In both poems Blake uses the common symbol of a flower to represent a woman to highlight the problem of this conception of the feminine. Though it’s the speaker of the Innocence poem “The Blossom,” the young flower stays stationary while observing the activity of two birds in the same area. The blossom watches the sparrow “Seek[s] [its] cradle narrow” or return to its nest, a representation of a male returning to his home (5). In the next stanza, the blossom notes a robin “sobbing” next to it (10). All of the action in the poem is carried out by the birds while the blossom remains stationary and only “Sees” and “Hears” (4, 10). Activity versus passivity in the poem aligns the birds with the masculine and the blossom with the feminine, …show more content…
The blossom’s voice reflects the youthful and childlike mindset of the type of woman depicted through the flower. Simple adjectives are repeated more than once; the “Merry Merry Sparrow” of the first line and the “Pretty Pretty Robin” of the second stanza establish the innocent voice and also suggest that the innocence taints the speaker’s understanding of what’s going on (1, 6). The confusing depiction of the poem’s literal action gives the scene a disembodied tone; the speaker notes that a bird is “Near my Bosom” and active but fails to connect them in any way (6, 12). Further, the blossom refers to itself both in the first and third person, calling itself “A happy Blossom” as well as situating the birds near its bosom (3, 9). Not only does the blossom have a confused and fractured view of what goes on around it, but it also has a dissociated understanding of itself. This mindset reflects the consciousness of a woman in relation to sex. She doesn’t have a very solid understanding of what’s going on around her or to her, she just passively observes and reports. The speaker’s voice also contributes to her characterization as a childlike woman in the singsong sound of the verse. Most of the lines are trochaic trimeter, a steady meter that seems more reserved for a children’s rhyme than a poem with such mature themes. It seems that Blake is calling attention to the fallacy of female sexual passivity: women are like flowers in that
He is disgusted with the way the gentlefolks are handing themselves around nature, and the narrator wants the reader to picture in their mind the image he is seeing to illustrate his disdain for the gentlefolk in a different manner. Then along with that sees them as cold hearted and conscienceless, as the gentlefolk are able to do such things, as the speaker says,”...without a pang of remorse…” In lines 25-26 the narrator says,” Is its colour any prettier, or its scent any sweeter, when you do know.” This sarcastic statement illustrates that by cutting up a flower to comprehend what it is made of , no person can gain appreciation for its simplicity, being its colour and scent are natural. The gentlefolk would destroy such a thing as a flower, which poses no immediate gain by destroying it, the author shows great
Starting with hyperboles, which she uses in lines six and seven, she exaggerates to show how much of an opposite she is. She also talks about how she’s “freezing” when she’s really not. Then, as well as hyperbole, she uses personification talking about how the temperature is “trying to pass fifty-five” when the temperature can’t have human qualities. This helps the imagery to explain how you would feel if you were there. It helps the theme by showing how cold it is and what each of the two lovers would do, which are opposites. Overall, the figurative language is the poem helps Blossom to make a point on the
Rossetti opens the poem with a tone of regret, hinting at the nature of her regretful actions through flowers and their symbolism. She feels she was “a fool to pluck my rose too soon”; roses are the most classic flower, used universally to symbolize purity and true love, and Rossetti uses the flower to symbolize her profound regret of losing her chasteness too soon, something she feels has incriminated and isolated her. She also expresses the feeling with her guilt over “…snap[ping] my lily”, which represents chastity, innocence, and piety, relating back to her faith and how it was an large part of her lifestyle, further adding to her guilty conscience as she ruins her flowers, literally herself, because her actions are seen as crimes in the Bible. She damages her reputation in the eyes of a hypocritical and ruthless society by forsaking and corrupting herself, and she will spend the rest of her life repenting giving up everything considered important about a woman in Victorian era. “Plucking [her flowers] too soon” represents her regret in loss of virginity too soon, although the definition of virginity is not used so literally here, it metaphorically represents her value, that is, her value to her prospective husband. She feels she is now defiled; society will undoubtedly place blame on her because she is a woman and is expected to be reserved and coy, never to be bold. Her flowers have been ruined; she no longer holds any importance or value.
Lastly, the final simile used, "And cancer, simple as a flower, blooms." compares something beautiful and full of life, with something horrible, an instrument of death. This is a very unusual simile; it is almost an oxymoron. It is almost sickening to think of cancer as a flower, as if something pure has been twisted into something perverse, this, however, is the poet's intention, to make the reader stop and think. In the
The imagery of the bees and the pear tree are the catalyst of Janie’s coming-of-age, representing her first “springtime” and the awakening of her sexuality. The moment Janie sees the bee pollinating the blossoms on the pear tree is when she becomes aware of her sexuality. She finds herself empathizing with the blossoms; both being young and undergoing the springtime of life. Contrastingly, however, Janie has no “bees singing for her” like the blossoms do (Hurston 11). In Janie’s eyes, the relationship between the bee
At this point the poet uses symbolism substituting a flower for his mother. This is an appropriate symbol as, like his mother, a flower is feminine, delicate and
Female imagery shows itself in the second line. When we think of Mayflowers, we typically think of the ship that brought settlers to America. This representation can go in several different directions. The Mayflower can represent the boat taking people from the only cavernous home they have known and pushed into a new world that they have never been part of, and left to their own devices; much like children being born. The mention of this flower could also be a parallel between the Mayflower ship and the party itself. It was supposed to be a great thing that brings happiness and development but based on the narrator’s reaction and what we know happened on the Mayflower while it traveled and when it landed; it is not too farfetched to assume that neither response was the one expected.
In the poem “The Tyger” by William Blake, the use of rhyme, repetition, allusion, and symbolism all help the reader understand the theme and what was going through the authors thoughts while writing. William Blake was a mystic poet who channeled his thoughts and questions to write poems. He questioned the creator of both the Tyger and lamb, how could the same God create a destructive creature like the Tyger and on the other hand create a gentle animal, the lamb. This ties into the theme of the poem of how a God could and would create a monster like the Tyger.
and Femininity. The poem is mainly about motherhood in a way as previously discussed. She
First off feminine rhyme as well as prosody is used throughout the whole piece. For an example in lines three and four there is a clear connection between the two rhyming words, it states: “The goddess from her chamber issues, /Arrayed in lace, brocades and tissues” (Swift,3-4). Clearly in this line Swift is describing that some lady “issues” need to be handled with “tissues”. This line is a great example of feminine rhyme as well as prosody, because women are often thought of as more sensitive than men and this continual rhyming pattern remains present throughout the whole poem. By taking on a female perspective from the beginning Swift is not only challenging the power dynamics is society, he is also giving voice to the females and showing the more sensitive side. Think about it this way, if a male would have written this piece it more than likely would not been emotional and sensitive because men are typically more insensitive than women.
The beginning of the poem is a very peaceful, “Blest Age!” (1), with “Purling Stream[s]” (1), “an Eternal Spring” (5), and “wanton Gods of Love” (15). This takes place in the world before the rise of mankind, much like the biblical Garden of Eden. In this flowery place, nature triumphs with love. Nature is referred to as a feminine idea, “Virgin Earth;/ Who yielded of her own accord her plenteous Birth” (32-33). This can relate to the idea or allusion of Mother Nature, as Earth is commonly referred to as female. Behn tells the reader how roses, as a symbol for virtuousness, live in prosperous morning dew. In this peaceful and young world, two lovers are free to “all their Joyes and
Owen 's usage of a metaphor, where he likens the girls ' flowers to the 'tenderness of patient minds ' is to me a representation of how like flowers, the inner strength that these young women have while waiting for the men to return is so beautiful and inspiring. However, flowers are also delicate and vulnerable. It is terribly hard to be strong all the time, and these young girls struggle constantly with their fears and their nightmarish thoughts. The
William Blake was known to be a mystic poet who was curious about the unknowns in the world, and strived to find all the answers. Does God create both gentle and fearful creatures? As a questioned asked in the poem “The Tyger” William Blake pondered on why an all-powerful, loving God would create a vicious predator, the Tiger, after he created a sweet, timid, harmless animal, the lamb. The theme of this poem surrounds this idea of why the same creator would create both a destructive and gentle animal. This issue is brought up and discussed through rhyme, repetition, allusion, and symbolism.
The darling buds symbolize the beginning of his love for her. The buds still have to develop into beautiful flowers, just like their love. It´s the beginning of summer, her beauty and his love.
Nature was a theme factoring in many of his works and Blake associates nature with different elements in these poems and we find that nature is seen in communion with God in the introductory poem and throughout these poems Blake points out the relationship and harmony between Man and Nature, children and Nature and he also talks about sex in Nature in `The Blossom'.