It is interesting to think about why our ancestors decided to include the pursuit of happiness as an American’s unalienable right, as opposed to the previously considered, right to land. To live a life without happiness, it seemed to them, is to live a life without meaning. Edgar Lee Masters’ poems commonly reflect on the quality, or lack thereof, of happiness in the afterlife of dead countrymen (and women). The diction, word choice and imagery in Fiddler Jones by Masters expresses the seemingly inherent joy of a lackadaisical man as well as the value of perspectives and the ability to posit happiness over fortune and land.
As many of Master’s poems in his Spoon River Anthology, the title “Fiddler Jones” refers to a man who is not only a fiddler but is now deceased. Many of the poems in the Master’s Anthology are penitent stories told by dead souls reflecting on their past lives. At first glance the title presents us with the life of a man now dead and Fiddler Jones has taken center stage in this conversational and lyrical narrative.
In the first two lines we are given the stage in which the dead man’s story is to be told.
“The earth keeps some vibration going
There in your heart, and that is you.” (ll. 1-2)
This portrayal of Earth as a natural force can be read in two ways. On one hand, the Earth can be viewed as a natural source that produces the life of a human. But one cannot ignore the fact that Masters deliberately placed the words your and you in these lines. With these words Masters sets up a dialogue between the reader and the speaker of the poem. This dialogue that Master’s puts forth further contributes to the poem’s intent to capture the value of perspective because the purpose of dialogue is to promote a convers...
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It is here that the fiddler reflects on his life as in the previous lines, he stated he ended up with the land and broken fiddle it is at this point he has entered the end of his life. Upon having a broken fiddle and nothing to show for his success he believes the poem suggests that he is happier than a man who worked the land and held a fortune from his profits. A broken laugh is also known as a snicker. A snicker I believe is a choppy, contained smile that doesn’t show emotion though boisterous and grandiose show but rather reveres it’s emotion through internal contentment. This coupled with the thousand memories and lack of regret show that although the dead fiddler did not work hard throughout his life, he is much happier than his fellow grave mate, Cooney Potter, who worked and profited his whole life only to leave the world unhappy and alone.
...a working class man, but nothing to show for his labor. “There’s no one left to see his hands lifting from the engine bay, dark and gnarled as roots dipping river mud [and] how my father drags his body into a beat-up van and gropes for the ignition” (66-67). As a reader, although I see the struggle, I find no comfort at the end, because there is no reward. My favorite in this section is “Former Future King.” This poem perfectly captures the elusiveness of the American dream which is like sitting “on a bench in front of the crown you ought to have worn, which reside on a pillow, in a locked glass box, in the furthest wing” (71). It shows the disappointment that comes with an unfulfilled dream.
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and
Although this section is the easiest to read, it sets up the action and requires the most "reading between the lines" to follow along with the quick and meaningful happenings. Millay begins her poem by describing, in first person, the limitations of her world as a child. She links herself to these nature images and wonders about what the world is like beyond the islands and mountains. The initial language and writing style hint at a child-like theme used in this section. This device invites the reader to sit back and enjoy the poem without the pressure to understand complex words and structure.
From the very first word of the poem, there is a command coming from an unnamed speaker. This establishes a sense of authority and gives the speaker a dominant position where they are dictating the poem to the reader rather than a collaborative interacti...
In this poem, the speaker is talks about his experiences in one significant morning. The poem introduces a beach environment where the speaker talks about collecting rocks, while seeing a dead otter, an oyster fisher, and a bird trying to find its prey. He recalls that this morning is the morning after contemplating of dying, but in the second stanza he has a change of feeling. Instead of seeing disturbances, he sees things that symbolize piece and serenity – butterflies, a couple, the sun. Taking into account all these literal events make the story far too normal. However, what makes this poem noteworthy is its two-sided arguments for the natural order of the world – chaotic in nature or underlying order.
Edgar Lee Masters was a poet and novelist born in the late 1800s. He is most known for his famous 1915 publication of Spoon River Anthology, a compilation of 244 free-verse epitaphs told from the grave by the former residents, both real and imaginary, of Spoon River, a fictitious small town. All 244 dead residents of Spoon River have a story to tell about their victories, hardships, and their secrets. Masters became famous by revealing the secret lives and loves of a small town’s residents, told in their own voices from beyond the grave into American poetry. This was a sensitive subject matter and an innovative method.
Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology. 3rd ed. Ed. Helen Vendler. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
The nature of an ideology is completely personal; one’s interpretation may vary greatly from another’s interpretation. This is demonstrated in the two poems, “America” by Claude McKay and “Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes. Both of these poems emerge from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, and though these two poems each describe an ideological viewpoint of America as a place and a concept, the two speakers view the subject differently from one another. Both poets employ similar sound devices, yet the tones and themes vary between the two works.
Every story, poem, or anthology alike has a part of the author’s feelings or past between their lines, which dictates their origins. The Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters is not anything different in that regard. Every piece of writing has it’s origins and those origins can be not only interesting, but change the way the reader views the writing. This paper will not only discuss the origins of the famous Anthology, but show Edgar Lee Masters’ personal side of the origins and how those instances influenced his writing of The Spoon River Anthology.
The speaker started the poem by desiring the privilege of death through the use of similes, metaphors, and several other forms of language. As the events progress, the speaker gradually changes their mind because of the many complications that death evokes. The speaker is discontent because of human nature; the searching for something better, although there is none. The use of language throughout this poem emphasized these emotions, and allowed the reader the opportunity to understand what the speaker felt.
The poem starts by showing how little man truly is. The image of “footsteps [passing] so perilously soft across the sea” creates the idea that humanity is no giant, leaving indelible marks on the Earth, but instead a small creature leaving no trace in the long term. The “unastonishable” earth will not notice the small traces left upon it by humanity, just as the “stiff blue waves” make no special note of the boats riding upon them.
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem composed by Thomas Gray over a period of ten years. Beginning shortly after the death of his close friend Richard West in 1742, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was first published in 1751. This poem’s use of dubbal entendre may lead the intended audience away from the overall theme of death, mourning, loss, despair and sadness; however, this poem clearly uses several literary devices to convey the author’s feelings toward the death of his friend Richard West, his beloved mother, aunt and those fallen soldiers of the Civil War. This essay will discuss how Gray uses that symbolism and dubbal entendre throughout the poem to convey the inevitability of death, mourning, conflict within self, finding virtue in one’s life, dealing with one’s misfortunes and giving recognition to those who would otherwise seem insignificant.
The tone in the first 11 stanzas of the poem seems very resigned; the speaker has accepted that the world is moving on without them. They says things like “I don’t reproach the spring for starting up again” and “I don’t resent the view for its vista of a sun-dazzled bay”. By using words like “resent” and “reproach”, the author indirectly implies that the speaker has a reason to dislike beautiful things. The grief that has affected the speaker so much hasn’t affected life itself and they has come to accept that. The author chooses to use phrases like ‘it doesn’t pain me to see” and “I respect their right” which show how the speaker has completely detached themself from the word around them. While everything outside is starting to come back to life, the speaker is anything but lively. “I expect nothing from the depths near the woods.” They don’t expect anything from the world and want the world to do the same thing in return. This detachment proves that the speaker feels resigned about themself and the world around
Life and death are two things that we as humans must all face. The road from one to the other, from life to death, is a long and at times, both joyous and painful one. Robert Frost’s poems are a prime example of these times and trials. The poems I chose for this paper highlight them, and with Frost’s allegory, they present a sort of silver lining to the string of dark and dreary words he’s pieced together for these poems. The depressing tone to the poems “Acquainted with the Night”, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, and “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowing Evening” could be attributed to the death of many of Frost’s family members, and how despite this he overcame it all, and at the end of his life, was a successful writer. These poems to not go into great explanation of the details of Frost’s life, however, I believe that they are representations of the things path that he’s walked, and how he viewed his actions and death in general.
It is this moment of recollection that he wonders about the contrast between the world of shadows and the world of the Ideal. It is in this moment of wonder that man struggles to reach the world of Forms through the use of reason. Anything that does not serve reason is the enemy of man. Given this, it is only logical that poetry should be eradicated from society. Poetry shifts man’s focus away from reason by presenting man with imitations of objects from the concrete world.