CREATIVE WRITING

Question 1

The art of losing isn’t hard to master

Stanza 1:

In he first stanza of the poem, the poet lets out her purpose that everyone loses something in
their life. She tries to foreground her point that loss is universal. Loss is inevitable. Everyone
loses something in their life unknowingly. It happens to all of us, all the time. Hence, the art
of losing isn’t hard to master. It’s even convincing to say this, because there are so many
things we possess, which all have some meaning, some feelings, some memories associated
to it, that when we lose them, brings us despair and sadness, but it is bound to happen to the
things around us and there’s nothing we can do about it, other than just accept it and move
on, since they have no disaster.

Stanza 2:

The flow of loss continues from the first stanza to the second, where the poet keeps
reiterating that things are bound to get lost. Things like keys, to the hour badly spent,
disappear in this realm of world without a single trace, unknowing on how this happened.
Hence, the poet apprises us not to get frustrated or agitated rather to learn how to cope up
with it, which will in turn make us stronger and better. Accepting a loss is an art that
everyone can master.

Stanza 3:

The motion of the poem becomes more emotional, where the poet focuses on the practice of
learning to live with the loss of something faster and farther. Places, names, things that have
more meaning to you, that are closer and dearer to you, always have a devasting affect when
lost. All these things when vanish into thin air, leaving an agonizing pain and sadness with
uncertainty and doubts in our mind. But nonetheless, one has to cope up with it and with time
and practice, the person can learn to live with it. It may be tough during the start but when
life gets busier things get easier.

Stanza 4:

The poet tells about the losses in a bigger scale, by personally denoting what she has lost in
her life. The mothers watch she lost, the houses she lost were all just mere objects but were
something which she loved, that she lost to this brutal world and there’s nothing she can do
about it except learn to live with it and mastering the art of not being sad.
Stanza 5:

The emotional strain become more significant, where she blathers about losing two cities, a
river. She tries to move herself away from the loss but still misses them. The stanza is rather
more symbolistic, where the poet tells us about her journey, throughout her life and what she
lost and gained during it. Her journey hasn’t been the easiest, although it wasn’t a disastrous
but admits missing the things, she lost during it.

Stanza 6:

The personal approach becomes more stronger in the last stanza, where the poet talks about
someone she has lost. Here the ‘you’ is considered as the person she lost, his gestures, his
voice which she loved and misses, but she has learned to live with it.

Hence, this stanza shows us that, in life there could be chances of many disaster but it teaches
us to come out of these situations stronger.

Rhyming scheme:

The rhyming scheme of this poem is ABA for the first five stanzas and the last stanza
rhyming scheme is ABAA.

Stylistic language:

The stylistic language used in this poem are:

 Repetition:
The line “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” has been repeated in almost all the
stanzas.
 Personification:
The line "so many things seem filled with the intent, to be lost that their loss is no
disaster" shows that the objects are being given human qualities.
 Metaphor
Here, the line "The art of losing isn't hard to master" is a metaphor because the loss, in
general is something, we should all accept. Hence, is an art we all need to master.
 Foreshadowing
Here the line “none of these will bring disaster" is a foreshadowing that the grief and
sadness of loss will eventually fade.
 Alliteration
 Here the line "to be lost that their loss is no disaster" is an alliteration because of the
repetition of the sound of letter ‘s’.
“losing farther, losing faster” of the letter ‘f’.
 Imagery
The line “the joking voice, gesture I love” is an imagery because it is telling us about
someone.
 Hyperbole:
The line “two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, some realms I owned” is a hyperbole.

Question 3

Question 1:

The author gives us the idea of time by mentioning that a single hour is a myriad of colors.
Stretching from waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues to murky darkness’s. Here the colors
represent the different feelings a person goes through, throughout the time. People move
through these colors. Each and every hour a person goes through multiple of these colors. It
shows us that many things can happen in just one hour, from death, excitement, to sorrow and
grief within seconds all represented by different colors, in time. That makes us ponder about
life and our expectations from it.

Question 2:

Survivor according to the narrator are the people who escaped the near-death experience and
are surviving. In the eye of the author, they are leftover humans, whom he can’t stand to look
at. They are devoid of colors, because they gave upon life. Hence, he doesn’t like looking at
them. Rather he distracts and fills himself up with the surrounding of people with color, who
go through numerous colors in time, and learn to cope with it. They don’t give up and that
what he likes seeing, people filled with color, rather than the survivors, with punctured heart
and beaten lungs, who are merely surviving.

