Order and Chaos are Natural Events in Eamon Grennan’s Poem, One Mornin

947 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on chaos

Order and chaos are two events that inhabit the world that surrounds us. Natural events, such as gravity, create order where our world has laws and principles. One the other hand, war, fighting, and disasters make up the chaotic aspect of our world. How both are found in this world we live in, the same two ideas of order and chaos, are found in Eamon Grennan’s “One Morning.” In this poem, the speaker is talks about his experiences in one significant morning. The poem introduces a beach environment where the speaker talks about collecting rocks, while seeing a dead otter, an oyster fisher, and a bird trying to find its prey. He recalls that this morning is the morning after contemplating of dying, but in the second stanza he has a change of feeling. Instead of seeing disturbances, he sees things that symbolize piece and serenity – butterflies, a couple, the sun. Taking into account all these literal events make the story far too normal. However, what makes this poem noteworthy is its two-sided arguments for the natural order of the world – chaotic in nature or underlying order. In the first stanza, we do notice the total chaos in this experience. Although the first phrase might imply a peaceful event, the subject matter is about something quite chaotic in nature – the dead other. This image ruins the idea of a peaceful morning, strolling on the beach while looking for rocks. The death of an animal is, in fact, natural. However, it’s rotting and its “scent of savage/valediction,” (line 2-3) both accentuate how chaotic its death is to the peacefulness of this experience. Following that first image, more instances of chaos are found. A walk on the beach sparks up an image of a quiet stroll, but sounds can easily disrupt that. Cha... ... middle of paper ... ...otter, disturbing high pitched sounf of the oystercatcher, the cormorant, and the heron all connote the idea of an overwhelming chaotic nature of the world. The first two lines of the second stanza justify this view because we find that the speaker has gone through a personal experience of facing death. However, in the majority of the second stanza, the speaker finds a more peaceful underlying order in the next few images he sees. The butterfly, a couple quietly speaking, and the soothing warmth of nature all appeal to an underlying order, filled with peacefulness and serenity. From the different perspectives of a single experience of the speaker, the author is able to create a world where although chaos can be present through personal experience, the underlying order is still intact, as long as one is able to look at it from a more calm and peaceful vantage point.

Show More
Related

  • How the Absence of Favorable Interpersonal Exchange Leads to Disorder in Frankenstein

    3130 Words  | 7 Pages

    ... in order to affect the world. Chaos becomes, by the end of the novel, nearly

    Read More

  • Examples Of Chaos In Crossing To Safety

    1779 Words  | 4 Pages

    Henry Adams states “chaos was the law of nature; order was the dream of man”. This statement is clearly used in the novel Crossing to Safety by Larry Morgan, and how this was his belief. However, the novel of Crossing to Safety is filled with chaotic times that happen in Larry Morgan and his wife’s life. This same chaos also affects his close friends who had their own struggles in their lives. This paper will look at how order would not have better for these couples, and how this chaos caused the couples to lose their dream of order.

    Read More

  • Chaos and Literary Comparison

    1255 Words  | 3 Pages

    Abstract: I will show how chaos is can be found in art, specifically in literature, and analyze John Hawkes's Travesty to show the similarities between literature and chaos.

    Read More

  • The Poems of Richard Wilbur

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World" sets up, in the first stanza, the feeling that something otherworldly is going to be in the picture. "The morning air is all awash with angels" brings in the image (or concept) of heaven, which Wilbur refers to again later in the poem. In the 2nd stanza, again the concept of not-of-this-world is brought into play with the mention of the halcyon, which is a mythical bird. One literary device that Wilbur seems to draw upon heavily in this poem is the use of oxymorons, contradictory terms together. The angels are rising together in "calm swells." When I think of swells, calm is not necessarily the word that comes to mind. He also states that the angels are "flying in place...moving/ And staying like white water." Flying implies movement, so "flying in place" is not a phrase that is commonly heard. Later in the poem he uses the term bitter love, and while I understand that this concept does in fact exist, it is still two words which are somewhat contradictory. In the last stanza he mentions the "heaviest nuns" trying hard to keep their "difficult balance." This reminded me of that concept of funambilism that we discussed in class. This work seems to utilize the idea of balance (indirectly) in many aspects. The use of the contradictory terms that I discussed earlier could be thought of as balancing each other out. This poem overall was very well put together, with sentences that caught your attention, and my favorite sentence was "The soul shrinks/ From all that it is about to remember."

    Read More

  • The Butterfly Effect Movie Analysis

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    "It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. -Chaos Theory" It mentioned that a little unconscious action at the beginning will cause a big serious affair at last. This always happens even though that it sounds weird and unpredictable. Things are happening every day and how I react to them will be crucial.

    Read More

  • The Poet With His Face In His Hands By Mary Oliver Analysis

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Forever Spiritually Persistant

    743 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout Preludes, the structural element of time is portrayed through images and sensations associated with daily actions. Points in time are made obvious through meaningless tasks; early mornings are defined by the raising of dingy shades and evenings by the "smells of steaks in passageways," (T.S.Eliot: The Complete Poems and Plays [CPP], 12) and the lighting of the lamps. As the initial stanza begins, we are aware that evening is upon us. The notion of scheduled action is made through the reference of, "Six o’clock," (CPP, 12). Images of poverty and lower class filth set the scene and allude to "the burnt-out ends of smoky days," (CPP, 12) painting a disgusting picture of society’s surroundings. Deepening the feeling of emptiness, there stands a "lonely cab-horse," (CPP, 12) the first notion of actual emotion on a street of meaningless leaves and newspaper.

