“Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost and “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed and Where and Why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay uses similar tones, but their contrasting figures of speech and imagery communicate different views of loneliness. The tones used in both poems are similar and sometimes exact. From the beginning of the poem “Acquainted with the Night” there is a sense of sadness. The speaker states, “I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain—and back in rain” (1-2). The word choices in the first two lines convey loneliness. The word “one” implies he is by himself walking in and out of the rain. The speaker also uses the title as the first and last line of the poem which shows he was lonely in the beginning …show more content…
of the poem as well as at the end. Similarly, in the poem “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed and Where and Why” the speakers tone is also sad. The speaker states, “And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain” (6). This indicates the speaker is in emotional pain not physical pain. Although the tone in both poems are similar, the figure of speech is different. In “Acquainted with the Night” the speaker uses metaphors to convey his emotions. The speaker states, “I have outwalked the furthest city light” (3). The speaker is alone in a city and has walked past the city lights of town. This physical distance is a metaphor for his loneliness. The phrase “luminary clock” (12) is also metaphor which compares the moon to a clock. The moon is the brightest image in the poem. In the next line the speaker says, “the time was neither wrong nor right” ( ). This also indicates the speaker feels like no matter what time it is he is used to this darkness and doesn’t care about the time. In contrast, “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed and Where and Why” the speaker uses personification to convey loneliness.
The speaker states, “Thus in the winter stands a lonely tree” (9), the personification in this line is obvious. A tree cannot know about the birds that have come and gone and also cannot miss them when they are gone. The effect is to intensify the poem’s mood, which expresses loss and loneliness. The speaker also says, “I only know that summer sang in me/A little while, that in me sings no more” (13-14). The summer cannot sing in someone. The personification here is also connected to the lonely tree. The brief time the speaker’s men called on her was like summer for the tree, with the birds that sung on the branches. Yet, now that winter has come the birds have gone; leaving her all alone. Both poems also use imagery differently. In “Acquainted with the Night” the speaker says, “I have looked down the saddest city lane” (4). The speaker is conveying that the kind of nights are not just an average dark and lonely night, but the darkest and the loneliest. The speaker also states “I have passed by the watchman on his beat/And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain” (5-6). The speaker looks down avoiding the watchman because he does not want to explain that he is trapped in his own
loneliness. In “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed and Where and Why” uses imagery to explain her lost lovers. The speaker says, “but the rain is full of ghost tonight, that tap and sigh/Upon the glass and listen for reply;” (5-6). This indicates that the rain is her lost lovers and they are not there. She waits to hear a tap and sigh that her lost lovers use to do on her window. The speaker also says, “Yet know its boughs more silent than before:” (11). This silence signifies how lonely she is, now that she does not have her lovers. In conclusion, both poems use imagery and figure of speech differently to describe the speaker’s loneliness. Both poems convey a sad tone to illustrate loneliness.
Both poems are set in the past, and both fathers are manual labourers, which the poets admired as a child. Both poems indicate intense change in their fathers lives, that affected the poet in a drastic way. Role reversal between father and son is evident, and a change of emotion is present. These are some of the re-occurring themes in both poems. Both poems in effect deal with the loss of a loved one; whether it be physically or mentally.
Both authors use figurative language to help develop sensory details. In the poem It states, “And I sunned it with my smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles.” As the author explains how the character is feeling, the reader can create a specific image in there head based on the details that is given throughout the poem. Specifically this piece of evidence shows the narrator growing more angry and having more rage. In the short story ” it states, “We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle among bones.” From this piece of text evidence the reader can sense the cold dark emotion that is trying to be formed. Also this excerpt shows the conflict that is about to become and the revenge that is about to take place. By the story and the poem using sensory details, they both share many comparisons.
In the poem, it seems that somebody is inside his or her dwelling place looking outside at a tree. The person is marveling at how the tree can withstand the cold weather, continuous snow, and other harsh conditions that the winter brings. Witnessed throughout the days of winter by the person in the window, the tree’s bark stays strong, however the winter snow has been able to penetrate it. The tree becomes frozen, but it is strong enough to live throughout the winter until the spring relieves its suffering. When spring finally arrives, the effects of winter can no longer harm the tree. The freezing stage is gone, and the tree can give forth new life and growth in the springtime.
