As a young girl grows into a woman, she will lose her innocence eventually, making the transformation from purity to impurity. Innocence and impurity are often seen as antonyms, and qualities that cannot possibly coexist. However, William Carlos Williams suggests that passion and purity can and do coexist in his 1923 poem, “Queen Anne’s Lace.” The poem depicts a woman shifting from pure innocence to passion, while proving that though different, purity and passion may depend and flourish upon each other. The poem as a whole is a metaphor of a woman to nature, specifically a certain species of flower, which accurately represents the growth that occurs within her. Women are often compared to nature in poetry, as it represents their beauty and delicacy, much like Williams did in this poem. Queen Anne’s lace is a white flower with a purple spot in the middle, also called the flower’s “beauty mark.” Douglas Verdier from Poetry for Students points out that the name of the flower alludes to the face of a queen, being fair and pure (189). Queen Anne’s lace is also a hardy flower that is able to thrive in many environments, supporting that the woman of the poem is beautiful yet strong (Stephenson). The metaphor to this flower shows the man’s adoration towards the beauty of the woman in the poem. As the poem progresses, the flower blooms underneath the touch of the man, representing that their passion for each other allows her spirit to bloom just as a flower does. Philip Jason notes the effectiveness of Williams’ metaphor to Queen Anne’s lace, writing, “…it is mainly through metaphor that he transforms his observation, his still life, into a dynamic field of action that reveals the life and energy hidden.” Just as Jason proves, the metaph... ... middle of paper ... ...rdier also elaborates on the contrasting meanings of white, saying: “Whiteness continues to permeate Williams’ canvas, suggesting perhaps that the kind of purity which dominates his pastoral scene is also essential in the sort of love such a scene brings to mind” (190). Here, Verdier is pointing out that when white represents both innocence and desire, it proves that passion and innocence rely on each other, as he says that purity is essential to the love shown in the poem. At the end, the speaker mentions whiteness yet again, saying, “a pious wish to whiteness gone over-/or nothing” (Williams 20-21). This wish to whiteness was a wish of the woman’s, and wish that has been satisfied, or “gone over.” This shows that the woman desired the man’s passion all along; it was the key to her ultimate fulfillment. Her wish was the whiteness, “or nothing” (Williams 21) at all.
The speaker begins the poem an ethereal tone masking the violent nature of her subject matter. The poem is set in the Elysian Fields, a paradise where the souls of the heroic and virtuous were sent (cite). Through her use of the words “dreamed”, “sweet women”, “blossoms” and
...ots her memory, the blossoms her dreams, and the branches her vision. After each unsuccessful marriage, she waits for the springtime pollen to be sprinkled over her life once again. Even after Tea Cake's death, she has a garden of her own to sit and revel in.
Symbols are one of those most important things to a story. They share the meaning of themselves, as well as the meaning for something else. Symbols usually make the important ideas stick out as well as make the reader have different ideas of what is actually being said. One of the many symbols in “Paul’s Case” is flower’s. From violets to carnations, the flowers Paul talks about are ones of many meanings. The flowers represent a continual motif, expressing Paul’s character.
The excerpt is plastered with a plethora of pictorial diction to depict Keller’s undying love for nature. Keller displays that she can still observe the beauty of nature even after having gone blind and deaf, describing how she recognizes items based on their characteristics. The butterfly lilies based of the “fragile petals that resemble butterflies’ wings” or the leaves and blossom that indicate a “beautiful vine.” Continually she connects events of her life with nature through pictorial such as when she first walked due to her attraction towards “the flickering shadows of leaves.” Moreover, Keller creates asyndeton multiple times to portray the power held within herself and reinforce the beauty of nature. In the second paragraph Keller writes, “I came, I saw, I conquered,” depicting the vast amount of willpower held within herself. The lack of conjunctions ups the pacing of how the passage is read and displays how fast her first months as a child passed. In addition, asyndeton is employed as Keller describes the seasons that pass by before her illness. This enables the reader to understand how that time passed by rapidly, but Keller’s love for nature developed to greater lengths. In this excerpt from Keller’s autobiography she develops the notion that for her love
In order to completely grasp exactly how the old maid appears to the woman on the sidewalk and the love she feels for the man walking with her, Sara Teasdale uses personification to describe the characters in the poem. One would be, “Her soul was frozen in the dark/ Unwarmed forever by love’s flame.” Obviously, a person’s soul cannot be frozen, but the meaning is that the old maid had never felt a heated intensity between herself and someone special to her which could give her a cold outlook on life. Another time the poet uses personification is when the speaker states, “His eyes were magic to defy”. Eyes cannot be magic. By saying that his eyes were magic the reader can get the notion that when the speaker looks into the eyes of her lover she feels awed, happy, or even entranced. Sara Teasdale also uses a metaphor in her work, “Her body was a thing growing thin,” In that line the speaker is comparing the old maid’s draining body to something that can get thinner. The poet uses a rhyme scheme of rhyming the second with the fourth line and there are four lines in every stanza. Finally, in this narrative poem there are eight syllables per line of the poem.
The speaker uses metaphors to describe his mistress’ eyes to being like the sun; her lips being red as coral; cheeks like roses; breast white as snow; and her voices sounding like music. In the first few lines of the sonnet, the speaker view and tells of his mistress as being ugly, as if he was not attracted to her. He give...
