Growing Old in Henry Vaughn's The Waterfall
Henry Vaughn's "The Waterfall" is a very insightful poem that carries a deep message. The speaker uses Vaughn's words to show the reader how the waterfall is a metaphor for a person's life, containing many highs and lows. The tone of this poem is relaxed. While reading the poem I feel at ease, as if I am somewhere in the woods by a stream with a waterfall. This seems to be the intended effect, as Vaughn wishes to create a comfort level for the reader. I feel as though this helps the reader to consider the poem as a whole, making it easier to see how the early stages develop the later stages of the poem. The poem is separated into two sections by an empty line. The first section contains twelve
The poem is set up so that every line rhymes with the lines in its own stanza, otherwise known as a monorhyme (AAA BBB CCC DDD), in order express his rational and relaxed emotions. It is important to note his state of mind when writing this literary piece because of the mention of
Formally, the poem has thirteen short lines with different numbers of syllables and accents. The poem is unrhymed but engages such alliterations as “flat farm feet” (2) / “furrows” (3), “soil has seen” (10), and “weep for the waste” (12). All of the alliterated sounds are voiceless, which projects the current situation of the girls. The thirteen breath units of the poem divide into two clear sentences. With no stanza break in the poem, these sentences establish the language of the drama.
Writing the poem in ballad form gave a sense of mood to each paragraph. The poem starts out with an eager little girl wanting to march for freedom. The mother explains how treacherous the march could become showing her fear for her daughters life. The mood swings back and forth until finally the mother's fear overcomes the child's desire and the child is sent to church where it will be safe. The tempo seems to pick up in the last couple of paragraphs to emphasize the mothers distraught on hearing the explosion and finding her child's shoe.
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The lapse separating the octave and the sestet also serve as a shift in the poem, after the break in the verse, it becomes deeply reflective and more remorseful. Together all of these literary concepts allow the reader to become the speaker in only fourteen lines of poetry.
Then, she says, “we paused before a house that seemed a swelling of the ground” (lines17-18) as a metaphor for her grave. Her welcoming tone continues as she uses a house, which isknown to be a friendly environment, to describe the place she is buried once she dies.Throughout the poem, there is a definite rhythm scheme which helps keep the poemsoothing. Rhythm is very important because it dictates the direction; whether it is a positive ornegative direction. When there is a nice rhythm it keeps the flow in a nice harmony which showsthe poem is meant to have a positive attitude. The first and third line in every stanza are made upof eight syllables, four feet, and the whole poem uses the basic iambic meter. This furtherintensifies the poem by helping create a flow. The use of rhymes and slant rhymes also give thepoem a flow. "Me" rhymes with "immortality" and, farther down the poem, with "civility" and,finally, "eternity." There are also slant rhymes like "chill" and "tulle" which helps balance out therhythm. Dickinson also capitalized nouns, which intensified the structure to help the rhythm ofthe poem. Capitalization makes the words stand out more which emphasizes their importance.Those dashes have a
In this poem, Poe writes primarily with a combination of iambic and anapestic feet, alternating between tetrameter and trimeter. The word "chilling," however, is permitted in both places it is used, lines fifteen and twenty-five, to retain its jarring trochaic meter (one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable). This is done most probably to utilize the provoking effect of that meter; the death of the speaker's loved one disturbs the rhythm of the poem and startles the reader. End rhyme in the poem alternates lines with a few variations and bears little significance; the repeated rhyming words are: "Lee," "sea," "me," and "we."
We get the idea that the poem starts out in the fall, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" (5). The season fall represents the year coming to an end, and e...
