In three poems – "Old Woodrat's Stinky House", "The Mountain Spirit", and "Boat of a Million Years" – Gary Snyder uses the concept of deep time to show us how nature views time and implies that humanity needs to be able to see time the same way. Snyder's poems imply that he believes people have forgotten their place in the natural world and that we should try to regain our respect for nature. "Old Woodrat's Stinky House" explains what is wrong with how we perceive time. "The Mountain Spirit" shows why nature views time as more like a singular thing than a series of segments like humans do. "Boat of a Million Years" hints at a solution and implies that we should relax and follow nature's example.
First, the poem "Old Woodrat's Stinky House" begins with a short creation myth – Coyote and Earthmaker creating the planet – but the poet goes on to write:
Us critters hanging out together
something like three billion years
Gary Snyder does this to help the reader perceive the vast amount of time before humans existed. Snyder later writes about "woodrat" who is described as "stinking everything up – pissing on everything". Woodrats (also known as packrats) have been known to devote their time to collecting material items with no practical value. Gary Snyder is comparing us as a species to the woodrat of his poem. As further proof of the woodrat-human connection: the "venerable desert woodrat nest" is described as "a family house in use for eight thousand years". This
"eight thousand years" figure is no coincidence; humans started building clay huts eight thousand years ago. Snyder then equates the "four thousand years of using writing" with the lifespan of a bristlecone pine as a demonstration of how young we are to this planet. He ...
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...oking" to characterize humanity's need to control the natural world. Gary Snyder is really suggesting a world where we humans live with what happens and not try to change the planet. The poem ends with the line "We are led by dolphins toward morning"; when linked to the idea of a "boat of million years" this line posits that we as humans should realize that time is long and that we should follow nature's example.
Finally, all three poems are linked through the common theme of nature's perception of time. Two of the poems – "Old Woodrat's Stinky House" and "Mountain Spirit" – are linked with the common image of the bristlecone pine to show how long a single being can live. Gary Snyder's poems show the reader: what is wrong with humanity's perception of time, how nature view times, and suggest that we emulate nature to become more integrated with the natural world.
The poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town” by E.E. Cummings talks about the cycle of life and the importance of structure, symbolism, and language of the poem. For instance, the poem has nine stanzas, which has a rhyming pattern of AABC. The rhythm of the poem is significant for it supports one of themes, the cycle of life. Cumming uses season to explain the poem's progress. “spring summer autumn winter” (3) and “sun moon stars rain” (8) symbolizes time passing, which represents life passing. In the poem, as the seasons and skies rotate, life continues along with them. In addition, the uses of the words “snow” (22), “buried” (27), “was by was” (28), and “day by day” (29) leading to death. Towards the end of the poem, the depression of death was mention, but Cumming was just stating the n...
As characters in the poem are literally snow bound, they find that the natural occurrence actually serves a relaxing and warming purpose, one that brings together family. This effect is further achieved through the use of meter throughout the work as a whole. In its simplistic yet conversational tone, the author uses meter to depict the result that nature has forced upon these humans, who are but a small sample size that actually is representative of society that that time. Due to nature, the characters can talk, represented by the conversational meter, and thus, they can bond within the family. A larger representation of this more specific example can be applied to a more general perspective of human’s relationship with the natural world. Although “Snowbound” captures what humans do as a result of nature, it can also represent a larger picture, where nature appears at the most opportune times to enhance relationships from human to human. In “snowbound,” this is symbolized by the fire, “Our warm hearth seemed blazing free” (Whittier 135). This image relays a spirited, warm, mood full of security, which is expertly used by the author to show how fire, a natural phenomena, can provide such beneficial effects on humans. This very occurrence exemplifies how such a miniscule aspect of nature can have such a profound effect on a family, leaving the reader wondering what nature and its entirety could accomplish if used as a
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words,” Robert Frost once said. As is made fairly obvious by this quote, Frost was an adroit thinker. It seems like he spent much of his life thinking about the little things. He often pondered the meaning and symbolism of things he found in nature. Many readers find Robert Frost’s poems to be straightforward, yet his work contains deeper layers of complexity beneath the surface. His poems are not what they seem to be at first glance. These deeper layers of complexity can be clearly seen in his poems “The Road Not Taken”, “Fire and Ice”, and “Birches”.
In his poem “Field of Autumn”, Laurie Lee uses an extended metaphor in order to convey the tranquility of time, as it slowly puts an end to life. Through imagery and syntax, the first two stanzas contrast with the last two ones: The first ones describing the beginning of the end, while the final ones deal with the last moments of the existence of something. Moreover, the middle stanzas work together; creating juxtaposition between past and future whilst they expose the melancholy that attachment to something confers once it's time to move on. Lee’s objective in this poem was to demonstrate the importance of enjoying the present, for the plain reason that worrying about the past and future only brings distress.
