Rossetti and Halligan both expressed the theme of personal reflection throughout the poems, The Woodspurge and The Cockroach. By using different language effects, the two poets easily convey this theme. The orderly structure of four verses per stanza and eight syllables for most verses in The Woodspurge, gives the reader a dull feeling as it is consistent. The rhyme at the end of each verse also gives a monotonous atmosphere and shows the thought Rossetti wants to convey, stages of grief, something that one won’t necessarily want to pay attention to, something that makes people mournful. The only verse that breaks the repetitive eight syllable rhythm is ‘the woodspurge flowered, three cups in one’. The sudden change shows that the appearance of the woodspurge made Rossetti realise something important. This may be the fact that his grief and sorrow cannot change his fate, like how the woodspurge will naturally and always have ‘three cups in one’. Even though a woodspurge only comes in the colour green, ‘flowered’ usually gives a feeling of something pretty blossoming, delivering a refreshed and colourful atmosphere, which contrasts from the previous dullness. This feeling might be …show more content…
‘At first’, ‘but soon’, after a while’ show the cockroach’s movement in chronological order. Even though in ‘he seemed quite satisfied to trace a path’, the ‘quite’ gives off an uneasy feeling, but the whole line creates a relaxed atmosphere, as if the cockroach is on familiar grounds. Always going on the ‘path between the wainscot and the door’, able to move around freely. ‘But soon he turned to jog in crooked rings’, uncertain as to where to go, getting bored of the situation. This shows that there are times where people can be unsettled, giving them many opportunities to do different things. Like an adolescent always finding something new, ‘circling the rusty table leg’, risk taking and
The tone of despair and loneliness is carried on to the proceeding stanzas, and is more evident in the last two. By saying that “Water limpid as the solitudes that flee
The tone of the poem changes as the poem progresses. The poem begins with energetic language like “full of heroic tales” and “by a mere swing to his shoulder”. The composer also uses hyperboles like “My father began as a god” and “lifted me to heaven”. The use of this positive language indicates to the responder that the composer is longing for those days – he is nostalgic. It also highlights the perspective of a typical child. The language used in the middle of the poem is highly critical of his father: “A foolish small old man”. This highlights the perspective of a typical teenager and signifies that they have generally conflicting views. The language used in the last section of the poem is more loving and emotional than the rest: “...revealing virtues such as honesty, generosity, integrity”. This draws attention to a mature adult’s perspective.
A shift in focus from the students to himself creates an interesting structure in the poem. Collins began discussing his disinterest of his students and their laughable yet pathetic lifestyle. Then toward the end, the author shifts to speak about himself. He expresses the impact of being a long time teacher and the loneliness that comes along with it. Collins creates the detailed image of his colonial house, the deflated car, and vines growing on the porch swing, revealing his depression and sense of being trapped. Therefore, the author connects how past students have driven him to insanity and caused him to create a false reality in his head.
The seasons in the poem also can be seen as symbols of time passing in her life. Saying that in the height of her life she was much in love and knew what love was she says this all with four words “summer sang in me.” And as her life is in decline her lovers left her, this can be told by using “winter” as a symbol because it is the season of death and decline from life and the birds left the tree in winter. The “birds” can be seen as a literal symbol of the lovers that have left her or flown away or it can have the deeper meaning that in the last stages of our life all of our memories leave us tittering to our selves.
A parallel to this in ‘Song’, Rossetti treats time as missed opportunities, “But pluck an ivy branch for me” demonstrating that she missed out on her youth and prime time but grew old before she had the chance to enjoy life. Using flower imagery, Rossetti compares the different states of life, “Violets are for the grave of youth”, a vibrant and exciting time and for someone to die young would be a shame. “And laurel for the perfect prime”, a symbol of continuity and everlasting life; however “withered leaves I chose”, Rossetti conveys a humble attitude as though she doesn’t deserve anymore.
Ralegh conveys this somber realization through his plain style of verse. Though he describes the mistress in detail, she is not the subject of his poem. Ralegh uses Love’s mistress and her destruction as a vehicle to address the destructive nature of Time. He approaches that subject in the plain style, using short, proverbial phrases intended to make the reader aware of time and mutability. The poem contains several lines that are made entirely of one-syllable words, which draw out the time it takes to read the line. Contrast lines 31-32 in “Nature, that washed her hands in milk” with lines 8 and 10 in Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” (p. 989). Marlowe describes the land in which he lives, where “Melodious birds sing madrigals,” and beds are made of “a thousand fragrant posies”. Marlowe’s verse sounds quick and light when spoken, simply because he uses fewer words in an eight-syllable line. Ralegh, in contrast, often uses seven or eight words to fill the same eight-syllable line: “Oh, cruel Time! which takes in trust/Our youth, our joys, and all we have…” Line 32 especially requires that the reader take more time to pronounce each syllable, which adds weight to each word.
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.