As Edgar Allan Poe once stated, “I would define, in brief the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty.” The two poems, “Birthday,” and “The Secret Life of Books” use different diction, theme, and perspective to give them a unique identity. Each author uses different literary devices to portray a different meaning.
As you can see, upon looking at both pieces of writing from a different angle, there is always the opportunity for different interpretations. It is certain that a deeper analysis will give even more possible themes and common topics. Now that you have seen how each of these can be read in more than one way, hopefully you can read other pieces of poetry, attain different meanings for them and have greater love and knowledge for poetry in general.
Both poems share many things in common. The first being the obvious theme of major decision making and choosing the best path, so that life doesn't pass you by. Blanche obviously had Robert Frost's famous poem sitting beside her when she wrote her own rendition of the poem 21 years after Frost's death. Most of the stanzas in each poem match up with one another. Similar words are used as well, such as in the first stanza of each poem "and be one traveler, long I stood"(Frost), and "and mulling it over, long she stood."(Blanche) Both of these lines are undoubtedly similar, and they are both part of a five line stanza that rhymes the ending words of two lines and three lines to each other.
on: April 10th 1864. He was born in 1809 and died at the age of 83 in
..., they are somewhat similar in comparison because they both have an inevitable ending, death. Both of the poems also used rhythm to give the reader a better insight and experience. The use of rhythm helps to set the tone right away. The use of symbolism and tone helped to convey an overall theme with both of the poems.
Loneliness is a reoccurring theme in all types of literature. “Eleanor Rigby,'; by John Lennon and Paul McCartney is a fine example of the theme of loneliness in poetry. The two characters in "Eleanor Rigby" are compared by their loneliness through the extensive use of symbols.
These lines portray that loneliness is merely a state of mind rather than a physical circumstance. Not only, but the line “I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another,” proves that while two individuals can physically be close, it does not mean that they are close intellectually (109). In other words, Thoreau not only believes that genuine loneliness derives from meaningless, mindless interaction, but also that solitude enables self-discovery and true
In Frosts poem two themes are isolation and choices. Isolation because the man is alone and wants to be alone, and the weather gives it alone feels because people don’t go out while it’s snowing alone most of the time. The other them in this poem is choices because the man has to choice wither to go home to the village or watch the snow which his horse disagrees with. But, in the end he choices to go home where it warm and where he can keep all his promise. In Poes poem the two themes are madness and love. Madness because the man in this poem is basically insane, he talks to a bird if the bird is even really there. Also love is a theme because he truly loved his wife and all he wants is to be with her. In both the poems there is a man and the real world theme in Frosts poem it’s snowing which kind of entices the man to stay and watch but he stays he could die from the cold. In Poes poem its night time and windy and there are spirits outside and they come in as the form of the raven.
In “Before I got my Eye Put Out” the theme is just because you lose somethings doesn’t mean you forgot it. In “We Grow Accustomed To The Dark” the theme is depression to happiness. The differences in the poems can be seen in the tone of the speaker in the poems. In “Before I got my Eye Put Out” the tone of the speaker in the poem is very optimistic. This can be seen in these lines “The meadows mine the mountains mine all forests stintless stars as much of noon as I could take between my finite eyes”. However the tone of the speaker in the poem “We Grow Accustomed To The Dark” is sad and gloomy most of the poem. This can be seen in these lines “We uncertain step for newness of the night then fit our vision to the dark and meet the road
When exiled from society, loneliness becomes apparent within a person. The poems The Seafarer translated by S.A.J. Bradley and The Wife?s Lament translated by Ann Stanford have a mournful and forlorn mood. Throughout each poem exists immense passion and emotion. In the two elegiac poems there is hardship, loneliness and uncertainty for each character to live with.
Compare the ways in which the poet presents people in night of the scorpion and one other poem? Night of the scorpion is a poem about a woman getting stung by a scorpion and the events that follow it. The poem two scavengers… is about the comparison between two garbage men and a couple going to work. Although the two poems sound totally different, they both convey the message about equality in society.
The meaning of the poem Acquainted with the Night, is to help people get a better understanding what going through loneliness would be like, and this, is shown by that the narrator is unable to seek help, having no one to care about or for him, and on top of that, is always having the feeling of depression.