Therefore, I’ll use one of Matsuo Basho’s poems to prove some of the points stated above. A caterpillar is a Haiku the Zen poet, Matsuo Basho, wrote and an English poet, Robert Hass, translates this version. “A Caterpillar/this deep in fall/still not a butterfly.” (Basho/Trans. Hass, 1-3) When reading this haiku, I had to sit on its meaning a couple of times and noticed that there were words used in this translation that referred to time like “still” and “fall.” I imagined the caterpillar dangling from a branch eating a leaf. There are two contrasting themes in this poem, which is a signature feature of a haiku. This caterpillar does not reach the transformation of becoming a butterfly. The transformation signifies a growth theme in this poem. …show more content…
The “deep” in line 2 gives a shadowy characteristic to the Caterpillar. Another example is another Matsuo Basho poem Winter Solitude translated by Robert Hass. “Winter solitude –/In a world of one color/The sound of wind.” (Basho Trans. Hass, 1-3) When I read this poem it gave me the image of an unoccupied street engulfed in a sea of white snow at nighttime With a. I noticed that usually when a Poem decides to include winter it either has a trait of loneliness demise and sadness. The theme of loneliness is existing through the lines by using the words “solitude”, “one”, and it ends by revealing to us that the only sound that can be heard is the “wind.” This poem uses sight and sound to allowing us to experience what Basho is trying to convey. The loneliness created by the void of colorful colors replaced with the uniform white and the hushed echo of a hollow wind leads to the perception of the emptiness of the scene he is looking …show more content…
Forgetting that it is an art form, the haiku is deceivingly easygoing to the beginner’s untrained eye as it is the simplest form of poetry. No person is able to grasp the meaning of a haiku just by reading it shortly or quickly. They must be fully digested before coming to a conclusion on what it is trying to convey. As Haikus show instead of telling, they are able to invoke feelings of familiarity. Author Alan Watts gives an interesting view when he says “a true haiku is a pebble thrown into the pool of a listener’s mind, evoking association out of the richness of his own mind.” He Also says that the haiku ”invites the listener to participate” with the poem as it takes thinking and understanding in order to get past the word level and get to the deeper meaning. You don’t want to be like the child who just adores the words and then forgets them, the Haiku is meant to be an expressive view on nature. The Nature theme of Haikus doesn’t just pertain to the outside environments but also can refer to human nature, animalistic nature, as well as natural events. Haikus Usually appeal to those who can see this connection and make their own opinions about it’s meaning rather than be taught the meaning. By cutting off the “fatty” unnecessary things, the haiku lets the mind work and gives us a time of Heightened awareness due to its use of time, space, the senses and nature. It allows us
The first two lines of the poem set the mood of fear and gloom which is constant throughout the remainder of the poem. The word choice of "black" to describe the speaker's face can convey several messages (502). The most obvious meaning ...
The opening stanza of "The Raven" introduces the reader to an isolated man in his study on a "dreary" night reading old books and trying to stay awake. The silent solitude is broken by someone or something "tapping" on the door (lines 1-3). The speaker then explains that he had been secluding himself among books in an effort to shut out the mournful pain from the recent death of a girl named Lenore. It was December, the darkest month of the year, in the middle of the night. This contributes to the speaker's depression, and his isolation further enhances it. He may be trying to avoid his misery and self-pity, but he is also wallowing in it by sitting in a lonely study and reading ancient books on a December night. Independent and private study is perfectly acceptable; however, the speaker is not seeking knowledge but rather a "surcease of sorrow" (line 10). The cause of his sadness is not the isolation, but it greatly contributes, and even heightens, his blue emotions. The surrounding conditions of darkness and solitude, combined with the loss of his beloved, are sinking him into feelings of melancholy. Overall, it is mainly his seclusion among these factors...
"The Raven" shaped two important images: a young man with a crow. Sad man just lost the woman he loves, he attempted to immerse yourself in the book in order to forget the pain, but all in vain, the more he read, the more erosion of loneliness and grief; while the symbol of death and ominous crows, but at midnight, flying into this man who often meet with the deceased lover Leinuo hut. In addition, the poet also created two poems on the subject of imagery plays an important role. One is black, "pure tone can make people happy or to generate a sense of depression". Throughout the poem uses a black background; make the reader feel depressed, so men feel the heart of the fear and grief.
Also, the structure of the haiku is entirely simplistic - this reflects Basho’s and Sora’s humble way of life. In only 17 sylla...
