Comparison Of Dorothy Livesay And A November Landscape

499 Words1 Page

People interpret poems in many different ways. We are told that there is never a wrong of interpretation when it comes to using our sense of imagination, but what if the author of the poem wants to come across a specific perspective? Both poems, “A November Landscape” written by E.J. Pratt, and “Winter” written by Dorothy Livesay, are two great examples of poems in which the authors want a specific point to come across. While both poems express clear and different meanings in their stanzas, they have more in common than what meets the surface of the page. The two poems are quite similar in tone, one of which is dark and somber. The poem “A November Landscape” gives us readers the feeling of hopelessness and sorrow. This tone is justified due to the bleak vocabulary E.J. Pratt uses. In the first stanza, third line, he expresses the land’s deprivation of life. “... a land bereft of bird …show more content…

With that said, the initial tone in both poems change in their last stanzas. The poem “A November Landscape” begins with a very dark and somber tone, until it switches to a much lighter tone it’s fourth and last stanza. The word “yet” at the end of the third stanza signifies a change in tone as E.J. Pratt begins to present images of Spring, “This was the story told six months ago, When April lured the crocus through the snow.” Those images help express new life and hope for the better to come. On the other hand, the poem “Winter” starts off with a very somber tone, but changes to a much brighter one, then appears to slowly become somber once again. In the second stanza, we are introduced to the idea of a blossoming Spring, “Heal up the wounds, breathe freedom on the earth, Throw all her singing on the barren air… ” but that idea is quickly cut off by Winter suddenly reintroducing itself. The last two words of the poem “bitter breath” end it on a very dark and cold

Open Document