The Darkling Thrush And The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower

Hardy initially uses similes to illustrate the bleak landscape, referring to the “sun [as] white” and leaves as “grey”, to emphasise his sorrowful opinion of love. Specific diction of bleak words strongly communicates his message of love being hopeless and sorrowful. He also uses personification of “starving sod”, to allude that the earth is frozen and desiring nutrients which it lacks. This creates an undesirable setting and mood of despair and sorrow expressing how he perceives love. In contrast, Browning orientates an inviting, cheerful setting through the use of similes. The scene is vibrant with “little waves that leap” and “warm sea-scented beach[es]”, allowing the reader to perceive it as joyful. This illustrates how he regards love as an uplifting experience, which brings people together. He structures his poem with no stanzas, allowing for the reader to follow the radiant journey of love. In contrast, Hardy includes stanzas allowing him to express his message though new topics. They consist of the bleak setting, his former partners eyes, her bitter smile and his message of how all love disappoints. He includes an enclosed rhyme scheme, presenting the entrapment of love, expressing no freedom and joy in relationships. In opposition, Browning uses anaphora of “and” to express how the speaker’s mind is not in the moment, looking ahead to the future where they reunite with their lover. It is evident that Hardy conveys his message of love as sorrowful and full of despair, in contrast Browning message reveals love as gracious and

“The blackbird calls in grief” is an anonymously written poem from the twelfth century. The narrator of the poem laments the story of the death of loved ones. In the poem, the narrator laments to a blackbird and mourns the passing of both their families. The bird is personified by the narrator. In this poem, the death is of two families, the birds, and the mans. “The harm now happened to him/ not long since happened to me” (Kinsella 85). An analogy is created equating the loss of the two families and the injustice of the loss. The seventh stanza questions God, “O You who made the world, / Your bias is hard to bear:/ friends all around me are spared, / their woman and young survive” (Kinsella

In the poem, “Shrike Tree”, by Lucia Perillo, the speaker uses the predatory actions of the shrike bird to aid in his acceptance and understanding of death. Perillo has a resigned yet accepting attitude towards the dead birds.

Birds are shown throughout our culture as symbols. Simply by their appearance, they can spark feelings of love, freedom, or wonder in the hearts of people. Birds are creatures that have attributes similar to the beings on earth that are so fascinated with them. Humans are full of constant bewilderment and curiosity, so it is no epiphany that they are entranced by such graceful creatures of the sky. People tend to use birds as symbolism, given the stark similarities between the creatures in the sky and humans. Each can fly with the desire to soar above in the sky and see all that is hidden down below. Both humans and birds can sing songs of revelation to their neighboring friends. Additionally, birds and humans can find themselves being restrained by something. Although such a comparison seems bizarre, Anthony Doerr captured the essence of birds and its connections entirely in his novel, All the Light We Cannot See. Almost every character that is spoken of has an aspect of freedom and flight deep in their story. Doerr’s novel follows the life of two teenagers as they travel through life during the disaster of World War Two. Many characters in the novel exhibit actions and situations in which a bird might find itself in. Werner finds himself fighting restraints, as a bird would to its cage. Marie-Laure is a young birds stretching her wings for the first time. The surrounding friends and characters also face the issues of the war, similar to which a bird struggles with the

David Huddle develops the theme of the understanding of life in his poem, Roanoke Pastorale, by using a optimistic tone to create the despair mood. In the poem, the author is singing along the birds in the great blizzard while thinking of his old days along with the death. The quote, “my later’s my soon,” (11) is used to reflect his impending death. In addition, the repetition of the word, ‘turkey buzzard’ throughout the poem depicts the end of life. Although, death may sounds scary, the author mentions it in a positive tone. For instance, aside from the turkey buzzard mentioned in the poem, others kind of birds have their meaning in positive way. Along with the action mentioned in the poem, “for your entertainment, I sing the words of old

In “Traveling through the Dark” by William Stafford and “Woodchucks” Maxine Kumin, man vs. natural death situations are present. Both poems share some similarities and differences. In “Traveling through the Dark”, the speaker is compassionate and considerate towards the dead deer and whose main goal is to get it off the road to prevent future deaths. However, in “Woodchucks” the speaker shows violence in killing the woodchuck, to the point of killing the whole bird family. In both poems by William Stafford and Maxine Kumin, the poets each emphasize different attitudes toward animals; Stafford showing compassion while Kumin shows vengeance, through the use of vivid imagery, explicit diction, and metaphors.

