The Root Cellar Poem Analysis

Interpret (tell me why you think the poet wants to use such images)As such, a sense of gloom permeates the writing.

Lorna Dee Cervantes' poem, “Poema para los Californios Muertos” (“Poem for the Dead Californios”), is a commentary on what happened to the original inhabitants of California when California was still Mexico, and an address to the speaker's dead ancestors. Utilizing a unique dynamic, consistently alternating between Spanish and English, Cervantes accurately represents the fear, hatred, and humility experienced by the “Californios” through rhythm, arrangement, tone, and most importantly, through use of language.

“The Cave” by Mumford and Sons is a song. The song expresses the feeling of darkness and being lost. It is about finding the strength and hope to keep going. “But I will hold on hope,” (line 9) and “And I’ll find strength in pain,” (line12). The speaker is the songwriter and band members who made the song. The tone is one of which not easily distinguished. The speaker seems hopeful and full of strength, ready to move on and become free. He also seemed understanding, as if he knows how you feel and has felt that way himself.

In Woodchucks, a poem by Maxine Kumin, a gardener is having problems with woodchucks invading her garden. She attempts to kill the woodchucks with cyanide gas, but the Woodchucks wouldn’t die. The pacifist gardener, resorts to violence and shoots the woodchucks with a rifle. She was hoping for an easy solution but ended up going against her peace loving ways and turned violent. Throughout the poem, Maxine Kumin slowly reveals the underlying meaning of her writing. Kumin emphasizes that there are violent thoughts and tendencies in every individual by referencing real life events, by escalading the tone of the poem, and by using a series of literary devices.

Cynthia Lee Kotana says it perfectly when she states in her excerpt, "In the first descriptive octave, personification, the giving of human attributes to inanimate objects, is used to drive home the persuasive mood of the poem." (Kotana, Paragraph 6, Sentence1). She is stating that it is at this point in the poem where Roethke begins to paint a picture of the idea he wants to get across to the reader. It seems possible that he was trying to switch the roles of the humans and the inanimate objects. After all, if it was possible for a pencil to feel sadness, or for a manila folder to feel misery, then is it not possible for a human to feel absolutely nothing? The same nothing that we know all of the inanimate objects around us feel? This was a very great technique used by Roethke in trying to bring the reader to look a little deeper into his poem than just to see "misery" and "sadness" and to think what a dark poem it is. It is truly a great skill and takent to be able to make the reader see that he is bringing the "Dead" to life and the "living" to absolute

Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan on May 25, 1908 to Otto Roethke and Helen Huebner. Along with uncle, his mother and father owned a local greenhouse, where Roethke spent a lot of his childhood days working and playing. He referred to the greenhouse as “my symbol for the whole of life, a womb, a heaven-on-earth” ( ). The greenhouse played a huge role in his poetry. Roethke implies that only after death of the self can people come to realize the true purpose of life, love. Roethke always had stored in the back of his mind “the idea that personal selves were not the focus of time on earth”( ). Therefore, people must experience the death of their selves before they can truly live.

Dark words and phrases are initially sprinkled throughout the poem giving it a sense of despondence. For example, Oliver uses the phrase, “the dark burred/ faintly belching/ bogs” which describes the swamp as dark and grim (6-8). The imagery of the swamp is very dark because it symbolizes the hardships that people may have during their lifetimes. Crossing the swamp is a very difficult task, and Oliver compares it to the challenges of life. Therefore, she states “My bones/ knock together at the pale/ joints” (13-15). This once again demonstrates the difficulty of crossing the swamp as Oliver faces many physical challenges including the pain of her old bones. The author transitions from these dark and negative images to illustrations of hope and growth in the next few lines. For example, she describes “a poor/ dry stick given/ one more chance by the whims/ of swamp water” to take root and grow (28-30). This demonstrates how people may face tremendously difficult obstacles to overcome in their lifetimes similar to a dry stick having difficulty taking root. However, these challenges allow people to attain success. Without struggle, there would be no achievement in life. It is the hardships in life that truly allow people to appreciate success once it is achieved. Oliver concludes the fabulous piece with more uplifting and positive imagery of a