    Read More

  • Robert Updike's The Great Scarf Of Birds

    428 Words  | 1 Pages

    As a way to end his last stanza, the speaker creates an image that surpasses his experiences. When the flock rises, the speaker identifies it as a lady’s gray silk scarf, which the woman has at first chosen, then rejected. As the woman carelessly tosses the scarf toward the chair the casual billow fades from view, like the birds. The last image connects nature with a last object in the poet's

    Read More

  • Analysis Of On Being Cautioned Against Walking On A Headland By Susan Smith

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    7). The section also builds the connection through the description of the solitary figure that does not project from the landscape but is pictured as native to it with the violence and rowdiness of the sea showing his deranged mind. Additionally, his hollow eyes are transformed to signify caves along the bottom of the waters while the cold bed shows the seabed. The waves that chide seems to be the proposal of an obsessed delusion, the lunatic appearing to be mentally disturbed by the surrounding. However, line 8 of the poem shows that this obsession has turned out to be a discussion where the lunatic’s ‘murmuring responses’ (l. 8) seem to amass the power to control the ‘dashing surf’ or to converse with it. From this section, the lunatic can be described as someone who has wild and hollow eyes, communicates with a hoarse voice, and can listen to nature. In addition, it is evident that imagery is seen in the use of headland, which can be viewed to represent a privileged position of visual power, which matches the social prominence ascribed to the masculine personality within the natural

    Read More

  • The Survival Instinct in Sylvia Plath’s Tulips

    1173 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the beginning, the speaker wants to be free of burdens, numb, and in peace. When speaking of these things, she does so in a very envious and coveting tone. For instance, near the beginning, the speaker says: “Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in. / I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly…I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions” (2-5). The lines have a very soothing, serene sense to it because of all the long vowels the speaker uses and because of all the assonance (of the o, e, and i sound) in it. These vowels cause the line to be read slowly and calmly. Moreover, she is specifically pointing this scene out to the reader by ordering them to “Look” at it (2). Clearly, what it embodies must be something rather important to her as this is the only time she asks the reader to do something. She seems wistful for the...

    Read More

  • Why The Tide Rises The Tide Falls

    349 Words  | 1 Pages

    Awe of nature is one characteristic of romance that this poem displays. The quotation, "The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls," is said using nature in connection with life. The poem uses waves from the ocean to describe that life happens and there are things in life that happen that cannot be controlled. Life comes and goes and there are

    Read More

  • Grace Nichols' Island Man

    1815 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first line in this poem is only taken up by one word, ‘morning’ this may represent a peaceful approach to the day. I came to this conclusion because the poet tells us in the third line ‘sound of the blue surf’ this indicates that the sound of the sea is harmonious and it is the first image that is put into the island mans brain. The word ‘morning’ on its own can make us think that someone is actually saying morning as in good morning. ‘blue surf’ could also mean relaxation however the word ‘blue’ could mean sadness. This choice of wording makes us the readers think that the blue surf is a relaxing thing but it is sad that the island man Is away from it or that the island man Is missing his homeland.

    Read More

  • The Search for Immortality in On the Beach at Night and Sunday Morning

    698 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both poets present readers with characters questioning the apparent transience of nature. Whitman's young girl weeps to see the black "burial-clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all," (line 12) just as Stevens' young woman is saddened "when the birds are gone, and their warm fields/Return no more" (lines 49-50). These characters, unable to grasp the entirely of the cycle of mortality, are dismayed by earthly loss they continually observe.

    Read More

  • A Critical Analysis of Judith Wright's 'the Killer'

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • A Bird Came down the Walk by Emily Dickinson

    1783 Words  | 4 Pages

    “A Bird came down the Walk,” was written in c. 1862 by Emily Dickinson, who was born in 1830 and died in 1886. This easy to understand and timeless poem provides readers with an understanding of the author’s appreciation for nature. Although the poem continues to be read over one hundred years after it was written, there is little sense of the time period within which it was composed. The title and first line, “A Bird came down the Walk,” describes a common familiar observation, but even more so, it demonstrates how its author’s creative ability and artistic use of words are able to transform this everyday event into a picture that results in an awareness of how the beauty in nature can be found in simple observations. In a step like narrative, the poet illustrates the direct relationship between nature and humans. The verse consists of five stanzas that can be broken up into two sections. In the first section, the bird is eating a worm, takes notice of a human in close proximity and essentially becomes frightened. These three stanzas can easily be swapped around because they, for all intents and purposes, describe three events that are able to occur in any order. Dickinson uses these first three stanzas to establish the tone; the tone is established from the poet’s literal description and her interpretive expression of the bird’s actions. The second section describes the narrator feeding the bird some crumbs, the bird’s response and its departure, which Dickinson uses to elaborately illustrate the bird’s immediate escape. The last two stanzas demonstrate the effect of human interaction on nature and more specifically, this little bird, so these stanzas must remain in the specific order they are presented. Whereas most ...

    Read More

More about Order and Chaos are Natural Events in Eamon Grennan’s Poem, One Mornin

Open Document