“I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” Sarah Williams may have alluded to another matter when she articulately wrote this line of The Old Astronomer, but in the context of this line alone, it still holds truth. The night is often represented as a frightful place, full of shadows and mischief, but some, like the astronomer, can find comfort and tranquility in those dazzling lights. Living in the second story of my house, I often reach as high as I can to experience the tranquil wonders of the night.
As I stumble through my window, I feel the cool metal roof on my feet. Slowly tiptoeing across, I make it to the ledge of the second story of the roof. My hand slides across the grit of the shingles as I turn around
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There are no monsters around the corner or pollutants engulfing me because I am surrounded by air alone and I am in the presence of only the stars. The air is thin, but it’s fresh and tastes like water after a long run (simile). Once I quiet my thoughts, I can hear the ballads played by the symphonies of insects, each with his own melody, but coming together to form a greater masterpiece (metaphor). If I wait patiently enough, I might even hear the solo of a mourning bird, wishing the night away so it can dance in the sky once more (personification). Bells ringing from the church across the street overtake the melody, and the repetitive waves lull me as I redirect my focus to the …show more content…
Stars, connecting and reconnecting, endlessly forming different shapes, are the most captivating sight man has ever beheld. One star becomes a bit brighter as another approaches and asks it to dance; the two then waltz across the endless platform of the night sky with only one thing outshining them. The moon sits wistfully on her throne as she watches all the stars clinging to life, for she has no eligible partner. There are times, with many years between, that she dances with the sun, making the world dark as night, and tricking the insects to sing for them in the daylight, but the sun is now resting and the moon is left with only cheerful memories. The moon, with all her mysteries, unceasingly enchants me as she so longingly desires to be like the stars, dancing endlessly in the night. Little does she know that no star of the night could ever compliment her enchantment, as they would simply be outshined by her; only the sun, who lights the day could ever deserve the light of the moon. The magnificence of the night sky will overtakes my imagination as I picture countless stories taking place at once. Tranquility overtakes me as all of this beauty pushes out any other thoughts I
In the first stanza the sentence, “it’s a singular, human thud”, this line creates a picture in the mind that there’s feel of isolation and lonesomene...
He begins with a shift, “ There they are, the moon’s young, trying/ Their wings.” (5-6), these lines make a shift because the tone before this line is more quiet and lonely, the tone after this line sounds more exciting. Then, he starts to talk about what he feels when he sees the birds, “There wings” here indicates the birds, and the birds is a metaphor that represents the inspiration in author’s life. “ young” and “trying” here allude to author himself, the author is trying to say that he is still young and he should still carry hope in his own darkness just like the birds. Right after that, he sees the woman, “ Between trees, a slender woman lifts up the lovely shadow of her face,” (7-8) the author uses “ slender” and “lovely” these two words to describe the “woman” which we can tell how excited the author is to see someone else show up in this lonely and dark field. This part might also allude to the author’s love or hope of his life. The author then uses “ and now she steps into the air, now she is gone/ Wholly, into the air.” (8-9) to finish the twist or climax of the poem, then again the tone turns into peaceful but more lonely. In this line, has a repetition of “O” sound, so it is an assonance, and the “O” sounds has a hallow feelings which express that the author is really sentimental when the women is gone. In the line 8-9, there is a repetition of “she”, it
The poem uses many literary devices to enhance the meaning the words provide. The poem starts at the beginning of the story as the moon comes to visit the forge. The moon is said to be wearing “her skirt of white, fragrant flowers” (Lorca 2) as its bright light penetrates the scene. The poem states “the young boy watches her, watches. / The young boy is watching her” (3-4). The repetition of the phrase emphasizes the young boy’s infatuation with the moon. The scene is set with intensity by the phrase “electrified air” (5) and a tense feeling is brought into the poem. As “the moon moves her arms” (6), she is given traits of being alive and having her own human qualities. Personification of the moon into a woman exemplifies the desire that the child would have for the woman, and creates a more appealing form for the moon to appear as. The child cries, “flee, moon, moon, moon” (9) with urgency, showing his concern for her. He warns her “they would make with your heart / white necklaces and rings” (11-12). This refers back to the metaphor that the moon is made of hard tin, but still personifies her by giving her a heart. The moon is additionally personified when she says “ young boy, leave me to dance”(13). She has now taken the form of a sensual and erotic gypsy dancer furthering the desire of the young boy. This brings Spanish culture to the poem because gypsies are known to travel throughout Spain. The mo...
