In “(timeless)”, E. E. Cummings uses relatively strange and uncommon methods of organization and word structure to illustrate the contrast of a man and nature being both active and passive. Cummings divided this poem into seventeen lines and nine stanzas and is actually in somewhat of a mirrored format. The center word of this poem is “StandS”. (9) The two main verbs before and after this point are “fall/i/ng” (6-8) and “lift/ing” (10-11), which are each a passive and active motion respectively. If you rewrite lines 6-9 with proper punctuation and make it one line, you get “numerable leaves are/fall/i/ng. He/[s]tand[s].” (6-9) The focus on this “he” (8) just standing there emphasizes his passiveness in this poem; he watches a leaf fall, and does nothing, giving him a sense of indifference. …show more content…
Taking the word “whose”, (3) we can create the word which vocally sounds the same: “who’s”, a contraction of “who is”. Replacing the original word, the line becomes “who is not”, which changes the line to define its subject, the man. Keep in mind that Cummings chose to put “he” (8) in the first half of this poem. This puts emphasis on how this man purely stands; nothing else. However, on the other side of the poem, this “he” is “lift/ing against the/shrieking/sky”. (10-13) As opposed to the regular course of nature where leaves are falling, we see this man going against and breaking nature instead. This “con/founds” the winds, (15-16) showing the stark contrast of the man standing and the man, who lifts and confuses inanimate objects. In this poem, we also witness a change in perspective. Cummings wrote the first half of the poem from the eyes of the man, looking at nature’s falling, which, in the eyes of a leaf, is actually pretty active. Cummings wrote the second half from the eyes of nature, watching as the man from before lifts the sky
The first aspect of language, which he uses is metaphor in the beginning of the poem when he is describing the dwarf sitting outside the church. He uses metaphor as he says, “The dwarf with his hands on backwards Sat, slumped like a half – filled sack On tiny twisted legs from which Sawdust might run.” The metaphor here of the dwarf sitting like a ‘half filled sack’ is describing the dwarf and how he has a deformed body. He is being compared to looking like a sack, which is slumped and half empty. This is effective as it seems as though the dwarf cannot help himself
Throughout history there have been many poets and some have succeeded while other didn’t have the same luck. But in history e.e. Cummings has stunned people with his creativity and exposure to the real world and not living in the fantasy people imagine they live in. Cummings was a great poet, and was able to make his own way of writing while he was also involved greatly in the modernist movement. But he demonstrates all his uniqueness in all and every poem, delivering people with knowledge and making them see the world with different eyes as in the poem “Since feeling is first”.
The poet begins by describing the scene to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and elaborates on how the sky and the ground work in harmony. This is almost a story like layout with a beginning a complication and an ending. Thus the poem has a story like feel to it. At first it may not be clear why the poem is broken up into three- five line stanzas. The poet deliberately used this line stanzas as the most appropriate way to separate scenes and emotions to create a story like format.
The speaker states, “Thus in the winter stands a lonely tree” (9), the personification in this line is obvious. A tree cannot know about the birds that have come and gone and also cannot miss them when they are gone. The effect is to intensify the poem’s mood, which expresses loss and loneliness. The speaker also says, “I only know that summer sang in me/A little while, that in me sings no more” (13-14). The summer cannot sing in someone. The personification here is also connected to the lonely tree. The brief time the speaker’s men called on her was like summer for the tree, with the birds that sung on the branches. Yet, now that winter has come the birds have gone; leaving her all alone.
The poem begins by explaining the sluggishness of time and sets the mood for the rest of the piece. The repetition of the word “slow” was employed by the author in order to emphasize that changes in life occur very slowly and may even pass unnoticed. However, it is still important to recognize that time is progressing, but it takes so long that it’s hard to realize so. The last sentence expands on this idea by introducing “palsied apples”, comparing time’s speed of movement with that of a paralyzed being. It is also important to highlight the relevance of the syntax present in the first lines of the poem, as its analysis will lead to an interesting contrast with the last stanza. Nevertheless, in the first stanza, the author describes a “copper-coated hill”, and in fact, the author continues to describe the setting of his poem by employing a variety of warm colors to capture the true essence of autumn.
