Both, the poem “Reluctance” by Robert Frost and “Time Does Not Bring Relief” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, revolved around the theme of lost love. Each poet used a similar array of poetic devices to express this theme. Visual imagery was one of the illustrative poetic devices used in the compositions. Another poetic device incorporated by both poets in order to convey the mood of the poems was personification. And by the same token, metaphors were also used to help express the gist of both poems. Ergo, similar poetic devices were used in both poems to communicate the theme of grieving the loss of a loved one. The use of visual imagery in each poem immensely contributed to conveying the theme. In the poem “Reluctance”, Robert Frost used this poetic device to better illustrate the leaves of autumn: And the dead leaves lie huddled and still No longer blown hither and thither; The last lone aster is gone; The flowers of the witch-hazel wither; (Frost, 13-16). This poetic device aided the reader to visualize not only how silent and dead the leaves were, but also to perceive the atmosphere of the poem. In the poem “Time Does Not Bring Relief,” Millay used a similar form of imagery to describe the rain that resulted in the remembrance of the persona’s love: “…I miss him in the weeping of the rain…” (Millay, 3). This description of the rain not only helped better visualize the rain itself, but also emphasized the sorrowful and desolate undertone of the poem. Another exemplification of visual imagery utilized in Millay’s poem was used to illustrate the tides: “…I want him at the shrinking of the tide…” (Millay, 4). The retreating of the tides was easily concei... ... middle of paper ... ...to help express the theme of the poems by illustrating the role the subject matter played in the life of the persona during their grieving period. Furthermore, metaphors helped communicate the thoughts and feelings of the personas by providing the reader with insight into the relationships and emotions covert in the poem. All in all, the poetic devices incorporated in each individual poetic composition played vital roles in the emotional and dramatic impact of these poems. And who knows, the immaculate use of these fundamental literary devices could be the key to successful love poems all around the world. Works Cited St. Vincent Millay, Edna. "Time Does Not Bring Relief." 1917. Renascence and Other Poems. Kessinger, 2005. 1-52. Print. Frost, Robert. "Reluctance." 1915. A Boy's Will. Fairfield, IA: 1st World Library Library Society, 2004. 1-48. Print.
There are multiple examples of visual imagery in this poem. An example of a simile is “curled like a possum within the hollow trunk”. The effect this has is the way it creates an image for the reader to see how the man is sleeping. An example of personification is, “yet both belonged to the bush, and now are one”. The result this has is how it creates an emotion for the reader to feel
Gerber, Philip L. Robert Frost. Ed. Kenneth Eble. Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc. 1982. The. 124-125 Lentricchia, Frank.
For each seasonal section, there is a progression from beginning to end within the season. Each season is compiled in a progressive nature with poetry describing the beginning of a season coming before poetry for the end of the season. This is clear for spring, which starts with, “fallen snow [that] lingers on” and concludes with a poet lamenting that “spring should take its leave” (McCullough 14, 39). The imagery progresses from the end of winter, with snow still lingering around to when the signs of spring are disappearing. Although each poem alone does not show much in terms of the time of the year, when put into the context of other poems a timeline emerges from one season to the next. Each poem is linked to another poem when it comes to the entire anthology. By having each poem put into the context of another, a sense of organization emerges within each section. Every poem contributes to the meaning of a group of poems. The images used are meant to evoke a specific point in each season from the snow to the blossoms to the falling of the blossoms. Since each poem stands alone and has no true plot they lack the significance than if they were put into th...
The poems “Sea Rose” by H.D and “Vague Poem” by Elizabeth Bishop were both written by two women who took over the Victorian era. H.D’s works of writing were best known as experimental reflecting the themes of feminism and modernism from 1911-1961. While Bishop’s works possessed themes of longing to belong and grief. Both poems use imagery, which helps to make the poem more concrete for the reader. Using imagery helps to paint a picture with specific images, so we can understand it better and analyze it more. The poems “Sea Rose” and “Vague Poem” both use the metaphor of a rose to represent something that can harm you, even though it has beauty.
To that end, the overall structure of the poem has relied heavily on both enjambment and juxtaposition to establish and maintain the contrast. At first read, the impact of enjambment is easily lost, but upon closer inspection, the significant created through each interruption becomes evident. Notably, every usage of enjambment, which occurs at the end of nearly every line, emphasizes an idea, whether it be the person at fault for “your / mistakes” (1-2) or the truth that “the world / doesn’t need” (2-3) a poet’s misery. Another instance of enjambment serves to transition the poem’s focus from the first poet to the thrush, emphasizing how, even as the poet “[drips] with despair all afternoon,” the thrush, “still, / on a green branch… [sings] / of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything” (14-18). In this case, the effect created by the enjambment of “still” emphasizes the juxtaposition of the two scenes. The desired effect, of course, is to depict the songbird as the better of the two, and, to that end, the structure fulfills its purpose
Frost is far more than the simple agrarian writer some claim him to be. He is deceptively simple at first glance, writing poetry that is easy to understand on an immediate, superficial level. Closer examination of his texts, however, reveal his thoughts on deeply troubling psychological states of living in a modern world. As bombs exploded and bodies piled up in the World Wars, people were forced to consider not only death, but the aspects of human nature that could allow such atrocities to occur. By using natural themes and images to present modernist concerns, Frost creates poetry that both soothes his readers and asks them to consider the true nature of the world and themselves.