We at some point in our lives will go through a thing called grief, it might cause us great despair but that agony can’t be simply explained by words. Edgar Allen Poe however in a poem named “The Raven” tells a story of a man who is experiencing that grief over the loss of a loved one and a raven who just happens to drop by his place. He in the poem expresses the experiences and feelings of that man in a way that touches the reader, that it opens a part of us that has been through this or similar experiences. The author uses repetition, symbolism, and hyperbole to achieve this thus demonstrating the idea that grief is a war between denial and acceptance.

Poetry is a very powerful mechanism through which writers can tell their readers something about themselves or the world around them. The language used, as well as other elements within “Traveling Through the Dark” by William Stafford and “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin, display the speakers’ psychology and what sort of relationships they have with the animals, as well as their deaths in their respective works. The speakers have arguably polar opposite opinions towards nature and have different reactions and emotions to their dilemmas. However, these two poems do have some similar aspects.

As humans, we learn about the morality of our lives at a young age. Roethke captures the connection of the plants slowly budding in the root cellar to the tenacity of life. Through this poem simile and metaphor was used to compare simple gardening tools to specific objects that relate to their characteristics. For example, Roethke compares the shoots of life sticking out of the soil “hung down like yellow evil necks.” To a creature or animal that have terrifying necks. The word choice for the simile is interesting as life can be perceived to be evil with the constant bad luck

This is expressed by the multiple examples of old men whom regret certain aspects of their lives and defy death even when they know their time is up. The speaker is urging his father to fight against old age and death. The meaning and subject of the poem influence the tone and mood. The tone is one of frustration and insistence. Thomas is slightly angry and demanding. His words are not a request, they are an order. The mood of the poem is is serious and solemn due to the poem focusing mainly on the issue of death. This mood and tone is created by words such as “burn”(2), “Grieved”(11) and “rage”(3) along with phrases such as “crying how bright”(7), “forked no lightning”(5), “near death”(13) and “fierce tears”(17). The insistent feeling is also created by the repetition of the lines “Do not go gentle into that good night”(1), and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”(3). The figurative language used also affect how the meaning, tone and mood are interpreted.

The final quatrain highlights a depressing state of mind through assonance and alliteration. Words like ‘keen’, ‘deceives’, ‘me’, ‘tree’, and ‘leaves’ exhibit the assonance of the ‘ee’ sound. Although Hardy tries to keep a neutral opinion of his experience of love, beneath the surface, the reader is aware of the inner emotional turmoil that the author has experienced.

Ted Hughes illustrates a vital view in his poem to describe to his audience that what we perceive may not always be true. Often times, the first impression that nature gives is one that is calm and beautiful. However, as the artist prepares to paint the scene, he’s challenged with trying to fit in the entire view of nature. The artist’s task is to paint the water lily, but is having difficulty as there are many other features that are hard to see. Hughes reveals the speaker’s attitude toward nature as being not only beautiful, but also dark and violent.

Philip Freneau loved to write about the beauty of nature. In his poem “The Wild Honeysuckle,” he explores the topic of life and death using a flower. At the beginning of the poem, Freneau’s tone suggests admiration for the beauty of the flower. He does not want anyone to go near the flower or disturb it in anyway when he states “no roving foot shall crush thee here” (5). Towards the end of the poem, his tone becomes melancholy because the summer is leaving and the flower is withering.

Inspired by his father's dying, Dylan Thomas wrote “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. Within the poem, Thomas addresses the inevitability of death, but encourages his father to cling to life instead of giving in and going gracefully. The villanelle structure, repetition, language and imagery emphasize the importance and urgency of Thomas's message to “rage against the dying of the light”.

“The Force that Through The Green Fuse Drives the Flower” is a twenty-two line poem, made up of five stanzas, written by Dylan Thomas (1934) and follows the rhyme scheme ABABA. By first reading it, it may seem more difficult to understand, however, a close analysis will make Thomas’ images much clearer. There is no one explanation for this poem, for the ideas can be seen from many different lenses. There may be elements that seem contradictory but since the poem is about contrast, change, and paradox, contradictions may also be apart of the poem 's meaning. A “force” is mentioned heavenly throughout the poem which will be the analytical focus of my essay. I will focus on the theme and definition of the “force” mentioned in the poem and