Summary Of The Poem XIV By John Walcott

In some of Harwood’s poems, the persona demonstrates that memory can be used as a powerful conduit into the past and such a pilgrimage is one of the many faces of human experience. In Harwood’s poem “At Mornington” the persona is Harwood herself and the poem begins softly with an account of Harwood’s first encounter with the sea. Her memories are triggered by a reunion with an old friend which suggests that her tone of voice throughout the passage is reflective and contemplative. The repetition of the waves and water symbolises the passing of time and the flow of memories, which link the past with the present. The persona of the poem initially believes that she can “walk on water” and that “it was only a matter of balance”; signifying the naive belief that she is capable of such defiance of natural law. This is later juxtaposed with the child who witnesses the pumpkins growing “in [an] airy defiance of nature” and describes it as being a “parable of myself”. Harwood uses these juxtapositions to symbolically convey that although she is unable to

Language, details, and actions are used to make the readers feel sympathy for the snake. In the story, the snake is very relaxed, calm and non-aggressive. When the snake is first noticed, its head is not “drawn back to strike” the man. This shows that the snake is not being aggressive, which means that it’s intentions were not to fight the man. The snake also “held his ground with calm watchfulness”.The

The reader generates sympathy through the personification of the snake due to the use of language and detail. The rattlesnake is first presented as calm and watchful. At the sight of the man “he” did not rattle, but looked upon the man with “calm watchfulness”. The snake did not feel threatened by the presence of the man and waiting to see how he would respond

In his poem, "Traveling Through the Dark," William Stafford presents the reader with the difficulty of one man's choice. Immediately, the scene is set, with the driver, who is "traveling though the dark" (line 1) coming upon a recently killed deer. At first, his decision with what to do with the deer is easy; he knows he must push it off the edge for the safety of other motorists, but then, a closer examination of the deer reveals to the man new circumstances. His decision is now perplexing, and his course of action is unclear. Through his use of metaphor, symbolism, and personification, Stafford alludes to the difficult decisions that occur along the road of life, and the

    The speaker tells her story in a very nostalgic, yet optimistic tone. She references the different childhoods throughout her family history, from her grandmother’s childhood to her own. She even made quick remarks about her great grandfathers. While describing memories from her own youth, the speaker sounded as if she longed to go back to those days. She shared memories of dressing up as princesses and falling asleep under her father’s army blanket. Although she sounded very nostalgic, the speaker was hopeful for the future. Towards the end of the poem, the speaker is found saying, “Within the dream of myself perhaps I’d meet my

Lawrence, who is the character and narrator of the poem, struggles with whether he should kill the venomous snake. In his mind, he relies on his education and knows that he would be criticized for allowing a deadly reptile to live although the poet likes the snake and admires it, the lack of fear of the man. When he throws a stick at the snake, Lawrence immediately regrets his actions and feels pretty awful and possibly harming this creation that wanted nothing but a drink on a hot day. The contrast in the short story is on a dark night in a deep hole, while the contrast in the poem is different due to it being on a hot summer’s day and the snake being the main point.

The author uses this allusion to characterize the speaker as a sinner. Another interpretation of the snake could be the venom, eating away at flesh as if his sins are eating away at his life. Further evidence for the topic of sin reveals itself in line 12 when the speaker says that his “secret must be known.” Does this “secret” mean some sort of sin or past mistake? If so, maybe it serves as the cause for his present conflict.

In addition to personification being shown in this poem so is the use of similes. The snake shows up suddenly and catches the speaker of guard “His

This poem has multiple themes that give it its structure. The main one being choices. The speaker is walking on a road (which back then would have been an equivalent of a walking track today). The road is splitting into two directions, and the speaker needs to choose which way they will go. Now, this path has two meanings. The first meaning, is obviously the direction in the woods he must choose. But the other meaning that can be taken from this poem is a choice in life…. Or in this specific case, the speaker’s life. Something is driving them to make a certain

