The poem “Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas retells a story of a joyous child on a paradise described farm. Its title suggests a connection with nature to the text as the diction meaning for a fern hill, is a plant. The piece is written in six stanzas, nine lines each, is filled with strong messages and meaning throughout. The use of religious allusions can further propose a spiritual background for the speaker. As well, the poem is written with many poetic devices that reveals a strong idea of time within the poem. These fragments together create the concept of “time waiting on no one” as the main impression.
To start with, “Fern Hill” consists of many themes with the use of diction and connation throughout each stanza in the poem. A happy childhood was one of the obvious themes as the speaker describes his youth like a prize. For example, he begins with, “[…]I was young and easy under the apple boughs[...]” (Thomas 1). The diction of the words clearly shows he is describing his experiences as a young child. Likewise, in the first stanza he says, “About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green” (2). This clearly suggests the speaker spent time in a lilting house as a child, but as well the diction of the word “lilting” means to be cheerful and buoyant. Basically meaning the speaker is explaining his wonderful childhood.
The poem overall was positive and uplifting; the speaker even uses the scenery of the farm around him to help express his joy as a youth when he explains “… I was green and carefree, famous among the barns/ about the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,” (10-11). The use of “happy yard” shows one of the many times the speaker combines nature with the emotion of happiness together to pr...
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...ixth stanza that the speaker’s view changes dramatically. He explains, “Oh I was young and easy in the mercy of [time] means” (52). The use of the word “oh” shows the upset of the speaker when realizing his days as a youth would come to an end and he has grown up. The entire quote shows how time went from being his friend to something that took advantage of him by taking away his infancy. This poem essentially screams the overall message of time waiting on no one.
As a final point, the poem “Fern Hill” clearly shows the main message of “time not lasting forever.” The use of devices such as, allusions to religions to create a heaven like atmosphere easily portrayed themes which allowed for a better understanding of the speaker’s perception and how concept of time played a key role.
Works Cited
Thomas, Dylan. Fern Hill. London: Phoenix, 1996. Print.
Nature, that washed her hands in milk” can be divided structurally into two halves; the first three stanzas constitute the first half, and the last three stanzas make up the second half. Each stanza in the first half corresponds to a stanza in the second half. The first stanza describes the temperament of Nature, who is, above all, creative. This first stanza of the first half corresponds to stanza four, the first stanza in the second half of the poem. Stanza four divulges the nature of Time, who, unlike Nature, is ultimately a destroyer. Time is introduced as the enemy of Nature, and Ralegh points out that not only does Nature “despise” Time, she has good reason for it (l. 19). Time humiliates her: he “rudely gives her love the lie,/Makes Hope a fool, and Sorrow wise” (20-21). The parallel between the temperaments of Nature and Time is continued in stanzas two and five. Stanza two describes the mistress that Nature makes for Love. This mistress, who is made of “snow and silk” instead of earth, has features that are easily broken (3). Each external feature is individually fragile: her eyes are made of light, which cannot even be touched, her breath is as delicate as a violet, and she has “lips of jelly” (7-8). Her demeanor is unreliable, as well; it is made “Only of wantonness and wit” (12). It is no surprise that all of the delicate beauty Nature creates in stanza two is destroyed by Time in stanza five. Time “dims, discolors, and destroys” the creation of Nature, feature by feature (25-26). Stanzas three and six complete the parallel. In the third stanza, the mistress is made, but in her is “a heart of stone” (15). Ralegh points out that her charm o...
The poem can be very touching to those who understand its true meaning. Dana Gioia was able to take this poem that was about a death of a young boy and turn it into something beautiful allowing him to live forever. This story is not only about the mourning of a lost soul, but about the beauty of life itself. Dana also allowed to reader to understand the compassion she had for the speaker. Without verbally saying it she used symbolic images to interpret the hurt and pain the man experienced from the loss of this unborn child. Instead of the common Sicily tradition for planting a tree for the first born child, the speaker does what he feels will honor his son. The sequoia is planted to compensate for the time he has lost and to outlive the child’s family. T
This poem is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It is blank verse. Although it doesn't rhyme, each line relates to the one before it. The tone of the poet changes throughout he poem. At first it is sad. Bryant uses words such as guilt, misery, sorrow, and crimes to explain the world. Than when he begins explaining how the woods are the answer to your problems, the tone becomes happy. In the middle of the poem, Bryant talks about birds singing, breezes, and happy, soft, nice things that can happen if one uses the woods as a playground, and finds comfort in them.
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.”
The story opens by embracing the reader with a relaxed setting, giving the anticipation for an optimistic story. “…with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green (p.445).”
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 work “Leaves of grass” was written by Walt Whitman, an American poet of the 19th century. Whitman titled his work with this suggestive name for the reason that he loved simple people; and as the humble people, leaves of grass are the most simple and healthy among the living things. The poetry book “Song of Myself”, included in the work “Leaves of grass”, is contrary to what its name suggests, a song inspired by humanity, of which each one is part.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) was an Argentine short-story writer and essayist best known for his fiction that focused on the interconnected themes of labyrinths, dreams, religion, and time. Specifically, the idea that time can bifurcate, and that all time is occurring simultaneously are pivotal to a large portion of his writing. This essay will focus on this ideas, along with other temporal themes, providing an in-depth analysis of time throughout the body of his works, with a specific focus on The Garden of Forking Paths. Further, this essay will endeavor to answer the question of whether or not Yu Tsen’s and Stephen Albert’s views on time are in accordance with the conclusions pertaining to Borges’ time.
One of the most repeated symbols in this poem is the image of the hill. It is repeated in four stanzas. In the first stanza of the poem, the hill is mentioned as “the ideal of Virginia brochured with goldenrod and loblolly” (2-3). This hill is specifically in Virginia and is the image looks like something that is on a brochure with beautiful nature. The hill is mentioned again in the second stanza: “It is a certain hill the one I imagine when I hear the word “hill”...and this hill would be still beautiful” (1-2, 5-7). There is an obvious image of a hill that the persona is depicting. Hills in general have a top and a bottom. I believe that the hill in this poem represents the ups and downs of the persona’s life and how the persona depicts the hill as beautiful lends to him being optimistic about life. Berman writes about the hill again in the fifth part of the poem: “The hill out my window is still looking beautiful suffused in a kind of gold national park light” (300-301). The last mention of the hill is in the twenty third stanza the first two lines read: “I walked out of the hill behind our house which looks positively Alaskan today”. The hill is now mostly covered with snow due to the Alaskan mention. You cannot tell what the hill looks like with the snow covering it, which represents how the persona feels about his life. Another symbol is the persona’s dogs. Dogs are normally symbolized as being kind and loving animals, a man’s best friend. The second stanza of part five is: “I’m watching my dog have nightmares, twitching and whining on the office floor and I try to imagine what beast has cornered him in the meadow where his dreams are set”. This stanza represents that the persona as a young person. The persona feels that he has not lived out his dreams yet, but he cannot achieve them because he is not happy. The dog is again mentioned: “but I was with our young dog and he was running through the tall grass like running
The author foreshadows an ironic ending at the very beginning by establishing a cheerful setting. The story occurs “around ten o’clock” on June twenty-seventh, a time of day that is very bright and joyous and a time of year that is warm and makes people feel happy. The town’s physical setting also contributes to the overall “normal” feeling of the story. The grass is described as “richly green,” and the flowers are “blossoming profusely.”
"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.
Robert Herrick’s poem “Corinna’s going a Maying” at its surface is a love poem from a young man to his lover asking her to come with him to celebrate the festival and activities that surround the famous May Day. But on a deeper examination of the poem’s core is a lesson about exploring and experiencing our days before they fly by “as fast away as do’s the Sunne”(61). Within the last stanza (lines 57-70) the apprehension towards time is used to persuade Corinna to experience life before it begins “decaying” like time always does (69).
In “The Echoing Green” the speaker chooses to use words such as “our” and “they” which gives a warm and thoughtful impression of people being together (9 and 14). Unlike “The echoing Green,” “The Garden of Love” uses the singular pronoun “I” (2 and 9). The use of the singular pronoun conveys that the speaker no longer has the close companionship that he felt he had as a child. Though the experience of growing up the speaker now seems to feel alone in the world.
Andrew Marvell in his poem describes a young man convincing his fair mistress to release herself to living in the here and now. He does this by splitting the poem up into three radically different stanzas. The first takes ample time to describe great feelings of love for a young lady, and how he wishes he could show it. The idea of time is developed early but not fully. The second stanza is then used to show how time is rapidly progressing in ways such as the fading of beauty and death. The third stanza presses the question to the young mistress; will she give herself to the young man and to life? Although each stanza uses different images, they all convey the same theme of living life to the fullest and not letting time pass is seen throughout. Marvell uses imagery, symbolism, and wonderful descriptions throughout the poem. Each stanza is effective and flows easily. Rhyming couplets are seen at the ends of every line, which helps the poem read smoothly.
The Author presents the poem in a narrative argumentative point view from a son to his dying father upon his final moments. The imagery and symbolism of the Thomas’s reflections on his feelings of childhood and death become evident the approach the poem through psychological analysis. Thomas is addressing his father from the perspective of why he should fight death, giving valid reasons that the father cannot refuse. The imagery and symbolism show the connection between nature and the soul, whereas psychological aspects of Dylan Thomas’s life must be evaluated from his relationship with his father.