Sophia Benigno. Dr. Kate Lechler, Brian Cook. English 225

Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood deals with the simplicity of life, stressing the importance of "each cobble, donkey, [and] goose"; we must rejoice in the simple aspects of life which ultimately make it so wonderful. There are many characters in the play who would attempt to hide from reality behind their "germ-free blinds" and "sealed window[s]", consuming themselves with insipid activities which do not bring the joy of the "spring sun" into their lives. Thomas' treats these characters with humour, subtly suggesting where his sympathies lie; with those characters who rejoice in the "love" and the little aspects of life which make it so much more worth living.

     Frost?s poem delves deeper into the being and essence of life with his second set of lines. The first line states, ?Her early leaf?s a flower.? After the budding and sprouting, which is the birth of nature, is growth into a flower. This is the moment where noon turns to evening, where childhood turns into maturity, and where spring turns into summer. At this very moment is the ripe and prime age of things. The young flower stands straight up and basks in the sun, the now mature teenager runs playfully in the light, and the day and sunlight peak before descending ever so quickly into dusk. The second line of the second set states, ?But only so an hour,? which makes clear that yet again time is passing by and that a beginning will inevitably have an end.

Childhood is arguably the most exciting time of a person’s life. One has few responsibilities or cares, and the smallest events can seem monumentally thrilling. Often, people reflect on the memories of their youth with fondness and appreciation for the lessons they learned. Sarah Orne Jewett captures this essence perfectly in the excerpt from “A White Heron.” Jewett uses many literary devices, including diction, imagery, narrative pace, and point of view to immerse the reader in familiar feelings of nostalgia and wonder, and dramatize the plot.

'Harwood's poems explore the impact of time and change on the reassessment of one's identity.'

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.

In the beginning of the poem we see the line “Time that is moved by little fidget wheels” conveying the meaning he was taken before his time. This refers to the chronological and systematic time of humanity in which is measured by minutes and hours, shown on clocks that are symbolised by bells. This concept of time is far more powerful with the use of personification as emphasised by the capitalisation.

In this poem, we see the tone light and free, also much imagery. We see this immediately with the first line saying, the “afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight” (1). We immediately get a sense of a beautiful day, maybe even fall with the trees descriptions in the following line, “trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves” (2). Lowell shows such beautiful imagery throughout her poem especially in her first two stanzas, that when we read that they are in the middle of war in the third stanza, that it is slightly shocking. That there are “two little boys, lying flat on their faces” (7) and that they are, “carefully gathering red berries” (8). Here Lowell shows that it is still a beautiful day but the darker reality is that they are currently in a war. Then we start to see the poem more in a melancholy light. That these two little boys are picking berries to save for later, instead of enjoying it right now. However one day the boys wish that “there will be no more war” (10), and that then, they could in fact enjoy their berries, their afternoon and “turn it in my fingers”. In this poem, we clearly see the different tones throughout. Lowell shows us the light tone, then a more melancholy tone and then finally a hopeful tone.

By the end of the poem there is another shift in tone. The tone takes on a more hopeful meaning. Now, Bryant uses the spring season to compare to a new age. He mentions, “The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes/ In the full strength of years, matron, and maid,/ The bow'd with age, the infant in the smiles.”(68-70) The rebirth of human life compares to nature in the sense that when nature is reborn in springtime everything turns green. The reader ends the poem with an enlightened sense of feeling instead of the dark and gloomy feeling they felt at the beginning of the poem.

The theme of emptiness is seen throughout Thomas’ poems. The wartime poet writes of his memory of livelihood and activity in villages, such as the one described in ‘Aspens’, and then how it begins to disappear as a result of war. This is shown as the village is left with a ‘lightless pane and footless road’ causing the village to appear as ‘empty as sky’ and this simile gives a sense of vastness of the effects of the war, emphasising on the emptiness in the poem. Further, the mention of the ‘cross-roads to a ghostly room’ explicates that the village is so empty that it is leading nowhere. This metaphor is ironic as cross-roads are suggestively open gateways and a sense of choice in direction. However this connotation is altered as Thomas uses the metaphor ‘ghostly room’, to portray the vacant village and this is supported by the cross-roads as they lead to emptiness and isolation. This is also seen in ‘Old Man’ as the paradox ‘only an avenue, dark, nameless, without end’ gives a sense of no lead despite the fact that an avenue should lead somewhere. It is clear here that Thomas’ state of depression is

The third stanza is addressed to ‘good men’ who regret their choices in life and think of how much they could have achieved, if they had only had lived longer. Poetic techniques used in this stanza are personification, symbolism, repetition and rhyme. In the second line, we see the use of personification when Thomas writes of how “their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay”, referring to the ‘good men’. This line paints a picture of how the frail

I strongly believe that there nonfictional article written by Barbara Hehner and Julie Pisani called “Medicins Sans Frontieres” will inspire many youths around the world. I strongly believe that it will inspire many young people including me because of the following

In the first stanza, the author states, “all afternoon before them,” is a metaphor used to indicate their earlier life. As previously stated, the father and his son are not close to each other. In the phrase, “with winter sounding past,” it is implying that any of the conflicts they may have had will eventually go away with time.

In the third stanza, the speaker introduces the theme of time to the reader through the motif of the drum. The speaker is melancholy as he states, “While the young lambs bound as to the tabors sound, to me alone came a thought of grief.” The tabor refers to a drum, which shows that the speaker of the poem is connecting the young lamb to the pulse of time. This represents the struggle of man versus time as the imagery creates an odd sense of duality. The young lamb leaping to the beat of time provides a sense of comfort through the innocence of the springtime youth, but the image also foreshadows the inevitable changing of the seasons and the coming of age. The theme of time continues as the speaker mentions a “timely utterance” in the sound of

Robert Frost’s “Birches” is a poem that makes incites towards the shortness of one’s life. In the poem, Frost reminisces on his childhood, and remembers it all too well. The poem is meant to help the reader to reflect on his/her own life and leave them wanting to treasure moments of the present more intensely. The poem encourages its readers to think about what great things lay ahead, while looking at the positive side of life. Although Frost knew the tree branches were bent because of the ice storms, he liked to look at things in a more analytical way. Throughout the poem, Frost imagines that a young boy would play on the birch trees and climb “Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more” (Line 56). Frost intends for his readers to look at things in a brighter perspective. It is obvious that the author has gotten old, and feels as if time went by too fast. Frost highlights the fact that the character longs to return to the time when he was a young boy, swinging on trees. Robert Frost uses “Birches” to express melancholy towards growing old and accepting death.

The Structure, style and poetic techniques of a poem contribute greatly to the development of the central idea of a poem. Three poems with central ideas that stood out to me were ‘The Darkling Thrush’ by Thomas Hardy, ‘Days’ by Philip Larkin, and ‘Remembrance’ by Emily Brontë. The central idea of each of these poems revolve around the idea of time and change. Firstly, I will discuss how in ‘The Darkling Thrush’ the simple and traditional structure, the bleak yet straightforward style and techniques such as vivid imagery and capitalisation combine to develop the central idea of change. The same can be said for the simple structure and style used in ‘Days’ which combine with poetic techniques such as metaphors to develop Larkin’s argument against time and change. Finally I will discuss how the idea of time is developed through techniques such as vivid imagery and symbolism in ‘Remembrance’ along with changing styles and a slow, consistent rhythm.