In Seamus Heaney’s poetry, there is a recurring theme of his talking of the past, and more predominantly about significant moments in time, where he came to realisations that brought him to adulthood. In “Death of a Naturalist” Heaney describes a moment in his childhood where he learnt that nature was not as beautiful as seem to be when he was just a naive child. Heaney does this on a deeper level in “Midterm Break” describes his experience of his younger brothers funeral and the mixed, confusing feelings he encountered, consequently learning that he no longer was a child, and had no choice but to be exposed to reality. Robert Frost in one sense also describes particular moments in time, where his narrator comes to realisations. However, Frost writes more indirectly than Heaney, and all together more metaphorically. In “A Leaf Treader” he symbolically talks about life and death through the autumn season. He does the same, in “The Road Not Taken” where the two roads are described to be a metaphor for the decisions one makes in life, and the inevitable regrets we face due to those decisions. In “Stopping by a Woods on a Snowy Evening” Frost directly talks directly of a moment in time, however the significant meaning being that in life one needs a moment of solace to appreciate peace and beauty.
At first glance Edna St. Vincent Millay's first recognized poem, Renascence, seems to be easy to understand and follow. However, as this sing-songy poem is dissected, the reader embarks upon a world full of emotion, religion, confusion, pain and sin. This poem is split up into six sections or stanzas which separate the action of the poem into easy to understand parts. I have chosen to discuss the first section of the poem for my close reading.
He depicts a world of beauty. Frost introduces nature as his theme which he personifies using the pronoun “her.” In other words, nature is a female who cannot keep hold of anything because nature changes continually. During springtime, nature is compared to gold because it is glowing, attractive and beautiful. Gold is a symbol of great value and radiant beauty. New leaves grow yellow as gold blossoms before they get their green color. They start as flower buds. This visual image assures that the golden moment is the most precious because it is transitory. These golden flower buds don't last for a long time as they turn into green and become leaves. Metaphorically speaking, the color green represents childhood which is the golden age. So, youth is a treasure. Alliteration is used to make the poem sounds more musical and such a thing enhances the beauty of nature and childhood. However, it is hard to remain youthful. “Early leaf” shows the outcome of youth and “flower” shows its beauty. The image of the golden flower and the leaf are signs of spring. The color symbolizes everything that is glowing and pure. In the first half of the poem, Frost presents a visual image depicting how new leaves come out as yellow or golden blossoms before they grow into green leaves. This beautiful time is very short and precise because the beauty of the flowers will fade away and the
Robert Frost is regarded as one of the most distinguished American poets in the twentieth century. His work usually realistically describes the rural life in New England in the early twentieth century and conveys complex social and philosophical themes. But his personal life was plagued with grief and loss, which is also reflected in his poems and the dark energy distinguishes Robert Frost’s poems, frequently conveyed in the use of lexical words like dark and its derivatives or synonyms, woods, snow, night, and so on. (Su, Y)
The setting takes place in the daylight of the woods. I felt that Frost set the poem in the woods because it helps reader imagine trees, leaves, and bushes. Therefore readers know that the speaker is alone without any road signs or knowledge of any direction on which road to take. The “yellow wood”(1) means that its somewhere in the fall when the leaves are changing colors. The “yellow” brings out a beautiful image of the autumn to readers. The “yellow wood” means there is a continuous decision one makes in li...
Robert Frost is one of America’s most loved and respected poets. He did a great job capturing the hearts of his readers with his natural imagery and ability to use metaphors to reveal the truths that he was trying to convey. Frost’s life was filled with many struggles including several losses in his family. His early struggles would continue through his educational period, as he wouldn’t graduate from college. Frost traveled to Great Britain to gain some ideas on poetry, and then returned the America to begin writing again (Famous Poets and Poems 1). He would have great successes, and would win numerous awards and honors for his work. The purpose of this research project is to educate the reader of Robert Frost’s biographical information, his career as a writer, the awards and honors that he was able to obtain, and Frost’s writing style.
The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.
Oglivie, John T. “From Woods to Stars: A Pattern of Imagery in Robert Frost’s Poetry.” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jean Stine. Vol. 26. Detroit: Gale Research, 1983. Print.
The Theme of Love in Poetry Love is a very common theme in poetry. By closely examining the ways in which two poets(one must be pre 1900) have explored this theme. Show what you have found to be similar/different in their handling of this theme. Many people have different views on love. Many of these views throughout the ages are explored through poetry as love has much contemporary relevance in today's society as it ever did before.