Apostrophe To Man Essay Sample

The poetic author, Edna St. Vincent Millay, addresses the theme of brutality to humankind in the poem Apostrophe to Man. The poem portrays the timing of the poet in writing because it covers the occurrences of World War II. In the poem, Millay concentrates on the extremities mankind have undergone in upgrading brutality in war. The man has gone to an extent of making deadly weapons for use in the destruction of their fellow human beings.
The poem, Apostrophe to Man, is a representation of views and ideas on brutality of humankind by a modernist person. Additionally, the modernist expresses how mankind is deficient of wisdom in relation to the activities they undertake. The evidence in the support of the brutality and absence of wisdom is evident in the way Millay selects the tone, diction and the title. The appeal to logos, ethos, and pathos equally displays brutality.
The tone that the poet uses is sarcastic. Millay describes man as a homo in the group of sapiens. As such, the expectation is that man should be wise enough and responsible as opposed to the reality where man bears children and kills them in meaningless battles. The diction of the poet is an expression of disgust against heinous actions of humankind. For instance, the second line of the poem expresses words to emphasize the brutality of mankind.
The title selection by Millay shows that she is addressing the entire human race. As such, every person feels addressed by the poet who focuses on the wagers of war to their kind. Additionally, the use of ethos appears where the poet lists unethical practices by man like “detestable race”. The use of logos appears where Millay attempts to appeal to logic by questioning the human wisdom. Lastly, pathos emanates from the raised emotion caused by words like “the body of young” as used in the poem.

Work Cited

Millay, Edna St. Vincent. 1956. Collected poems. New York: Harper.