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Contrast and compare poems
Contrast and compare poems
Contrast and compare poems
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Nature expresses beauty in marvelous ways as it is also mysterious in particular ways that make us wonder. In the lyric poems “Ode to Enchanted Light”, written by Pablo Neruda, and “Sleeping in the Forest”, written by Mary Oliver, both poets express their appreciation for nature through the poems. The poets use their personal style of writing by using certain elements to express their thoughts about nature within the lines of the poem. Both writers had used figurative language in their writing to convey their perspective on nature similarly but also differently.
In the poem “Ode to Enchanted Light”, the writer uses simile to describe the element in nature, light, that he praises in his poem. He says, “...light / like a green / latticework of branches / shining / on every leaf / drifting down like clean / white sand.” These words give a sense of soothingness and calmness, as Neruda is trying to describe nature in this way. He also uses metaphor as he says, “The world is / a glass overflowing / with water.” Neruda may be saying how nature is abundant with our needs as it provides
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She says, “I thought the earth / remembered me, she / took me back so tenderly, arranging / her dark skirts, her pockets / full of lichens and seeds.” The figurative language Oliver uses here can be identified as personification as the speaker describes how the earth cared for her as if she were at home, similar to how a mother would do to her child. She also says, “...but my thoughts, and they floated / light as moths...All night / I heard the small kingdoms breathing / around me…” Simile and personification is used in this section of the poem as the speaker describes how her thoughts floated like moths, and the kingdoms around her “breathing” in the night. From the examples given, we can suggest overall that Mary Oliver views nature as home and is alive
Mary Oliver uses the vivid descriptions to show how she saw the first snow. Oliver accounts for every scene of the beauty she encountered. In this poem, she shares many different images, all which have very intense and powerful meanings. She used words such as smolder, glitter, and shining to show an intense way to describe snow. For example “the broad fields/ smolder with light” (Oliver 645, 24-25), which means the fields glisten mildly. Also “Trees/ glitter li...
“Trees of the Arctic Circle” and “Heat” depict nature as having its faults such as the trees being a disappointment in Purdy’s case and the weather being too intensely hot in Lampman’s case but by the end of each poem find clarity is almost essential not only physically but internally. The two works give nature characteristic views as well as personification that differ from 20th century modernist works to impressionist ideals upon nature. Both poems bring out realizations in ones self within coming to terms with shifting out of the negative to a positive and demonstrating that nature is always capable bring out
Nature’s beauty has the ability to both entice its audience and frighten them. Mary Oliver in her passage explains her experiences with the two sides of nature. Her experiences with the owls elicit both an awe response and a frightened one. In connection, her experiences with a field of flowers draws a similar response where she is both astonished by them and overwhelmed. Oliver’s complex responses display the two sides of nature. It's ability to be both captivating yet overwhelming in its complexity. In “Owl” Mary Oliver uses descriptions of nature demonstrated by owls and fields of flowers in order to convey her complex responses to the two sides of nature.
Nature is a universal concept that nearly everyone on the planet can relate to, as well as the struggle of not knowing one’s place in the world, both of which are central themes in Mary Oliver’s poem. For example, in the opening lines of her piece Mary Oliver urges her readers not to feel guilt or shame for how he/she may be feeling via metaphors from nature, “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” (Lines 4-5) She also utilizes nature to create beautiful imagery for her readers. These images not only add to the splendor of the poem but are part of her purpose as well. An example of this is Lines 8 through 11, in these lines Oliver writes out, “Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers…” By using these examples and symbols from nature Oliver helps to communicate her message, which is that every person on the planet has the right to be comfortable in his/her own skin. When the author uses these techniques she is able to harness the pathos technique to convince her reader that she is correct in her statement within the
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.”
