Charles G.D. Robert’s poem “The Skater” evokes a euphoric and spiritual feeling through the description and personification the speaker applies to the wintry wilderness around him. The use of couplets ensures the poem is read smoothly and effortlessly, similar to the act of skating leisurely through the forest; while alliterative word pairings add to the flow and the mood of the poem by creating a world that sounds fantastical in its description, yet realistic and capricious in its characterization. The use of personification in the poem suggests that even though the speaker is out in the wilderness, he does not consider himself to be alone, and perceives that the natural world around him is his audience. A sense of belongingness is created …show more content…
The mixture of punctuation and enjambment to each couplet forces the reader to stop and start, yet the poem still carries a steady and persistent cadence throughout. By using this technique, combined with the portrayal of nature, a stream of consciousness is formed allowing the reader to imagine the raw beauty and unpredictability of nature from the skater’s point of view. The skater is in a fantasy land until the “wandering wind” abandons him, flipping the script of the previously peaceful woods and creating a solitary and frightening mood for the duration of the last eight lines (15). The use of an em dash in line twenty interrupts the continuation of the couplet, and despite still rhyming, it signals that a shift has occurred and breaks the pattern that remained unchanged throughout the earlier portion of the poem. Following the em dash, the speed of the poem picks up and the skater no longer finds himself welcomed by the wilderness, the melancholy mood and pattern of the poem is disturbed and replaced by a frantic and fearful ending. Up until the break, the use of couplets suggests an interconnectivity between lines, as well as giving the poem a melodic tone. Once the em dash appears, the poem becomes rushed, just like the …show more content…
Alliteration and consonance play a key role in breaking the rhythmic pattern, as well as adding to the personification of the forest, the river, and the wind. The forest’s human-like characteristics are important, because they show that the skater is not alone, even though he is in the middle of nowhere. The shifting mood of the poem depends upon the building up of patterns; when the pattern is broken nature awakens and acknowledges the skater’s presence. The form of the poem reads steadily as the skater enjoys the wonders of untouched nature, but when the silence is broken and the trees around the skater awake the speed of the poem rapidly picks up. The combination of enjambment and the couplet form adds to the interconnectivity of the poem, while some sentences are prematurely cut short, creating variety between each line. It is clear that without these patterns the poem would be incomplete, they play an important role in creating and setting differing moods of the poem, while also enhancing the scenery and providing the wilderness with a life-like
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.
Mark O’Connor begins the poem with one single line which emphasis the information that he is giving the reader. The continuation of this line from the rest of the poem to the next without a pause creates an urgency, which is used to emphasis the situation.
The poet begins by describing the scene to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and elaborates on how the sky and the ground work in harmony. This is almost a story like layout with a beginning a complication and an ending. Thus the poem has a story like feel to it. At first it may not be clear why the poem is broken up into three- five line stanzas. The poet deliberately used this line stanzas as the most appropriate way to separate scenes and emotions to create a story like format.
Figurative Language in used throughout poems so the reader can develop a further understanding of the text. In “The Journey” the author uses rhythm and metaphors throughout the poem. “...as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of the clouds..”(25-27). The author compares the star burning to finding your voice. Rhythm also develops the theme of the poem because throughout the story rhythm is presented as happy showing growing up and changing for the better is necessary and cheerful. In “The Laughing Heart” the author uses imagery and metaphors to develop the theme throughout the book. “There is a light somewhere. It may not be much light but it beats the darkness”(5-7). Always find the good out of everything, even it
It is through his voice that the poem takes shape. Right away he says, “I was trotting along and suddenly it started raining and snowing and you said it was hailing but hailing hit you on the head hard so it was really snowing and raining and I was in such a hurry to meet you but the traffic was acting exactly like the sky” A great amount of urgency is felt through his choice of words....
The constant rhythm throughout the poem gives it a light beat, like a waltz; the reader feels like s/he is dancing. The rhyme pattern of...
To that end, the overall structure of the poem has relied heavily on both enjambment and juxtaposition to establish and maintain the contrast. At first read, the impact of enjambment is easily lost, but upon closer inspection, the significant created through each interruption becomes evident. Notably, every usage of enjambment, which occurs at the end of nearly every line, emphasizes an idea, whether it be the person at fault for “your / mistakes” (1-2) or the truth that “the world / doesn’t need” (2-3) a poet’s misery. Another instance of enjambment serves to transition the poem’s focus from the first poet to the thrush, emphasizing how, even as the poet “[drips] with despair all afternoon,” the thrush, “still, / on a green branch… [sings] / of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything” (14-18). In this case, the effect created by the enjambment of “still” emphasizes the juxtaposition of the two scenes. The desired effect, of course, is to depict the songbird as the better of the two, and, to that end, the structure fulfills its purpose
The essence of this poem is the author’s mastery of sound and rhythm and his excellent use of figurative language. Richard Wilbur purposely chose words that have few a syllables and require little to no change in mouth size and tongue movements to appease to the reader when read aloud. There is an ABAB rhythm scheme
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
The use of alliteration, tone, mood, theme and other elements that construct a well balanced poem are in this piece of literature.
From the combination of enjambed and end-stopped lines, the reader almost physically feels the emphasis on certain lines, but also feels confusion where a line does not end. Although the poem lacks a rhyme scheme, lines like “…not long after the disaster / as our train was passing Astor” and “…my eyes and ears…I couldn't think or hear,” display internal rhyme. The tone of the narrator changes multiple times throughout the poem. It begins with a seemingly sad train ride, but quickly escalates when “a girl came flying down the aisle.” During the grand entrance, imagery helps show the importance of the girl and how her visit took place in a short period of time. After the girl’s entrance, the narrator describes the girl as a “spector,” or ghost-like figure in a calm, but confused tone. The turning point of the poem occurs when the girl “stopped for me [the narrator]” and then “we [the girl and the narrator] dove under the river.” The narrator speaks in a fast, hectic tone because the girl “squeez[ed] till the birds began to stir” and causes her to not “think or hear / or breathe or see.” Then, the tone dramatically changes, and becomes calm when the narrator says, “so silently I thanked her,” showing the moment of
The use of diction throughout the poem aids the author in displaying the idea that
In Issa’s poem the transition from the image of melting snow to that of children falling on the village is abrupt and jarring. In Muldoon’s poem, the transition is smoo...
In the opening stanza, Frost describes coming to a point during a walk along a rural road that diverges into two separate, yet similar paths. The narrator finds that he ...
In the last line of the second stanza, the subject enters dramatically, accompanied by an abrupt change in the rhythm of the poem: