Comparing Poems 'Spring And The Waking'

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“Spring” is a poem written by Edna Millay. “The Waking” is a villanelle written by Theodore Roethke. Both poems have their own point of views of life. “Spring” uses symbolism and metaphors to describe life as shady, pointless, and a portion of anger towards life. “The Waking” uses repetition, human nature, and paradoxes to show an enlightenment, accepting, knowledgeable, and curious uncertainty towards life. Life is always questioned for purpose and its point and on thing for sure is there is life and death. Existence can be accepted or denied. These poems show two different stances that life is meaningless and the other to live towards a meaning. “To what purpose, April do you return again?”(Line 1 Handout). The season time of flowers blooming, …show more content…

“An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stair”(Line 15 Handout). A metaphor telling about the emptiness of what life brings in reality. The cup represents life being desolate, after drinking up all the good out of it. The stairs represent the state of an aching climb throughout life. “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow”(The Waking Handout). This paradox is repeated throughout the poem signifying the poet take his time to gain consciousness. The waking is a slow and progressive process of enlightenment. Life is lived by the moments. “I learn by going where I have to go”(The Waking Handout). The journey of life comes with experience and it is gained by living through each moment. Knowledge is gained as lessons come to play in life. “This shaking keeps me steady. I should know”(The Waking Handout). Human nature is to be curious and fear the unknown. The poet accepts that it is part of life and that’s a drive to keep on experiencing it. The journey to finding answers to questions and still further into the journey even more questions unfold to be answered is the destination. Life is full of information that needs exploring and exploiting. Life is a destination of knowledge, enlightenment, and acceptance. Human nature is finding out the unknown and the poet repeats it throughout the piece

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