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Joyce Kilmer's: Trees
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The famous poem “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer is a lyrical poem that focuses on nature, in which God has made. A tree is used in this poem to emphasize how the works of men is incomparable to the works of God. This poem is a proclamation of God’s omnipresence and omnipotence.
An aabbccdd rhyme scheme is used in this short but well expressed couplet. Personification is frequently used frequently throughout the poem to make it evident to the readers that God’s creation of nature is living. For an example, in stanza 2, Kilmer says, “A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast”, verifies that nature works hand in hand with one another for survival and lives. Seasonal changes us readers can relate to such as summer, winter, and spring are pointed out in to express that a tree continues in existence throughout time. The parallelism in lines 3,5, and 7 has repetition of the words “A Tree”. This stresses that a tree has purpose and hold significance everything around it. The poem shifts in the last stanza in which Kilmer says, “Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.” This is a stanza that shows that Kilmer appreciates God’s creation and that he knows that God is all-powerful.
“Trees” is a poem that gives God the full glory. Kilmer calls the human “fools” because art made by man is just art. It is not is living and functioning like God’s beautiful art of nature. The poem is a proclamation that there is a God. God is seen in nature. In the poem Kilmer says, “A tree that looks at God all day”. This statement declares that nature is a reflection of God and when humans look around them, they may be reminded that God is everywhere and true. A tree can also reflect on God’s creation of men. Wh...
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This is amplified in “The Snow Gum”, where Stewart redefines the beauty of the eucalyptus tree. The composer describes the tree as having a “crown” relating that to royalty and regal. Thereafter, the poet extends this personification using “curve”, to reinforce and strengthen his view of the tree being human like and the distinction of it. Stewart expresses a connection to the royalty of the tree. Similarly, the poem “Waterlily” describes the beauty of a peaceful yellow water lily plant floating on water.
Tree Imagery in Hurston’s Novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God and Seraph on the Suwanee. Hurston uses the fruit tree as an important image in both of the texts: the blossoming pear tree for Janie and the budding mulberry tree for Arvay. Each holds a unique meaning to its counterpart. In looking at Janie’s interaction with her tree, I chose to focus on the passage on page 11, beginning with “She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree.”.
The tree “swings through another year of sun and leaping winds, of leaves and bounding fruit.” This sentence evokes images of happiness and serenity; however, it is in stark contrast with “month after month, the whip-crack of the mortgage.” The tone of this phrase is harsh and the onomatopoeia of a “whip crack” stirs up images of oppression. The final lines of the poem show the consequences that the family accepts by preserving the tree—their family heritage. When the speaker judges the tree by its cover she sees monetary value, but when she looks at the content in the book she find that it represents family. Even though times may be tough for the family, they are united by memories of their ancestors.
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.
