Rita Dove Dark To Light

In the past few weeks we were studying different types of poems such as sonnet 18, Christmas sparrow etc.

The poems in this section are about the hardships of life and the problems that people have to face, yet there is an undertone of hope in them too, the problems may not be solved, but the poems show that there is a sense of faith in human resilience.

The dramatic realization of the absence of objects during the brief moments of sunset on a snowy evening comes fast under

radiance” (Seifter, 82). The flowing lines, rhymes, and imagery of light and dark give the

The wanderers experience with death leads him to face great sorrow which comes to be known as his only companion left. All of these examples together benefit the themes development by illustrating and elevating the wanderers’ level of loneliness.

In Holly Wren Spaulding’s essay, “In Defense of Darkness,” her main claim is that we have fallen away from darkness and immersed ourselves in a society of lightness. Furthermore, she claims this has lead humans to lose touch with basic human emotion as well as the sensual and spiritual experience true darkness has to offer. Spaulding makes this claim evident through exceptional use of personal testimony and copious appeals to value.

But at a point, one must leave the comfort of the light. This symbolizes that one does not have comfort and help from others when stepping into a foreign path of life. Afterwards, when the poem says “A Moment - We uncertain step For newness of the night-.” These two lines confirm that “darkness” is the unknown path people walk. When walking into the unknown, one becomes hesitant and makes an “uncertain step.” But after taking a stride “Then [fits one’s] Vision to the Dark - And [they] meet the Road - erect - .” In the line before, it had said “A Moment”, now the poem states that “Then.” This signifies that when one first goes into the unknown, they have to wait until their “eyes” adjust to the dark. “Then” or after they adjust to the darkness, they are able to “meet the Road”. The “road” signifies one’s future since the poem is about one’s journey into the new unknown and people do not known what their future holds for them. When meeting their future, they stand “erect” or tall to illustrate the imagery of confidence since they can now see in the

The poem “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark “ to me is about us ,humans , overcoming setbacks.There is always going to be people or things that will try to get in the way of us being successful . The negative energy which the poet symbolized with “ darkness” will try to stop your success . Success is symbolized with “ light “ or “eyesight” which will overcome the darkness in this poem . Us becoming accustomed and or use to the darkness is us becoming use to the negative energy that tries to stop us from becoming great at our talent or whatever activity you are pursuing . In Emily Dickinson poem “ We grow accustomed to the Dark” ,she talks about how we get use to the darkness meaning we get use the people that want you to fail or the major setbacks that are coincidentally thrown in your direction while we are working our way to the stop.

This sentence givers light to why he named the book The Luminous Darkness because from any darkness in someone’s life, God still casts His light everywhere. It matters where we get our light from because having the wrong light source can lead to bad things, but with the right light we can create ourselves to be a better human, one who sees how God created us to be.

In addition to basic english sonnet elements, the poet capitalizes on the reader’s negative connotation of specific words to emphasize the strong shift that leads to the overall meaning. First, the poet uses the motif light versus darkness to exemplify the contrasting view that the speaker holds. By using words that juxtapose such as “radiant” and “black,” the poet demonstrates how the speaker views their current miserable situation as the positive light of the life. With this, the speaker views the area “below” as the dark light of their life; the dark also symbolizes the unknown elements of life. Next, the poet uses color symbolism to signify two different interpretations of the color black by the speaker. First, the speaker uses the color black in the sense of sadness or demise of one’s personality. By originally comparing their depressed state to radiance, the reader infers that the future that is associated with the color black will result in even more sadness or the complete demise of normality that the speaker currently holds. Secondly, the poet uses the color black to symbolize the speaker’s feelings of uncertainty and emptiness. The reader infers that the speaker is empty due to the fact that they are subdued from the real world, and serve only as an observer. In addition, poet uses the

     William Stafford’s "Traveling through the dark" is beautifully written poem that expresses one of life’s most challenging aspects. It is the story of a man’s solitary struggle to deal with a tragic event that he encounters.

My favorite poem to read was “maggie and milly and molly and may” by E. E. Cummings, the couplet style poem. The poem goes against all rules in the writing world; Cummings uses broken syntax, self-created compound words, decapitalization, and unusual forms of punctuation. This poem seems very innocent and free. Maggie finds a sweet singing shell, Milly

With “Night,” the eighth poem and first of the second section, darkness descends, bringing with it a series of scenes horrifying and pathetic.

Thoughts of the light were supposed to bring hope, but all I saw were doors opening to hell. Deep in this darkness which surrounds me, I feel safe, yet anxious. I want to be able to step into the light without having to worry about being put to use, rather I wish to soak up rays of sun instead of the constant pain put on me. As I try to move past to get better, I notice a new part of me has ripped.

Finally, in relation to the present day, there is a sense of the immense possibilities (“anything can be made, any sentence begun”). This is contained in the words that may inspire others to action that may bring such a love closer toward reality. From disunity (“walking past each other”) to blindly “walk[ing] into that which we cannot yet see,” this poem now suggests the alternative of “walking forward in that light” guided by a new vision of a love that may unite us.