“The Snow Man”, by , is a written representation of how “one”, we humans, interpret reality different using our imagination and opinions. Reality is what you make of it, if you were to compress this poem into one sentence. As we are provided with two realities, the presence of winter and how the presence of winter is interpreted in our minds. It could be a harsh, bitter winter or tranquil and beautiful. The poem being one sentence, evokes constant thought even though there is a shift midway through. The physical appearance (reality) and mental interpretation (imagination) of winter are balanced to recognize the 2 types of listeners. The first, “would hear a "misery in the sound of the wind, the other listener would hear nothing more than the
sound of the wind”. Leading back to the theme, which is imagination vs. reality.
“Winter Evening” by Archibald Lampman, and “Stories of Snow” by P.K Page are two poems describing the human experience of winter. Winter is seen, by some, to be blissful, magical and serene. Winter could also be described as pure and heavenly, with the white snow resembling clouds. However, others have a contrasting viewpoint; they paint winter in harsher light, giving the impression that winter is bitter and ruthless. Others still, have a mixed viewpoint and may recognize both the positives and negatives to the season.
Without the use of stereotypical behaviours or even language is known universally, the naming of certain places in, but not really known to, Australia in ‘Drifters’ and ‘Reverie of a Swimmer’ convoluted with the overall message of the poems. The story of ‘Drifters’ looks at a family that moves around so much, that they feel as though they don’t belong. By utilising metaphors of planting in a ‘“vegetable-patch”, Dawe is referring to the family making roots, or settling down somewhere, which the audience assumes doesn’t occur, as the “green tomatoes are picked by off the vine”. The idea of feeling secure and settling down can be applied to any country and isn’t a stereotypical Australian behaviour - unless it is, in fact, referring to the continental
Kim Addonizio’s “First Poem for You” portrays a speaker who contemplates the state of their romantic relationship though reflections of their partner’s tattoos. Addressing their partner, the speaker ambivalence towards the merits of the relationship, the speaker unhappily remains with their partner. Through the usage of contrasting visual and kinesthetic imagery, the speaker revels the reasons of their inability to embrace the relationship and showcases the extent of their paralysis. Exploring this theme, the poem discusses how inner conflicts can be powerful paralyzers.
“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, “My Father as a Guitar” by Martin Espada, and “Digging” by Seamus Heaney are three poems that look into the past of the authors and dig up memories of the authors fathers. The poems contain similar conflicts, settings, and themes that are essential in helping the reader understand the heartfelt feelings the authors have for their fathers. With the authors of the three poems all living the gust of their life in the 1900’s, their biographical will be similar and easier to connect with each other.
As characters in the poem are literally snow bound, they find that the natural occurrence actually serves a relaxing and warming purpose, one that brings together family. This effect is further achieved through the use of meter throughout the work as a whole. In its simplistic yet conversational tone, the author uses meter to depict the result that nature has forced upon these humans, who are but a small sample size that actually is representative of society that that time. Due to nature, the characters can talk, represented by the conversational meter, and thus, they can bond within the family. A larger representation of this more specific example can be applied to a more general perspective of human’s relationship with the natural world. Although “Snowbound” captures what humans do as a result of nature, it can also represent a larger picture, where nature appears at the most opportune times to enhance relationships from human to human. In “snowbound,” this is symbolized by the fire, “Our warm hearth seemed blazing free” (Whittier 135). This image relays a spirited, warm, mood full of security, which is expertly used by the author to show how fire, a natural phenomena, can provide such beneficial effects on humans. This very occurrence exemplifies how such a miniscule aspect of nature can have such a profound effect on a family, leaving the reader wondering what nature and its entirety could accomplish if used as a
Tobias Wolff is framing his story Hunters in the Snow, in the countryside near Spokane, Washington, where three friends with three different personalities, decided to take a trip to the woods for hunting in a cold, snowy weather. The whole story follows the hunting trip of these three friends. The reader can easily observe that the cold, hostile environment is an outward expression of how the men behave towards one another. Kenny, with a heart made of ice is rather hostile to Tub, while Frank is cold and indifferent to Tub and his pleas for help.The environment is matching the characters themselves, being cold and uncaring as the author described the two from truck when they laughed at the look of Tub: “You ought to see yourself,” the driver said. “He looks just like a beach ball with a hat on, doesn’t he? Doesn’t he, Frank?”(48). Near the beginning of the story the cold and the waiting surely creates an impact in the mood of the character. Tub is restless from the wait and the cold adds on to it. He complains about being cold and Kenny and Frank, his friends tell him to stop complaining, which seems to be very unfriendly. Wolff builds up the story on the platform of cold weather and the impact of the cold on each character slowly builds up.
Surprisingly, the snowman is “nonetheless content,” taking responsibility for his own action, so he has nothing to complain about because he is satisfied as a snicker. Ironically, “having no wish to go inside and die,” knowing if he go inside, he’ll melt as if the boy wouldn’t. On the other hand, Wilbur conveys the snowman’s use of various words and phrases such as “element” “trickle” “purest rain, a tear” because he is so touched by the innocent boy, he is willing to melt a little of his life to drop a very little amount of his pity for the boy and becomes emotional at the sight of the boy’s pity for him, even though he is where he supposed to be. Foremost, “ bright pane” differentiates the two of them because it has a double meaning which can be misunderstood how the connotation is used, which is told in two different points of view in the poem and unlike location.
Winter-Piece, by Charles Tomlinson, depicts the effects of the wintery season; blinds are drawn, windows are sprayed with hail and possibly rain and snow. The fierce wind closes the gates ‘like gunshot’. Birds, like crows, are coerced to fly away leaving behind them a home which they once loved, due to the cold that deprives them of the provision of food. The spider ends up frozen to death, ‘ death-masked in cold ‘ yet it does not let go f its grip. Through the thick snow, the house peeks out behind ‘its holed and ragged glaze ‘, which highlight sense if destruction and mutilation.
After reading and listening through the first paragraph the boy is lonely inside the house which is using the connotative device throughout. Then the boy shows his emotions as he weeps for the snowman by being outside. The snowman would melt by the rain, wind, fire, or the heat was really touching on how the boy felt. The real touching point is the child fears for the snowman and is sad for the snowman. While the snowman pities the child for knowing fear when he is surrounded by, “such warmth, such light, such love, and so much fear” (Clugston). Wilbur a poet wrote this poem about what he experienced when he was witnessing his son wondering why the snowman could not come inside and join the family. After all, “the poet said was about an actual boy looking out of an actual window at an actual snowman, so how could it possibly be about man in an over-industrialized world, a boy refusing to grow up, or a comparison of civilized man and primitive man, as some people claim” (Elisa, Reza, and Kim)
“The Snow Man,” by Wallace Stevens, dramatizes a metaphorical “mind of winter”, and introduces the idea that one must have a certain mindset in order to correctly perceive reality. The poet, or rather the Snow Man, is an interpreter of simple and ordinary things; “A cold wind, without interpretation, has no misery” (Poetry Genius). Through the use of imageries and metaphors relating to both wintery landscapes and the Snow Man itself, Stevens illustrates different ideas of human objectivity and the abstract concept of true nothingness. Looking through the eyes of the Snow Man, the readers are given an opportunity to perceive a reality that is free from objectivity; The Snow Man makes it clear that winter can possess qualities of beauty and also emptiness: both “natural wonder, and human misery”. He implies that winter can also be nothing at all: “just a bunch of solid water, dormant plants, and moving air.” (The Wondering Minstrels). “One must
Once upon a time, I encountered Robert Frost’s “Design.” I generally despise romanticized depictions of nature, and Frost nearly lost me at “dimpled spider.” But I kept reading, and I quickly found this spider not to be a coloring-book critter, but a devil like creature, toying with the remains of a moth as if it were child’s play. In fact, what lurked behind this seeming meditation on divine still life was a malevolent, godless order, or lack thereof. For the first time, the idea that traditional poetic devices could be used nontraditionally, as opposed to creating new devices, was brought to the surface. And of course, “Design” was but the tip of the iceberg. One might
While the lyric is intended to be effortlessly reasonable, a few words that are utilized by Ice are imperative. Principal among these is the utilization of the word want. The purposes behind the decision are clear, seeing as it jams the rhyme plan in a superior way. In any case, in the way in this poem that longing is utilized, the word is typically desire, not fancy. Desire conveys with it a more profound, more impactful essence. By utilizing wish rather than desire, which is a more extensive word pertinent to more things, Ice is comparing straightforward yearning with desire, in this way giving the word a darker relationship inside the connection of the ballad, which works better for the production of his notice with regards to the propensities for mankind. "Tasted" likewise assumes a part as a noteworthy decision with respect to Ice. It makes synesthesia, relating the dynamic idea of yearning to a relatable human sense. In doing this, Ice adds a layer of multidimensionality to the ballad, giving it a bigger premise for the comprehension of its intending to the pursuer. Likewise,
Cougy was surprised that his idea of going to the mountings had gained enough respect from the leader that Snowy went up to the mountains. Then again snow leopards do live in the mountains. But the problem was food. No one could function properly with out food. “Everyone wants to get the honey from the beehive” thought Cougy as he sat down on a rock suddenly a people where screaming. Acorn was rushing around holding the beehive above her head being chased by the whole group. They where after the honey for food.
This entire poem uses words that paint very vivid images of gorgeous winter, lovely dark woods and peacefulness, which inside causes a certain friction or tension. Also there is a sense of darkness in the poem, such as in the "darkest evening of the year"(8) and "The woods are lovely, dark and deep"(16). And the fact that the poem takes place in the isolated woods, there is a certain quality of peacefulness and stillness being portrayed as in the "frozen lake"(12) and "The only other sound's the sweep/Of easy wind and downy flake"(11-12). "Between the woods and frozen lake"(7). This notion of being in between those two things is a significant tension in the poem. Therefore without these exact words, this poem could lack several layers of meaning and emotion. Just below the surface there is the sleep/death metaphor, and the undercurrent of gentle longing for death tinges the surface with a melancholy that reinforces and plays off the night and winter images. But the imagery of the poem quoted above creates in the reader the actual feelings of peace, beauty and tension; these actual feelings make up a range of experience entirely different from the experience of the rational thought that sums up the poem.
The first stanza of the poem is rather simple and provides the basis for the imagery. It mentions the woods and implies that they are located away from town and civilization "his house is in the village though". It also shows the easy pace that speaker is taking, having plenty of time to simply watch the falling snow. As I think about them, the words of the first stanza are not overtly somber, they do however through their order and the way they were chosen create a rather pensive mood.