"Old trees are doomed to annual rebirth, new wood, new life, new compass, and greater girth." This means
The imagery here is deep because Howe was able to relate the tree to man-made items and gives the tree its own personification. In the poem “The Game”, Marie Howe does an excellent job of describing this game that she used to play with others. They flipped chairs and made a city from blankets and boxes. They pretended to inhabit around or in objects such as a pool table, the cupboard, or the bathroom. The lights were turned off and the group pretend it was night time even though it was, and they would sleep. Also in “A Certain Light” Howe continues to be great descriptively when elaborating on her brother’s physique. Their brother was so sick he that his muscle tissue was near to depleted. In the first two stanzas she talks about how she had to give John multiple pills and emphasized the number by spelling them out with specific names of the pills. She then said that John was bones and skin and he did not have tissue to absorb the medication. The description of how they attempted to keep John awake really set in how sick he was. The would ask him question to get him to continue to talk, but he was not very alert and showed symptoms of someone on the verge of
In Christianity, trees were viewed as a primary source of life and knowledge, exhibited in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9). Denver used trees as a safe haven for her; a safe place where she can hide from her mother after the trauma that transpired the night that crawling already? was killed. “Veiled and protected by the live green walls, she felt ripe and clear, and salvation was as easy as a wish,”(Morrison, 29). Contrasting with the safety of the trees for Denver, Sethe’s idea of trees has much darker connotations. As a child, she saw “Boys hangin’ from the most beautiful sycamores in the world. It shamed her-remembering the wonderful soughing trees rather than the boys,” (Morrison 6). For Sethe, the symbolism of trees has been twisted into viewing trees not as hope, but as death, and the pain from her past. As Amy had observed, the scars on Sethe only served as reminders of her painful time at Sweet Home, where she had very little hope for the future. A lesson that should be derived from this book is that the perspective from which you look at the past could help it become less painful. Sethe is too focused on the pain of her past, so therefore she is unable to see trees as they were meant to be seen, while Paul D views them as a pathway to second chances. He views trees as “inviting; things you could trust and be ear; talk to if you wanted to as he frequently did since way back when he took the midday meal in the fields of Sweet Home,” (Morrison,
The tree is almost created into somewhat of a creature. With the limbs twisting out and rising into the air. Irving takes ordinary earthlike objects and changes the perspective of them into imaginary matter.
"Neoclassicism." A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies. Comp. English Department Brooklyn College. 6th ed. Landmarks of Literature. Brooklyn College. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. .
In the second stanza the poet describes the tree as thin, dry and insecure. Insecurity is a human nature that has been used to describe a
...s’ poems, his purpose remains to identify with the thing, not just to describe it, and to allow it a way to express itself. In Young Sycamore William uses free verse lines to mimic the real curves and sways of a tree. In doing this, Gray states that it was Williams’ goal is to allow the reader to in essence become like the tree. By creating this effect upon the reader, Williams is able to show how beautiful a regular tree can be if it is looked at in a new way (Gray).
Even if he grew up within nature, he didn’t really appreciate it until he became an adult. He is pantheistic; a belief that nature is divine, a God. Since he has religious aspect of nature, he believes that nature is everything and that it makes a person better. His tone in the poem is reproachful and intense. His poem purpose is to tell the readers and his loved ones that if he feels some kind of way about nature, then we should have the same feeling toward it as well.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, literature changed and focused on breaking away from the typical and predicate patterns of normal literature. Poets at this time took full advantage and stretched the idea of the mind’s conscience on how the world, mind, and language interact and contradict. Many authors, such as Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, and Twain, used the pain and anguish in first hand experiences to create and depict a new type of literature, modernism. In this time era, literature and art became a larger part of society and impacted more American lives than ever before. During the American modernism period of literature, authors, artists, and poets strived to create pieces of literature and art that challenged American traditions and tried to reinvent it, used new ways of communication, such as the telephone and cinema, to demonstrate the new modern social norms, and express the pain and suffering of the First World War.
Robert Frost is considered by many to be one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Frost’s work has been regarded by many as unique. Frost’s poems mainly take place in nature, and it is through nature that he uses sense appealing-vocabulary to immerse the reader into the poem. In the poem, “Hardwood Groves”, Frost uses a Hardwood Tree that is losing its leaves as a symbol of life’s vicissitudes. “Frost recognizes that before things in life are raised up, they must fall down” (Bloom 22).
Trees are usually considered as bland, unusual objects that are usually taken for granted; however, I believe there is more to a tree that meets the eye. They supply oxygen and shade. During the holidays, trees are able to spread holiday cheer by wearing holiday decorations. Through providing, they are always beneficial to the needs of others. Rather than having striking beauty like a flower, trees have are grounded and possess a gentle beauty; they are adapted wildflowers to their environment. In fact, if I had to compare myself to an inanimate object, I would choose a tree. A tree has many characteristics in common with me. Characteristics like relying on our roots, strength and observation, and helping others and leaving behind a powerful legacy are a few of the traits we share. All of which I believe are admirable qualities to possess.