“Hornet” by Alison Calder and “Now Forth to Meadow” by Edna St. Vincent Millay are two short poems that share the depiction of human and insect relationships. “Hornet” expresses the negative reality for insects because humans see these beautiful creatures as pests that need to die. “Now Forth to Meadow” shows the parallels and similarities between humans and insects, even though, their lives consist of the same mundane tasks the ant and the human will never speak of their shared experiences. The careful word choice, the natural imagery, and the irony to the poems gives insight into the natural world meeting human world. ` “Hornet” is a free verse poem that shows the honest relationship between the manmade world, the house, and the natural …show more content…
world, the nest. Humans typically perceive hornets as these nasty creatures with their, “Tiny jaws” that destroy property and should be killed when most convenient (6). Calder depicts the nest to be this negative entity that is sitting there like a brewing storm, for example, “smooth gray paper”, “muted whorls and crescents”, and “funnel cloud” are all images that are linked with a storm or chaos in the weather system (1, 3, 9). Also, the gruesome image of the nest looking like a disfigured human as the hornets use the entrance like “spine’s climb” to “tunnel” to the “brain” but that’s not enough the nest can’t get enough “growing, by the mouthful” (8,9,10). The ironic part is no matter how awful or dangerous the nest and hornets are they won’t be the ones to destroy the humans house with a simple “broomstick” (11). The potential for chaos and destruction lingers in this poem but in the end, it’s about coexisting and watching each other. “Now Forth to Meadow” is opposite to the ending of “Hornet”, because Millay is showing the coexistence of humans and insects but the lack of recognition and acknowledgment from the two species even though the ant and the human are one in the same.
Millay’s Petrarchan sonnet pairs the life of an ant to a life of a human to show the relationship between the natural world and the manmade world and the parallels that dictate the two lives. For example, Millay pairs a farmer going to the “milking ground”, to an ant going to “milk the aphis pastured on the rose” similar ideas of retrieving liquid but two different species getting it from two different entities. The ant and the farmer pass but never a “good-morrow” which is what one might expect but Millay wants there to be interaction between the two an acknowledgment. Another instance is when she says, “no nod of greeting, no perfunctory sound” like she’s expecting the two to stop and “gossip” but there’s nothing, no interaction between the ant in the farmer. Then, like any Petrarchan sonnet there’s a shift but it is still all one stanza, the time of year has changed but the idea remains of a “meet and pass” but again “never a word at all” (12). Millay calls them, “two herdsmen” again linking them together but never noticing or identifying with the other. Millay is trying to make note that humans aren’t so different to the working creatures around us if we just “watch them” we would appreciate them and relate to them more (17).
The ironic part is that Millay has observed this coexistence of human and ant and appreciated it and wants more people to do the same and realize the similarities of the natural world looking like the manmade world. “Now Forth to Meadow” wants the relationship of the natural world and the human world to be recognized for its similarities and appreciated, whereas, “Hornet” is recognizing the disgust of the natural world and turning it in to this dangerous entity that should not be interacted with but in the end, the protagonist is interacting with it by observing the nest. “Hornet” and “Now Forth to Meadow” recognizes the relationship between humans and insects, or the lack of recognition of the similarities of the two worlds. Also, the personification of the ant is a clear indication that humans and insects have similar routines. Both poems use irony to get the different views across. In “Hornet” if the roles were reversed the humans are the real “danger” and coming in like a storm and destroying their home, whereas, the hornets are just doing what’s natural (2). The irony in “Now Forth to Meadow” is that Millay is writing about the lack of relationship between humans and insects and that she is noticing this by observing their relationship. In Now Forth to Meadow” it is grand circle of one not noticing the other but a third party is bringing it to attention subliminally in a poem. In the both poems, structure is similar, “Hornet” is a sonnet and has a shift in scene in line eight, whereas, “Now Forth to Meadow” has two split stanza that break up the poem. The split/ shift in the poem helps reiterate the point of each poem.
