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“Write a note on the poetic devices employed in W. Whitman, W. B. Yeats and Robert Frost.”
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Abstract
A poetic device is a tool that serves different purposes in a poem. Some of them are ornamental, some enhance the meaning of the poem and others add to its rhyme and lyricism. The most common poetic devices are alliteration, repetition, metaphor, simile, personification, etc. A poet is limited in the materials he can use in creating his works . All he has are words to express his ideas and feelings. Fortunately, the English language contains a wide range of words to choose for almost every thought, and there are also numerous plans or methods of arrangement of these words, called Poetic Devices, which can assist the writer in developing cogent expressions pleasing to his readers.
Poetry isn't always meant to be a first reading that wafts through the brain like a Winter mist. Sometimes the poet is actually being playful and hopes the reader or readers get these finer points. As the poet writes, the text is being bounced back and forth as he begins the initial editing during the writing or the typing stage. So while considering a rhyme, the brain is struggling with that part and with the phrase that works well in order to achieve the relevance of that rhyme. The most basic text can stop the poet in his tracks because it offers no additional portrayal of pure poetry. It merely stays on the page or computer screen lacking any real skill or improvement. So the poet sometimes recognises there's a golden opportunity within that section of the theme, a chance for alliteration of an elevated expression of the phrase.
A poetic device is a way of using words to create meaning. Poets often use words differently than prose writers do, but these can be found in any writing. Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. Consider “the sunny sidewalk started sideways from my house” where the s sound is repeated. A figure of speech is a type of poetic device. For example, a simile or metaphor is figurative language. We usually use figure of speech to refer to an idiom, or a commonly used figurative phrase. For example, “the cat’s out of the bag” or “crazy as bedbugs” are idioms. A simile is a new example of figurative language, such as “her eyes were as blue as sapphires.” If “the sun was laughing” that would be a metaphor.
The use of grand words switches from the common words and adds a sense of strength or insight. A pun can change the mood suddenly and either help or hinder a poem. Sometimes what seemed powerful or witty or clever has to be discarded to fit the overall effect, leading to a more powerful conclusion. To add the powerful middle section undermines the conclusion.
Poetic devices are the ways poets alter words to get different meanings. The editing could take an extra hour and revitalise the poem into something dramatic instead of the mundane rhymes like blue and true and you. If the words work well, then they are kept because the overall effect is to get a successful reading. Poets don't write the same theme every single time. Their minds are motivated by phrases that pop into their minds suddenly. I recognise such phrases when I count the syllables. Do they fit the common metre hymn style with the first line of eight syllables? If yes, then there's a possible prompt to write again.
Writers can take dreams and create stories and phrases that create poems. The work isn't complete till the editing is complete as well. That takes seconds, minutes, hours... sometimes even longer. Feedback may simply be... I like the poem, but critics really sift through phrases and wonder where improvements may yet remain hidden. Critics can help or hinder, offer ideas that get accepted, modified, rejected... or loved or hated. Do critics expect their names to be added to the copyright or acknowledged in any way? Many editors don't just read our poetry, they must correct errors and fit the poem to match the publisher's guidelines, too. Sometimes the poetry gets mangled and sometimes it gets blessed. The famous poems we may love to read and recite may have been edited by others and elevated to greater distinction. So don't think that poets get it right every single time.
There are many types of poetic devices that can be used to create a powerful, memorable poem. In this term paper, we are going to learn about the poetic devices employed in the poetry of W. Whitman, W. B. Yeats and Robert Frost; we are also learn about these devices and look at examples of how they are used. We will also discuss their purpose to understand the importance of using them effectively.
The poetic devices employed in W. Whitman....................................
The poetic devices employed in W. B. Yeats.......................................
2.3 The poetic devices employed in Robert Frost.........................................
Bibliography………..................................................................................................
Appendix……........................................................................................................
“Write a note on the poetic devices employed in W. Whitman, W. B. Yeats and Robert Frost.”
Introduction :
A poetic device is a plan or method of arranging words that allows poets to express themselves to their readers. Literary devices and terms are the techniques and elements—from figures of speech to narrative devices to poetic meters—that writers use to create narrative literature, poetry, speeches, or any other form of writing. "Poetic device" is a non-precise, almost pejorative, term, referring loosely to all the linguistic variations available to a writer (rhyme, meter, figurative language, etc.). Among them are metaphors, such as similes, litotes, personifications, etc.