In this poem, we see the tone light and free, also much imagery. We see this immediately with the first line saying, the “afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight” (1). We immediately get a sense of a beautiful day, maybe even fall with the trees descriptions in the following line, “trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves” (2). Lowell shows such beautiful imagery throughout her poem especially in her first two stanzas, that when we read that they are in the middle of war in the third stanza, that it is slightly shocking. That there are “two little boys, lying flat on their faces” (7) and that they are, “carefully gathering red berries” (8). Here Lowell shows that it is still a beautiful day but the darker reality is that they are currently in a war. Then we start to see the poem more in a melancholy light. That these two little boys are picking berries to save for later, instead of enjoying it right now. However one day the boys wish that “there will be no more war” (10), and that then, they could in fact enjoy their berries, their afternoon and “turn it in my fingers”. In this poem, we clearly see the different tones throughout. Lowell shows us the light tone, then a more melancholy tone and then finally a hopeful tone.
The most notable is dream, the rhyming word in 2. Rossetti repeats the word in 7 and uses the plural in 13 and 15. In 7 the rhyming word sweet is the third use of the word, a climax of “how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet." Concluding the poem, Rossetti repeats breath (16), low (17), and the phrase long ago (18). This special use of repetition justifies the title “Echo,” and it also stresses the major idea that it is only in one’s memory that past experience has reality, even if dreams are no more than echoes.
While in stanza two he begins to explain it was a “bleak december”, Clearly setting the sad and seemingly depressing mood. But as the stanza moves on the sadness is filled with creepy suspense as it states that not only the speaker is up late at night on a late, and bleak December night, that the statement “And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor” finding out that the statement is explaining how the fire in the fireplace is slowly dying out, and the very few pieces of coal the “dying embers” seem to create creepy ghost like shadow around the room which creates the depressed and the creepy suspense filled mood.
The theme of emptiness is seen throughout Thomas’ poems. The wartime poet writes of his memory of livelihood and activity in villages, such as the one described in ‘Aspens’, and then how it begins to disappear as a result of war. This is shown as the village is left with a ‘lightless pane and footless road’ causing the village to appear as ‘empty as sky’ and this simile gives a sense of vastness of the effects of the war, emphasising on the emptiness in the poem. Further, the mention of the ‘cross-roads to a ghostly room’ explicates that the village is so empty that it is leading nowhere. This metaphor is ironic as cross-roads are suggestively open gateways and a sense of choice in direction. However this connotation is altered as Thomas uses the metaphor ‘ghostly room’, to portray the vacant village and this is supported by the cross-roads as they lead to emptiness and isolation. This is also seen in ‘Old Man’ as the paradox ‘only an avenue, dark, nameless, without end’ gives a sense of no lead despite the fact that an avenue should lead somewhere. It is clear here that Thomas’ state of depression is
The mood, imagery, and setting in poetry and art can be compared and contrasted in many ways. Poetry and art work together by expressing one’s ideas or symbols. Art is a way for people to physically see what the author of a poem is trying to express through words. It gives the reader an actual image of what is interpreted through words that one might not be able to visualize strictly by reading it. Christina Rossetti’s poem, “The Goblin Market,” is easily compared and contrasted with Dante Rossetti’s wood engraving when it comes to imagery, illustrating women during the nineteenth century, and by portraying men as animals.
The tempo throughout the song varies from adagio to allegro, but favors the allegro speed in most of the piece. As most of us have agreed, this specific movement is very repetitive in texture and tone. We believe repetition is a main them in the song to help the listener get a feel for the piece and help them memorize it better. As the melody progresses, the tone and volume of the piece make a drastic change. It slows down as to show the time of year is slowing. No longer are children running and playing outside, it portrays winter being right around the corner. The tone continues to fall lower, giving the listener a feel of sorrow, as if death is in the air. The visualization of leaves falling is imprinted in the listeners mind. Then suddenly, the tempo rapidly picks up and jumps right back into the main chorus, which is abruptly cut short. The tune firmly begins to build up as it almost lullabies the listener through the composition, while the volume steadily increases. I can picture myself swaying in the wind to the cool fall breeze as the sun sets on the warm colors of the fall leaves. Just as the lullaby seems to pick up in pace, it slowly fades in to the distance. Once again the volume of the piece quickly increases and has the listener on the edge of their seat as joy fills the air. The pitch jumps from low to high between each instrument as they begin to
This hyperbold reveals to us that Oliver’s mind went to a better place while she was in nature, meaning that nature is relieving a stress free. Therefore, the theme of “Sleeping in the Forest” is that nature is a better place to be in and nature is peaceful. The themes of “Ode to Enchanted Light” and “Sleeping in the Forest” are both about the beauties of nature, however, one is about sleeping and darkness while the other one is about light. These themes tell reader that the poets have a positive and loving perspective towards nature.
Poets use many ways when they want to communicate something using poems. Poems are used as a means of passing ideas, information and expression of feelings. This has made the poets to use the natural things and images that people can relate with so that they can make these poems understandable. The most common forms of writing that are used by the poets are the figurative language for example imagery and metaphors. In addition, the poets use the natural landscape in their attempt to explore the philosophical questions. Therefore, this essay will explore the forms that have been used by the poets in writing poems using the natural landscape. The essay will be based on poems such as ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ by