Burned Norton Literary Devices

In the passage in The Norton’s Reader, the author Gerald Graff uses logic, emotion and credibility throughout his essay. However, there are some key passages where this concepts of logic, emotion, and credibility.

For instance, Washington Irving, wrote in The Devil and Tom Walker, “One hot summer afternoon in the dog days, just as a terrible black thunder-gust as coming up, Tom sat in his counting house in his white linen cap and India silk morning gown.” Considering that the season, summer, can be referred to as growth and reflection, the reader can construe that Tom is about to experience change. The twelve months can also be related to the seasons; by its nature, the reader can recognize which months are in each season, due to their location. For instance, in The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe, “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; and each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.” Despite the fact that Edgar Allen Poe did not verbatimly mention one of the four seasons, the reader can obtain the same mood from

     Frost moves onto autumn and shows what little life is left begins to wither and fall, or as he put it in the first line of the third set ?Then leaf subsides to leaf.? The playful spirit of the young is lost in time as age quickly pours what seems like endless duties upon adults. Things once learned are forgotten and the sun creeps slowly below the horizon. Time once again takes it toll on all things living

The use of imagery in the poem created the feel of a long, twisted path to find the storyteller. This is significant because it allows the reader to infer that going on such a trip was new and mysterious to Walcott. Lines 5-6 (“Sunset would threaten us as we climbed closer to her house up the asphalt hill road”) show that not only was it a long journey, but also dangerous seeing as there was not much light besides the “lamp at the black twist of the past”, which is known to belong the house of the old storyteller.

The repetition of the motif of time in both Prufrock and Rhapsody shows the degradation over a period of time. In Prufrock, the notions of "grow old" and "there will be time" are repeated in various forms to show the degradation of a person but in Rhapsody, the continual references to the time: "twelve o' clock", "half-past one" emphasise the degradation of the society as a whole.Eliot's fragmented writing structure, his quick movement from one image to another, such as in: "trying to peer through...and a crab one afternoon..." accentuates the disjointed thoughts and actions that were prevalent in this urbanising society. Eliot's usage of desolate and eerie imagery of "like the world gave up the secret of its skeleton … stiff and white … hard and curled and ready to snap" describes the continual decay of the world he lives in. The reference to the automation movement, brought about by industrialisation, in "the child's hand, automatic" shows the idea of corruption affecting everyone in the modernist society. This is further emphasised by Eliot's allusion to the religious notion of 'eyes are the window to the soul' contrasting with the idea that the persona "could see nothing behind that child's eye" connoting the negativity of sin and crime. The abrupt endings to both Prufrock and Rhapsody, "...and we drown" and "...last twist of the

And the sun goes on, day after day, burning and burning. The sun and time. The sun and time burning. Burning...and a short time of floating in the river he knew why he must never burn again” (Bradbury

Throughout ‘At Mornington’, Harwood uses descriptions, “night fell”, and similes, “the piece of this day will shine like light” when referring to the power of memory. During ‘The Violets’, Harwood uses imagery such as “ambiguous light” and metaphors such as “unreturning light” and “blurring darkness” to portray time’s ability to pass, and the way that you cannot regain time that is lost. During ‘The Violets’, Harwood also uses the metaphor of the “melting west” to represent a closing day, capturing the vivid colours of the natural phenomenon through the use of evocative imagery. Indeed, the second poem of the diptych of ‘Father and Child’ is ‘Nightfall’. These references to darkness, light and the closing of days can all be seen as symbolic of life, death and the transience of time, as when one day ends and night falls, the transience of that moment will be held in one’s memory regardless of the moment never being able to be relived.

Poetry can sometimes allow one to explore the unknown. However, in some works of poetry, one can realise that some known ideas or values remain relevant to current society. This is certainly applicable to T.S. Eliot’s poems, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Rhapsody on a Windy Night. Eliot’s manipulation of poetic techniques in both these poems allows the responder to realise that some ideas prevail in both modern and post-modern society. These poems explore the unknown phenomena of the obscurity regarding the purpose and meaning of life. This unknown phenomena causes the persona in both texts to resort to a sense of isolation or alienation. Eliot uses poetic techniques such as metaphors and personification to convey his ideas.