In the first stanza, it is established that the poem is written in the first person, when “I” is referring to the speaker, which illustrates this person’s point of view concerning the tragedy of 9/11 during a whole day of events. The speaker begins by setting a tranquil mood as the opening of a long list of last names. In line 1, he says: “Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night.” He describes the night like a tropical tree gently swaying in a peaceful beach setting. He calmly observes the gentle raindrops dripping slowly down his windows until they disappear in “A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze, / And when I saw the silver glaze on the windows,” (2-3). For a brief moment, he enjoys going outside to his garden at sunrise to forget the sorrow that death brings when “In the morning, I walked out barefoot / Among thousands of flowers” (11-12).
Harper begins the poem by detailing the start of the speaker’s relationship with a man, developing it through the use of metaphor and concrete diction. From the first few lines of the poem, the reader learns that the relationship was destined to be futile through Harper’s use of metaphor: “If when standing all alone/ I cried for bread a careless world/ pressed
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts by telling the reader the place, time and activity he is doing, stating that he saw something that he will always remember. His description of his view is explained through simile for example “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets of their branches” (Updike), captivating the reader’s attention
The poem opens upon comparisons, with lines 3 through 8 reading, “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets/ of their branches. The maples/ were colored like apples,/part orange and red, part green./ The elms, already transparent trees,/ seemed swaying vases full of sky.” The narrator’s surroundings in this poem illustrate him; and the similes suggest that he is not himself, and instead he acts like others. Just as the maples are colored like apples, he
This change in tone echoes the emotions and mental state of the narrator. At the beginning of the poem, the narrator starts somewhat nervous. However, at the end, he is left insane and delusional. When he hears a knocking at the door, he logically pieces that it is most likely a visitor at the door.
In his poem "l(a", the words are arranged in such a way that they are falling down the page. He only puts several letters of each word on a line and then continues to spell the word down the page. The main focus of the poem is about loneliness and the words almost appear to be "lonely." He uses parentheses around the phrase "a leaf falls," which appears in the middle of the poem. The remaining letters in the poem spell "loneliness." When these are placed together in the same poem, it creates an effect that there is a leaf falling from a tree to the ground where it will be lonely because it will be separated from the tree. Cummings emphasizes the image of being alone or aloof by using two versions of the word one. On the first line, he uses the letter "l," which also looks like the number "1." On ...
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 the poem, it seems that somebody is inside his or her dwelling place looking outside at a tree. The person is marveling at how the tree can withstand the cold weather, continuous snow, and other harsh conditions that the winter brings. Witnessed throughout the days of winter by the person in the window, the tree’s bark stays strong, however the winter snow has been able to penetrate it. The tree becomes frozen, but it is strong enough to live throughout the winter until the spring relieves its suffering. When spring finally arrives, the effects of winter can no longer harm the tree. The freezing stage is gone, and the tree can give forth new life and growth in the springtime.
Lynen also states that “the struggle between the human imagination and the meaningless void man confronts is the subject of poem after poem” (6). On speaking of Frost’s nature poetry, Gerber says, “with equanimity Frost investigates the basic themes of man’s life: the individual’s relationships to himself, to his fellow man, to his world, and to his God” (117). All of these...
In the first stanza of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” you learn that there is guy looking at the woods that are owned by some other man. “He will not see me stopping here,” shows that the other guy has no idea. (Line 3) The guy is worried that he is committing an offense by looking at the woods because he does not own them. He practically steals the look at the woods. There is alliteration in the second, third, and four lines. There is a hyperbole in the fourth line that says, “To watch his woods fill up with snow.” (Line 4) He could not possibly wait until the woods fill up with snow comp...