walk in the ocean beach, he found himself lonely in front of a storm coming toward the land. Such an incident had a powerful impact on him.
The first line of poem is marked by the use of imagery; the “shattered water” which is the result of the crashing waves. Like people, the waves are having a mind and "thought" which is concerned only with ruining everything they touch because they are “great" waves. By saying so, he gives them the human attribute of greatness. The waves have other human qualities such as looking at each other; "waves looked over others" (2) and being able of destruction as if they are fighting to get to the shore and to do "something … that water never did before"(4) . Having a consciousness and, at the same time, being
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able to act and look, the poet uses personification to emphasize the destructive power of nature. The first four lines highlight the destructive side of nature by providing a powerful image and create a feeling of fear and worry. The next quatrain presents a visual image of the clouds in the sky that creates a picture in our minds. The poet describes the clouds as being "like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes"(6). In this simile, the low clouds are compared to hair blowing into the gleam of eyes. The clouds understand the intentions of the waves but they won't say anything about it. Like the waves, the clouds are personified as people who can't talk even though they have a lot to tell. Furthermore, the shore is personified by being "lucky in being backed by the cliff"(8). In the next quatrain, the cliff, as well, is supported by the whole continent. In other words, both the shore and cliff are lucky as one supports the other and being supported by the continent. The poet creates a chain from the aspects of nature that are connected to one another. The connection shows how powerful and destructive nature can be. Such a chain creates another world that presents an essential image in the poem and assures that "Robert Frost offers a complete vision of the universe, a fully formed poetic world"(Andrade 3) .
It also enhances the feelings of fear and worry. The storm is a coming “night of dark intent” that will not last for a night but rather an age. The dark intent of the night suggests decisions and intentions. He describes the feeling of fear that people experience; "someone had better be prepared for rage."(12) The internal rhyme of the repeated sounds of /p/ and /b/ in "better be prepared" create a negative connotation as such sounds are harsh suggesting a warning to mankind against such a storm. Humans must prepare themselves for such a personified "rage" of the waves and sky. The rage of these angry forces improves the sense of danger and doom .This illustrates the contrast between humans and nature and such a "contrast between man and nature is the central theme of Frost’s nature poetry"(Lynen 145). The poem ends with the poet asking about the source of the ocean’s destructive …show more content…
rage. This poem shows the ally of the angry forces of nature that tend, intentionally, to destroy everything. The entire poem is a personification of different parts of nature and such a thing doesn’t not only contribute to the meaning but rather is essential to it. Moreover, the visual images of nature embody the meaning of the poem and enhance the sense of doom and destruction as the poetic devices are used immediately from the beginning in order to set the mood of the poem. Although the poet uses a simple language, behind these simple words lays strong and complex feelings. According to the speaker, everything is green and nature is in springtime; “Nature’s first green is gold"(1).
He depicts a world of beauty. Frost introduces nature as his theme which he personifies using the pronoun “her.” In other words, nature is a female who cannot keep hold of anything because nature changes continually. During springtime, nature is compared to gold because it is glowing, attractive and beautiful. Gold is a symbol of great value and radiant beauty. New leaves grow yellow as gold blossoms before they get their green color. They start as flower buds. This visual image assures that the golden moment is the most precious because it is transitory. These golden flower buds don't last for a long time as they turn into green and become leaves. Metaphorically speaking, the color green represents childhood which is the golden age. So, youth is a treasure. Alliteration is used to make the poem sounds more musical and such a thing enhances the beauty of nature and childhood. However, it is hard to remain youthful. “Early leaf” shows the outcome of youth and “flower” shows its beauty. The image of the golden flower and the leaf are signs of spring. The color symbolizes everything that is glowing and pure. In the first half of the poem, Frost presents a visual image depicting how new leaves come out as yellow or golden blossoms before they grow into green leaves. This beautiful time is very short and precise because the beauty of the flowers will fade away and the
leaves will fall. Then, the second half of the poem presents old age and death and how nature falls from its golden period. Likewise, Humans fall from their golden period just like the golden leaves in nature. The poet alludes to the biblical story of the Garden of Eden
The repetition of sound causes different feelings of uncertainty and fear as the reader delves deeper into the poem. “Moss of bryozoans/blurred, obscured her/metal...” (Hayden 3). The r’s that are repeated in blurred and obscured create a sense of fogginess of the darkness of the water that the speaker is experiencing. The fogginess is a sense of repression, which is attempting its way out of the mind to the conscious. Hayden continues the use of alliteration with F and S sounds. Although they are different letters they produce the same sound that causes confusion, but an acceptance of death. “Yet in languid/frenzy strove, as/one freezing fights off/sleep desiring sleep;/strove against/ the canceling arms that/suddenly surrounded/me...” (Hayden 4). The use of sound at the last six lines of the poem causes the reader to feel the need for air and the fear of death. “Reflex of life-wish?/Respirators brittle/belling? Swam from/the ship somehow; /somehow began the/measured rise” (Hayden 4). The R sounds that begin is the swimming through the water. The B sound that continues right after in “brittle belling” is the gasp of air, and finally, the S sounds that finish the line by creating a soft feeling. As if the reader might not get out in time, even though the lines are saying that the speaker does escape the ship. The fear the alliteration evokes from the reader is the unconscious. The deep inner thoughts that no one wants to tap into. The speaker is accepting the idea of death in the ocean through his unconscious, but his conscious mind is trying to push back and begin the “measured rise” (Hayden 4) back to the
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.