A poetic device is a tool that poets use to enhance their poetry. It is any type of language or stylistic choice that can manipulate rhythm, rhyme, mood, or feeling. According to Lauren F. Winner “God is a novelist. He uses all sorts of literary devices: alliteration, assonance, rhyme, synecdoche, onomatopoeia. But of all of these, His favorite is foreshadowing. And that is what God was doing at the Cloisters and with Eudora Welty. He was foreshadowing. He was laying traps, leaving clues, clues I could have seen had I been perceptive enough.” (Girl Meets God )
A poetic device is a way of using words to create meaning. Poets often use words differently than prose writers do, but these can be found in any writing. Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. Consider “the sunny sidewalk started sideways from my house” where the s sound is repeated. A figure of speech is a type of poetic device. For example, a simile or metaphor is figurative language. We usually use figure of speech to refer to an idiom, or a commonly used figurative phrase. For example, “the cat’s out of the bag” or “crazy as bedbugs” are idioms. A simile is a new example of figurative language, such as “her eyes were as blue as sapphires.” If “the sun was laughing” that would be a metaphor.
A poet is limited in the materials he can use in creating his works: all he has are words to express his ideas and feelings. These words need to be precisely right on several levels at once, they must sound right to the listener even as they delight his ear they must have a meaning which might have been unanticipated, but seems to be the perfectly right one they must be arranged in a relationship and placed on the page in ways that are at once easy to follow and assist the reader in understanding they must probe the depths of human thought, emotion, and empathy, while appearing simple, self-contained, and unpretentious.
Fortunately, the English language contains a wide range of words from which to choose for almost every thought, and there are also numerous plans or methods of arrangement of these words, called poetic devices, which can assist the writer in developing cogent expressions pleasing to his readers. Even though most poetry today is read silently, it must still carry with it the feeling of being spoken aloud, and the reader should practice “hearing” it in order to catch all of the artfulness with which the poet has created his work.
Poetry isn't always meant to be a first reading that wafts through the brain like a Winter mist. Sometimes the poet is actually being playful and hopes the reader or readers get these finer points. As the poet writes, the text is being bounced back and forth as he begins the initial editing during the writing or the typing stage. So while considering a rhyme, the brain is struggling with that part and with the phrase that works well in order to achieve the relevance of that rhyme. The most basic text can stop the poet in his tracks because it offers no additional portrayal of pure poetry. It merely stays on the page or computer screen lacking any real skill or improvement. So the poet sometimes recognises there's a golden opportunity within that section of the theme, a chance for alliteration of an elevated expression of the phrase.
A poetic device is a way of using words to create meaning. Poets often use words differently than prose writers do, but these can be found in any writing. Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. Consider “the sunny sidewalk started sideways from my house” where the s sound is repeated. A figure of speech is a type of poetic device. For example, a simile or metaphor is figurative language. We usually use figure of speech to refer to an idiom, or a commonly used figurative phrase. For example, “the cat’s out of the bag” or “crazy as bedbugs” are idioms. A simile is a new example of figurative language, such as “her eyes were as blue as sapphires.” If “the sun was laughing” that would be a metaphor.
The use of grand words switches from the common words and adds a sense of strength or insight. A pun can change the mood suddenly and either help or hinder a poem. Sometimes what seemed powerful or witty or clever has to be discarded to fit the overall effect, leading to a more powerful conclusion. To add the powerful middle section undermines the conclusion.
Poetic devices are the ways poets alter words to get different meanings. The editing could take an extra hour and revitalise the poem into something dramatic instead of the mundane rhymes like blue and true and you. If the words work well, then they are kept because the overall effect is to get a successful reading. Poets don't write the same theme every single time. Their minds are motivated by phrases that pop into their minds suddenly. I recognise such phrases when I count the syllables. Do they fit the common metre hymn style with the first line of eight syllables? If yes, then there's a possible prompt to write again.
There are many types of poetic devices that can be used to create a powerful, memorable poem. In this term paper, we are going to learn about the poetic devices employed in the poetry of W. Whitman, W. B. Yeats and Robert Frost; we are also learn about these devices and look at examples of how they are used. We will also discuss their purpose to understand the importance of using them effectively.
2.1 The poetic devices employed in the poetry of W. Whitman :
Walter "Walt" Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass (1819–1892). The poems of Leaves of Grass are loosely connected, with each representing Whitman's celebration of his philosophy of life and humanity. This book is notable for its discussion of delight in sensual pleasures during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral. Where much previous poetry, especially English, relied on symbolism, allegory, and meditation on the religious and spiritual, Leaves of Grass (particularly the first edition) exalted the body and the material world.
Walt Whitman is a great master of using poetic devices in his poetry. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism into his work. During his time his work was often considered controversial. Whitman was one of the most influential poets and was often called the father of the free verse. In his poem Song of Myself is based on movie-like or photograph-like scenes and emotions which are juxtaposed to convey glimpses into who the speaker is or what they are describing. Through this, the author can both observe and participate in the experience. Whitman is widely celebrated as "America's greatest poet." Such "greatness" is neither exclusive nor comprehensive, as the work of other American poets--Dickinson, Stevens, Eliot, Frost, Plath, Lowell--may be finer, subtler, and more learned.
Before we analyze Walt Whitman's poems, we need to take a general look at the poet and his style.
Whitman is considered the father of free verse, although he did not invent it. Free verse is poetry without regular patterns of rhyme, rhythm or meter. Note: free verse has rhythm and meter. The pattern, however, is irregular. Rhythm is often created through the use of other poetic devices, including repetition, alliteration, and other sound devices.
The form of Whitman's poetry matches the content. Whitman celebrates the freedom of the individual and a celebration of freedom enjoyed in the United States. Because the attitude toward individual liberty in America was a break from European attitudes, he felt his poetry needed to break from European models as well.
Whitman wrote about ordinary people, which isn't altogether a break from European poets. The British Romantics celebrated the individual, for example, and they too wrote in a style which was a break from traditional forms as well.
Whitman celebrated the body and felt that the body was a gateway to the soul.
Walt Whitman is best known for creating the “truly American free verse.” (Introduction to Leaves of Grass) He wrote long, flowing sentences that almost could be considered a tangent of information that dealt with the way in which he viewed America at the time. Although most of Whitman’s poems were written in free verse, he used iambic meters through out many of his poems to allow for a rhythm which he felt would add to the understanding and flow of his poetry. For example, in the poem Leaves of Grass, Whitman uses iambic meter in the following verse: “Come live with me and be my love." (Introduction to Leaves of Grass)
Another literary device employed by Whitman is that of anaphora. He used the constant repetition of the first word of each line in order to create a pleasing sound to the reader. (Introduction to Leaves of Grass) He also used this in order to give his poetry the sound of an epic tale or give it more weight and create a sound that would be more intense for the reader to follow. (Introduction to Leaves of Grass)
Finally, Whitman uses “catalogs” in order to create lists and organize ideas with in his poems. This literary device is used to give images and group together ideas for the reader. He uses this in order to give specifics about types of people, situations, etc. Catalogs are very difficult to use but Whitman was able to do it well and with ease. He made it something that he was able to employ through out many of his works. (Introduction to Leaves of Grass)
Analyze of Walt Whitmans’ Song of Myself :
Quite simply, Whitman's poem is an unabashed celebration all about himself, exemplifying the Transcendental Movement to a "T." The poem had no title when first published in his collection, Leaves of Grass (1855). It was called A Poem of Walt Whitman, an American until he changed it in 1881 to Song of Myself, a reflection of the work's broader implications: that the divine spirit resides within all of us, and that we have knowledge about ourselves that "transcends" the world around us. We see all, are part of everything, and condemn nothing.
Through a multitude of literary devices and techniques, Walt Whitman's poem, "Song of Myself," is one of his most famous contributions to American literature. He uses simile and metaphor, paradox, rhythm, and free verse style, to convey his struggle between the relation of the body and soul, the physical and the spiritual being. He continues to disobey all social restrictions of the romantic time period. From the beginning, Whitman begins by stating, "What I shall assume, you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you," proposing that the reader listen to him, for he possesses all of the answers to life. The setting is somewhat naturalistic, and offers an image of the speaker, relaxing, possibly sprawled out across a blanket, philosophizing about life, while in the middle of a peaceful meadow. As the poem later shifts in tone, and setting, Whitman starts to think about the answers to life he has come up with, based upon the past, and decides that the reader should hear him out, one final time, as his ideas have changed.
In section #44 of, "Song of Myself," Whitman's first stanza begins: "It's time to explain myselflet us stand up. What is known I strip awayI launch all men and women forward with me into the unknown. The clock indicates the momentbut what does eternity indicate? Eternity lies in bottomless reservoirsits buckets are rising forever and ever, they pour and they pour and they exhale away." Whitman is simply stating that he wants to tell the purpose of his Form:
Leaves of Grass belongs to no particular accepted form of poetry. Whitman described its form as "a new and national declamatory expression." Whitman was a poet bubbling with energy and burdened with sensations, and his poetic utterances reveal his innovations. His poetry seems to grow organically, like a tree. It has the tremendous vitality of an oak. Its growth follows no regular pattern: "Song of Myself," for example, seems at first almost recklessly written, without any attention to form. Whitman's poetry, like that of most prophetic writers, is unplanned, disorganized, sometimes abortive, but nevertheless distinctively his own.
