“Sestina” by Algernon Charles Swinburne’s is about how quick life goes by and how abruptly death appears. It is, of course, a Sestina which has six stanzas with six lines and ends with three lines. This Sestina has an a and b rhyme scheme, meaning that every other line’s last word rhymes. An example of the a and b rhyme scheme is “day” the last word in the first line and “way” the last word in the third line, or “Night” the last word in the second line and “light” the last of the fourth line.
The main way the poem gets its point across is with imagery. Swinburne starts his poem with imagery saying, “I saw my soul at rest upon a day / As a bird sleeping in the nest of night,” (Lines 1-2). Right away he uses Imagery and a simile to paint a
…show more content…
Saying he was “…born into this solitude” (Line 6). He then once again brings up the cleansing power of rain by saying those who die in it are blessed like the rain absolves them of sin.
He then says while dying in the rain would clean you of your sins, he prays no one he’s ever loved is dying tonight. He is most likely talking about soldiers at war because he goes on to say, “Like a cold water among broken reeds, / Myriads of broken reeds all still in stiff,” (Lines 13-14). He’s description the countless numbers of “broken reeds” in the water as “still in stiff” leading you to believe they are not really “reeds” on a cold water but bodies in a field.
Toward the end, he tries to show his empathy with the fallen soldiers and those who loved them. He says the rain had also “dissolved” someone he’s loved. This changing the imagery of rain from a storm that’s simply cleansing everything to a storm of destruction. It’s like the rain has changed from something he almost admired to something who stole something precious from him. With that line, he changes the rain from something romanticized, to something that matches his tone throughout the poem. Rain becomes something that dissolves one soul, happiness, and loved
There are multiple examples of visual imagery in this poem. An example of a simile is “curled like a possum within the hollow trunk”. The effect this has is the way it creates an image for the reader to see how the man is sleeping. An example of personification is, “yet both belonged to the bush, and now are one”. The result this has is how it creates an emotion for the reader to feel
Throughout the entire chapter, Morrison uses the rain as irony to depict the nature of loss and renewal through Paul ‘s experiences while in Alfred Georgia. At Sweet Home, Paul D
He wakes up from a sleepless night and speaks of a scene taking place in a hospital tent. He speaks of three dead soldiers he saw in the tent that were unattended , one old, one young, and one nor old or young. He goes into slight detail about each of the soldiers physical characteristics which gives the reader insight on the different ages of the men. The narrator correlates the last soldier to jesus christ and states that he think he knows him and that is face is that of christ himself. The short poem ends on the line “Dead and Divine and brother of all, and here again he
Wright utilizes personification to provide the narrator with an amplified empathy through the personal reflection required in order to experience the sympathetic suffering accounted for by the physical remnants of a lynching. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker describes the scene as “guarded by scaly oaks and elms” (ln. 2) thereby stating nature guards and preserves memories of the atrocities of society, despite certain distortions associated with time. By presenting the woods with this lively quality, Wright emphasizes the eerie qualities of the world in preserving the scars of inhumane acts dealt through society’s hand. Once recognizing nature’s preservation of the memories, Wright implies that the speaker remains capable to unearth the scene in which they are to experience sympathy and empathy. The speaker then discovers “white bones slumbering” (ln.4) which presents the bones with the human ability of sleeping. This in return suggests an ironic twist crucial to the development of the poem. By suggesting the bones are in mere rest, this also renders bones capable of awaking from their rest. As the speaker continues, the bones as well as the other elements described suddenly “awake” and reform thereby creating a shift in the visual experience of the...
It is clear from even the beginning that The Storm would have mention of water, considering that the first paragraph ends on a torrent of rain. However, other images of water included bring other notions to mind than the usual calm, melancholy mood that accompanies the pouring rain. The repeated imagery of water used besides the rain, such as the beads of respiration on Calixta’s head and the accumulated moisture on a window pane embody the emotional renewal and healing of Alce and Calixta and subsequently, their behavior towards their families after the affair.