This means that the poem contains unstressed followed by stressed syllables. In addition, each line contains three-stressed syllable, which makes it trimeter. For instance, “The whiskey on your breath” (1) can be used to identify the stressed syllables in that line. The syllable for “whisk”, “on” and “breath” are the three stressed syllable within that line of the poem. The use of an iambic trimeter allows the poem to become the waltz itself as it matches the three beats of the waltz. While this meter is used throughout the poem, there are certain lines that contain disruptions to the meter of this poem. For example, “slide from the kitchen shelf”(6) which is a trochaic. A trochee is a meter pattern that involves a stressed syllable flowed by an unstressed syllable. In this case, “slide” is a stressed syllable, while “from” is unstressed. These disruptions in meter mirror the father’s “missing steps” in line 11. This dance between the father and son is not smooth, but rather rough and clumsy due to the father’s drunkenness. Similarly, the first stanza also includes a simile, “But I hung on like death” (3), which portrays a sense of seriousness in tone of the speaker. In other words, there is a sense of play but also a sense of danger that characterizes the
The poem is written in iambic pentameter with a clearly defined rhyme scheme throughout, although there are some variations
In relation to structure and style, the poem contains six stanzas of varying lengths. The first, second, and fourth stanzas
The title of the poem is very significant. The title penetratingly outlines how precious they view the water to be. He does this by titling the poem ''Blessing''. Water is something which most people take for granted, so by making this the title he emphasizes the value they place upon the water. The poet highlights how much value they place upon the water in the fourth stanza when the pipe bursts by using word choice. ''As their blessings sing'' is the quote from the poem and the effect of this is that it gives you a sense of harmony. The words sum up a peaceful ending for the last two stanzas where the mood of the poem changes from desperation to the contrast of greatfulness. The poet has chosen the phrase ''blessings sing'' as when put together it has conitations of bountful amounts of happiness which accuratly shows their joy and relief they would of felt in that moment of time. I think the poet has used this quote to symbolise the end of a struggle which turned into a celebration and the word ''sing'' to create the passion for the villagers in that moment.
To begin, the sound of this poem can be proven to strongly contribute an effect to the message of this piece. This poem contains a traditional meter. All of the lines in the poem except for lines nine and 15 are in iambic tetrameter. In this metric pattern, a line has four pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, for a total of eight syllables. This is relevant in order for the force of the poem to operate dynamically. The poem is speaking in a tenor of veiled confessions. For so long, the narrator is finally speaking up, in honesty, and not holding back. Yet, though what has been hidden is ultimately coming out, there is still this mask, a façade that is being worn. In sequence, the last words in each of the lines, again, except for lines nine and 15, are all in rhythm, “lies, eyes, guile, smile, subtleties, over-wise, sighs, cries, arise, vile...
There is a very straight forward structure to this poem that contributes to the complexity and unity of the poem as a whole. The rhyme scheme follows a very straight forward ABAAB variation. This rhyme scheme flows throughout the poem with no variations and adds to the organic unity of the work. The meter of this work follows iambic tetrameter which, when read aloud, adds to the thoughtfulness of the speaker. However, the meter is interrupted during one line of the poem which reads, “I shall be telling this with a sigh” (line 16). This line brings attention to itself in order to alert the reader to the ambiguity of the statement, which will be discussed later. The poem itself is constructed with four stanzas with five lines in each stanza which adds to the unity by giving the poem a sense of a full circle and rounded out. Throughout the poem, the rhythm is slow and thoughtful, as if the speaker is reflecting on the choices that he has made in his lifetime. This slow rhythm adds a layer of complexity by demonstra...
The poem dramatizes the gradual process of falling apart. Dickinson speaks abstractly of the crumbling of the soul as a dimension of time, rather than being instantaneous. Man falls as a result of a continuous and small-scale decay of the spirit by way of evil inclinations. The complex structure of the poem reflects the underlying figurative meaning. The poem consists of three quatrains in iambic meter, alternating between tetrameter and trimeter. The poet’s use of hyphens guides the reader to read the passage slowly and thoughtfully. The slow pace mirrors the theme of slow decay. The most obvious factor of the poem’s structure is the seemingly random capitalization of mid-sentence nouns. The stress and personification of certain nouns emphasize the small elements of crumbling. The figurative meaning of the poem is built upon by showing that all things can be broken down, slowly but surely.