Rhythm and Meter:
Whitman's use of rhythms is notable. A line of his verse, if scanned in the routine way, seems like a prose sentence, or an advancing wave of prose rhythm. Yet his work is composed in lines, not in sentences as prose would be. The line is the unit of sense in Whitman.
Whitman experimented with meter, rhythm, and form because he thought that experimentation was the law of the changing times, and that innovation was the gospel of the modern world.
Imagery:
Imagery means a figurative use of language. Whitman's use of imagery shows his imaginative power, the depth of his sensory perceptions, and his capacity to capture reality instantaneously. He expresses his impressions of the world in language which mirrors the present. He makes the past come alive in his images and makes the future seem immediate. Whitman's imagery has some logical order on the conscious level, but it also delves into the subconscious, into the world of memories, producing a stream-of-consciousness of images. These images seem like parts of a dream, pictures of fragments of a world. On the other hand, they have solidity; they build the structure of the poems.
The Self:
To Whitman, the complete self is both physical and spiritual. The self is man's individual identity, his distinct quality and being, which is different from the selves of other men, although it can identify with them. The self is a portion of the one Divine Soul. Whitman's critics have sometimes confused the concept of self with egotism, but this is not valid. Whitman is constantly talking about "I," but the "I" is universal, a part of the Divine, and therefore not egotistic.
The Body and the Soul:
Whitman is a poet of both these elements in man, the body and the soul. He thought that we could comprehend the soul only through the medium of the body. To Whitman, all matter is as divine as the soul; since the body is as sacred and as spiritual as the soul, when he sings of the body or its performances, he is singing a spiritual chant.
Cosmic Consciousness:
Whitman believed that the cosmos, or the universe, does not consist merely of lifeless matter; it has awareness. It is full of life and filled with the spirit of God. The cosmos is God and God is the cosmos; death and decay are unreal. This cosmic consciousness is, indeed, one aspect of Whitman's mysticism.
Mysticism:
Mysticism is an experience that has a spiritual meaning which is not apparent to the senses nor to the intellect. Thus mysticism, an insight into the real nature of man, God, and the universe, is attained through one's intuition. The mystic believes in the unity of God and man, man and nature, God and the universe. To a mystic, time and space are unreal, since both can be overcome by man by spiritual conquest. Evil, too, is unreal, since God is present everywhere. Man communicates with his soul in a mystical experience, and Whitman amply expresses his responses to the soul in Leaves of Grass, especially in "Song of Myself." He also expresses his mystical experience of his body or personality being permeated by the supernatural. Whitman's poetry is his artistic expression of various aspects of his mystical experience.
Death:
Whitman deals with death as a fact of life. Death in life is a fact, but life in death is a truth for Whitman; he is thus a poet of matter and of spirit.
Transcendentalism:
Transcendentalism, which originated with German philosophers, became a powerful movement in New England between 1815 and 1836. Emerson's Nature (1836) was a manifesto of American transcendental thought. It implied that the true reality is the spirit and that it lies beyond the reach or realm of the senses. The area of sensory perceptions must be transcended to reach the spiritual reality. American transcendentalism accepted the findings of contemporary science as materialistic counterparts of spiritual achievement. Whitman's "Passage to India" demonstrates this approach. The romanticist in Whitman is combined with the transcendentalist in him. His quest for transcendental truths is highly individualistic and therefore his thought, like Emerson's, is often unsystematic and prophetic.
Democracy:
Whitman had a deep faith in democracy because this political form of government respects the individual. He thought that the genius of the United States is best expressed in the common people, not in its executive branch or legislature, or in its churches or law courts. He believed that it is the common folk who have a deathless attachment to freedom. His attitudes can be traced to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century because he thought that the source of evil lay in oppressive social institutions rather than in human nature. The function of literature is to break away from the feudal past of man and artistically to urge the democratic present. Princes and nobles hold no charm for Whitman; he sings of the average, common man. He follows Emerson in applauding the doctrine of the "divine average" and of the greatness of the commonplace. A leaf of grass, to Whitman, is as important as the heavenly motion of the stars. Whitman loves America, its panoramic scenery and its processional view of diverse, democratically inclined people. He loved, and reveled in, the United States as a physical entity, but he also visualized it as a New World of the spirit. Whitman is a singer of the self as well as a trumpeter of democracy because he believes that only in a free society can individuals attain self-hood.
Analysis of Walt Whitmans’ “ A Noiseless Patient Spider”
The poem can be read in a number of ways resulting in a number of interpretations. However, this is not what is unique to this poem. What is unique to this poem is its overlapping levels and literary devices.
Poetic Devices- Figures of speech:
Stanza 1: A noiseless, patient spider: this is an instance of transferred epithet. The word, ‘noiseless’ is used to indicate the absolute stillness of the spider. Spiders are not noisy creatures, even if they make noise, humans are not attuned to the frequency to catch their sounds; hence, the word is not used literally. It is used to give the semblance that the spider is so still that it doesn’t make any sound. The word ‘patient’ is used to drive home the point that the spider in intent on doing its job and will not stop until it has finished.
The vacant, vast surrounding: this is an instance of alliteration. Alliteration is the use of series of words in a sentence beginning with the same consonant or sound to produce a sense of rhythm.
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself: this is also an instance of alliteration.
Stanza 2: O my Soul: an instance of apostrophe. This is where the speaker addresses a person, who is absent or dead, or an abstract idea or an inanimate object.
Soul: the poet’s soul also symbolizes the collective soul of mankind.
Measureless oceans of space: an instance of metonymy/synecdoche. The vast space of life and its immensity is compared to the seeming endlessness of oceans.
Seeking the spheres, to connect them: it is an instance of imagery. The soul seeks the meaning of life. And all his musings, venturing and throwing are attempts towards achieving that end. This attempt is likened to the webs spun by the spider. The poet wishes to connect these web-like, spherical experiences to pave the way of his journey, to create a bridge that will lead him to the answers he is searching for.
Ductile anchor: an instance of juxtaposition. A spider’s web is of high tensile strength and is stretchable. It can withhold extreme duress. And an anchor is universally known for its grounding ability. Both the words indicate the strength and tenacity to stand pressure. However, it is unusual to describe an iron anchor as ductile. This is where Walt Whitman uses his wit and unique point of view to drive home the image of a double-pronged strength. Both ideas are juxtaposed together to emphasize this aspect of a secure holding.
Gossamer thread you fling: this is a metaphor. The poet’s soul is compared to the spider. The poet undertaking the journey of life is similar to the spider spinning its web. Hence, each step the soul takes or each thought it muses on is akin to secretion of the spider’s filament.
Rhyme Scheme:The poem is divided into two stanzas, each consisting of 5 lines. The poem is written in free verse. Hence, it forms the following rhyme scheme:- Abcde/fghij.
Analyze of Walt Whitmans’ "To a Stranger"?
"To A Stranger," probably written in 1860, is part of Whitman's collection "Leaves of Grass," published in 1900.
The only literary devices I can possibly see is that the stranger symbolizes a possible friend and the tone is kind of hopeful because he wants to bump into the stranger again and maybe he'll have the courage next time to start talking.
The principal literary device Whitman uses here is the framework of the poet's experience of the stranger--essentially, a dream vision. In fact, the poem is reminiscent of Medieval dream visions in which a poet envisions a combination of elements from several experiences that expresses his current psychological state. In the second line, for example, Whitman says "You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me as of a dream)." One of the ways we know this is occurring as a dream vision is that Whitman clearly is seeing no particular person; rather, the vision of the stranger is close to an allegory in which the stranger doesn't represent an individual (neither a man nor a woman) but a generic "everyman" or "every person."
Analysis of "I Hear America Singing"
Now that we've quickly analyzed Walt Whitman, we can begin our literary analysis of Walt Whitman's poems with an analysis of "I Hear America Singing." Literary terms used in this peom include rhythm, synecdoche, metaphor, repetition, and imagery.
Rhyme Scheme - There is no rhyme scheme. Whitman is the father of free verse. We just analyzed Walth Whitman's poetry. You've forgotten already?
Rhythm and Meter- There is no metrical pattern. Whitman is the father of free verse. He does use repetition, hwoever, to create rhythm.
Synecdoche - Of all the "I Hear America Singing" literary terms, none makes its mark more strongly than synecdoche. "America" in line 1 represents individual Americans, more specifically, workers. Each line of the poem is an example of synecdoche (a special type of metaphor where the parts equal the whole or the whole equals the parts). Whitman is celebrating the greatness of America by celebrating the greatness of its individuals.
Word Choice - "Carols" in line 1 is a connotatively charged word. It is most often associated with holy songs about Christmas. What better way to celebrate individuals and the physical body than connecting it with the physical manifestation of God himself.
Metaphor - the sounds and actions of laborers working is compared to music. Note that all the jobs described by Whitman require physical effort.
Repetition - The repetition of "the" in the final seven lines help create rhythm much in the same way the repetition of worker actions establishes a work rhythm.
The democratic nature of Whitman's poetry is reflected by his subject matter. He celebrates mechanics, carpenters, masons, mothers--the type of people usually not discussed in poems. For Whitman, it is the individual who matters and the individual freedom that allows him to be grea--"Each singing what belongs to her"--that matters
.
Analysis of "Beat! Beat! Drums!"
The most striking element of "Beat! Beat! Drums!" is its rhythm, demonstrating that free verse, when done well, carefully crafts its rhythm to imitate the sounds of life. In this instance, Whitman imitates the orderly beat of a drum and the rhythmic cadence of an army on the march. It is a difficult task, indeed, to read this poem and not picture a neatly dressed military outfit, drummers and buglers in front, on their way to create chaos.
Speaking of chaos and order, the poem's form and content contain these contrasting features. Much like an orderly army is more capable of inflicting disorder and destruction, so is a carefully crafted rhythm essential to the effectiveness of free verse. There is a reason Whitman is considered the father of free verse.
Whitman champions freedom in his poetry and there's a lot to be learned from the structure of this poem regarding freedom. It's clear Whitman understands the tenets of traditional poetry. He has a firm grasp on rhythm and meter, yet chooses not to write as others did. Whitman could have written in any form he chose. Freedom is only present when there's a choice. Choice is only present when there is knowledge.
The alliteration of the b sound and the repetition of "Beat! beat! drums!--blow! bugles! blow!" imitate the sound of an army on the march and does so forcefully.
The opening line of the poem, repeated thrice, overtakes the reader, much in the same way war overtakes "peaceful farmers," "bargainers," "lawyers" and others.
Whitman uses paradox to emphasize the chaos of war: "No sleepers must sleep" (10), "No bargainers' bargain" (11), no talkers are talking, no lawyers "rise in the court to state his case before the judge" (13). In short, war creates chaos and upsets the natural order of things.
Whitman uses metonymy: the beating of drums and the blowing of bugles represents something with which it is closely associated, a marching army.
He also uses synecdoche, the marching army represents military forces engaged in war; the individuals lawyers, farmers, etc. represent citizens whose lives are disrupted by war.
Theme: war disrupts all.
Analysis O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
Rhyme Scheme - aabb xcxc - the opening couplets of the first two stanzas establish a happy mood, which juxtaposed with the shortened succeeding lines, brings out the disappointment experienced by the poet over the captain's death. Note the progression: Stanza 1 begins with two happy couplets; Stanza 2 begins with two celebrating couplets, but something isn't quite right as demonstrated by the off rhyme of "bells" and "trills." Stanza 3 re-establishes the rhyming couplet pattern, but the message is as clear as the rhyme: the captain is dead.
Meter and Rhythm - there is no fixed meter; there is, however, a pattern of four long lines followed by four short lines in each stanza. The shortened lines emphasize the personal grief experienced by the poet against the backdrop of a broader victory. The poem's rhythm is created by the varying line lengths.
Extended Metaphor - The captain is Abraham Lincoln. The fearful trip is the Civil War. The ship is the United States. The prize is the preservation of the union.
The repetition of "heart" in line 5 emphasizes the poet's grief at the death of his captain. "Fallen cold and dead" is repeated at the end of each stanza to emphasize the poet's deep loss.
Apostrophe - an apostrophe is a form of personification in which an individual addresses someone who is dead, someone who is not there, or an inanimate object. "O Captain! My Captain!" at the start of the first two stanzas are examples of apostrophe, as is "Exult O shores, and ring O bells!" in the third stanza.
The poet refers to the fallen captain as "father," representing his deep respect for president Lincoln and Lincoln's role as father of the Union.
Word Choice - words and phrases such as "grim and daring," "weathered every rack," "fearful trip," "flag is flung," "bugle trills," "ribboned wreaths," and "swaying mass" cast a shadow over the celebration, much in the same way the dead cast a shadow over any victory in war celebration.
Figurative language is an umbrella term to describe many different techniques that bring flavor and life to writing. Without it, poetry would be nearly impossible. Many different literary devices make up figurative language. Metaphor is a figurative language that implies comparison between seemingly unlike things. The entire text of 'O Captain! My Captain!' functions as an extended metaphor to honor his subject, Abraham Lincoln. The poem is an ode to the president written after his assassination. Let's break down the metaphor to its main parts.