To show her initial feelings towards the swamp, Oliver conveys a solemn tone, but later on, she modifies her tone to correspond with her new view of the swamp. Initially, she describes the swamp to be a "struggle, closure, pathless, seamless, peerless mud." The usage of words such as struggle and peerless give the impression that the swamp is a place of hopelessness where only hardships exist. Consequently, this gives the poem a tone of somber and solemn. Although, the shift in tone towards the end

As I mentioned earlier as a child Theodore Roethke spent a lot of his time in the greenhouse his father and uncle owned. He observed nature and its true beauty in unique ways. The years he spent in that greenhouse truly helped him become successful in his writing career. A good number of his most famous works, as well as his less notable works reference nature in some way. I will discuss some of these poems showing the references to nature and repeated themes. Roethke tends to relate life and death to nature using imagery and detailed descriptions to captivate the readers.

Theodore Roethke’s poem “Root Cellar” has one stanza, and eleven lines total. Upon first reading the title, I admit that it doesn’t strike me as very original. This poem can very well be a description of the author’s cellar; a snapshot of an event being held in said cellar.

Through the poem's imagery, it seems as if the speaker is purposefully painting an ambiguous picture of himself, but is also successful in slowly perfecting it by the end of the poem. Likewise, he also applies this idea towards the rhyme scheme, catching the reader off guard once again. The first two lines, “My lizard, my lively writher / may your limbs never wither,” is a slant rhyme, as well as the next two lines that follow. Recognizing the rhyme scheme of these four lines forces the reader to question the obvious: Why would a poet deliberately play with the rhyme scheme if he is only trying to express his true, sincere feelings for someone? One could argue that Roethke does this to compliment his playful imagery at the beginning of the poem, both of which keep his reader attentive and focused. Moreover, building this sense of obscurity also gives the poem a deeper meaning and adds a new twist to what otherwise would have been an ordinary love poem.

A. The basic elements of the piece interior of Tintern Abbey by J.M.W. Turner is

To start off the analysis, the setting of the entire poem is significant. Though the poem takes place in a house, the atmosphere the house is set in is also important. The month is September which is a month of fall which can be seen as a symbol for decline. It definitely insinuates that the poem is leading towards death. Line 1 has “September rain falls on the house” which gives the feeling of a dark and cold night with a storm on top of that. To further develop that, Bishop gives us the failing light in line 2 to also give us an idea of the grandmother’s struggle. Bishop uses the cyclical theme of changing seasons to show the unending nature of what is transpiring within the

In Theodore Roethke “Root Cellar”, there is a heavy use of vivid and stylistic imagery. In the first line, the speaker states, "Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch." We are given that something is refusing to sleep--that is, to die--and at the same time being "dank" gets us thinking about things that are “undead”. In line two, the speaker states, “Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark.” This tells us that things are still growing and they are looking for the light. In the next following line the speaker mentions, “Shoots dangled and dropped” (3). This gives us the image of the shoots coming out of the bulbs. The shoots dangle and droop towards whatever light possible. In line four, the speaker gives us an idea of the type of housing they are in, “mildewed crates.” The moisture creates mold and mildew. It also creates prettier life like plants. As you can see, mold and mildew are life, and they grow alongside the plants. In line six, the speaker brings us a smell by saying "congress." Roethke must mean just the coming together or gathering of smells. In line seven, the speaker give us another sense of smell, "Roots ripe as old bait, pulpy stems, rank, silo-rich, leaf-mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks.” He gives us this image and the sense of smell of mold and rot to show it is still life. These words for example would be ripe, pulpy, rank, and rich. The last two lines, “Nothing would give up life: Even the dirt kept breathing

The poet uses different techniques to bring the out the impacts of slavery on the affected individuals (the slaves). The “grave/slave(s)” rhymed couplet recurs at