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
Image is everything. We can make even the most disturbing scene seem poetic by just adding a few birds, trees, or a river. Poetry is one of the mediums that use this mask. In Singapore by Mary Oliver, imagery plays a very important role. She writes a poem about a poor woman she saw in an airport in Singapore washing an ashtray in the toilet, seem like the woman was encompassing a beautiful scene in nature. A poem is always a beautiful thing, so she wrote a poem about this woman making her a metaphor to the serene image of nature. Although the poem seems to be a beautiful inspiration, it really is a way of her rationalizing her disturbed perception of the woman to nature in the poem. She also uses a very interruptive style of writing by jumping from what she is physically seeing, to what her mind's eye is creating.
Oliver sets up her poem as a monologue with an implied audience (or at least a companion), as we see when the poem says; “calling us back”, “the darkness we expect” and “assailed us all day”. These expressions
The beginning of the poem one word stands out more so than others. In line 2, 3 and 5, the word ate can be interpreted literally, as if she physically ate bodies of bees or the different parts of the tree. I believe that she uses this term allegorically. The word ate can be used as a means of consumption or to take in. Oliver does not really mean that she took bites out of the tree, but she absorbed the
The poem “Risa del monte, de las aves lira” starts off with a praise of nature’s beauty: “Risa del monte, de las aves lira, pompa del prado, espejo de la aurora, alma de abril, espíritu de Flora por quien la rosa y el jazmín respira; aunque tu curso, en cuantos pasos gira, perlas vierte, esmeraldas atesora, tu claro proceder más me enamora que cuanto en ti naturaleza admira (Villamediana).” Here, Villamediana gives nature human qualities. The mountains laugh, the birds sing, the meadow has pomp, the seasons have a soul, and the flowers breathe. In this poem, nature is seen as a living, breathing part of our world,
The conceit in line 8, “like an iceberg between the shoulder blades” (line 8), illustrates the briskness death emanates whilst taking the life from the warmth of your body. This ice and fire comparison coaxes the reader to pursue the unwelcoming thought of death as the adverse path to travel by. By no means does Oliver attempt to romanticize the idea of a brief and painless endeavor. Furthermore, the recurrence of cessation illustrated by the “hungry bear in autumn” (2) simile suggests the seasonal regularity death’s toll takes on the living. The presence of frequency characterizes the shift in forbearance to the acceptance of the inevitable. Oliver is caught up in reminiscent thought as she employs worldly imagery to describe life. For example, in lines 15-16 Oliver writes “and I think of each life as a flower, as common / as a field daisy.” This line stands out in the fact that it represents the first occurrence of communal thought. Describing each life as a “flower” in a “field” suggests that life is supposed to be about the people whom you surround yourself with, and less about the solidarity that stems from the notion of darkness. Oliver’s implication of poetry and down-to-earth imagery captures not only the progression of thought, but also her feelings towards the concepts of life and
In the first stanza, the poet seems to be offering a conventional romanticized view of Nature:
Nature is often a focal point for many author’s works, whether it is expressed through lyrics, short stories, or poetry. Authors are given a cornucopia of pictures and descriptions of nature’s splendor that they can reproduce through words. It is because of this that more often than not a reader is faced with multiple approaches and descriptions to the way nature is portrayed. Some authors tend to look at nature from a deeper and personal observation as in William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, while other authors tend to focus on a more religious beauty within nature as show in Gerard Manley Hopkins “Pied Beauty”, suggesting to the reader that while to each their own there is always a beauty to be found in nature and nature’s beauty can be uplifting for the human spirit both on a visual and spiritual level.
Through the ingenious works of poetry the role of nature has imprinted the 18th and 19th century with a mark of significance. The common terminology ‘nature’ has been reflected by our greatest poets in different meanings and understanding; Alexander Pope believed in reason and moderation, whereas Blake and Wordsworth embraced passion and imagination.
Many poets are inspired by the impressive persona that exists in nature to influence their style of poetry. The awesome power of nature can bring about thought and provoke certain feelings the poet has towards the natural surroundings.