Question 3:

The figurative language used in this comprehension are; oxymoron, alliteration, metaphor,
symbolism, imagery and hyperbole
  Beaten lungs, punctured hearts, people crumbling upon the jigsaw puzzle are
metaphors.
 Waxy yellows, day merges through multitude of shades, vacation destination, are all
an imagery.
 Beginnings and ends are oxymoron.
 Punctured heart, beaten lungs is symbolism
 Thousands of different colors is a hyperbole.

Question 2

They’d been trapped by ice for 36 days and had been on their own for longer than that, ever
since a storm separated them from the ship and the rest of the crew on their expedition. Karl
was in a pitiful state—lost, weak, frightened, and shivering from unrelenting cold. He was
also suffering the painful effects of frostbite.

They were spending hours trying to break the ice they were surrounded by, Karl and the other
three boys, with whatever means they could find. They used knife, the paddles, their legs in
such an unspeakable cold and soundless ocean, cracking it bit by bit, to be freed from the
interval of the end.

Elliot, Karl, Freddy and Matthew, were on their way to examine the icebergs, during their
journey to Antarctica with a research crew, where they spend few days, studying and
examining different ice caps from their small boat. Eventually, due to the storm, they got
stuck by the surrounding ice, leaving them isolated from their ship, which was docked in the
mainland, for several days.

It had been 36 days now and they knew the ship would have left by now but there was
nothing they could possibly do. They had spent days and hours trying to break the ice when
they ultimately started getting frostbites.

But, being resilient they didn’t give up just yet and kept taking turns in trying to break the ice,
possibly to find a nearby island that could help them navigate their way back.

They were sure that their team would be looking out for them, but with so much fog,
mistiness and icebergs all around, they had a huge fear that it could break the ship, resulting
in another titanic of the 21st century. They didn’t want to cause a havoc.
Elliot, breaking the last ice, sent a breath of relief among the guys. With little excitement and
boiling nervousness, they made their way in the treacherous ocean, looking for any sign of
hope they could find.

With food and water enough to keep only one to survive, they were desperate for some help.
They all kept rowing and rowing as far as they could go to find anyone, any place, any sign
that could help them.

Hours had passed away, with excitement turned into gloominess, they let the boat drift in the
vast ocean, unbothered by what would happen next. They had given up long ago and were
now just were waiting for the inevitable death. Death, which they knew would come sooner
or later.

A light shuns from afar and all the boys squinted their eyes narrower as the light kept
approaching nearer. “yes! Someone can help us now.” Matthew screamed in excitement. The
boat came further close to them and an old aged man came out, throwing them a rope and
helping them climb the boat.

“What are you boys doing here?”, asked the old aged man. Karl explained him everything
who after learning what they went through presented them with some warm food and water.
The man, named Namerk, took them to an island close by to help them get back to their crew
as soon as possible.

The humble man, couldn’t speak much of English, but he tried his level best to help them. He
took them to his small home, with cracked roof and broken windows and got them settled in,
gave them some food to eat, and put on the fire to help them warm up. In such a remote
island the phone connection was an impossibility but with the help of the fellow islanders,
who were very much fascinated and intrigued by seeing new people that were poles apart
from them, jumped to help them out.

The island was too small, remote and isolated from the rest of the world, that they haven’t
had any visitors since they first stepped here, hence, people gathered around Namerk’s small
house, to take a look of who they were. People brough their clothes, shoes etc. to make them
feel at home till their time here, until they could get a phone connection with the outer world.

After nearly two days of trying to contact them with anyone possible, they were finally able
to get signals which helped them contact their crew captain, who was going to send a rescue
team that would reach within four to five days. Till then everyone was excited to have those
four boys around them.

They played with the local boys, helped men in their work stuff. They were happy to be alive
and were very grateful for the gesture of the old man, who helped him get out of such a
frightening experience and turned their misery into a remarkable memory that they wouldn’t
ever forget. Before leaving for their journey back, the four boys thanked all the people who
kept them safe, especially the old man. They were surprised, shocked and happy from their
traumatizing yet unique experience that they wouldn’t ever forget. And in lifetime would be
able to thank for the old man’s gesture and courage who gave them hope when there was
none left.