The poem, “Apostrophe to the Ocean,” is one of the most renowned masterpieces of George Gordon Byron, which conveys the author’s love for nature by including his unique, romantic style of writing. As this poem is entirely dedicated to the mighty ocean, the main subject of this work is about man versus nature. George Byron also discusses his views about the industrialization; throughout the poem, he hints on the deleterious effects of human exploitations. Therefore, the poem, “Apostrophe to the Ocean,” paints George Byron’s view of the concept – man versus nature – by revealing his belief: the power of nature is insurmountable.
To begin with, unlike the other romantic poems that were written during his era, this poem is entirely focused on the wild beauty of the ocean that the author finds fascination in, rather than on his beautiful, loving woman. The title of the poem also indicates its subject; the first literary device used is portrayed by the title. The apostrophe is “when the writer speaks to an absent or dead person as if they were present or personifies an inanimate object as a person not present” (Chrisholm). In this poem, Byron speaks to the inanimate object, the ocean, about his feelings toward this mighty part of nature and its powers that can easily dominate human beings.
The poem consists of seven Spenserian stanzas; the Spenserian stanza is composed of “nine iambic lines where the first eight are iambic pentameters and the ninth is an iambic hexameter; its rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc” (Spenserian stanzas). Thus, this work has a rather complicated form. Following this form, every stanza includes deep and thorough meanings that subsequently convey the author’s notions.
The first stanza underlines the author’s feeli...
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...oth a memory from his childhood and pleasing fear for the future.
The poem, “Apostrophe to the Ocean,” encompasses distinguished insights on the nature and civilization. By revealing his love for the ocean, Byron was able to include the romantic elements; he wisely discussed his hatred toward the industrialization and described the mighty capacities of the ocean. Therefore, I believe that George Gordon Byron was successful in painting a powerful picture of the ocean.
Works Cited
Chisholm, Marshall. “Poetry analysis: Apostrophe to the Ocean.” Helium.com. 24 April 2009.
3 April 2011. .
James T. Carlton. “Apostrophe to the Ocean.” Jstor.org. 3 April 2011. www.jstor.org/pss/2989831>. “Spenserian Stanza.” Thinking Poetry. 3 April 2011.
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Despite nature’s capacity to exist without humanity, ‘orchards would never be planted’. The high modality of the metaphor of an orchard and its fruit unable to be formed reflects the absence of human drive for a set goal nor its deliberately planned path of growth– bearing no ‘fruits’ or rewards in the long run. In comparison, when humanity’s rapacious attempts strip the landscape of its resources (Flame Tree in a Quarry), nature ‘springs up this scarlet breath’ where the sibilance and personification of the earth emphasises the sharp pain and loss. Furthermore, the symbolism of ‘scarlet’ as blood from a wound also exemplifies humanity’s self endangerment upon damaging the land, in spite of their temporary materialistic gain. Therefore, although both the land and humans may, at least momentarily, survive with the absence of the other, both have their progress capped. Accordingly, the River of Dreams illustrates humanity and nature’s reliance on one another in the ship on the luminescent blue ocean in the background’s centre of the River of Dreams. The ocean symbolises nature’s patience and gentle nurturing power being the medium of support for the ship that represents humanity. This conveys humanity’s striving intention for an advance to a pinpointed destination, sanctioned by nature’s serenity and stability to prevent society’s total submergence in greed
The poems “Sea Rose” by H.D and “Vague Poem” by Elizabeth Bishop were both written by two women who took over the Victorian era. H.D’s works of writing were best known as experimental reflecting the themes of feminism and modernism from 1911-1961. While Bishop’s works possessed themes of longing to belong and grief. Both poems use imagery, which helps to make the poem more concrete for the reader. Using imagery helps to paint a picture with specific images, so we can understand it better and analyze it more. The poems “Sea Rose” and “Vague Poem” both use the metaphor of a rose to represent something that can harm you, even though it has beauty.
“I had been born into a raging ocean where I swam relentlessly, flailing my arms in hope of rescue, of reaching a shoreline I never sighted. Never solid ground beneath me, never a resting place. I had lived with only the desperate hope to stay afloat; that and nothing more. But when at last I wrote my first words in the page, I felt an island rising beneath my feet like the back of a whale”.
“The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in
“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.”