In Whitman's metaphor, Lincoln is the captain in the poem. The captain has seen his ship through tough times but ultimately is successful, returning home to a hero's welcome. Sadly though, the captain has 'fallen cold and dead.' The captain lies on the deck of the ship, implying that he died while at his post. The comparison to Lincoln is clear: Lincoln also died at his post, that is in the middle of his presidency.
Whitman begins his poem with an apostrophe when he writes, 'O Captain! My Captain!' Apostrophe is another facet of figurative language. It involves a writer addressing a dead or absent person, an inanimate object, or an idea. In this case, the poet speaks directly to the deceased captain. The purpose of an apostrophe is not to elicit a response from the addressee, but to stir up emotions in the reader. The poet's impassioned cry to the noble, dead captain is an example of that appeal to emotion.
Analyze of Walt Whitmans’ "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"
Take the sentence “You’re an asshole,” which is pretty common these days. Taken as a literal assertion, that sentence means that the person addressed is an anus, and has none of the other parts appurtenant to a human being — no legs, no head, no torso, etc., and no rectal canal or intestines or other organs, just a giant O-ring. Separated from a body, I’m not even sure what an “asshole” looks like, or if it retains the essential characteristic of an “asshole,” which is to be the anal or cloacal meatus of some organism’s body. But a human being cannot literally be an asshole. I’m not sure an asshole can even exist independent of the ass of which it is the hole.
We can go further and say that because people have holes in their face, especially their mouths, from which issue excrementitious speeches, that calling someone an asshole is a metaphor by way of synecdoche — you know, the pars pro toto trope? — which takes the defecating orifice of the person for the whole person and implicitly likens the defecating orifice of the person to the speaking orifice of the person. Perhaps some sediment of asshole is present in David Yow’s delightful lyric,
Now. You probably think this is a joke answer, but it is not. I have just demonstrated that the metaphoricity of a piece of language is not always patent, that sometimes one must decide whether a literal or figurative meaning is primary in a given utterance. “You’re an asshole,” for reasons I’ve discussed, is always a metaphor, unless it is possible for a sentient being that’s nothing more than an asshole to exist. But “hey shitmouth” may or may not be a metaphor, depending on whether or not the addressee is literally or only figuratively an unhygienic coprophage.
But I have delivered on my promise of help. The first line of the poem — and the title — consists of a metaphor. And if you maybe kindasorta see why that is now, I think you’ll find that there are a whole lot of others. Like, a fuck-ton. And I just quoted the first sentence.
2.2 The poetic devices employed in W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. He belonged to the Protestant, Anglo-Irish minority that had controlled the economic, political, social, and cultural life of Ireland since at least the end of the 17th century. Most members of this minority considered themselves English people who happened to have been born in Ireland, but Yeats was staunch in affirming his Irish nationality. Although he lived in London for 14 years of his childhood (and kept a permanent home there during the first half of his adult life), Yeats maintained his cultural roots, featuring Irish legends and heroes in many of his poems and plays. He was equally firm in adhering to his self-image as an artist. This conviction led many to accuse him of elitism, but it also unquestionably contributed to his greatness.
An Analysis Of The Poetic Devices In Yeats' Work
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, The Lake Isle of Innisfree and When You Are Old are three poems by Yeats which reflect his ability to capture the reader in a subtle, yet confronting context and allow them to explore aspects of the human condition. While each of the poems are spoken from different positions, the first two engage the reader as a third party, while the latter, intended for Maude Gonne, addresses the reader directly which provides for a more confronting experience of the human condition. Yeats’ take on the human condition is enhanced in each of these poems as a result of his innovative use of various poetic devices, some of which are more distinctive in certain poems.
In An Irish Airman Foresees His Death and The Lake Isle of Innisfree, Yeats deals with themes relating to humanity’s restrictions and apathy. The former does this by explaining the situation of an Irish Airman in the First World War from the first person perspective. The Airman notes how indifferent he feels about the current situation, primarily due to his position as an Irishman in a war which does not directly concern his country, “No likely end could bring them loss/Or leave them happier than before.” The Airman, who considers his past and future life a waste, accepts his predicament and allows himself to live entirely for “A lonely impulse of delight”, that he experiences in the sky. In The Lake Isle of Innisfree, Yeats uses his own voice to demonstrate the disconnection with nature that humanity experiences in the modern world. Yeats explains with conviction how he intends to lead a life of solitude in the peaceful atmosphere of Innisfree, expounding the attractiveness of the plan by contrasting it with a city setting, “I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;/While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey.” When You Are Old takes a different approach to the other poems, exploring love and the possibility of regret for a woman later in her life. As it is directly addressing Maude Gonne, this poem becomes intriguing when Yeats’ one way relationship with her is considered. Thus, it appears that Yeats wrote the poem in a final attempt to win Gonne over, showing her the life she may have if she continued to reject his love, “But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you…Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled.”
