ynopsis
This poem written by Sara Teasdale shows a person by themselves in great deal of pain. There is no clarification of the setting. The poem is saying that the person had “wept and enjoyed,” the body they had, and tells the phases of enjoying and living a full life. The poem provides a metaphor in line 13 to explain what life meant to them: “ Life is my lover.” There is also imagery included by Teasdale, by saying, “The scent of orchards in the rain, the sea And the hours alone too still and sure for prayer-” (7-8). This tells how long life’s hours are, and how many precious beautiful things there are to be seen before you die. Irony is another component presented in the poem as well when Teasdale says, “In pride: and let me sing my last
Examining the literary terms used in this poem, one should mention alliteration first. It is used in the following line: “There are those who suffer in plain sight, / there are those who suffer in private” (line 1-2). Another literary device,
As a way to end his last stanza, the speaker creates an image that surpasses his experiences. When the flock rises, the speaker identifies it as a lady’s gray silk scarf, which the woman has at first chosen, then rejected. As the woman carelessly tosses the scarf toward the chair the casual billow fades from view, like the birds. The last image connects nature with a last object in the poet's
While the poem's situation is simple, its theme is not. Stafford appears to be intimating that life is precious and fragile; however, nothing so clearly discloses these attributes of life as confrontation with death. Furthermore, the very confrontations that engender appreciation of life's delicacies force action-all to frequently callous action.
For example, one line, “Soon our pilgrimage will cease; Soon our happy hearts will quiver, with the melody of peace,” which is saying that one day we will die, and you can’t stop that. “Lay we every burden down; Grace our spirits will deliver, and provide a robe and a crown,” also reveals that you should appreciate what we’ve had, and what was given to us. This song is telling you, in every line, that you can’t live forever, but appreciate what you have, while you
Time is equated with constant decay throughout the entire poem, which is primarily shown in the speaker’s comparison of the concept of eternity to a desert. Love, and other concepts felt in life, are subject to this negative force of deconstruction over time, and are vanquished in death; this idea can be seen in the witty commentary at the end of the second stanza, “the grave’s a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace”
This gives the effect that although there is mass devastation, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, in this case for the eagle, the leftover remains of a carcass. However, as seen throughout the poem this isn’t the case for everyone and everything as the dead or dying clearly outnumber those prospering from the drought. This further adds to the miserable and discouraging mood of the poem. Other poetic devices are also used during the course of the
Notably, sorrow and regret is the tone of this poem, demonstrated in the very first stanza:
Along with the imagery we get from the title, there is a lot of imagery within this poem. Let us start with the first three lines:
In Budge Wilson’s, “Lyssanda’s Poem,” adversity is always present in Lyssandra’s life, which changes her spirit from happy and confident to cold and distant.
On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
Stanzas one and two of the poem are full of imagery. The first stanza sets the scene for the poem “in a kingdom by the sea” (Poe 609) which makes you feel as if the story is going to have a “romantic” (Overview) feel to it. Then Annabel Lee comes into the story with “no other thought than to love and be loved by me” (Poe 609); This sentence is full of imagery in the sense that it makes you feel the immense capacity of love Annabel Lee had for the speaker if that was her only thought. In the second stanza the imagery takes a turn that shifts from loving and inviting to pain; The love between Annabel and the speaker was so strong that
The poem says that "since feeling is first" (line 1) the one who pays attention to the meaning of things will never truly embrace. The poem states that it is better to be a fool, or to live by emotions while one is young. The narrator declares that his "blood approves" (line 7) showing that his heart approves of living by feeling, and that the fate of feeling enjoyment is better than one of "wisdom" (line 9) or learning. He tells his "lady" (line 10) not to cry, showing that he is speaking to her. He believes that she can make him feel better than anything he could think of, because her "eyelids" (line 12) say that they are "for each other" (line 13). Then, after all she's said and thought, his "lady" forgets the seriousness of thought and leans into the narrator's arms because life is not a "paragraph" (line 15), meaning that life is brief. The last line in the poem is a statement which means that death is no small thi...
This poem is about a person whom might have been injured in a battle of some kind or a war. The setting is a hospital. Plath leaves many details to the imagination but the setting is concrete. This poem is written in the first person. I believe Plath might take on an alternate identity in order to write this poem. The speaker in this poem seems to be depressed. Depressed about her life, her family, and her situation in this hospital. Visible from “ the green plastic–pillowed trolley” that she lays on are, red tulips.
This poem helps us to recognize and appreciate beauty through its dream sequence and symbolism. The poem opens with the Dreamer describing this
He likens his poetry to nature also. He uses "words, like weeds..." (5.9) to envelope himself from the pain. His poem is "this poor flower of poesy" (8.18) but he writes it anyway since it once pleased his dead friend. "I go to plant it on his tomb./ That if it can it there may bloom,/ Or dying, there at least may die" (8.22-24). At this point he is considering the possibility of life continuing, at least through his poetry. Yet he does not seem to care about this possibility strongly. If there is no life within his poetry, then he feels its proper place is dead with his friend. Further into the poem, the immediate frenzy of grief has subsided, and he reflects upon his grief more calmly. "Calm is the morn without a sound,/ Calm as to suit a calmer grief, And only through the faded leaf/ The chestnut pattering to the ground" (11.1-4).