An Explanation Of James Wright's Poem 'Beginning'

Lonely darkness The poem “ Beginning” by James Wright is an imaginary poem that using vivid and precise words illustrates a dark wild field image to express his inner solitude and loneliness. The poem is written in first person; the author is sitting alone in the darkness and listening to birds chirp. Then he sees a slender woman appears in his vision, but she left. So he goes back to the lonely darkness again. The main theme about this poem is maintaining a peaceful mind with loneliness. In the first stanza, the author uses precise words describe he is in a dark wheat field and shrouded by moonlight. The author describes the moonlight as feathers “ The moon drops one or two feathers into the field,” (1), this is a metaphor, by describing

He begins with a shift, “ There they are, the moon’s young, trying/ Their wings.” (5-6), these lines make a shift because the tone before this line is more quiet and lonely, the tone after this line sounds more exciting. Then, he starts to talk about what he feels when he sees the birds, “There wings” here indicates the birds, and the birds is a metaphor that represents the inspiration in author’s life. “ young” and “trying” here allude to author himself, the author is trying to say that he is still young and he should still carry hope in his own darkness just like the birds. Right after that, he sees the woman, “ Between trees, a slender woman lifts up the lovely shadow of her face,” (7-8) the author uses “ slender” and “lovely” these two words to describe the “woman” which we can tell how excited the author is to see someone else show up in this lonely and dark field. This part might also allude to the author’s love or hope of his life. The author then uses “ and now she steps into the air, now she is gone/ Wholly, into the air.” (8-9) to finish the twist or climax of the poem, then again the tone turns into peaceful but more lonely. In this line, has a repetition of “O” sound, so it is an assonance, and the “O” sounds has a hallow feelings which express that the author is really sentimental when the women is gone. In the line 8-9, there is a repetition of “she”, it

“ I do not dare breather/ Or move.” (10-11) shows that the lonely field is even scarier after the woman has gone. Before the woman showed up, the author was just feeling peaceful and lonely, but after the woman left, makes the author not only lonely but also scared. Then, the focus go back to the wheat again, “ The wheat leans back toward its own darkness, / And I lean toward mine.” (13-14) this is a personification to the wheat and also a metaphor or analogy of the darkness of the wheat and the author. Apparently, the wheat’s darkness is just the dark field, but the author’s darkness is his own dark period or depression in his life after he lost his love or hope which was mentioned as “ the slender woman”, after the author lost his hope, he did not give up, instead, he decides to face the depression, that is why he “lean toward” his own