In the narrative poem “Cautionary Tale of Girls and Birds of Prey” the author, Sandy Longhorn, tells the story of a young girl who is afraid of a hawk, and her inconsiderate father who doesn’t take her concerns seriously. The story shows how her father is determined to get rid of her fear of the hawk, because he thinks it is both foolish and childish. The daughter very well knows the capability of the hawk, however her father doesn’t acknowledge it until it is too late. In the poem, Longhorn uses alliteration and rhyme to help explore the theme of how being inconsiderate towards others can in the end hurt you as much as it hurts them. The poem takes place on a little farm where the girl and her father live with all of their livestock.
In his poem “The Great Scarf of Birds”, John Updike uses a flock of birds to show that man can be uplifted by observing nature. Updike’s conclusion is lead up to with the beauty of autumn and what a binding spell it has on the two men playing golf. In Updike’s conclusion and throughout the poem, he uses metaphors, similes, and diction to show how nature mesmerizes humans.
The purpose of the poem was to express my interests of nature and how I felt and what I experienced when I was in the woods at that time. There’s also that life and death aspect in this poem, in which the bird has the lizard in his mouth and also by the word “fire”.
The insect keeps the meat fresh by not immediately killing its prey. Instead, it cuts carefully around body parts integral to life, first eating the ones least necessary to survival and ending with vital ones. Gould likens this process to that of drawing and quartering; an antiquated execution procedure practiced by humans, writing, “As the king’s executioner drew out and burned his client’s entrails, so does the ichneumon larvae eat fat bodies and digestive organs first… preserving intact the essential heart and central nervous system” (Gould 2). Gould refers to the human victim as a “client,” a word which connotes partnership and consent, making it seem as though the person in question agreed to their own death. As Gould extends the executioner metaphor to the wasp through his use of analogy, one is lead to believe that the victim of the wasp willingly consents to his death as well. Furthermore, the grisly process detailed in the passage seems quite ordinary, as the reader is desensitized to the violent actions of the wasp through Gould’s cold, clinical word choice, or lack thereof. The stark contrast between the wasp’s brutal actions and the lack of descriptive language denys one an opportunity to fully comprehend the agonizing death of the insect’s victim. This portrayal of the wasp plays directly into the religious perspective by depicting it as an insensitive being with a shocking lack of compassion for its victim. As morality is defined by the ability the determine right from wrong, the wasp appears to be totally immoral as it mercilessly murders another creature for its own
In order for Wright to get away from the situation he was living in, which was a very industrial area, he created poetry about nature. Wright used imagery to describe these scenes of nature and then occasionally used personification to enhance the image in the reader’s mind. The James Wright’s poem “Lying in a Hammock…” depicts the calm scenery that surrounds him as he is lying in a hammock at his friend 's farm. He notices little details like “I see the bronze butterfly, / Asleep on the black trunk,” (1-2). The poet also sees “as the evening darkens and comes on. / A chicken hawk floats over, looking for a home.” (11-12). For Wright to be able to notice and describes these details show how relaxed he is. Wright found himself in a place where he had no thoughts on his mind and nothing to worry about other than to focus on the world around him. This poem allows readers to daydream along with Wright and to be momentarily taken away from the situation they are currently in. Authors, Jeffrey Gray, Mary Balkun, and
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
T.C. Boyle’s “Top of the Food Chain” is a narration about man’s selfish mistakes. The narrator's tone is used to show man’s disregard for organisms that have little to no benefit to them or are considered a nuisance. “The thing was, we had a little problem with the insects…” The narrator’s tone is quickly shown as selfish and works for only his comforts and is indifferent to the chaos that his choices make.
In this poem about seeing from the shadows, the speaker?s revelations are invariably ironic. What could be a more unpromising object of poetic eloquence than mayflies, those leggy, flimsy, short-lived bugs that one often finds floating in the hulls of rowboats? Yet for Wilbur...
Insects may be the bane of some people’s existence, but the creatures are truly strong globes of energy, going about their lives, flitting to and fro. Thoreau and Woolf both captured this essential spirit in their writing. In “Battle of the Ants” and “The Death of the Moth,” both writers observe other life forms, but the way in which they perceive the insects struggles vastly differs. According to an online biography, Thoreau’s exposure to transcendentalism as well as his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson both shaped his writing to emphasize “the importance of empirical thinking and of spiritual matters over the physical world,” whereas Virginia Woolf’s parents raised her to be free thinking which resulted
In the poem by Joy Harjo called “Eagle Poem,” Harjo talks about prayer and life and how they revolve around mother-nature. She suggests that while being one with nature, we feel we are in a place in which we haven’t imagined and the things in which we would love to do in that magnificent and calming place. After one reads the poem, he/she enjoys the lyrical type of it. This is because “Eagle Poem” sticks to one idea and extends it throughout the entire poem. For instance, it talks about prayer, nature, and animals from start to finish.
Eliot and Kafka use images of insects as well, although for different purposes. Eliot’s use of insects portrays Prufrock as being an insect “pinned and wriggling on the wall” being observed as an object of study (l.58). This is indicative of Prufrock’s anxiety and neurosis as he feels judged by everyone he meets, especially the women. Kafka’s use of insect imagery is prevalent throughout the entire novella, as Samsa has transformed into a giant bug.
The fly can also be seen as an interruption in the narrator's process of dying. The fly can be heard buzzing above the "Stillness in the Room." The fly also comes between the speaker and the light in the last stanza of the poem, which is another disturbance in the speaker's dying process. The fly can also be seen in an ironic light. The speaker, like all of us, is expecting death to be an important, grandiose experience in our lives. Her own death, however, is interrupted by something as insignificant as a fly. The insignificant quality of the fly could represent the commonplace nature of death and the relative irrelevance of the death of one person. The fly is unimportant, an...
In order to understand the entirety of a society, we must first understand each part and how it contributes to the stability of the society. According to the functionalist theory, different parts of society are organized to fill discrete needs of each part, which consequently determines the form and shape of society. (Crossman). All of the individual parts of society depend on one another. This is exhibited in “A Bug’s Life” through the distinct roles the ants and grasshoppers play in their own society. The two species are stratified in such a way that they each contribute to the order and productivity of the community. In the movie, the head grasshopper states that “the sun grows the food, the ants pick the food, and the grasshoppers eat the food” (A Bug’s Life). This emphasizes social stability and reliance on one another’s roles. The grasshoppers rely on the ants for food, while the ants rely on the grasshoppers for protection. This effective role allocation and performance is what ensures that together, the ants and grasshoppers form a functioning society to guarantee their survival.
Wordsworth and Hopkins both present the reader with a poem conveying the theme of nature. Nature in its variety be it from something as simple as streaked or multicolored skies, long fields and valleys, to things more complex like animals, are all gifts we take for granted. Some never realize the truth of what they are missing by keeping themselves indoors fixating on the loneliness and vacancy of their lives and not on what beauty currently surrounds them. Others tend to relate themselves more to the fact that these lovely gifts are from God and should be praised because of the way his gifts have uplifted our human spirit. Each writer gives us their own ideals as how to find and appreciate nature’s true gifts.
“A Bird came down the Walk,” was written in c. 1862 by Emily Dickinson, who was born in 1830 and died in 1886. This easy to understand and timeless poem provides readers with an understanding of the author’s appreciation for nature. Although the poem continues to be read over one hundred years after it was written, there is little sense of the time period within which it was composed. The title and first line, “A Bird came down the Walk,” describes a common familiar observation, but even more so, it demonstrates how its author’s creative ability and artistic use of words are able to transform this everyday event into a picture that results in an awareness of how the beauty in nature can be found in simple observations. In a step like narrative, the poet illustrates the direct relationship between nature and humans. The verse consists of five stanzas that can be broken up into two sections. In the first section, the bird is eating a worm, takes notice of a human in close proximity and essentially becomes frightened. These three stanzas can easily be swapped around because they, for all intents and purposes, describe three events that are able to occur in any order. Dickinson uses these first three stanzas to establish the tone; the tone is established from the poet’s literal description and her interpretive expression of the bird’s actions. The second section describes the narrator feeding the bird some crumbs, the bird’s response and its departure, which Dickinson uses to elaborately illustrate the bird’s immediate escape. The last two stanzas demonstrate the effect of human interaction on nature and more specifically, this little bird, so these stanzas must remain in the specific order they are presented. Whereas most ...