This distinction between filth and purity was called into question by Joe Weil in “Ode to Elizabeth”, where Weil overlaps filth and purity in the city of Elizabeth; also by Nicolás Guillén in “What Color?”, where Guillén negates color from the definition of purity; and also in William Carlos William’s “This is Just to Say”, where Williams provides a sense of purity in a world full of filth. These poems combined show how the distinction between filth and purity is not as easy as black and
In Herrick’s poem, he uses a metaphor of a flower which may be at full
Comparing The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd. and the stark contrast of the treatment of an identical theme, that of love within the framework of pastoral life. I intend to look at each poem separately to give my interpretation of the poet's intentions and then discuss their techniques and how the chosen techniques affect the portal of an identical theme. The poem The Passionate Shepherd to His Love appears to be about the Elizabethan courtly ideal of living with the barest necessities, like.
"The Yellow Violet" vividly expresses the nature of life in a very simple way. Bryant takes the cycle of a yellow violet and uses it to describe the humanistic world around him. It is very clever, too, that when he does this, he uses personification. A "modest flower" (2674) pops out from the dark, damp leaves below and "[makes] the woods of April bright" (2675). While the rest of the forests and fields go on with their life cycle this tiny flower does itsí best to make things pretty and happy. The persona describes this sight as an "early smile" (2675) and that is what kept a smile on his own face. Even the various blooms and colors that surface in May are not as joyful because when the violet blooms, it is the first color you see after a long winter of gray. This modesty of the meek flower is compared to that of a person. It's usually the poorer, less known people in the world that are the ones who really cheer you up. They will never let you down. As the persona in the poem points out, "So they, who climb to wealth, forget" (2675). This is the most important line of the entire poem. It is basically saying that those who are wrapped up in material things are just th...wrapped up. They are not dependable. Thus, the yellow violet is the modest person, which are far and few, who you can always count on to stand by you in the end and brighten up your day. This is the illustration of the nature of life.
When a comparison is made between There is a Garden in Her Face by Thomas Campion and Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare, the difference between lustful adoration and true love becomes evident. Both poems involve descriptions of a beloved lady seen through the eyes of the speaker, but the speaker in Campion's poem discusses the woman's beautiful perfections, while the speaker in Shakespeare's poem shows that it is the woman's faults which make her beautiful.
The theme throughout the poetry collection is the emotion of melancholy and the speaker speaking with a wise and philosophical tone. She has also used the repetition of nature and religion-based implications in her poems. Most of the poem titles is named after a specific plant because it fits in the meaning of her entire poem collection. The title of the poems hold symbolism because of the flower language. You can constantly see the cycle of rebirth through the beautiful description of a nonphysical form of a soul and develop into beautiful flowers in her garden. The vivid imagery of the flowers by describing the color and the personification of these living beings. She is also trying to explore the relationship between humans and their god. The poet is a gardener who tends to the flower and she prefer the flowers in her garden over her god, “knowing nothing of the
This poem speaks of a love that is truer than denoting a woman's physical perfection or her "angelic voice." As those traits are all ones that will fade with time, Shakespeare exclaims his true love by revealing her personality traits that caused his love. Shakespeare suggests that the eyes of the woman he loves are not twinkling like the sun: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (1). Her hair is compared to a wire: "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head" (3). These negative comparisons may sound almost unloving, however, Shakespeare proves that the mistress outdistances any goddess. This shows that the poet appreciates her human beauties unlike a Petrarchan sonnet that stresses a woman's cheek as red a rose or her face white as snow. Straying away from the dazzling rhetoric, this Shakespearean poem projects a humane and friendly impression and elicits laughter while expressing a truer love. A Petrarchan sonnet states that love must never change; this poem offers a more genuine expression of love by describing a natural woman.
This poem according to Poet Mordecai Marcus, alludes to a painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard called “The Swing” which depicts a woman swinging on swing with several women on the ground below. Behind her is a ray of light hitting her and dense forest. Also in the background of the painting there is a snowy mountain. Williams uses simple body parts of the woman and relates them to more complex aspects of nature, for example, Williams writes “Your thighs are apple trees whose blossoms touch the sky” (qtd. in “Portrait of a Lady”). Williams also compares the woman’s knees to nature when he writes “Your knees / are a southern breeze-or / a gust of snow…” (qtd. in “Portrait of a Lady”). Williams in this poem may be showing respect for this woman or in fact any woman. This may allude to Williams respect for his female patients. Professor Barry Ahearn believes Williams wrote this poem to try and address a poem of praise to the lady. Later in the poem though the lady seems to reject the praise or tries to take the attention off of her when she says “Which Shore?” (qtd. in “Portrait of a Lady”). Barry Ahearn also believes the woman in the poem seems to want a larger context for the metaphor “Your thighs are apple trees” (qtd. in “Portrait of a Lady”). The woman may have tried to take the
Sir Thomas Wyatt is credited as one of the first poets to bring the sonnet form into English literature, a form in which the speaker’s sincerity for, most commonly, a distant mysterious woman whom he loves, is believed to be the focal point of the poetry. From the selection of works which Wyatt wrote we can see many point in which the focal point is seemingly the earnestness of his love for his muse as authenticated by what he states in the poem itself. However, there is a sense of underlying meaning throughout his works which the reader must tease out themselves to see that that in fact is the focal point of his poetry.