Exploring A Moth Depicted In The Poem Design By Robert Frost

The purpose of the plant's mention in the poem is to be the ironic stage for what is soon to occur. To complete the image, the speaker declares that this white spider on a white plant "hold[s] up a moth / [l]ike a white piece of rigid satin cloth" (2-3). White again, the moth also represents innocence, just as the spider and heal-all do. This model is ironic: an innocent spider on an innocent heal-all holds up an innocent dead moth. The simile in which the speaker describes the moth, "[l]ike a white piece of satin cloth" (3), refers to a piece of a torn wedding dress, symbolizing the vulnerability of things considered to be holy, such as holy matrimony. Frost designates the spider, heal-all, and moth as "[a]ssorted characters of death and blight" (4), suggesting that all three had a part in the moth's fatality. Ironically, Frost uses the word "blight" inferring the heal-all's backward influence, such as if aloe were to cause an infection. Frost again uses irony proclaiming that these characters are "[m]ixed ready to begin the morning right" (5), as though they are ‘part of a balanced breakfast,' a ritualistic practice which ensues good health. In this line, the poet implies that the death scene and others like it must occur in order for life to continue on each morning for particular creatures; this spider's breakfast is an occurrence of Darwinist natural selection. The poet then conveys this breakfast

Nature is first described in a peaceful and confident mood as something majestic, with the sun as the powerful being which controls this nature. However, by the end of the first stanza, “The hawk comes”. This phrase is said as if the narrator is afraid of the hawk and its presence is going to change the mood of the rest of the poem. The next stanza suddenly uses sharp diction, such as “scythes”, “honed”, and “steel-edge”, to illustrate the hawk’s stunning motions and the powerful aura of the hawk that is felt just from its existence, causing the mood of the poem to slowly transition to fearful, yet respectable. The narrator adores this change the hawk is causing on nature, and describes the scene with the hawk in awe, showing how the poet finds the changing of nature attractive.

In stanza four the poet is flashing back to his childhood and telling us some other words that he got in trouble for. “Other words that got me into trouble were fight and fright, wren and yarn.” (29-31) Even though he got in trouble by his teacher for not knowing the words, his mother helped him understand them in a different way. “Wren are small, plain birds.” (34) “My mother made birds out of yarn.” (37) Here he is shown how two different things can become the same thing.

In the poem there is also an idea of man verses nature, this relates to the survival of the fittest. John Foulcher shows this through the use of first person point of view. For example in the second stanza “Then above me the sound drops” this again possesses sensory imagery creating a deeper human aura throughout the poem. Foulcher further uses a human aura to build a sense of natural imagery for example in the last stanza : “I pick up these twigs and leave them” adding closure

The author uses imagery in the poem to enable the reader to see what the speaker sees. For example, in lines 4-11 the speaker describes to us the

In the poem A Noiseless Patient Spider, it begins by giving us a description of a common, little spider going throughout its life. A spider, on a rock, where it sat isolated, quietly as it casts out its web from in it's spinnerets into an emptiness by trying to examine the significant unknown that holds it. The speaker gives us some deep thoughts as we read through it, while making a connection between the actual life of the spider and with our own lives. As well as the speaker comparing it to his own lost life, he portrays to us that perhaps if he were to be more patient with his life that maybe he could enjoy how the spider goes about it's life and he wouldn't be so lost.

People often tell little fibs, otherwise known as white lies, that they do not think will ever matter. At the time the lies may not seem like a big deal but in the end things can change. Later on down the road, most of these lies come back to haunt the person who tells them. One example of this can be found in the poem “White Lies”. The speaker of this poem tells little lies to hide her true identity.

