Matthew Arnold uses diction and imagery to produce the themes of alienation and self discovery in the poems: "Dover Beach" and "The Buried Life."
“Dover Beach” talks about a man's attitude toward life. Arnold uses diction to show his feelings and inner most thoughts. In “Dover Beach” he claims “the sea is calm tonight, the tide is full, the moon lies fair upon the straits.” These lines show a sense of clarification until he claims he has lost his faith by saying “and we are here as on a darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight.” These lines present the idea of him not knowing why he is on this earth. His negative thoughts affect his being able to be happy for example when he says “Ah, love, let us be true to one another! for the world which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams…” He is starting with a positive note with being true to one another but then interrupts with the artificialness of the world. Arnold also uses diction to describe the negative qualities of the world by saying “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain..” Arnold uses imagery in the first stanza when observing the sea and the moon. This helps the reader picture moonlit water and listening to the sound of the waves crashing. Starting off with a very peaceful scene, we drift off comparing the crashing of the waves to the loss of faith our generations have experienced. The end of the poem leaves the reader questioning if the world is not here for us who is? The world is filled with different kinds of people and with different stories to share but for some reason we don’t share with each other. We keep all of our emotions and stories inside of our buried life while we put on an act ...
... middle of paper ...
...y is shown at the bottom of the second page “A man becomes aware of his life’s flow, And hears its winding murmur; and he sees The meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze.” The feeling of knowing where your life is headed is compared to a sunny day in the meadows and feeling the breeze. The feeling of not knowing what could change at any time is showed on the last page “And then he thinks he knows The hills where his life rose, And the sea where it goes.” The sea is never ending and this is the comparison to life. Life is forever changing and moving on. Compared to a sea which changes shape, moves water from the original place, and has obstacles. If we don’t stop worrying about the future and progressing as much as we can we are never going to know what our original state of mind was. We will never be able to recall past experiences and truly appreciate them.
Published in 1944, the poem itself is an elegy, addressing the melancholy and sorrow of wartime death, as indicated by the title ‘Beach Burial’. This title gives clear meaning to the sombre nature of the work, and the enigmatic nature of it holds the attention of the audience. The entirety of the poem is strewn with poetic devices, such as personification of dead sailors as “…they sway and wander in the waters far under”, the words inscribed on their crosses being choked, and the “sob and clubbing of the gunfire” (Slessor). Alliteration is used to great effect in lines such as that describing the soldiers being “bur[ied]…in burrows” and simile in the likening of the epitaph of each seaman to the blue of drowned men’s lips and onomatopoeia is shown in the “purple drips” (Slessor). The predominant mood of the work is ephemeral, with various references to the transient nature of humanity. The ethereal adjectives used to describe and characterise objects within the poem allow a more abstract interpretation of what would normally be concrete in meaning. The rhythm of this piece is markedly similar to the prevalent concept of tidal ebb and flow, with lines falling into an ABCB rhyme scheme and concepts
The poem is notable for Hayden's characteristically accurate evocation of imagery. Just like his other poems, Hayden’s imagery in this poem is very vivid. The reader is able to imagine or see these images in their inner minds. Thus, the diver “sank through easeful/azure/swiftly descended/free falling, weightless/plunged” he described the diver’s carefree attitude and relaxed attitude as he dove into the sea. Thrilled and enchanted by what he sees in the wrecked ship, he lingers for more than intended. When he was brought to the reality of the danger he was in, he, “...in languid/frenzy strove/began the measured
He describes how the sand on the beach flows and moves on the shore. For example, in the first line of stanza two, he says, “Slush and sand of the beach until daylight.” This description of the sand really helps you visualize it.
Throughout his villanelle, “Saturday at the Border,” Hayden Carruth continuously mentions the “death-knell” (Carruth 3) to reveal his aged narrator’s anticipation of his upcoming death. The poem written in conversation with Carruth’s villanelle, “Monday at the River,” assures the narrator that despite his age, he still possesses the expertise to write a well structured poem. Additionally, the poem offers Carruth’s narrator a different attitude with which to approach his writing, as well as his death, to alleviate his feelings of distress and encourage him to write with confidence.
According to Sigmund Freud, “the uncanny is that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar” (825). In Robert Hayden’s poem The Diver, the uncanny sneaks upon the reader as the speaker is descending further into the depths of the sea, and the unconscious. The use of Freud 's uncanny evokes fear and uncertainty in the reader as they delve deeper into the unconscious. Hayden uses alliteration to play with repression and turns familiar scenes into the unfamiliar to emphasize swimming in and out of the conscious and unconscious mind.
