How do Don Paterson and Phillip Larkin try to capture a message about life in their poems Two Trees and The Trees?
In the two poems, “Two Trees” by Don Paterson and “The Trees” by Phillip Larkin, the poems explore life and death through their seemingly black and white poems. In “Two Trees”, Paterson explores the themes of creativity and perception while Larkin ponders the illusions of life and how things are perceived. The messages in their poems can be seen in their contrasting uses of symbolism, imagery, rhyme and metre, and structural form.
The two poems both make use of symbolism to convey their message to the reader. “Two Trees” shows this through wordplay such as “rooted in his head”. Here the word “rooted” both means that he has an idea
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The Trees mirrors life and its hardships with, “No, they die too” and language like, “grief”. Similarly, the poet also emphasises that the nicer side of things; new chances, “coming into leaf” or, “being born again” are “tricks” or illusions. However, the poem does end on a happier note with “begin afresh, afresh, afresh”. Larkin’s message is that while there are good things in life, quite often they are not all that they seem.
Both poems use powerful imagery to capture a message about life, however, they do it in different ways. In Two Trees by Don Paterson interesting language choices such as “graft” which can mean attaching the trees together as Miguel did or it can mean “hard work” or to “work hard”. It also can mean an outdated style of writing equipment and, finally, it has come to mean bribery or other corrupt practices. That one word alone shows many important life messages: you will always have someone else there for you; you have to work hard to get results; there is a reason some opinions are outdated; and there will always be a dark side to humanity. This darker side is also mirrored in the 6th line “for twelve months for the shame or from the fright/ they put forth nothing.” Here, the poet tells the
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Two Trees has a linear structure, in chronological order, to convey how easy it is to see things in different lights. Likewise, the poem has a very strong connection to the number two, particularly due to the rhyme and metre, but it also has two stanzas, each one showing a different point of view on the trees and the dream that had them “graft”-ed together. The poem also contains many enjambments, which, like thoughts, continue onto the next line. In Don Miguel’s stanza, they are carefree, like his thoughts, but The Man’s are more impartial, as if he couldn’t care at all. The Man’s stanza also seems to speed up, with the enjambments rushing the stanza, almost as if, like him, the poem is hasty and thoughtless, and rushes into things. Contrastingly, The Trees by Philip Larkin has a circular structure, returning to the beginning each stanza and it also returns to the beginning of the poem at the end. It mirrors itself, starting with life, then death, and ending with life. However, throughout it is becoming softer; there are more vowels at the beginning, which makes the beginning sound harsher. Overall, both poems use structure to express a message, but the overriding similarity is both poems’ ability to mirror themselves in different
The tone of the Planting a Sequoia prose passage is reflectively melancholy. It is not one of pure agonizing sadness, yet there are underling depressing qualities to the author’s words. The purpose of the passage is to describe the death an individual, presumably the first born son of the narrator. The narrator is speaking to the Sequoia that he is planting. Each of the stanzas switch from a mood of death and a mood of life. The “rain blacken[ing] the horizon”, the “dull gray” skies and the “old year coming to an end” all work together to create the melancholy mood. The following stanza switches to a newer and livelier mood, including the celebration of the first son’s birth, earth having more “life to bear”, the description of a “green sapling rising among the twisted apple boughs” and the “promise of new fruit in other autumns”. The “promise of ne fruit” describes the symbolic purpose of the tree. Although a life is lost, there is hope for future “fruit”, or life in the future. The third stanza begins with the
Both speakers ply nature as setting to express their emotion.the speaker in the poem “The Lonely Land”apply “cedar and jagged fir’s action” as setting to express the lonely environment of the poem and the negative attitude.
The narrator's vision of her ancestors expanding a plentiful life is emphasized with the picturesque “blue fields…with leaves and vines and orchards.” This then strikes the narrator with the realization that cutting down the tree would be a betrayal to their ancestors, their dreams and the demise of the heritage of the
Jane Hirshfield connects to nature at her home in Marin County, California this is where she gets her inspiration for her poems. Hirshfield published “Tree” in 2000 as a free verse poem, divided into 4 stanzas and 4 sentences to convey the nature world. The poem represents a “young redwood” (line 2) growing near a house, near a kitchen window. The redwood is already scraping against the window frame of the house, reminding the reader of the “foolish” (line 1) idea of letting it grow there. Humans were created to be one with nature, but as they evolved as a species, they were obligated to choose between the materialistic world or the world of nature.
The audience is able to visualise ‘Japanese Maple’ as time line reflecting on his life with the analogy of beauty and fragile, which convey his appreciation for his successful career and personal life. Metaphor is displayed in the Japanese maple tree with a comparison of his fragile life, alliteration, imagery and rhyming is represented throughout the entire poem with the second or third sentence. Japanese Maple was pieced together to reflect James life, also his battle with cancer. The title of the poem came about his daughter dedicating a Japanese maple tree to her father, where James was able to watch the tree grow and flourish through every season, much like his career and life, but most of all his ordeal with cancer. James was able to compare something with great beauty and life resembling his early life to something slowly dying and changing of appearance for example when the maple tree’s leaves will die and fall
The diction in the excerpt is an essential component to the dramatization of the plot’s central incident. Jewett uses rich language to intensify the simple nature of the main character Sylvia’s journey up a “great pine-tree.” For example, in describing the tree, the narrator uses personification as he mentions the “huge tree asleep yet in the paling moonlight.” The use of personification harkens back to those universal moments in childhood in which everything alive had human feelings, and creates an emotional attachment between the reader and the tree. Jewett also uses other figurative language, like similes, to relate the grandeur of the tree to the audience. She writes, “It [the tree] was like a great main-mast to the voyaging earth…” In comparing the tree to the great mast of a ship, the author invokes feelings of awe at its size.
Peter King’s comment on Phillip Larkin’s novel is reasonable because Larkin’s main themes are about death and failure. It is possible to outline both sides of the argument and Larkin’s use of imagery and characterisation supports this.
Many people believe that this mimics Whitman's life. Living in a life of social separation much of the time, he still managed to succeed not only with his writing, but also in life itself. However, in line five Whitman goes on to say that he wonders how the tree could grow such joyous leaves while being alone. He himself says that he could not survive if put in the same situation. Whitman did however lead a joyous and happy life in many peoples opinion, even though he did not enjoy the social life many other had during his lifetime. His own opinion of himself not being lonely may be frayed in order to spare the image he proposes to the public in his writings. The next few lines are interesting because of the way they could possible spell out Whitman's life. In the poem, he breaks of a twig, wraps some moss around it, and takes it to he room and places it in plain view. This may parallel his life by way of his memory. The twig may represent pieces of his memory that were enjoyable to him. He then takes the twig and places it in his room signifying that he wants to be able to constantly see those fond memories. Again Whitman replies by saying he did not do this to remind him of his friends, but in reality he may have just said this to help keep a good report with his readers about his lifestyle.
Some fancy that it is easiest to believe that things mean precisely what they appear to on the surface. However, to understand the world and thoughts of others in a more profound way, it is necessary to accept the fact that things may not always be just as they seem. It is imperative that one adopt this same attitude when reading poetry. One poem in particular that exemplifies this is John Updike’s “Telephone Poles”. Within the work, telephone poles are compared to trees by way of extended metaphor. “Telephone Poles” conveys the message that when nature is destroyed to make way for technology is harmful to nature itself and humankind as well by using an extended metaphor; this is enhanced and made clear by Updike’s usage of supporting metaphors, similes, verbal irony, and imagery.
This is significant because it emphasizes the melancholy and mournfulness that he depicts with imagery in the first stanza. Later on in the second stanza, he author describes the tree the narrator would have planted as a “green sapling rising among the twisted apple boughs”. The author uses visual color imagery of the color green to describe the sapling in order to emphasize just how young the newborn was when he died. Later on in the poem, the narrator speaks of himself and his brothers kneeling in front of the newly plated tree. The fact that they are kneeling represents respect for the deceased. When the narrator mentions that the weather is cold it is a reference back to the first stanza when he says “of an old year coming to an end”. Later on in the third stanza the author writes “all that remains above earth of a first born son” which means that the deceased child has been buried. They also compare the child to the size of “a few stray atoms” to emphasize that he was an infant. All of these symbols and comparisons to are significant because they are tied to the central assertion of remembrance and honoring of the dead with the family and rebirth.
Imagery was also used in the poem. I found that the yellow in the first line represented that the future the writer was facing was bright and warm regardless of his choice. The undergrowth was, as undergrowth in any forest, damp and dank smelling, but not necessarily unpleasant, just something that the writer would have to face. The image of traveling through a forest also brings to mind thoughts of birds in flight, chirping and singing. Squirrels dashing through trees, rustling leaves and dropping the occasional acorn or nut also create an image of sight and sound. The sun reflecting through the trees, casting shadows and creating pockets of warm and cool air and the occasional breeze stirring through the trees are also brought to mind by this poem. The end of the poem brings to me
The first literary element that the poem used was personification. The way it was used because the author of the story wrote that “Proving nature’s law is wrong it learned to walk without having feet.”That can’t be possible for a plant to start walking. What this line in the poem was trying to say was that you can get through anything even when you don’t have the things that you need in order to accomplish them and get through it. The theme that this is trying to show us is courage.
In lines seven and eight Whitman expresses some confusables as he has the man break off a twig and twines some moss around the twig to keep the leaves from getting loose. He puts a lot more words into your head then you think he is putting in. It looks like one sentence but in actuality it is the manís whole life summed up. Throughout the manís life he has picked a group of friends and in one way or another wrapped those people around his world and cared for them as much as it seems he cares for this tree that he picked out of no where. The man brings the twig home with him and places it in his room somewhere visible so that he can enjoy it. Then he says that it is not there to remind him of his friends because that is all that he thinks of lately. The reason that he did this is to remind himself of his life and how he chose these friends and continued to carry them along throughout his lifetime.
Trees are important not only physically but also spiritually and for many this fact is lost. Physically trees provide humans with beauty and a healthy ecosystem. Spiritually trees provide humans a connection to nature. Their importance has been lost in our modern times as humans further separate themselves from nature. While forgotten by many, their actions still resonate. The two modern poems “The Tree Agreement” by Elise Paschen and “Living Tree” by Robert Morgan trumpet the value trees hold in comparable ways. In the poem “The Tree Agreement” the speaker argues for the benefits of the Siberian Elm against a disagreeing neighbor. By structuring the poem in this manner, the poet highlights how people are blind to the services trees provide while simultaneously highlighting said services. The tree is portrayed almost as a friend or ally to the speaker. The speaker describes not only to the significance of the tree to humans like the neighbor and the speaker but also to the other living creatures surrounding them. The poem “Living Tree” focuses on the actions performed by trees in cemeteries. This poem follows a more spiritual route when compared to Paschen’s poem. This poem describes the process those who have been buried go through and the role trees play in this process. The trees in this poem are portrayed as lightning rods for the chemicals and spirits of the dead. This relationship is portrayed positively, as the trees are a monument to the passing of life. These poems
Proceeding on to quatrain two, the poet continues to meditate by using images of decay; lofty trees, barren of leaves, white and bristly beard. Just as time progresses, day changes to night, and the young become old, summer becomes winter. In the warm weather, the trees were leafy and bountiful. They served as a canopy that sheltered herd of animals from the blazing sun (L.6). In winter, however, the lofty trees are now barren and stripped of their leaves. The outward appearance of the tree is pathetic and unsightly. The herd of animals will no longer seek shelter under the trees because they look lifeless. Shakespeare further elaborates the imagery of plant life decaying. Summer flowers are beautiful and they exemplify life. However, quite the contrary, Shakespeare states that these flowers are gathered together to be used as funeral arrangements and carried on the coffin over the white and bristly