The first stanza explains how the cunning spider “stood isolated” and to “explore the vacant, vast surroundings” it “launched” thread after thread “out of itself” thus creating a sturdy web. This then flows smoothly into the description of his soul, which acts in a very similar manner. At first, it too seems isolated. Whitman writes “O my Soul, where you stand” and “surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,” which connects to the how the spider “stood isolated.” This wording, however, might take on a new meaning to describe how his soul has an endless number of opportunities, even though it also seems as lonely as the spider. In the third line, “Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,” Whitman illustrates how his soul also launches its own webbing, determined to connect itself with its surroundings. These may be relationships with others or finding a place to call home - anything that will create “the bridge [it] will need” or connections that will “anchor” it to its environment. Whitman helps readers understand the actions and nature of an intangible soul by relating it to a small and tangible

The poem begins with the poet noticing the beauty around her, the fall colors as the sun sets “Their leaves and fruits seemed painted, but was true, / Of green, of red, of yellow, mixed hue;” (5-6). The poet immediately relates the effects of nature’s beauty to her own spiritual beliefs. She wonders that if nature here on Earth is so magnificent, then Heaven must be more wonderful than ever imagined. She then views a stately oak tree and

. . should burn and rave at the close of day”(2). This means that old men should fight when they are dying and their age should not prevent them from resisting death. Another example of personification in the poem is “Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay”(8). This line personifies the men’s frail deeds by saying that they could have danced. This means that the potential actions of the men could have flourished and contributed greatly to their lives. The metaphor “. . . words had forked no lightning. . .”(5) is about how the men had done nothing significant with their lives. They had not achieved anything great or caused a major change. The simile “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay” is about how even grave and serious men will fight against death for as long as they can. Another notable example of figurative language within the poem is “. . . blinding sight”(13). This oxymoron details how the men can see very well and it is very obvious to them that they will die soon, but they know that they can control how they will leave this world. There is an abundance of imagery within this poem, a few examples of which are “. . . danced in a green bay”(8), and “. . . caught and sang the sun in flight”(10) . These examples of imagery are both appealing to the sense of sight by using descriptive words such as “Green” and “danced” in the first example and words such as “caught” and “flight” among others. The second example also appeals to the sense of sound by

The similes in these lines relate to each line of the poem because the last lines are the speakers waking up from his dream. The speaker begins with his dream just starting, explaining he has been anticipating this moment. The speaker must have a fond interest of Lucia because he seems to care about her through the characteristics he describes her in. The poem begins with the speaker dreaming of being transformed into a vine, as he is growing and free-flowing. The vine is automatically mentioned because the speaker’s love beings to grow for Lucia.

Because the poem is long, it won’t be quoted extensively here, but it is attached at the end of the paper for ease of reference. Instead, the paper will analyze the poetic elements in the work, stanza by stanza. First, because the poem is being read on-line, it’s not possible to say for certain that each stanza is a particular number of lines long. Each of several versions looks different on the screen; that is, there is no pattern to the number of lines in each stanza. However, the stanzas are more like paragraphs in a letter than

make a decision and at the end of the day, the nature of the decision

This is supported in the poem by the description of the moth as a "rigid satin cloth." The satin cloth can be seen like a bridal dress, suggestions of good, but the negativity of "rigid" implies perhaps on the lining of a coffin where a rigid body would lie. In the second part of the octave the speaker describes the scene again. He compares the scene and the assorted characters to "a witch's broth" (line 6), and Carter claims that this part introduces ironies regarding the observer's feelings towards the scene he saw. The speaker views those characters as "assorted characters of death and blight" (line 4). But they are there to "begin the morning right" (line 5) - a positive saying which you wouldn't exact to hear associated with death and blight. This juxtaposing of "blight" and "right" emphasizes the irony. How can the morning be "right" if the scene culminate in death?

     A very interesting point regarding Frost’s relationship with nature is that he views it with ambiguity. Most assume that Frost is a nature lover; however, while this is true in part, Frost also views nature as having the capability of being destructive. Lynen speaks of this duality by saying, “You cannot have one without the other: love of natural beauty and horror at the remoteness and indifference of the physical world are not opposites but different aspects of the same view” (7). On speaking of Frost’s dualistic view of nature, Phillip L. Gerber states, “For nature is hard as she is soft, she can destroy and thwart, disappoint, frustrate, and batter” (132). Robert Frost views nature as an ‘alien force capable of destroying man’, but on the flip side, he also views “man’s struggle with nature as a heroic battle” (quoted in Thompson).