Mary Oliver?s poem, ?Egrets?, frantically runs the reader through a labyrinth of feeling, imagery, and uncertainty. Dragging the reader beyond Oliver?s dirt path, through the hostile environment of a jungle, then to a great pond occupied by majestic egrets. The background of the speaker is unknown, the moment in time can not be truly determined because egrets live in tropical climates and the environment described in the poem can not distinguish the exact area which the poem is taking place, thus, the moment in time which this poem takes place can not be determined. The speaker, possibly an adventurer, is running through some sort of forest off of the path set to their impending doom within the jungle. By the means of imagery, questions of the significance of fire, light, and dark have risen from this poem, rushing the reader through the forest to then admire the pond and egrets, Oliver?s poem leaves the reader in question of the difference between faith and logic.
The poem is structured to the templet of three main sections. The first section, lines one through thirteen, discusses the physical and mental anguish of life while living in a chaotic environment. The speaker says that ?the path closed down and over?, suggesting that there is nothing to follow forward nor is there something to follow back, implying that ambiguity and uncertainty is the mind set of the poem. Never stopping, the speaker moves ?through scumbled leaves, fallen branches... knotted catbrier? and ?thorns?, these inevitable pains and hardships which the speaker encounters during his or her journey into the beyond. This section elevates at the point where ?the mosquitoes smelled? the speaker, increasing the sense of danger by the use of paranoia of mosquitoes ?wheeling and whining? toward the speaker.
In the second section, lines fourteen to twenty-four, the speaker seems to reach her destination and with the use of metaphors describes what she sees. The speaker describes the pond as ?black and empty?, all that can be seen is a bundle of reeds. But to the speakers surprise, this pond was not as empty and lifeless as she had thought, the reeds were actually a small group of egrets, three to be exact.
First of alll, the poem is divided into nine stanzas, where each one has four lines. In addition to that, one can spot a few enjambements for instance (l.9-10). This stylistic device has the function to support the flow of the poem. Furthermore, it is crucial to take a look at the choice of words, when analysing the language.
As he slouches in bed, a description of the bare trees and an old woman gathering coal are given to convey to the reader an idea of the times and the author's situation. "All groves are bare," and "unmarried women (are) sorting slate from arthracite." This image operates to tell the reader that it is a time of poverty, or a "yellow-bearded winter of depression." No one in the town has much to live for during this time. "Cold trees" along with deadness, through the image of "graves," help illustrate the author's impression of winter. Wright seems to be hibernating from this hard time of winter, "dreaming of green butterflies searching for diamonds in coal seams." This conveys a more colorful and happy image showing what he wishes was happening; however he knows that diamonds are not in coal seams and is brought back to the reality of winter. He talks of "hills of fresh graves" while dreaming, relating back to the reality of what is "beyond the streaked trees of (his) window," a dreary, povern-strucken, and cold winter.
He pulled his dripping trunks from the line where they had hung all through the shower, and wrung them out. Languidly, and with no thought of going in, I watched him, his hard little body, skinny and bare, saw him wince slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy, icy garment. As he buckled the swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death.” White is finally beginning to see it is no longer himself in his son but his son is growing up and White is only getting older. On the other hand, Thoreau is giving the visual of the pond itself over time and as the seasons change the details and perspectives of the pond are all becoming something else. As the seasons pass the way the pond changes and the view and elements around it
Though the way it relates to people in the 19th century and the way it relates to the modern world greatly differs, the symbolism in the poem and shift in tone throughout it shows a great appeal to human nature, and how desperate one can be to change it. The symbolism in the poem paints a ghastly picture of a man’s life, falling apart as he does his best, and worst, to keep it safe from himself. In lines 1 through 8 (stanza one), he gives a brief description of an incident in his life where things have gone wrong. “When the tiger approaches can the fast-fleeting hind/Repose trust in his footsteps of air?/No! Abandoned, he sinks into a trance of despair,” He uses these lines to show the lack of control he has over his actions, how his will to change his circumstances has weakened.
