The poem "Fern Hill", by Dylan Thomas, is being told by a speaker who is recalling his youthful past. Many images, symbols, and metaphors increase the depth of the speaker's message to the reader.
An image that is spoke about alot in the poem is the color of gold. Gold is usually used with youthful objects. Gold represents vibrance. Vibrance is usually associated with youth. Gold appears in the following locations:
"Golden in the heydays of his eyes"
"Trail with daisies and barley"
"Golden in the mercy of his means,"
"And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves"
"And the sun grew round that very day."
"In the sun born over and over,"
"Before the children green and golden"
A symbol in the poem occurs: "And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns." Princes are those who have a lot of political and social power. What separates them from kings, is that princes are generally young, at least younger than their fathers.
Many metaphors concerning the opposite of youth, aging, are located in the entirety of the last stanza of the poem.
" Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea."
"In the moon that is always rising" reveals that the speaker has experiances what seems like countless days and nights. "The childless land" means that where the speaker was before, everyone has grown up by now.
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
...he imagery of the more intensely-felt passages in the middle of the poem. Perhaps the poet is like someone at their journey's end, `all passion spent', recollecting in tranquillity some intimations of mortality?
In the painting, Leutze uses color representation to depict the mood as hardship leading into victory. In the background of the painting, the viewer can see the clouds departing to allow the sun to shine. The use of bright colors in front of Washington and his men creates the feeling that there is hope. The use of dark colors behind Washington and his men creates the feeling that they are running away from defeat. On the other hand, color can’t be used as representation in the poem unless it’s stated in the poem; in this case, color is not mentioned except for the description of the men’s clothes. In the poem, only diction can be used to represent moods and images for the reader. The following are statement from the poem is used to create to create an image for the reader: “Strong tide was washing hero clean.” Although this statement reveals the setting, it also expresses how the water is washing the men of their wrongdoing and revealing
Golding uses the symbolism of colors. For example, pink, the color of innocence, portrays the
The poem is gentle and nostalgic. It seeks not only to recreate the scene for the reader, but
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
One of the most repeated symbols in this poem is the image of the hill. It is repeated in four stanzas. In the first stanza of the poem, the hill is mentioned as “the ideal of Virginia brochured with goldenrod and loblolly” (2-3). This hill is specifically in Virginia and is the image looks like something that is on a brochure with beautiful nature. The hill is mentioned again in the second stanza: “It is a certain hill the one I imagine when I hear the word “hill”...and this hill would be still beautiful” (1-2, 5-7). There is an obvious image of a hill that the persona is depicting. Hills in general have a top and a bottom. I believe that the hill in this poem represents the ups and downs of the persona’s life and how the persona depicts the hill as beautiful lends to him being optimistic about life. Berman writes about the hill again in the fifth part of the poem: “The hill out my window is still looking beautiful suffused in a kind of gold national park light” (300-301). The last mention of the hill is in the twenty third stanza the first two lines read: “I walked out of the hill behind our house which looks positively Alaskan today”. The hill is now mostly covered with snow due to the Alaskan mention. You cannot tell what the hill looks like with the snow covering it, which represents how the persona feels about his life. Another symbol is the persona’s dogs. Dogs are normally symbolized as being kind and loving animals, a man’s best friend. The second stanza of part five is: “I’m watching my dog have nightmares, twitching and whining on the office floor and I try to imagine what beast has cornered him in the meadow where his dreams are set”. This stanza represents that the persona as a young person. The persona feels that he has not lived out his dreams yet, but he cannot achieve them because he is not happy. The dog is again mentioned: “but I was with our young dog and he was running through the tall grass like running
How prevalent is police discretion and why does it exist? Can discretion be eliminated? Should it be? Due Date March 11 2005
result it has on people. In all three poems the last line of the poems
On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
Along with the imagery we get from the title, there is a lot of imagery within this poem. Let us start with the first three lines:
...defining words. The symbolism is to show the reader and the audience that life is only for so long. Once that old age is reached your youth is over. Try and accomplish all that you can when you have the time and the energy, because we are all going to be in the same place as all the characters in the churchyard before we know it. Gray uses imagery and symbols very well, and smoothly pulls the attention of his readers in to the poem.
12. The predominant images in the poem refer to sight and touch somewhat. There is an abundance of description used for nature and summer particularly such as describing the weather which made it easy for the readers to imagine the setting and made the whole poem easier to understand. Another predominant image could be touch as the speaker described the weather constantly such as it being warm and sunny which allowed the readers to be able to make connections and think of a sunny day and the warmth which made the poem more relatable.
Images of different different seasons of the year to explain the process of growing older. Images that depict the fading of light in a persons soul transforming into darkness. Images that the reader can perceive as vivid actions. Images that all symbolize one thing, death. In the first quatrain the speaker begins by comparing an old middle age man to a tree with few to none yellow leaves hanging on its branch, and branches moving to the wind of a cold late autumn/early winter day. Image that depicts a lifeless trees and shivering branches, branches that perhaps represent the weak muscles of the speaker. Another image is depicted in the first quatrain containing the same idea. The image of an old church choirs in ruins. In the second quatrain the speaker depicts a moving image of a twilight that can be seen fading on him as the sun sets in the west and soon turns into darkness. Symbolizing the last moments of life the speaker has. In the third quatrain the speaker depicts an image with a similar meaning as the previous, except for one distinctly last thought. The speaker depicts a living image of a bonfire extinguishing and turning into ashes, ashes that may represent his well lived youth. The image gives the idea that ashes represent what once was a beautiful life to the speaker. Overall the images representing the
There is a wealth of imagery in the first two lines alone. The poem begins: