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People interpret poems in many different ways. We are told that there is never a wrong of interpretation when it comes to using our sense of imagination, but what if the author of the poem wants to come across a specific perspective? Both poems, “A November Landscape” written by E.J. Pratt, and “Winter” written by Dorothy Livesay, are two great examples of poems in which the authors want a specific point to come across. While both poems express clear and different meanings in their stanzas, they have more in common than what meets the surface of the page. The two poems are quite similar in tone, one of which is dark and somber. The poem “A November Landscape” gives us readers the feeling of hopelessness and sorrow. This tone is justified due to the bleak vocabulary E.J. Pratt uses. In the first stanza, third line, he expresses the land’s deprivation of life. “... a land bereft of bird …show more content…
and leaf, of body and soul.” The deprivation described in that line expresses a great sense of vulnerability and sadness. The tone of the poem “Winter” is identical to the tone in “A November Landscape.” In the first stanza, second line, Dorothy Livesay wrote, “Who held us long in iron chains of cold… ” That line holds a copious amount of weight and hopelessness, being trapped and contained by the presence of frigid and haunting surroundings. The two poems are of course relatable, but they are also quite different in a way where they contrast each other.
With that said, the initial tone in both poems change in their last stanzas. The poem “A November Landscape” begins with a very dark and somber tone, until it switches to a much lighter tone it’s fourth and last stanza. The word “yet” at the end of the third stanza signifies a change in tone as E.J. Pratt begins to present images of Spring, “This was the story told six months ago, When April lured the crocus through the snow.” Those images help express new life and hope for the better to come. On the other hand, the poem “Winter” starts off with a very somber tone, but changes to a much brighter one, then appears to slowly become somber once again. In the second stanza, we are introduced to the idea of a blossoming Spring, “Heal up the wounds, breathe freedom on the earth, Throw all her singing on the barren air… ” but that idea is quickly cut off by Winter suddenly reintroducing itself. The last two words of the poem “bitter breath” end it on a very dark and cold
note. Both poems, “A November Landscape” written by E.J. Pratt, and “Winter” written by Dorothy Livesay, are two very similar and contrasting poems. They both have much in common, but they express clear and different meanings in their stanzas. The poems share the same dark and somber tone, however, that tone is not mirror imaged throughout every stanza from both poems.
By reading one of Richard Wilbur’s poems, one can get extremely confused while trying to find the actual meaning of the poem. Someone could take the easy way out and not try to get deep down into the poem to find the real meaning, or one could investigate the poem and learn what Wilbur is trying to get across to the reader. In "Orchard Trees, January," one could pick up what Wilbur is trying to say if one takes the time to think about it. On some of his poems, though, it is nearly impossible to know what he is talking about. Only the interpretation from Wilbur himself could help one who is completely baffled by one of his poems. Authors often write their poems at the spur of the moment, and the mood that the poet is in reflects the meaning of the poem. Centenary College was lucky enough for Richard Wilbur to come to the school and explicate many of his poems. This helps in dissecting Wilbur’s poems.
The common factor found within these two poems were in fact, metaphors. The writers Waddington and Tennyson both apply them to accentuate crucial opinions that influence love relations. In the third stanza, line one Waddington writes, “late as last autumn…”, however in the beginning of the poem he had written, “Late as last summer”. Therefore, autumn is a metaphor for different phases of life; spring represents childhood, summer is young adulthood and in this case autumn represents the middle age as winter would be death. Metaphorically speaking, as the season changed from a blissful summer to a dry autumn, so did their relationship. And we can all agree that as long as the clock remains to tick, time can change everything, even love. In Tennyson’s poem the fourth stanza, line two it mentions, “A shinning furrow, as thy thoughts in me”. This charmingly written metaphor refers to the author and his significant other. Tennyson uses a farmer’s tractor which produces furrows on the ground to relate to his sense since this person has had furrows of her thoughts leave a shining trace in his mind.
You can see this shift through the use of punctuation. This form of punctuation is the second of the total of three main sections in this poem separated through periods. In line 14 states, “it has finally ended.” This is the first period that appears in the poem. You are starting from light, fluffy, flowing snow to now a transition. “The silence is immense,” (15-16) is how the next section is started. This moves from the snow as a whole to a snowy night. Snow takes things away from us like described in this next section. “nowhere the familiar things:stars, the moon, the darkness we expect and nightly turn from.” (18-22), the snow is covering what would normally be in sight. Then relating back to the beginning, the poem seems to suggests that “snow” can blind you from the answers that you seek. This is also the end of the second section, and once again the mood is immediately
In “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why?” Edna St. Vincent Millay says that “the summer sang in me” meaning that she was once as bright and lively as the warm summer months. In the winter everyone wants to bundle up and be lazy, but when summer comes along the sunshine tends to take away the limits that the cold once had on us. She uses the metaphor of summer to express the freedom she once felt in her youth, and the winter in contrast to the dull meaningless life she has now. There are many poets that feel a connection with the changing of seasons. In “Odes to the West Wind” Percy Bysshe Shelley describes his hopes and his expectations for the seasons to inspire the world.
Frost first presents this idea by metaphorically discussing the spectacular abilities his daughter possesses but refuses to use. In the first quatrain, the poet suggests that his da...
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...
Just as the surroundings would seem different through color slides, he asks the readers to see the world from diverse viewpoints while reading and writing poems. Moreover, by listening to the poem’s hive, dropping a mouse, and walking inside its room, Collins encourages readers to discover the concealed depth of poetry. He comments that the readers should enjoy the poem in a way they would like to water ski.... ... middle of paper ... ...
In his poem “Field of Autumn”, Laurie Lee uses an extended metaphor in order to convey the tranquility of time, as it slowly puts an end to life. Through imagery and syntax, the first two stanzas contrast with the last two ones: The first ones describing the beginning of the end, while the final ones deal with the last moments of the existence of something. Moreover, the middle stanzas work together; creating juxtaposition between past and future whilst they expose the melancholy that attachment to something confers once it's time to move on. Lee’s objective in this poem was to demonstrate the importance of enjoying the present, for the plain reason that worrying about the past and future only brings distress.
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:
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...
The poems both have in common the use of pathetic fallacy very early in each poem: the weather is "raw", "wet" and "in winter time" for a melancholy tale, and casts forward "summer's ... heat" for a far more cheery and positive encounter. This not only immediately provides a recurrent frame of reference for anyone familiar with some of Wordsworth's other poems, but is a statement of the author's intentions for the rest of the narrative. In both instances nature and weather references repetitively enter and sustain the poem's form and mood: "a crimson butterfly", "yellow flowers the gayest of the land", "...
In the poem “To Autumn” the initial impression that we get is that Keats is describing a typical Autumn day with all its colors and images. On deeper reading it becomes evident that it is more than just that. The poem is rather a celebration of the cycle of life and acceptance that death is part of life.
I believe so much of poetry enlists the senses, beginning with the sense of sound. Whether it’s the rhythmic flow of the poem or the mere need to recite the words for a clearer understanding. The sense of sight can’t help but participate while one reads a poem. It’s like asking an artist to paint how he feels. Imagery is a key part of poetry creating a visual understanding. In the end poetry give a voice to the unsayable in our lives and indeed to life itself. After reading “Birches” by Robert Frost, my senses were reeling. The poem reads beautifully and is soothing to the ear. The imagery also paints a scene I have witnessed many winter days, growing up in the mountains. Robert Frost, while knowing the realistic cause behind the bent birch trees, prefers to add an imaginative interpretation behind the bending of the birches. He also uses the entire poem to say something profound about life. I feel it is indeed a message that, yes life may get hard, and we may lose our way, but there is still innocence and beauty in our world. We just need to remember.
The choice of presenting this ‘poem’ as a descriptive ode was not a very wise decision for J. Keats. When a poem is solely based upon describing a situation or an image, it is difficult to come across as emotional. Descriptive poems are often considered as the ‘black sheep’ of poetry since it does not express an emotion or a belief. While J. Keats is praising autumn in ode to autumn, he does not add in a variable of personality. It does come across as he enjoys autumn, but this emotion is a mere afterthought compared to the theme of autumn being a beautiful season. I am not a fan of the style of writing in Ode form so this poem didn’t have a very good chance to please me to begin with. If John Keats wrote this poem as a sonnet or perhaps a more personal style, it would be a much better poem in my eyes.
...nsition of both seasons. Both poets allude to this transition in different ways, Shelley beginning with summer and Spender with winter. This affects how each view the changeover of seasons. While both poets discuss the transition, Spender examines the seasons in more detail, with more description and feeling. The dying of nature is the underlying theme in both poems. Shelley begins with nature delighted in summer, and ends with birds dying and fish frozen under ice. For a simple poem, Shelley gets her point across. Spender begins with an everlasting winter, continues on to the rebirth of summer, and ends once again with winter. Shelley is more understated in her views, and Spender is powerful in his opinions of the seasons. Spender succeeds in passionately describing what his "inner eye" sees, while Shelley blandly shows what is obvious about winter and summer.