The setting of the poem is a day at the ocean with the family that goes terribly awry. This could be considered an example of irony, in that one would normally view a day at the beach as a happy and carefree time. In “Feared Drowned,” Olds paints a very different scenario, using dark imagery to create the setting: “…suit black as seaweed / Rocks sticks out near shore like heads.” The poem illuminates moments of intense fear, anxiety and the element of a foreseen sense of doom. Written as a direct, free-style verse using the first-person narrative, the poem opens with the narrator suspecting that her husband may have drowned. When Olds writes in her opening line: “Suddenly nobody knows where you are,” this signals to the reader that we are with the narrator as she makes this fearful discovery.
Meinke, Peter. “Untitled” Poetry: An Introduction. Ed. Michael Meyer. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s 2010. 89. Print
..., the content and form has self-deconstructed, resulting in a meaningless reduction/manifestation of repetition. The primary focus of the poem on the death and memory of a man has been sacrificed, leaving only the skeletal membrane of any sort of focus in the poem. The “Dirge” which initially was meant to reflect on the life of the individual has been completely abstracted. The “Dirge” the reader is left with at the end of the poem is one meant for anyone and no one. Just as the internal contradictions in Kenneth Fearing’s poem have eliminated the substantial significance of each isolated concern, the reader is left without not only a resolution, but any particular tangible meaning at all. The form and content of this poem have quite effectively established a powerful modernist statement, ironically contingent on the absence and not the presence of meaning in life.
The poems “Sea Rose” by H.D and “Vague Poem” by Elizabeth Bishop were both written by two women who took over the Victorian era. H.D’s works of writing were best known as experimental reflecting the themes of feminism and modernism from 1911-1961. While Bishop’s works possessed themes of longing to belong and grief. Both poems use imagery, which helps to make the poem more concrete for the reader. Using imagery helps to paint a picture with specific images, so we can understand it better and analyze it more. The poems “Sea Rose” and “Vague Poem” both use the metaphor of a rose to represent something that can harm you, even though it has beauty.
In “Dover Beach”, the speaker describes how beautiful his life was before his ideals were shattered. It is set during the Industrial Revolution, where religion was challenged by the introduction of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The speaker feels powerless against these changes, as shown in the line “Swept with confused alarms o...
The first line in this poem is only taken up by one word, ‘morning’ this may represent a peaceful approach to the day. I came to this conclusion because the poet tells us in the third line ‘sound of the blue surf’ this indicates that the sound of the sea is harmonious and it is the first image that is put into the island mans brain. The word ‘morning’ on its own can make us think that someone is actually saying morning as in good morning. ‘blue surf’ could also mean relaxation however the word ‘blue’ could mean sadness. This choice of wording makes us the readers think that the blue surf is a relaxing thing but it is sad that the island man Is away from it or that the island man Is missing his homeland.
In this poem, Frost includes his fear of the ocean and exaggerates its destructive power. As Judith Saunders stated that “The first thirteen lines have depicted an ocean storm of unusual force, and through personification the poet attributes to this storm a malign purposefulness” (1). Frost provided human characteristics on the storm to help prove his point that the ocean has bad intentions and its only purpose is to hurt him. Frost does not describe the waves as a result of unfavorable weather; he explains them as having a malignant intention to destroy the world. This poem revolves around the forces of nature and could be included in the long list of nature themed poems by Robert Frost.
Matthew Arnold begins his poem by describing a calm, beautiful scene. Dover Beach is lying "fair" in the moonlight. It is high tide and he sees the coast of France and "the cliffs of England... / Gleaming and vast, out in the tranquil bay." All seems lovely and quiet. According to Baum's research on the date and circumstances of the poem, Arnold is probably speaking to his new bride (86) as he says, "Come to the window, sweet is the night-air." But gradually the reader senses a shifting of mood and tone. Now he describes the "line of spray... / Where the sea meets" the land as "moon-blanched." And the tide, tossing pebbles as it comes, is a "grating roar" with a "tremulous cadence slow" that "bring[s] / The eternal note of sadness in." This melancholy mood grows deeper as he thinks of man's long span of history-- "The turbid ebb and flow / of human misery."
With fewer than fifty published poems Elizabeth Bishop is not one of the most prominent poets of our time. She is however well known for her use of imagery and her ability to convey the narrator?s emotions to the reader. In her vividly visual poem 'The Fish', the reader is exposed to a story wherein the use of language not only draws the reader into the story but causes the images to transcend the written work. In the poem, Bishop makes use of numerous literary devices such as similes, adjectives, and descriptive language. All of these devices culminate in the reader experiencing a precise and detailed mental image of the poem's setting and happenings.
In the poem “A song of Despair” Pablo Neruda chronicles the reminiscence of a love between two characters, with the perspective of the speaker being shown in which the changes in their relationship from once fruitful to a now broken and finished past was shown. From this Neruda attempts to showcase the significance of contrasting imagery to demonstrate the Speaker’s various emotions felt throughout experience. This contrasting imagery specifically develops the reader’s understanding of abandonment, sadness, change, and memory. The significant features Neruda uses to accomplish this include: similes, nautical imagery, floral imagery, and apostrophe.