“Her face was fair and pretty, with eyes like two bits of night-sky, each with a star dissolved in the blue.” This elaborate simile creates a mental image of the natural beauty of the young princess, Irene, by comparing her eyes to the night sky. The simile also parallels the depth of Irene’s soul to the dark, endless night sky.
The sun has been an endless source of inspiration, both physical and spiritual, throughout the ages. For its light, warmth, and the essential role it has played in the maintenance of the fragile balance of life on earth, the sun has been honored and celebrated in most of the world's religions. While the regeneration of light is constant, the relative length of time between the rising and setting of the sun is affected by the changing of the seasons. Hippocrates postulated centuries ago that these changing patterns of light and dark might cause mood changes (9). Seasonal downward mood changes of late fall and winter have been the subject of many sorrowful turn-of-the-century poems of lost love and empty souls. For some, however, “the relationship between darkness and despair is more than metaphoric (6).
"Several changes of day and night passed, and the orb of night had greatly lessened, when I began to distinguish my sensations from each other. I gradually saw plainly the clear stream that supplied me with drink, and the trees that shaded me with their foliage. I was delighted when I first discovered that a pleasant sound, which often saluted my ears, proceeded from the throats of the little winged animals who had often intercepted the light from my eyes. I began also to observe, with greater accuracy, the forms that surrounded me, and the boundaries of the radient roof of light which canopied me. Sometimes I tried to imitate the pleasant sounds of the birds, but was unable. Sometimes I wished to express my sensations in my own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from me frightened me back into silence."
These lines may seem confusing if not read properly. At first look, these might not make sense because the night is acquainted with darkness, but when the lines are read together as intended, one can see that the night is “cloudless” and filled with “starry skies” (1, 1-2). The remaining lines of the first stanza tell the reader that the woman's face and eyes combine all the greatness of dark and light:
“The Starry Night” by Anne Sexton describes her experience of visiting Van Gogh’s painting during a gallery showing. Anne Sexton’s Poem “The Starry Night” is written in reference to Vincent Van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night sent to his brother. She writes this poem with a heavy hearted tone, and the understanding of Van Gogh’s work to be a destructive painting, full of darkness and longing for death to come. Sexton views the town at the foot of the hills as decaying and silent as it slowly disappear below the starry night. More importantly Sexton sees the tree that looks like the hair of dead woman drifting in the blue sky which is like a serpent that is sly and deceitful. Like the understanding of the evil of the sea in the times of the ancient near east, she saw the swirling sky similarly. Through this she then sees the night like a beast that brings chaos and destruct, removing all that is beautiful. For she says the even the eleven starts, so beautiful with the moon will be swallowing up by the beast of the night. She writes as if all of this was once beautiful and a source of life to this earth, however is now destroyed, and source of longing for the destruction of life.
To persuade his audience and build credibility for his argument, Bogard uses personal anecdotes, health and ecological concerns, rhetorical questions, and activities that are present to preserve darkness. Bogard starts off by narrating his personal story, where he spent summer on a Minnesota lake where the “woods so dark that [his] hands disappeared before [his] eyes.night skies in which meteors left smoky trails of sugary spreads of stars.” By telling his to his readers, Bogard asks the audience to remember the time where they fully recount themselves in natural darkness full of stars and void of artificial lights. By pulling his audience with a description of nature and the beautiful imagery that creates a feeling of respect for the darkness, Bogard establishes a point to clarify that natural darkness has its beauty that only authentic darkness can possess. There are “nocturnal and crepuscular species of birds, insects, mammals, fish and reptiles” out of which, “400 species of birds that migrate at night in North America, the sea turtles that come ashore to lay their eggs—and some are not, such as the bats that save American farmers billions in pest control and the moths that pollinate 80% of the world’s flora.”