Is there a deeper meaning behind Byron’s poem? Kukathas states, “[a]t first reading, it might seem that the poem is merely a beautiful tribute to a lovely woman…which does not offer much else of intellectual interest. But, upon closer examination…another interpretation suggested itself that shows the poem to be far richer and subtler than most critics have allowed” (Kukathas 279). Both Kelly and Moran agree that going so far as to judge a person’s character based on her appearance shows something deeper about Byron’s thoughts. While Byron may have been writing about a simple topic, critics today view his poem as an attempt to understand the way people think.
The poem is based on Lord Tennyson describing of a huge sea monster that is
Thus, the speaker of the poem is not only acknowledging the dual aspect of nature, but it is also acknowledging their own dual aspect. Further examples of this duality lie in England in 1819, when Shelley made reference to the Peterloo Massacre, an event that displays the destructive power of mankind over their own kind. Contrary to Hymn to Intellectual Beauty which displays the creative and inventive power of the human mind for constructive purposes. Turning back to the Ode to the West Wind, in the same last couplet the words: everywhere /ˈevrēˌ(h)wer/, destroyer /dəˈstroiər/ and preserver /prəˈzərvər/, they create the sound effect of harmony and musicality considering that they are three syllabic words that all rhyme in the last syllable [3:r]. It is the creativity of the poet to select the right words to convey their thoughts what makes this last couplet a strong conclusion for stanza one. Collins suggests that the Ode to the West Wind “is the voice of the poet attempting to make itself heard (8). In addition to the closing interjection demanding the wind to hear the speaker’s invocation: “hear, O hear!” (15), which seems like a plea to appeal the
“The Fish,” written by Elizabeth Bishop in 1946, is perhaps most known for its incredible use of imagery, but this analysis does not merely focus on imagery. Instead, it is based on a quote by Mark Doty from his essay “A Tremendous Fish.” In it he says, “‘The Fish’” is a carefully rendered model of an engaged mind at work” (Doty). After reading this statement, it causes one to reflect more in-depth about how the poem was written, and not just about what its literal meaning lays out. In “The Fish,” Bishop’s utilization of certain similes, imagery in the last few lines, narrative poem style, and use of punctuation allows the audience to transport into the life of the fish; therefore, allowing them to understand Bishop’s ideas on freedom and wisdom.
“Litany” is a poem inspired by a quote from Jaques Crickillon, this free verse poem describes the feeling of a man to a girl with the use of nouns. This poem has two different tones during its development, a serious tone and a mockery tone, that change from stanza to stanza, for example the first stanza using a metaphor compare the nature with the beauty of the woman, Crickillon express “you are the dew on the morning grass/ and the burning wheel of the sun.”(7-8). Also, the speaker in this poem change the traditional love poem of portray a woman or lover by focused on what the woman is not in the second stanza, in this lines the author is making fun. Nevertheless, the readers shock when the speaker admits that he is he is not like her, in the sixth stanza, the shooting star and paper blowing represent that how unpredictable the men is .
The structure of this poem is not the traditional form of poetry, in that he begins with a first person statement then after an indentation, he elaborates on it almost lik...
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.
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.
theme of the 'One Life'” (348). In this essay I would like to concentrate on identifying the relationship and connection of man, as an individual, and the nature. This relation is very regular in the works of the Romantic Poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge, who ofttimes write about strong connection and intense feelings of the poet himself and the nature and also use imaginary in nature. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner the nature can be identified as a character itself, especially when acting as if by the hand of God.
In William Wordsworth’s poems, the role of nature plays a more reassuring and pivotal r ole within them. To Wordsworth’s poetry, interacting with nature represents the forces of the natural world. Throughout the three poems, Resolution and Independence, Tintern Abbey, and Michael, which will be discussed in this essay, nature is seen prominently as an everlasting- individual figure, which gives his audience as well as Wordsworth, himself, a sense of console. In all three poems, Wordsworth views nature and human beings as complementary elements of a sum of a whole, recognizing that humans are a sum of nature. Therefore, looking at the world as a soothing being of which he is a part of, Wordsworth looks at nature and sees the benevolence of the divinity aspects behind them. For Wordsworth, the world itself, in all its glory, can be a place of suffering, which surely occurs within the world; Wordsworth is still comforted with the belief that all things happen by the hands of the divinity and the just and divine order of nature, itself.