'The Listeners' Analysis

In the first stage of the poem, Morgan uses various poetic techniques to set the scene in the early evening by a Scottish loch. “The evening is perfect, my sisters. The loch lies silent, the air is still. The suns last rays linger over the water.” Morgan’s use of effective word choice creates a sense of peaceful tranquillity which is further developed with the alliteration

     The poem starts off brilliantly. “The first four lines are beautifully phrased, and the opening couplet in particular has ingrained itself in the collective consciousness” (Blair, 1). “She walks in beauty, like the night/ Of cloudless climes and starry skies;/ And all

Nature is first described in a peaceful and confident mood as something majestic, with the sun as the powerful being which controls this nature. However, by the end of the first stanza, “The hawk comes”. This phrase is said as if the narrator is afraid of the hawk and its presence is going to change the mood of the rest of the poem. The next stanza suddenly uses sharp diction, such as “scythes”, “honed”, and “steel-edge”, to illustrate the hawk’s stunning motions and the powerful aura of the hawk that is felt just from its existence, causing the mood of the poem to slowly transition to fearful, yet respectable. The narrator adores this change the hawk is causing on nature, and describes the scene with the hawk in awe, showing how the poet finds the changing of nature attractive.

1.     Gregorian chant consists of a single-lined melody and is monophonic in texture. This piece also consists of these basic structures as well as not having any harmory or counterpoint. This piece performed by U of I faculty member Steven Rickards, is sung a cappella.

Both speakers ply nature as setting to express their emotion.the speaker in the poem “The Lonely Land”apply “cedar and jagged fir’s action” as setting to express the lonely environment of the poem and the negative attitude.

The author uses diction throughout the poem to help the reader better understand how the speaker is feeling. For example, "It was hot. A size too large, my wool winter suit scratched" (lines 1-2) shows

“WayWay!,” Jesse said loud, trying to not shout in case he woke the residents up. He scuttled down the path after his brother, who was determined to knock on this door. Up the rickety porch steps he went, it creaked and crackled under his weight.

Throughout the poem the tone and harmony is showing many different moods including shyness, anger and calmness. An example of shyness is at the start of the poem “softy, silently it swishes”, an example of anger is in the middle of the poem “it thumps, it sprays it rips at shores, its ozone spray”, and finally at the end of the poem calmness is shown, “it spends its strength, it sings, it sighs. The wave recedes”. One aspect of the poem I find intriguing is the alliteration and personification. For example, “it sighs, it sings, it seeks”.

Imagery was also used in the poem.  I found that the yellow in the first line represented that the future the writer was facing was bright and warm regardless of his choice.  The undergrowth was, as undergrowth in any forest, damp and dank smelling, but not necessarily unpleasant, just something that the writer would have to face.  The image of traveling through a forest also brings to mind thoughts of birds in flight, chirping and singing.  Squirrels dashing through trees, rustling leaves and dropping the occasional acorn or nut also create an image of sight and sound.  The sun reflecting through the trees, casting shadows and creating pockets of warm and cool air and the occasional breeze stirring through the trees are also brought to mind by this poem.  The end of the poem brings to me

The poem progresses from mourning of the deceased to praising of his achievements and fate to die before his glory withered. Therefore, the tone shifts from somber and quiet to upbeat and positive. Such shift of tone is achieved by Housman’s use of sounds. In first two stanzas, Housman describes the funeral procession as he remembers the time when the young athlete was proudly brought home after he won a race. Then, he solaces the mourners by reminding them it is better that the athlete “slip betimes away from fields where glory does not stay” (lines 9 and 10) because the laurel “withers quicker than the rose” (line 12). The soft “s” sound stands out especially in second and third stanza and it creates a sense of calm and quiet tone and evokes an image of townspeople mourning the death of their “hero”; Consonance of “s” sounds is present in words “shoulder, set, threshold, townsman, stiller, smart, slip, betimes, fields, does, stay, grows, withers, and rose.” In addition to consonance, soft sound alliteration in “road all runners” (line 5) helps to create a quiet tone. As the poem progresses into praising of the young athlete in stanzas four through seven, the consonance of hard “c”, “t”, and “f” sound become prominent. Readers can immediately detect

Atwood uses simple, but effective imagery to engage the senses of the reader, for example: ‘[…] that is a fish, blue and flat’ (l. 4). These images grow more elaborate and it becomes clear that she uses metaphors and simile to convey more intricate ideas. As the speaker confesses that there is more to the world than they let on, the use of enjambment, repetition and punctuation directs the focus on certain words and gives the poem certain acuteness and urgency as the pace increases: ‘Once you have learned these words | you will learn that there are more |words than you can ever learn.’ (l. 21-23).

The poem begins with the poet noticing the beauty around her, the fall colors as the sun sets “Their leaves and fruits seemed painted, but was true, / Of green, of red, of yellow, mixed hue;” (5-6). The poet immediately relates the effects of nature’s beauty to her own spiritual beliefs. She wonders that if nature here on Earth is so magnificent, then Heaven must be more wonderful than ever imagined. She then views a stately oak tree and

Lockward’s use of sound was incredible. Readers can hear her anger in the beginning, her humor as she talks about writing and hiding her poem, and her husbands emotional break down at the end. The stanzas in this poem aren’t traditional, they aren’t set to a fixed pattern but each vary in the amount of lines they contain. One stanza contains five lines, while another contains eight.

It was Raoul, and I wished for him to go away. He knocked again then stuck his head around the door. ‘How are you?’ he asked with concern. Anger overcame me.

The very first stanza of the Gioia’s poem sets the tone for the poem, which was melancholy, with the imagery the author uses.