Emily Dickinson’s poem “It Sifts from Leaden Sieves” at first glance appears to be a simple riddle, with the obvious answer being snow. As is typical of Dickinson’s poetry, there is much to be found within for contemplation and her profound perspective of nature, life, and the human condition shines forth. Written in simple, mostly monosyllabic words and with a masterful use of poetic devices she produces some powerful themes within the beautiful imagery. Though the words are simple and the poem is among the easier to understand of her almost 1800 poems she produced during her lifetime, it is a technically complex poem that has at least two meaningful and powerful themes hidden within.
As is typical of much of Dickinson’s poetry most of
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The repeated sounds of word interior consonants, or consonance, also plays a role in adding to the verbal flow of the poem with the sounds of the words “all, fills, alabaster, wool, wrinkles, and stump, stack, stem, and wrists, posts, ghosts” More of the beautiful imagery of the poem is obvious when it is paraphrased and also reveals the emotional theme of the peace and tranquility that is experienced in the leaden silence of a heavy snowfall. This is the poem paraphrased-Snow falls silently from dark and heavy clouds and sprinkles the forest and roads that are blanketed in white, it fills in and equals out the mountains and the valleys in a continuous blanket covering fences in a heavenly sheet, all the remains of the summer’s harvest in the fields with covered with snow and showing not a clue, beautifully highlighting the remaining exposed features, then vanishing in a vapor, leaving no traces of their presence. It instantly reminds anybody that has ever experienced a winter storm of this beauty in nature, and of the peace and beauty in the purity of the clean snow. Dickinson also makes the reader subliminally realize the perceptual pleasure and heightened imagery of the scene by associating the scenes with other things normally associated with beauty such as the application of powders and makeup to a person’s face, celestial veils, and the ruffled ankles of a Queen.
Another
Both Dickinson and Frost approach their darkness with a sense of rhythm. In Dickinson’s poem, the “uncertain step” of line 5 is conveyed through
As evident by the title of this poem, imagery is a strong technique used in this poem as the author describes with great detail his journey through a sawmill town. This technique is used most in the following phrases: “...down a tilting road, into a distant valley.” And “The sawmill towns, bare hamlets built of boards with perhaps a store”. This has the effect of creating an image in the reader’s mind and making the poem even more real.
Enjambment in the poem sets the mood. The mood is that as of a snowfall, quiet cold, settled and slow. The poem does not need to rush its thoughts into a sentence or a stanza. By separating the thoughts into different lines and stanzas forces the reader to read slowly as that of a snowfall. The reader reads the poem peacefully, which depicts the images of a peaceful snow, covered forest.
Explain (tell me what image the poem brings to mind)She begins by describing the "death of winter's leaves".
In order to put an image in our mind of how harsh this time was the author of this poem uses imagery. He pays attention to the detail and writes “Through the lone night until the last snow-flake/has dropped from heaven upon the earth’s white breast”(McKay 9-10). This gives us a more detailed description of their struggle.
The author uses diction throughout the poem to help the reader better understand how the speaker is feeling. For example, "It was hot. A size too large, my wool winter suit scratched" (lines 1-2) shows
In the second stanza it is the semantic field of cold: ‘winter’, ‘ice’, ‘naked’, ‘snow’. All these lexical items give us a feeling of cold which evokes loneliness, unknown, fear.
One of the more beautiful things about nature is that it is constantly changing and hold so many mysteries that we don’t understand. Each day brings new beauties and scenes that weren’t there yesterday. Having grown up on the east coast might have caused me to have a greater appreciation for all of the seasons, but one of my favorite things about season is being able to witness the changing over form one to the next. How each plant knows that the change is coming and they all magically start to prepare themselves for the new setting they’re going to create. The romantics capture the mysteries of nature in some of the most beautiful poetry. They delve deep into the possible meanings of what nature could be attempting to tell us or simple what they find beautiful about what they see in nature. One piece that stuck with me this quarter was The Snow Storm by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Winter has always been one of my favorite season since I was a little girl and have always anxiously awaited that first snow fall, dreaming of a white Christmas that year. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s The Snow Storm brought back nostalgic memories of snow filled days in my childhood and made me appreciate having actually experienced snow in real life and the beauty
Frost does not use a wide variety of vocabulary when it comes to the language usage in the poem. He does not care to use a numerous amount of complex words to make the poem sound extremely intricate. Therefore, the diction of this poem can be considered low. Frost keeps the language of the poem casual and simple. However, he did throw in a couple intricate words that really stood out. He used the word, “hoary” when instead he could have used grey, old, or white. He also stated, “pane of glass” when he could have simply said a mirror instead. On another note, Frost truly values the use of repetition. The term “sleep” is mentioned six times within the poem. The speaker wants to really emphasize this term so that the reader can recognize that
In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, Frost describes a thick patch of woods that are a long way from anything. He does not go into great detail describing them, leaving that to the reader’s imagination. He merely describes them as “lovely, dark and deep.” This lack of detail is to help us focus not so much on all the things that are there, as the things that aren’t. He mentions that the horse must be thinking that this is strange to stop here, with no barn near. The only thing that is nearby is nature. The lake is frozen and the trees and ground are covered with snow. During a snowstorm, sound does not travel very well. It is very muddled and muted. The only sounds that are mentioned in the poem are the bells on the horse’s harness and the wind. So, the rider is stopping to smell the roses. He is taking a break from the world around
T.S Eliot’s poem, “The winter evening settles down” is a short, simple to read poem with several different examples of imagery. Eliot uses descriptive words, for instance, “withered leaves”, “broken blinds”, and “lonely cab-horse” (lines 7-10). He paints an extremely bleak image of a town that seems to be deserted of people. The tone of the poem plays hand-in-hand with the imagery used. This town is an unpleasant place where it has seemed to be neglected for some years now. Eliot’s use of imagery takes the reader to this deserted, torpid place; however, at the same time, his goal is to bring the life back into this grim town.
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
Anticipation is a situation when you are happy and excited about a upcoming event. In this poem Emily Bronte has an anticipation of having hope and being very in control. Emily Bronte’s poetry can be described as very lyrical and in her stanzas she is very compassionate about her writings and it seems that in this poem Anticipation she seems like she is having a conversation to herself about letting go of the bad and finding her destiny somewhere. (Lieder Web) Emily Bronte has formal diction within her poem Anticipation.
Hayden utilizes diction to set a dark and solemn tone throughout the poem. Like the various examples of imagery, there is also a strong use of underlying symbolism. In the first stanza, the words “cold” (1. 2) and “fires blaze” (1. 5) are used, which introduces a conflict. This is emphasized in the second stanza when the word “cold” (2. 1) is used again, later followed by the word “warm” (2. 2). In the last stanza, the father eventually “had driven out the cold” (3. 2). Yet the father had not ridden the house of the cold air until the end of the poem, which symbolizes how it took his son several years later to recognize the behaviors in which his father conveyed his love for him.
Not only are metaphors utilized throughout the poem, but a literary device known as Imagery is as well. Imagery is alternative as important a device for it allows for the reader to have a clear picture of what the character in the poem is visualizing. Furthermore, it also helps covey the theme the author is aiming to represent to the reader. Imagery is made known in stanza two line three, which states, “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (Myer, 1091). Here the author is using imagery to inform the readers the traveler is coming up with a reason for why one path could be more favorable over the other. The reader analyzes this line of imagery to obtain a clearer representation of the traveler’s decision-making process. Another line where the author uses imagery is in stanza two line five, which states, “Had worn them really about the same” (Myer, 1091). Here the author is using imagery to inform the reader that the paths are “worn” down, which informs the reader that both of his choices have been equally chosen by people before him. These examples help the reader begin to form the theme of self-justification in decision-making. After analyzing the metaphors and the imagery Frost uses in this poem, the reader can conclude so far that the theme the poet is conveying