Within the piece, Emerson states, “If stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generation…’But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile” (240). Emerson highlights a very common yet flawed trait possessed by many, in which something frequently present is taken highly for granted. Since stars are such a common sight, their presence is not often appreciated, however, if they only made a rare appearance in the sky, they’d be admired much more. Therefore, Emerson’s use of metaphor creates a more abstract way of conveying this hidden message in nature with his use of the stars. Furthermore, Emerson once again shows his Romantic views as he ties in imagery when he states, “But the same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with melancholy today” (242). The imagery used helps show that the surroundings of one, base around the way they feel. When one feels happy, they see all the beauty surrounding them, and it is as if the whole world feels the same way. However when one is feeling down it is hard for them to see all the beauty of nature surrounding them. This insight reveals Emerson’s message and utilizes nature once more to show how it even plays a role in one's mood. All
Great poetry is thought to never be fully understood by readers and even by those that devout their career and time to being experts on it. People can spend countless hours analyzing a poem, but may never fully understand exactly what the author was writing about. Readers must both compare and contrast different works and prior knowledge to draw conclusions about poetic pieces. In Emily Dickinson’s poem written in 1862, first published in 1935, “We grow accustomed to the Dark“, and Robert Frost’s 1927 poem, “Acquainted with the Night”, the two poems both convey the unrelenting darkness and night in the world. Although, Frost has often times written about the beauty of nature in his poems, if you take a close look, there can be a dark connotation
Bogard appeals to pathos, the reader's emotions, and tugs at the reader's heartstrings. By asking, “Who knows what this vision of the night sky might inspire in each of us, in our children or grandchildren?” Bogard draws out importance about the affecting power of an untainted night sky. He relates the problem to others' experiences, families, and future generations to better get the point across. Through the emotion Bogard induces, readers suddenly feel defensive in preserving the darkness for the sake of their mental and physical health.
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud – An Analysis I chose the poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth because I like the imagery in it of dancing daffodils. Upon closer examination, I realized that most of this imagery is created by the many metaphors and similes Wordsworth uses. In the first line, Wordsworth says "I wandered lonely like a cloud. " This is a simile comparing the wonder of a man to a cloud drifting through the sky. I suppose the wandering cloud is lonely because there is nothing up there that high in the sky besides it.
The street is quiet, and seems like it is dead. The sounds I can hear are the leaves rustling in the breeze, and the pitter-patter sounds of raindrops falling on the ground. Together, they compose a brilliant song of nature. No din from the high-school students, no irritating noise from the car. No one, not even a soul dares to make a sound to disturb this moment. Everything is silent, as if it isn’t even alive, just like a ghost street that only emerges in the mid-night and will vanish when the first sunlight strikes down from the sky. Wet dirt mixes with the smells of perfumes that left behind by people suffuse the air. Making me think of the mixture of sodas and expired apple juices.
The poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is about the poet’s mental journey in nature where he remembers the daffodils that give him joy when he is lonely and bored. The poet is overwhelmed by nature’s beauty where he thought of it while lying alone on his couch. The poem shows the relationship between nature and the poet, and how nature’s motion and beauty influences the poet’s feelings and behaviors for the good. Moreover, the process that the speaker goes through is recollected that shows that he isolated from society, and is mentally in nature while he is physically lying on his couch. Therefore, William Wordsworth uses figurative language and syntax and form throughout the poem to express to the readers the peace and beauty of nature, and to symbolize the adventures that occurred in his mental journey.