Plastic bag
I cover myself
Beneath layers of plastic
I tear down a small corner of it
Yet
I can’t breathe
I bump my body against it
Yet
they are like a guard
But to hide my scars
It tries to suffocate me
It tries to build a border to
block me against the outside world
I don’t have the right to breath
I don’t have the right to live
Layers and layers covered me
Yet I can take off my guard and show you my scars
No need to be decisive
And I don’t want to be afraid anymore
My scars bleed,
My coats ripped
Yet I am on the way
To find the true me
Composition:
The poem Plastic bag by Lucy Cai described the journey of seeking one’s true “me”. And the poem describes that layers of plastic bag hide her scars. Which normally, people can only see the figure and colour, a blurry image of the object through plastic bag, therefore it is difficult to observe the details of an object through it. The poet metaphorized self-discovery and self-identify as a plastic bag to breakthrough.
Nowadays, sometimes we hide and lost our “true self”, and in a sort of way, we reject to bring back our “true self”, which usually caused by the peer pressure from the people surround us every day. Therefore, “plastic bag” can protect us somehow from the external pressure, but gradually, we are bound by others instead of ourselves. Hyperbole was also being used in the poem, that the poet described the life in the plastic bags into an extremely despair situation.
Poem analysis:
The poem Ozymandias a sonnet, which was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1818. The poem narrates the story of a traveler that saw pieces of a broken sculpture of Ozymandias. The sculptor perfectly portrays the arrogance, the emotion of Ozymandias, but these passions turned into a statue without a breath of life. Ozymandias’ used to be absolutely powerful, the king of kings, which described in a third person’s speech in the poem. But when the traveler found the sculpture of Ozymandias, it was split into pieces, and almost submerged in the sand. I think this poem states the theme of no one’s power lasts forever, power is temporary. All the arrogance and power back then will turn into pieces of stone that will never awake again.
Personification was being used in the poem, when the traveler said, “And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command”, which informs us that Is the head of the statue, by using referring to a real person. Also, at the end of the poem, it used irony to contrast between Ozymandias’ and his power that is no longer exist referred to, “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” and contrast with “Round the decay of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare”, shows the irony of a great, powerful king but in a lifeless statue.
Connecting the story of Macbeth, Macbeth’s corruption is caused by his greed toward power, and having complete control over people and rules. Macbeth is an example of power corruption like Ozymandias.