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
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts by telling the reader the place, time and activity he is doing, stating that he saw something that he will always remember. His description of his view is explained through simile for example “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets of their branches” (Updike), captivating the reader’s attention
Personification is presented by the author as the only explanation for the narrator’s consumption. “The Blue Estuaries” begins to stir the narrator’s own poems (line 24) until she bores down on the page once more, coming back into what is perceived by the reader as a much more clear state of mind. Then, the narrator claims to have “lost her doubts” for a moment (line 34). This was a turning point in the narrator’s tone- signalling a shift in her thoughts, and was a strikingly out of place claim- especially coming from somebody so preoccupied- making the reader wonder what she had thought about for a moment. The narrator then begins to read once more (Line
In the stage being the first stanza of the poem Child and Insect the reader meets a little boy who is excited and euphoric because he has managed to catch a grasshopper. The rhythm of the poem is very fast and lively. An evidence for that is the onomatopoeia “clockwork fizz” which describes the insect’s movements as sudden and quick, comparing its legs to the hands of a clock too. It also illustrates its desperate attempts to escape the small palm of the boy described by the opening line of the first stanza “He cannot hold his hand huge enough.” Furthermore, not only the grasshopper’s movements are swift but the boy’s motions as well, shown by the run on line “He races back, how quick he is, look”. This line further emphasizes the rhythm of the poem and the energetic mood it creates. The run on line could also be interpreted as a representation of the child’s speech which is cut and uneven because of his cheerfulness and need for a breath. Moreover, the word choices of the author particularly words such as “snatched”, “quick”, “look”, “sudden” help to reinf...
In the beginning of poem, the poet states: "In the shade of the banks. / Here, every spring I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied / Specks to range on window sills at home,"(Line 10-12). These lines show personal tension because it's an something only the narrator experiences. The poet's use of tension allows the reader to appreciate the narrators depth. In the next lines, the poet states: "On shelves at school, and wait and watch until / The fattening dots burst, into nimble / Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how" (Lines 13-15). This is an example of public tension, because he is discussing something that happened at school where other students attend, and his teacher is remarking on his frog eggs. This use of this public tension builds an innocent feeling for this poem, so the ending makes a more powerful impact on the reader. It is also here to remind readers that the narrator is a child. And finally, the poet states "when fields were rank / With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs /Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges"(Lines 22-24). These lines exhibit the personal tension, because there are animals involved, but only one human. No other human is there to experience this. This personal tension makes a huge impact of the reader - we go from an innocent child at school to a person facing something that horrifies them. The way the poet uses the personal and
First, White uses imagery throughout his essay to create an effective visual of his experiences at the lake. To start his essay, White reflects on his childhood memories of the lake when he and his family visited every summer: “I remembered clearest of all the early morning, when the lake was cool and motionless, remembered how the bedroom smelled of the lumber it was made of and the wet woods whose scent entered the screen.” This passage enhances
Chaos and drudgery are common themes throughout the poem, displayed in its form; it is nearly iambic pentameter, but not every line fits the required pattern. This is significant because the poem’s imperfect formulation is Owen making a statement about formality, the poem breaks the typical form to show that everything is not functioning satisfactorily. The poem’s stanza’s also begin short, but become longer, like the speaker’s torment and his comrades movement away from the open fire. The rhyming scheme of ABABCDCD is one constant throughout the poem, but it serves to reinforce the nature of the cadence as the soldiers tread on. The war seems to drag on longer and longer for the speaker, and represents the prolonged suffering and agony of the soldier’s death that is described as the speaker dwells on this and is torn apart emotionally and distorts his impressions of what he experiences.
Through metaphors, the speaker proclaims of her longing to be one with the sea. As she notices The mermaids in the basement,(3) and frigates- in the upper floor,(5) it seems as though she is associating these particular daydreams with her house. She becomes entranced with these spectacles and starts to contemplate suicide.
...turn” in the last two lines. Clare presents a different impression from the rest of the poem as indicated by a period before these two lines. The natural life of the farm is disrupted by the water, pebbles, and the cesspools in line 14. The “cesspools glittered in the sun” is an unusual image because normally cesspools are dirty tanks, but here is is “glittered.” Clare might illustrates the idea that one person might see something beautiful that the other does not; there are always different points of view. As the observer watches the mouse and interacts with the environment, he becomes involved in shaping the world. Life is unexpected and keeps changing; the life of nature may be different from human life. The last line and the sonnet(presents love and appreciation of both world) suggest that they can be unified just as the “cesspools” are unified with “glittered.”
The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.
As the poem progresses, the speaker’s attitude changes in (line 26), where he tells us that his mood is lowered. It is here that the speaker presents himself as “a happy child of earth” in (line 31); as once again Wordsworth... ... middle of paper ... ... / Of the unfinished sheepfold may be seen / Besides the boisterous brook of Greenhead Ghyll,” showing the growth of human beings in relative notion to nature.