Right after the line, “final uneasiness.” (16) the poem’s intended audience changes. The audience shifts from lovers and their experience with love to a more specific person/intended individual love to him. This is important to understand because it further demonstrates the emotions the speaker has. After the shift, the speaker says “Love, if you love me,/….Be for me, like rain,” (17-19). In this he is demanding that if someone wants to love him or be with him they need to be like rain. The image of rain falling outside is something simple and beautiful. Rain, to some people can be a calming sensation to feel on their cheeks. It is interesting how rain is used in a positive light to describe love because rain is not something one would typically assimilate to love. Rain is beautiful, like love, but to compare the two to illustrate a meaning is thought-provoking. Why would the speaker use rain to describe love? Possibly because it is beautiful like love and has characteristics one may desire in love? This may be true, but conversely it can be assumed that love is difficult to comprehend and that through the use of something out of the ordinary maybe some understanding of the abstract emotion can be facilitated. At the end of the poem the speaker leaves his intended audience with the final phrase of “Be wet/ with a decent happiness.” (23-24). This final phrase is significant because it tells the audience and those who desire
Home, the one place where one can always head back to, is nonexistent in the poem, and it is an essential part of living. One can analyze the meaning when he or she understands what he is conveying while he watches the chicken hawk “looking for home.” Wright also takes the time to mention the "empty house," leading to the question why is the house empty? It is unusual for houses to not contain anything internally such as furniture; the adjective "empty" can be seen as describing his life. He relates himself to the chicken hawk, but not only does he not possess a home, he is alone. At times in the poem, moments are present where he describes several of the images in the singular tense while the rest is plural. “The bronze butterfly” and “blowing like a leaf” both hint of his loneliness compared to the other moments such as “the cowbells” and the “two pines.” Being alone is a fear humans have, and in this case, he is by
At the beginning of the song in the lines, “I want you as you are not as you ought to be, Won’t you lay down your guard and come to me,” Hawk Nelson relates how people should stop striving to reach perfectionism. No one existing on this earth at any point in time (except Jesus) can live without sin; rather, they can seek forgiveness from God and accept his everlasting love. “Drops in the Ocean” suggests that God always stands with his arms opened wide, waiting for His people to repent and come to Him for forgiveness, grace, and redemption, for only through repentance can anyone fully experience the greatness and power of His grace and love. Likewise, the most prominent part of the song, the chorus, reminds listeners of the greatest love ever shown and the greatest gift ever given to mankind. In addition to their stated meaning, the lines “If you could count the times I’d say you are forgiven, It’s more than the drops in the ocean…” also imply that God’s love surpasses the size of the ocean and suggest that He washes away the stains of sins like water cleansing the unclean. Within these lyrics lies a significant truth about God’s love: no matter what, it lasts forever. Hence, the infinite number of “drops in the ocean” represents the infinite number of times that God forgives—His love knows no limits. Overall, Hawk Nelson emphasizes God’s love in “Drops in the Ocean” and this theme plays
The poem “ We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks demonstrates many elements of poems including various figurative languages and theme to rely the strong message of the poem. The poems theme is enhanced by the usage of poems element of figurative language, by using musicality and identification. The usage of both elements helps the reader understand and imagine the actual setting, while reading the poem.
The first stanza introduces the setting of a play and the main idea of the poem with the use of romantic descriptions and figurative language. Poe’s use of figurative language compares the setting to other personified traits that are coherent to the romantic era. Poe writes, “An angel throng, bewinged, bedight/ In veils, and drowned in tears,” personifying the tears is used to create a powerful description to set the scene of the poem. Poe also uses personification to describe the mood of the play with this description, “ While the orchestra breathes fitfully/ the music of the spheres.” Poe’s use of the personification to describe the orchestra and the life like beauty that it makes relates to the romanticism of the time period. This part of the play describes the accord of the play between all the aspects of life, but as the poem, at some point, denies the romanticism, it is ultimately destroyed. As the romantic mood changes drastically, the romantic aspect only elaborates more about the horror found in the gothic style. Although the poem describes a play, the figurative meaning defines much larger ideas such ...
...o be correct. Hemingway uses rain as a sign of death, sadness or to give one of his characters the state of being afraid. The despair brought by rain, Frederic says „ good-bye to [Catherine], and then „[leaves] the hospital and walk[s] back to the hotel in the rain". The rain described as he walks home represents again a cleansing in which Tenente will be forced to start a whole new life now.
The poem uses powerful language to achieve effect. It often makes use of imagery, exaggerated language and onomatopoeia to create an atmosphere of the English autumn, for the reader. Language such as this excerpt from the first stanza,
Rain has always been an important symbol in life. It is one of very few actions that can be both destructive and harsh, but at the same time constructive and life-giving. Throughout literature the visual image of rain is usually connected to feelings of sorrow, death, and despair. The most commonly known example of this would be in Hemingway’s “Farewell to Arms”. Hemingway uses the rain to tell of peoples negative emotions, so it is easy to take that idea into other readings. Outside of literature, however, rain is seen as being connected to positive thoughts of growth, prosperity and cleansing. In this story of adolescent love the author uses the presence of water to saturate the subjects with these positive feelings.
... life and how it has been touched by death. It also resembles how it will be his time to die as well sooner or later and how he will not be afraid to accept it and not turn back. The bird leads him to believe that he is walking to his death and that the white tail feather is telling him to surrender and not turn back, but in the end he doesn’t. Robert Frost was influenced by the country side of New England where he spent most of his life. Frost loved the rural life, nature and used simple and natural patterns of speech in his poetry. The subjects of his writings were also very simple just like his life in New England. Despite the simplicity of his poems they were also a universal representations of common situations. He had perfect meters and rhyme and his poetic images were great even though the simplicity of his style which classifies him among the greatest poets.
The poem starts off dark and dreary often rousing images of death. The first four stanzas establish the time and setting of the poem. There was a curfew around the time that this was written and the first line supports this. It was wrung at eight o’clock as a signal for extinguishing fires and marked the end of the day. The first stanza also includes a “plowman”(line 3) who, after a hard day , is on his way