Theme Of Phoebus

Waller struggles to establish control over his emotions and thus create a clearly-defined boundary between what he should and should not feel. Immediately suggested from the title, alienation serves to… . In effect, Waller not only makes a separation between his physical and mental being, but between himself and his love as well. For example, if banished, one would be suddenly cut off from familiar habit, but might retain former emotional links and sentiments. Furthermore, rather than directly addressing himself in the title, the (described) “self” equates rather to a foreign thing. Lost between the displaced pieces of his existence, Waller cannot fully move on from his love until he unites them. As he strives to make sense of the situation and himself, he conveys a full spectrum of

As Phoebus, or God of the sun, “bears the rage” (15) with his “tainted blood,” Waller briefly loses control over his intellect, thus further deepening the divide within his sense of self. In addition, the mythical allusion to Phoebus strays from any rational thought and combines with light and fire imagery and movement of words to exert a darker meaning within the stanzas. Specifically, while the alliterations of “spring” and “sun” (9) and “shafts” and “shun” (11) individually graft together to connote similar sentiments of warm awakening and latter …, they contradict each other when put face-to-face. Moreover, the harsh, cutting tone of the “sh” sound intensifies the negative undertone of these words. Throughout the third and fourth stanzas, these phrases work together to signify movement within Waller’s frame of mind; while he moves forward with the “new sun” (9), the harsh shunning of “shafts” causes feelings to stagnate. Further still, the shot through his veins starts the emotions up