In the story of Not Just a Platform for my Dance, Marilyn Dumont illustrates and paints us a picture of her great joy and satisfaction for the land around her. ‘This land is not/ just a place to set my house my car my fence.’ The author is explaining how she believes that our land and earth is more than just some place to park our personal possessions on. Our land and earth is something that we need to appreciate more because it is what we need in life. The author is able to teach us that we should not take advantage of this land that we have been given. ‘This land is not/ just a plot to bury my dead my seed.’ In these lines we are able to see just how beautiful our earth truly is. We may bury our dead in this exquisite earth, but we do much …show more content…
‘this land is/ my tongue my eyes my mouth.’ In this stanza, the author is able to emphasize that this land is full of life and joy. The earth is filled with nature and beautiful things to see and observe. We have an undeniable connection to nature. ‘This headstrong grass and relenting willow/ these flat- footed fields and applauding leaves.’ The author describes the willows that blow in the breeze. Within this we are able to see how nature is extremely important to Marilyn Dumont. ‘These frank winds and electric skies.’ Dumont paints the reader a picture of the blowing winds and the bright blue skies. They are the things that make our earth so magnificent. We are able to learn from the nature around us. The willows, fields, frank winds, and the electric sky are the things that represent something much bigger in our lives. ‘Are my prayer/ they are my medicine/ and they become my song/ This is not/ just a platform for my dance.’ The whole poem revolves around the idea of nature being our therapy or medicine. These last few lines of the poem displays how our connection to nature is important. The author not only has a physical connection, but also a spiritual connection to the land around
Although southern beaches in the United States were originally composed of swamp land, sand was added to cover these swamp areas in the 1950s to make them resemble traditional beaches present in other coastal areas of the world, and therefore more appealing for human use and recreation (York). In her poem “Theories of Time and Space,” Trethewey directly references these spaces that have been changed under human influence, giving navigational directions to the reader to “cross over / the man-made beach, 26 miles of sand / dumped on the mangrove swamp – buried / terrain of the past” (11-14). The words “cross over” insinuates a passing by, or traversing of the “man-made beach” without much thought by whoever is traveling over it. The scenario is further illuminated by Trethewey’s use of the word “dumped” when describing the scenery as being “buried terrain of the past,” both holding a negative connotation which hint at something being deliberately concealed under the non-native
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
“The land of limitless opportunity was able to provide a means only to position but not to prestige; to power, but not to praise; to the present but not the future; to objects but not their meaning; to persons, but not their hearts; to a house but not a home; to entertainment but not friends; to money, but not peace.”
Nature is a universal concept that nearly everyone on the planet can relate to, as well as the struggle of not knowing one’s place in the world, both of which are central themes in Mary Oliver’s poem. For example, in the opening lines of her piece Mary Oliver urges her readers not to feel guilt or shame for how he/she may be feeling via metaphors from nature, “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” (Lines 4-5) She also utilizes nature to create beautiful imagery for her readers. These images not only add to the splendor of the poem but are part of her purpose as well. An example of this is Lines 8 through 11, in these lines Oliver writes out, “Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers…” By using these examples and symbols from nature Oliver helps to communicate her message, which is that every person on the planet has the right to be comfortable in his/her own skin. When the author uses these techniques she is able to harness the pathos technique to convince her reader that she is correct in her statement within the
...ndra's face "there was that exalted serenity that sometimes came to her at moments of deep feeling." (page 170) She has 'clear eyes' (same page), with the inference being that she sees clearly now above all other times of realisation. It follows from her life and story that the land is a metaphor for nature, which is intrinsically bound up in the experience of human life.
The poem “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant reveals a very unusual aspect of nature. While most people think of nature as beauty and full of life, Bryant takes a more interesting approach to nature. He exposes a correlation between nature, life, death, and re-birth. Using nature as a foothold, Bryant exercises methods such as tone, setting, and imagery in a very intriguing way while writing “Thanatopsis.”
'[A]nd indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame the earth seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
In the first stanza, the poet seems to be offering a conventional romanticized view of Nature:
For example, it sparked the idea, or memory of how much I love nature and the outdoors, and the great sense of peace it brings to me. In an instant, it showed me how far had drifted from that mind set. I think that this poem has the capability of bringing attention to viewers of how far away all of us have drifted from nature. I think of last week when I visited Sioux Falls for the first time, I was truly shocked as I looked around and saw a large number of people so focused on their various versions of technology that they didn’t see Gods beauty passing by. I think it this piece presents a challenging new idea that the simpler times are truly gone. I believe that it has become uncommon for people to seek out the sense of peace from nature that the author describes in this poem in today’s era. It is truly incredible to me how we can tread along in the mundaneness of life, and then suddenly an old thought is drug from the dark recesses of our minds and becomes new
Furthermore the third stanza backs up this opinion of mine, “I saw it was filled. with graves”, this quote shows how the narrator only noticed the negative aspects of the chapel and not the positive religious aspects. In conclusion, there have been many natural features shown throughout. all three of the poems. The poem reflects what William Blake thinks of animals, plants, and the natural world.
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).
In “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” William Wordsworth accomplishes his ideal of nature by using personification, alliteration, and simile within his poem to convey to the reader how nature’s beauty uplifts his spirits and takes him away from his boring daily routine. Wordsworth relates himself in solidarity to that of a cloud wandering alone, “I wandered lonely as a cloud” (line 1). Comparing the cloud and himself to that of a lonely human in low spirits of isolation, simultaneously the author compares the daffodils he comes across as he “floats on high o’er vales and hills” (line 2) to that of a crowd of people dancing (lines 3-6 and again in 12). Watching and admiring the dancing daffodils as he floats on by relating them to various beauties of
The entire poem is about the interaction between nature and man. Wordsworth is clearly not happy about the things that man has done to the world. He describes Nature in detail in the second and third stanzas when he personifies the periwinkle and the flowers. He is thinking about the bad things that man has done to nature and he wants the reader to sit back and think about the fact that there used to be something so beautiful and alive, and because of man's ignorance and impatience, there is not a lot left. He also wants him to go sit in his own grove and actually see what is living and breathing and whether or not he enjoys it. Wordsworth makes it seem appealing to want to go and do this through his descriptions and thoughts, so that you get a feeling of what is there and what is being lost. He makes the reader want to go and see if those things, the budding twigs, the hopping birds, and the trailing periwinkle, really do exist and if they really are as alive as he says.
Figurative language is used by William Wordsworth to show the exchange between man and nature. The poet uses various examples of personification throughout the poem. When the poet says:”I wandered lonely as a cloud” (line 1),”when all at once I saw a crowd” (line 3), and “fluttering and dancing in the breeze” (line 6) shows the exchange between the poet and nature since the poet compares himself to a cloud, and compares the daffodils to humans. Moreover, humans connect with God through nature, so the exchange between the speaker and nature led to the connection with God. The pleasant moment of remembering the daffodils does not happen to the poet all time, but he visualizes them only in his “vacant or pensive mode”(line 20). However, the whole poem is full of metaphors describing the isolation of the speaker from society, and experiences the beauty of nature that comforts him. The meta...
As the poem progresses, the speaker’s attitude changes in (line 26), where he tells us that his mood is lowered. It is here that the speaker presents himself as “a happy child of earth” in (line 31); as once again Wordsworth... ... middle of paper ... ... / Of the unfinished sheepfold may be seen / Besides the boisterous brook of Greenhead Ghyll,” showing the growth of human beings in relative notion to nature.