Additionally, Eliot uses imagery in “Preludes” and “Rhapsody on a Windy Night,” to express the fear of being alone. In “Preludes,” the narrator connects the readers by making them experience “tossing a blanket from the bed/laid upon [his] back, and waited;/.../and watched the night revealing/” the reader saw “/the thousand sordid images” in his head (25-28). This imagery is used to show the disturbing pictures that may have been posted in newspapers about the war that was completed. The narrator remembers these pictures in the dark alone and wanted the day to be over, so a fresh day could bring a little light into the society. That will take away the many bad pictures that are being seen in the dark and bring some hope to the society. The isolation of the narrator is causing many disturbing images to appear with no one there to help him recover from the war. In “Rhapsody on a Windy Night,” “Midnight shakes the memory/” in the narrator's mind “/as a madman shakes a dead geranium”(11-12). The scenes that are described to suggest that the night is disturbing the speaker’s memories. However, shaking a dead geranium is a

For instance, he remembers clearly what happened now that “summer has long since fled and time has had its way." Brother expresses how summer is taken away from him too soon. Even so, this particular event sticks vividly in his mind. This hints that Brother is feeling responsible for Doodle’s death, as he looks back and replays it in his mind, thinking how this fatal outcome could have been prevented. Not only is Brother upset with himself, but also at time because it went by too fast, seeming like this was done to him on purpose. These emotions felt by the narrator shows how guilty he feels. Likewise, the use of flashback is shown when Brother looks out the kitchen window thinking of Doodle as “the grindstone begins to turn, and time with all its changes is ground away-.” A relationship can be detected between the grindstone and Doodle. Right outside the kitchen window was where the bleeding tree once stood, and the grindstone now stands. The bleeding tree is also where the scarlet ibis dies, and through symbolism, it is shown that the scarlet ibis represents Doodle. Additionally, Hurst describes that instead of grinding away Brother’s past, the grindstone reminds him of his memories with Doodle. For instance, “time with all its changes” refers to Doodle dying. This is a heartbreaking event, causing a feeling of guilt in Brother. Using flashback, Hurst has clearly conveyed the guilt Brother feels when Doodle

The book Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, is about a man named Guy Montag who breaks away from societal norms after realizing how ugly they are. He begins as a fireman who’s job is to burns books and destroys the houses they’re kept in. After meeting a girl named Clarisse McClellan, a person who opens his eyes to different ways society can be, Montag starts to see the way people are being brainwashed in they’re community . Montag tries to show a different way life could be to his friends but they refuse to change. The growth of Montag is shown through the book as he breaks away from society and thinks for himself.

The tone of the story, objects, and the sentence structures help us relate to the dark theme. "Speaking softly the names of our dead" and "now that summer has long since fled and time has had its way." these quotes are examples of how the writer's word choice affected how we feel about the story. The two quotes listed in the previous sentence give a dark, like death, feeling. The first quote gives a sense of hearing reminders of those how have passed in the wind. The second quote gives an understanding of "how time has had its way" an abundance amount of things significant to the narrator happened during the summer like him helping his younger brother walk as well as helping him accomplish other things that everyone thought he would never be able to do. Now all of those memories seemed to have been ages ago when in reality it might have been only a couple of months ago. Thereupon the unfortunate event of Doodle's death in the middle of August making it seem as if time were flying by. "summer was dead, but autumn had not yet been born, that the ibis lit in the bleeding tree" this quote is foreshadowing awful events that are to come. We later find out that it had been in the summer when the two young boys bonded. It might have started with pride, but it ended with the forming of an improbable

At the same time, perhaps the clock could also be a literal clock and describing its height as “unearthly” an example of hyperbole. When the narrator examines the clock as it proclaims the time, he states that “the time was neither right nor wrong” (line 13). Through this diction, Frost creates a sense of ambiguity about the nature of time and the narrator’s feelings about his life choices. Concluding the poem with the line “I have been one acquainted with the night,” Frost indicates that understanding “the night” seems to be the poet’s destination on his

Furthermore, a second poetic device used in both of these poems was personification. In “Reluctance,” Frost personified the parts of his body to explain how torn he was about losing his love: “…The heart is still aching to seek/ But the feet question ‘Whither?’…” (Frost, 17-18). The personification in this stanza made the persona’s uncertainty and pain apparent and contributed to the establishment of the mood. If the persona himself had bluntly said that he wanted to look for his loved one but didn’t know where to look, the impact would not have been nearly as dramatic. Millay also used personification in her poem, “Time Does Not Bring Relief”. Personification was used to communicate the role time played in her life during her loss: “Time does not bring relief; you all have lied/ Who told me time would ease me of my pain…” (Millay, 1-2). The lack of involvement time had in the speaker’s life during her loss made it apparent how deeply grief-stricken she was. Nevertheless, if this poetic device had not been used to convey the theme, it would have turned out less impressive, if not awkward. Millay used an additional personification in her poem which was used to personify the rain: “…I miss him in the weeping of the rain…” (Millay, 3). The

”She smelled of soap and gorse flowers, of sunlight and bracken and earth, things living, things dying, things continuing in the same way”. These are the lines which end “Because It Is Running By” written by Jo Lloyd in 2009. In few words the last part of the extract summits the situation of the main character Wil and what the author wishes to criticize. While times go by and things live and die, his social background ties him to the spot where he was born, and he is forced to be the onlooker as things continue in the same way time after time.