the West Chester University Poetry Conference, showing classes in graceful meter and frame, the poem, and the sensational…

    • 981 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Olson, Charles. "Projective Verse." The New American Poetry. Ed. Donald M. Allen. New York: Grove, 1960.…

    • 803 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    A great poem must not only involve the emotional investment, imagery and surprise that a prose text contains; but they also have to achieve an exceptional use of rhythm, an established or newly created form and a way of…

    • 1549 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Wendy Cope

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Gioia, Dana, and X. J. Kennedy, eds. An Introduction to Poetry. 13th ed. New York: Pearson…

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    women

    • 2994 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Poetry is one of the most enduring forms of artistic expression, for it provides a universal format for…

    • 2994 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rayer, Diane. Sappho 's Lyre: Archaic Lyric and Women Poets of Ancient Greece. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991. Print.…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays