Summary Of Marianne Moore'sThe Mind Is An Enchanting Thing

11. A poet can work its magic on the reader by “choice of images, music of the language, idea content, and cleverness of wordplay” (Foster 17).

The study of any poem often begins with its imagery. Being the centralized idea behind the power of poetry, imagery isn’t always there to just give a mental picture when reading the poem, but has other purposes. Imagery can speak to the five senses using figurative language as well as help create a specific emotion that the author is trying to infuse within the poem. It helps convey a complete human experience a very minimal amount of words. In this group of poems the author uses imagery to show that humanity is characterized as lost, sorrowful and regretful, but nature is untainted by being free of mistakes and flaws and by taking time to take in its attributes it can help humans have a sense of peace, purity, and joy, as well as a sense of

The enchantment in this poem begins by the earth welcoming the speaker back home. This speaker expresses that, “She took me back so tenderly.” This statement exemplifies to the reader that death is not a scary process. In this case, the earth is being portrayed as a woman. This is significant because women are often portrayed as being nurturing and caring. For the reader, this can trigger memories or ideas of who the reader would picture the earth as. Whether that be a mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, etc. the reader can

What’s the point Miss Moore is trying to prove bringing the kids to the toy store?

So we ask ourselves, how does poetry gain its power? To answer this question, we examine the work of poets Harwood and Plath. ‘The Glass Jar’, composed by Gwen Harwood portrays its message through the emotions of a young child, while the poem ‘Ariel’, written by Sylvia Plath, makes effective use of emotions to convey artistic creativity and inspiration.

A deeper level is achieved in the mind of the narrator when she acknowledges her own mental state and that she is eager to leave her sad mood. While the man is described as animal-like and savage, she stands “In moody sadness, on the giddy brink” (9) full of contemplation and reflection on her own worldview. The poet is quite self-aware while the lunatic is not, and through her intelligent banter, the reader can see the extreme difference in personality. The poet’s own self-conception, however, is ironic in that she is wishing for ignorance that can only be achieved by lack of a self-concept. The catch-22 she experiences is perplexing, both to her and the reader.

Unlike other forms of literature, poetry can be so complex that everyone who reads it may see something different. Two poets who are world renowned for their ability to transform reader’s perceptions with the mere use of words, are TS Eliot and Walt Whitman. “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” by TS Eliot, tells the story of a man who is in love and contemplating confessing his emotions, but his debilitating fear of rejection stops him from going through with it. This poem skews the reader’s expectations of a love song and takes a critical perspective of love while showing all the damaging emotions that come with it. “Song of myself”, by Walt Whitman provokes a different emotion, one of joy and self-discovery. This poem focuses more on the soul and how it relates to the body. “Song of myself” and “The love song of J Alfred Prufrock” both explore the common theme of how the different perceptions of the soul and body can affect the way the speaker views themselves, others, and the world around them.

I believe Moore's stance on poetry is that she dislikes certain aspects while still maintaining a genuine love for it, as a whole. The author clearly feels that poetry is "important" and "useful", and she thinks that the reason many modern people dislike poetry is because "we do not admire what we cannot

“Contemplations” by Anne Bradstreet is a poem of thirty-three seven-line stanzas. It has an ABAB CCC rhyme scheme. This complex poem exists as a justification of writing as a unity with God that ends with the questioning of humanity’s placement in the hierarchy of the universe. The theme is presented as a tightly woven structure of different concepts, nature and religion go hand and hand. The poet is conflicted because she has hopes of being able to glorify God, but is hindered by a sense of her own insufficiency. The word contemplation is another word for meditations; therefore, this poem provides the reader with several different scenes of meditation. Some of the scenes include the poet mediating on how God made nature and how it is supposed to mirror Heaven. The poet believes that humans need to meditate on this fact on a daily basis and remind themselves of their placement within the universe. “Throughout the poem the poet ultimately resolves that God alone is eternal and human-made objects, designs and history will fade eventually”