The speaker in “Disillusionment of Ten O’ Clock” (Stevens) places the readers in a position that is crucial to the way that he wants them to perceive of the environment. The poem is written in free verse, a decision made by Stevens to invite his readers to come away from rules; not even writing should be controlled by what thy neighbor thinks.
Each poem describes a scene where a man learns from his experience and interaction with nature. In “The Meadow Mouse” the man instantly finds himself a father-figure to the mouse that he finds. When the mouse leaves, he thinks of the dangers of nature such as, “the turtle gasping in the dusty rubble of the highway.” From his instant love and pain of losing the mouse, he learns how he truly feels about nature. Set in a different scene, the fisherman in “The Fish,...
Robert Frost is considered by many to be one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Frost’s work has been regarded by many as unique. Frost’s poems mainly take place in nature, and it is through nature that he uses sense appealing-vocabulary to immerse the reader into the poem. In the poem, “Hardwood Groves”, Frost uses a Hardwood Tree that is losing its leaves as a symbol of life’s vicissitudes. “Frost recognizes that before things in life are raised up, they must fall down” (Bloom 22).
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
The first line of poem is marked by the use of imagery; the “shattered water” which is the result of the crashing waves. Like people, the waves are having a mind and "thought" which is concerned only with ruining everything they touch because they are “great" waves. By saying so, he gives them the human attribute of greatness. The waves have other human qualities such as looking at each other; "waves looked over others" (2) and being able of destruction as if they are fighting to get to the shore and to do "something … that water never did before"(4) . Having a consciousness and, at the same time, being
Whitman and Stevens similarly structured "On the Beach at Night" and "Sunday Morning," in that their narrators answer to their characters' concerns by explaining, or at least hinting at, the beauty of the perpetual cycle of mortality. "Something there is more immortal even than the stars,/(Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,)" (lines 28-29) whispers Whitman's narrator. "Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her,/Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams/And our desires," (lines 63-65) echoes Stevens. Through their suggestions of this death-rebirth cycle, Whitman's and Stevens' narrators assuage their characters misgivings. Further, both poets utilize Jove/Jupiter as a metaphor for seeming immortality, and perhaps more famili...
When humans and nature come together, they either coexist harmoniously because nature's inhabitants and humans share a mutual respect and understanding for each other, or they clash because humans attempt to control and force their ways of life on nature. The poems, "The Bull Moose" by Alden Nowlan, "The Panther" by Rainer Maria Rilke, "Walking the Dog" by Howard Nemerov, and "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop, describe what happens when humans and nature come together. I believe that when humans and nature come together they either clash and conflict because individuals destroy and attempt to control nature, which is a reflection of their powerful need to control themselves, or humans live peacefully with nature because not only do they admire and respect nature, but also they can see themselves in nature.
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.
In “Birches”, Robert Frost uses imagery and analogies as a way of conveying his message. Frost’s use of imagery and analogies are used in the themes of nature, analogies, and imagination. Frost uses imagery throughout the poem to create a vivid image of how he imagines the Birches to be. His use of comparisons enables the reader to view the Birches in numerous perspectives. His use of imagery and metaphors are appealing because they are pragmatic, and create a clear image for the reader.
Robert Frost is known for his poems about nature, he writes about trees, flowers, and animals. This is a common misconception, Robert Frost is more than someone who writes a happy poem about nature. The elements of nature he uses are symbolic of something more, something darker, and something that needs close attention to be discovered. Flowers might not always represent beauty in Robert Frost’s poetry. Symbolism is present in every line of the nature’s poet’s poems. The everyday objects present in his poems provide the reader an alternative perspective of the world. Robert Frost uses all the elements of poetry to describe the darker side of nature. After analyzing the Poem Mending Wall and After Apple Picking it is clear that nature plays a dark and destructive role for Robert Frost. This dark side of Frost’s poetry could have been inspired from the hard life he lived.
Frost uses nature as a reflection of human experiences; just like humanity it can have seasons and life cycles. He uses different scenes to depict a certain mood for readers to step into the psychological happening of a man. The idea of how seasons change, Frost compares it through the life cycles that humans encounter. Contrary to popular opinion, I believe that nature is not Frost’s central theme in his poetry; it is about the relationship that man has with nature in which can be seen from “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “The Road Not Taken”, and “An Old Man’s Winter Night.”