...s darkness which is displayed as his shadows. Slipping into silence is like someone slowly slipping in through a door into a room but then, as if surprised, there is a cry or a yell. As the man trails, or follows, the music gets more and more quiet until it is as faint as a small sigh. At the end of the poem, the quiet noise is like when an accordion is folded into its box and makes a faded noise.
Each poem describes a scene where a man learns from his experience and interaction with nature. In “The Meadow Mouse” the man instantly finds himself a father-figure to the mouse that he finds. When the mouse leaves, he thinks of the dangers of nature such as, “the turtle gasping in the dusty rubble of the highway.” From his instant love and pain of losing the mouse, he learns how he truly feels about nature. Set in a different scene, the fisherman in “The Fish,...
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
This is a very lyrical poem. The speaker's emotions and intentions are made very clear in very inconspicuous ways. The subtle repetition of certain words and images give the poem a very distinct tone. For example, the repetition of the words "cold" and "brittle" in the description of the grass and the car seats is interesting. It adds an element of fragility or ephemerality to the poem. The prevalence of cold imagery is also remarkable. The cold setting seems to freeze not only the grass, but the moment in time at which the speaker is in. The icebox 'full of lightness of air' could be an ...
She describes the September morning as “mild, benignant, yet with a keener breath than the summer months.” She then goes on to describe the field outside her window, using word choice that is quite the opposite of words that would be used to describe a depressing story. She depicts the exact opposite of death, and creates a feeling of joy, happiness, and life to the world outside her room. After this, she goes into great detail about the “festivities” of the rooks among the treetops, and how they “soared round the treetops until it looked as if a vast net with thousands of black knots in it had been cast up into the air”. There is so much going on around her that “it was difficult to keep the eyes strictly turned upon the book.” Descriptions like these are no way to describe a seemingly depressing story about a moth, but by using these, joyful descriptions, Woolf connects everything happening outside to a single strand of energy. These images set a lively tone for the world around her, and now allow her to further introduce the moth into the story.
In the poem “The Raven” Edgar Allan Poe wrote about grief, sadness, and depression. He is writing about a young girl named Lenore. She is depicted as pure, beautiful, and the very thing that the main character lives for, his beloved Lenore. When he loses her, he is sent into a spiral of depression. This leads him to believe that a black raven pecking at his door was sent by Lenore. Through out the poem “The Raven” Poe uses many things to illustrate the theme darkness, such as the words he so carefully uses, the symbols that are chosen, and the description of everything.
“We pluck and marvel for sheer joy. And the ones still green, sighing, leave upon the boughs…” (14-16). This emphasis on nature reflects the respect and connection to the natural world the culture was trying to convey in their poetry. The colorful and illustrative descriptions of the physical world are indicative of the mindset and focus of these poems. Namely the fact that they were concerned with the world around us and the reality we experience as opposed to that of abstract concept of god or the supernatural as seen in other historical texts. This focus on nature is important because it sets the context in which the major theme of loss and separation originate from. In this poem the poet chooses to emphasize the passing of time in the choice of comparing the two seasons. Spring, in which life begins a new, and fall, in which the leaves begin to fall off and die. The poem reads “And the ones still green, sighing, leave upon the boughs- Those are the ones I hate to lose. For me, it is the autumn hills” (15-18). This juxtaposition of these two
The narrator seems sad throughout the Poem (Poe, “Raven”). He is always giving the reader the gloomy feeling as if it is dark and vacant (Colwell). The narrator has beautiful Poetry and many of his Poems make people who read it feel sadness or pity (Eddings). It was December and all the dead wood cast its shadow on the floor (Poe, “Raven”). The narrator kept wishing for tomorrow (Poe, “Raven”).
The poem talks about people being sick of society, and want to be isolated from it. Even in the first line, he made an analogy between December being dark and dingy, by saying "A winter's day - in a deep and dark December." The month of December is usually likened to being cold, dark, and 'dangerous'. He also says that it is a lonely December in the second line where he says "I am alone gazing from my window to the street below" he feels left out, and now wants to be left alone, like an island, or a rock. Like in the second poem, where he says that he "has no need of friendship."
The poem consists of an undeniable narrative structure. Told from the third person, Poe also uses symbolism to create a strong melancholy tone. For instance, both midnight and December symbolize an end of something and the hope of something new to happen. Another example is the chamber in which the narrator is placed, this is used to show the loneliness of the man.
9. The speaker of this poem tries to simplify nature and fate as much as he can so that he can jump over them with his poetry. This is an allusion for society today as many seem to believe that we can somehow find a way to cheat death or at least extend life expectancy as if nature did not even exist. Both the speaker and society today fail to realize that nature and fate is not something you can control so no matter how much effort is put in it won’t