Imagery sets the mood, which affects the readers’ minds as they read. The vivid sensory details and variety of connotation leads to multiple emotions. In Piercy’s poem, similes control the story, taking the readers on a sensory journey as it intensifies the meaning behind the idea. The structure “[makes] a pattern of chaos” (Kort-10) that is able to tie back to a richer meaning. However, in Merwin’s poem, there is not as many whimsical connection to sentences. Rather it has a “deeply introspective volume” (Bosewell-2) that helps intensify the meaning behind each line. Conversely, Merwin does work will melancholy sound devices that relate back to the serious subject. This ideas separates Merwin’s work since he wanted to “[develop] a different style”( Bosewell-2) which shows through his thorough topic descriptions. Nevertheless, the depth is still shown through the complex comparison between the prodigious world and the opulent

The final stanza of the poem represents the woman going into labor and the delivery of her child into the world. “I wither and you break from me;” (16). This line represents the moment the

Often at times there are many voices in one poem. These voices represent the different views that come from the same material that are portrayed by the buzz that the bee elicit in the hive. The proposal that Collins is trying to exude is that there is never one way to read a poem. The type of approach will vary with reader and who they are, but by having a radical approach it will help to enhance our understanding of what the poem means. Collins wants the reader to feel free when analyzing a poem: “I want them to waterski across the surface of the poem waving at the author’s name on the shore.” As a teacher you try to pummel depth into your students’ minds and push them into the direction of understanding. The speaker declares that the grapple to illuminating meaning and the amount of time where the reader does not understand adds to the worth of the poem. The parallel to the surface of water, where you have not attained the depth even though you know it’s there is important to how much it takes to find the true meaning of a poem. While reading this poem it have the outlook on how poetry places more of aln emphasis on us to be able to pick apart the undisclosed meaning and essentially to be able to pull apart the poem without a fixed structure. By doing it this way it is able to help the audience to build upon skills to help interpret and understand, which substantially is important throughout any source of literature. We

The form of “Intellect” is comprised of just six lines—which suggests a call to action for the reader to listen to his wise words. The short form produces a riddle-like tone; it follows a strict rhyme scheme and a very strong rhythm. The lines are end rhymed—this, coupled with the length of the poem—produces an almost child-like simplicity. The morals hidden in “Intellect” aren’t simple per se, nevertheless we are reminded of the riddles of our primary school days; we remember the catchy rhythm and traditional morals we learned from these riddles. The rhythm and meter are also vital aspects of this poem’s structure: each line contains seven syllables and begins with a stressed syllable. This didactic rhythm jumps out of the page at the reader, causing us to pay attention. The stressed and unstressed syllable pattern produces a sing-song effect; the poem beckons us to listen to the wise counsel of Emerson with a child-like openness and implores the reader to find the moral that Emerson is trying to get across.

“The relationship between the energies of the inquiring mind that an intelligent reader brings to the poem and the poem’s refusal to yield a single comprehensive interpretation enacts vividly the everlasting intercourse between the human mind, with its instinct to organise and harmonise, and the baffling powers of the universe about it.”

In his essay, Imagination as Value, Stevens reminds us that “the imagination is the power of the mind over the possibilities of things […] it is the source not of a single value but of as many values as can reside in the possibilities of things” (136). With these words in mind and from what we have already noted in “Men Made Out of Words,” we can assert that the “possibilities of things,” mentioned in the essay, are the same as the reveries, poems, and myths, hinted at in the poem; however, one needs to clarify the difference between the ‘possibilities of things’ and the ‘things’ themselves. For Stevens, the imagination is ‘metaphysical’ or something which resides in the abstract but at the time it serves as “the only clue to reality [i.e. things]” (137); therefore it is through the imagination that reality derives its possibilities i.e. its myths, reveries, and poems. In Stevens argument, the imagination is the liberator