When the Hesperus had been sailing in the storm, “[it] shuddered and paused” (Longfellow 7) as if the boat was struggling to get through the winds that were pushing back. The boat’s effort to stay afloat shows the captain’s determination to set sail out to sea while pushing the boat to its limits. The schooner’s reluctant decision to move forward also represents the strength of the storm and its strong winds. The schooner’s human-like reluctance also shows it’s ambivalent feelings toward obeying the captain’s maneuvers, as if it was against the Hesperus’s will to follow his orders. Additionally, there are other ships who are struggling to stay afloat in such weather. The captain observes ships that “cannot live [i]n such an angry sea” implying that he can outlive those ships in distress. The angry sea translates to waves sloshing violently in the sea, threatening sink the ships. The captain, having confidence in his abilities, believed he could sail in the sea during an intense storm without having much trouble as the other ships. The ships in distress were struggling to get back to the port and safely docked, knowing all too well that they wouldn’t survive if the storm got worse. In brief, the use of personification in the poem allows the reader to see how dangerous it was sailing out in the storm through the human-like struggles of the
After reading this poem by Robert Frost, I was left with many different ideas about this work. I believe one could take this poem in a literal sense to actually be about a window flower and the wind. I also believe, however, that this poem perhaps has a bit of a deeper meaning.
Frost uses quite a bit of personification throughout the poem to give the sky and ocean human like traits. The use of this literary device helps embody the meaning of the poem. The first use of personification is seen in the second and third line “Great waves looked over others coming in/ and thought of doing something to the shore”. This illustrates how the waves were smashing upon each other and getting larger and larger than the ones before. The personification of the waves in line three, suggest that the waves have an actual mind of their and shall do what they wish.
Nature is the force in this poem that has power to decide what is right or wrong and how to deal with the actions. The mariner reconciles his sins when he realizes what nature really is and what it means to him. All around his ship, he witnesses, "slimy things did crawl with legs upon the slimy sea" and he questions "the curse in the Dead man's eyes". This shows his contempt for the creatures that Nature provides for all people.
Literally, this is a poem discribing the seasons. Frosts interpertation of the seasons is original in the fact that it is not only autumn that causes him grief, but summer. Spring is portrayed as painfully quick in its retirement; "Her early leaf's a flower,/ But only so an hour.". Most would associate summer as a season brimming with life, perhaps the realization of what was began in spring. As Frost preceives it however, from the moment spring...
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.
At the beginning of the poem, nature is generally affable and unconcerned with the travel of this ship. At the beginning of the journey, the sun “shone bright” and provided agreeable weather for the ship (Line 27). The bright sun displays the cordiality of the spiritual world and God. Although a strong storm blew them off course, the ferocity of
In the poem, Coleridge portrays nature as wild and untamed; he uses a loose meter that varies between tetrameter and trimeter to reflect the mental and physical actions playing out in the stanzas. For example, when the “storm-blast came” and blew the ship “southward” into the “mist and snow” there is a stanza describing the “sloping masts” of the ship as the storm took control of the boat. This stanza not only reflects the wild and untamed nature of the storm through the freer verse, which makes the rhyme scheme almost feel uncontrollable, but also through the length of the stanza itself, as it is two lines longer than the previous and following stanza. Coleridge uses the same technique when presenting the mental state of the characters – specifically the Mariner’s inner turmoil as his punishment for his crimes against nature are playing out. In an attempt to control nature, the Mariner shoots an Albatross that the crew had “hailed…in God’s name” and the consequences prove to be disastrous for him as he finds himself turned away from nature. The effect it has on the Mariner is instant as Coleridge extends the stanza describing the Mariner’s “hellish thing” to six lines mirroring his inner turmoil. The Mariner’s punishment continues and due to the Romantic belief in a pantheistic ideal, he finds himself unable to pray
The human mind and the sea have multiple similarities: the ability to have deep, dark places, the ability to be beautiful, and the ability to vast beyond human comprehension, just to name a few. The narrator feels that the comparison between the human mind and the sea is important because the narrator relates to the sea’s constant changes and how the narrator’s mood constantly changes because of their depression. The fourth stanza expresses the narrator’s waning faith by depicting it as once being full, “but now [the narrator] only hear[s]/ its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,/ retreating.” The narrator’s waning faith could be due to their depression overwhelming them; and the narrator feels that they won’t be able to get out of their situation. The quote above is also a case of personification.
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).
Nature is an important theme in every frost poem. Nature usually symbolizes age or other things throughout Frost’s poems. In lines 5-10 it says, “Often you must have seen them loaded with ice a sunny winter morning after a rain. They click upon themselves as the breeze rises, and turn many-colored as the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells.” This demonstrates how nature can sometimes symbolize something. Also in lines 29-33 it says, “ By riding them down over and over again until he took the stiffness out of them, and not one but hung limp, not one was left for him to conquer. He learned all there was to learn about not launching too soon.” In lines 44-48 it says, And life is too much like a pathless wood where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs broken across it, and one eye is weeping from a twig’s having lashed across it open. I’d like to get away from earth for a while.”
The words and phrases that a poet uses in their work can create the scene and emotionally connect you to the poem. In the poem “Out, Out−”, written by Robert Frost, the use of imagery completely affects how you perceive what is happening throughout the piece. The two main types of imagery that the author had used are sight and sound. The use of imagery in this poem allows the reader to create pictures in their head. From this they can become emotionally attached to what is happening and feel the suspense or shock of the boy’s death.
Robert Frost is an amazing poet that many admire today. He is an inspiration to many poets today. His themes and ideas are wonderful and are valued by many. His themes are plentiful however a main one used is the theme of nature. Frost uses nature to express his views as well as to make his poetry interesting and easy to imagine in your mind through the detail he supplies.