In my opinion the snake represents the same thing that it does in the Bible, sin and corruption. In many literary works a snake is represented as sin and I do not think that is any different in this poem. In the Bible the snake is seen as the one who tempts Eve in the Garden of Eden. The devil manifests himself into the shape of a snake which could be the very thing Dickinson was trying to represent through the snake in this poem. Dickinson’s background through church could definitely be a reason that she would portray the snake in that way. The speaker in this poem is also symbolic. The speaker is an important element because right in the middle of the poem is when we learn that the speaker is a man, not a woman. Up until that point I assumed that the speaker was a woman because the poet was a woman. A woman or girl could just as easily come upon the same situation with the snake as the boy does, so why is it important that the speaker is a man? I think throughout the whole poem Dickinson uses a heavy amount of personification for the same reason she let us know in the middle of the poem that the speaker was a male. I think she wanted us to see that not everything is as it appears to be. Throughout the poem we have the confusion of the snake as being a snake or a “Fellow”, the snake being a snake or a whip, and the speaker being one with nature or the snake being a disturbing event. I think Dickinson uses the speaker as another device to remind the reader that just because something looks a certain way in the beginning does not mean it will be the same in the end. The way Dickinson used the setting is another way she tricked the reader into thinking things were one way when they were actually not. In the beginning of the poem the setting is that of an open field, then the reader learns of a boy who is actually the speaker. This completely changes the setting because now the reader is actually in a conversion about the

Upon reading and reflecting on the poem “Snake” by D.H. Lawrence, I couldn’t help but feel like the poem hearkens back to Emily Dickinson’s poems “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” and even “A Bird, Came Down the Walk.” Like Dickinson’s poems there is a recognition of not only the beauty and majesty that is in nature but also the danger that lurks in the unknown. Lawrence’s “Snake”, like Dickinson’s poems, utilizes personification, not only to connect humankind to nature, but also to elevate the serpent to an almost human level. I will focus on the poem “Snake” by D.H Lawrence and explore the ways the speaker in the poem uses this personification, sound devices, allusion, language and even structure to convey the speakers reverence and fear of nature, more specifically the snake or subject in the natural realm.

The poet places us inside the head of a young child who has just been dropped off by his mother in the playground of a school on his very first day. The child has obviously been told what to expect, but it seems like she has explained it wrong or he hasn’t understood it thoroughly. Which leads him to let his

A poem exposes and defines the moment that a particular consciousness and language meet; and Walcott's poems tilt this moment of encounter toward the light in such a way that the gesture itself and the resulting poem often reveal the prismatic nature of identity. (23)

In ‘Another Life’, Walcott conveys the moment in which he receives his vocation as a spiritual or epiphany-like experience. Throughout the poem Walcott uses a religious semantic and allusions to connote this idea. In the third stanza he starts, “I was seized by a pity more profound”, the verb “seized” implies the idea of an external force, a higher power that he could not control. He relates this to imagery associated with a religious experience or an epiphany such as “uncontrollably I began to weep” and “I felt compelled to kneel”. In the last three lines, we see his experience encapsulated in “like Saul, unhorsed, /that he fell in love with art, /and life began.” The first line is a biblical allusion to the story of Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. In the bible, it is a sudden and profound experience, which ultimately drastically changes his life’s purpose. As a result, his name is changed from Saul to Paul, Paul meaning small and humble. For Walcott, poetry is his divinity; after this conversion, the entirety of his life is for and about poetry, and literature and the preservation of that as an art form. Like Paul, he knows he must make himself smaller in order to magnify the poetry he creates and thus making it a movement larger than himself. Walcott sees his era as the beginning of true Caribbean literature, and himself as the father of that. The last two lines, “that he fell in love with art, / and life began.” seem out of character in their simplicity and unembellishment. He’s saying that one does not need to defend or speak out for the poetry. His involvement in that sense is not needed, he is confident that his poetry can precede him and hold its own. The full stop at the end of the poem is a signifier that his chapter before discovering his vocation is over and there’s a sense of completeness in that; he feels that he has fulfilled his purpose in that part of his life. It does also connote a certain finality, this is where he ends as a singular person, beyond this point he knows he is no longer living for himself but for the poetry and the influence that creates. Here, he pursues a sense of personal dislocation as he knows it is essential for his poetry to succeed; it

There is much more to this poem than its literal story. The title, along with the story itself, suggests man's overlook for nature. People seem to travel through oblivious to the consequences of their actions. The driver who killed the deer is an example of this theme. He was also traveling through the dark, as the deer was a "recent killing." The fact that he left it in the middle of the road, with no further thought for it or anyone else behind him, implies his dark nature.