In each of the poems, Yeats creates a reflective atmosphere which evokes empathy and intrigue in the reader. An Irish Airman Foresees His Death does this by creating a series of confounding contrasts that the Airman’s situation brings and highlights these strongly using a constant iambic pattern throughout, leading to an overall sense of balanced indifference: “Those that I fight I do not hate/those that I guard I do not love.” Similarly, The Lake Isle of Innisfree makes use of contrasting – in this case, between nature and a roadway - not to highlight the indifference of the speaker but rather to demonstrate the speaker’s urge to escape humanity’s repression from nature. This determination is also shown in terms of the language itself with the repetition of the phrase, “I will arise and go now” and the contrasting feelings stirred up by Yeats’ language. For example, serenity is induced by soft, emotive language with an emphasis on peace: “Dropping slow, glimmer, purple glow, lake water lapping”, but is disrupted by a single line ending with “pavements grey”, bringing the reader back to reality. While The Lake Isle of Innisfree and An Irish Airman Foresees His Death create the atmosphere through contrasts and language, When You Are Old does this through the scene of pity and regret, detailed in what is essentially short narrative form, in the first stanza. The reflective atmosphere is also contributed to via the rhyming pattern which establishes a contrast between future settings of When You Are Old and the contemporary setting of the other two. While they all utilize a four line stanza model, the former two use an ABAB rhyming pattern and When You Are Old uses an ABBA pattern, causing the reader to wait for the rhyme, reflecting the protagonist’s own sense of age and regret. In each poem, the emotive atmosphere created assists the reader’s overall understanding of the poem.
As with all poetry, the sounds and rhythm created by the poet often enhances the reader’s understanding of the speaker’s situation much more than thousands of words of non-poetic prose, and this is especially true in the case of Yeats’ poetry. These elements are paramount in this selection of Yeats’ poetry as he avoids the use of complex literary devices, preferring instead to let natural rhyme and simple format to flow easily with the reader. When You Are Old takes a soft sounding approach - pushing forward the reflective, sad nature of the protagonist with such words as deep, grace, true and stars used as the rhyming words. Combining this with the stilted rhythm of the poem, the reflective, solemn nature of the protagonist which Yeats is trying to convey to his intended audience, Maude Gonne, is also pushed onto the reader. In contrast to this, The Lake Isle of Innisfree’s rhythm in the first three lines of each stanza aligns with the progression and determination of the speaker. However, the distorted fourth line breaks the reader’s focus on nature. This yearning for nature is ultimately the purpose of the poem, to illustrate man’s exile from nature and his desire to be returned to it and is emphasized by the final line, “I hear it in the deep hearts core.” In the case of An Irish Airman Foresees His Death the sound and rhythm play a lesser role, with the contrasting language in the statements, rather than the sound itself being the major contributor to the reader’s understanding of Yeats’ poem.
In creating these three poems Yeats has employed numerous techniques and poetic devices to convey his message to the reader. While many have only been outlined and some not even mentioned here, it is Yeats’ innovative use of language, sound and rhythm which primarily appeal to the reader. Yeats’ minimal use of complex literary devices and obscure references in these poems (which he has been known for) allow the widest demographic to appreciate his take on the human condition.
Yeats’ Poetic techniques & terminology
Rather than alphabetical, the following list is organised from simple basic terms & techniques that you must be able to identify and discuss, to more complex ones of which a passing knowledge is sufficient.
THEME= the message of the poem; the point the author wishes to make.
TONE = the attitude of the writer towards his subject matter.
eg. Yeats’ tone is bitter and resentful in “September 1913”; Hopkins tone is awestruck and accusatory in “God’s Grandeur”; Plath’s is both celebratory and cautious in “Morning Song”. The tone can vary; many tones can be contained within a single poem.
MOOD = feelings expressed. Includes what the writer/speaker feels AND how the reader feels when they read the poem. May also be related to the atmosphere created..
eg. In “Felix Randal” the mood varies from relief, to sympathy, to impatience, to acceptance, to comfort, to admiration, and ends with a triumphant and fiercely energetic mood in the space of 14 lines!
NOTE: Tone & mood are closely related. The tone of voice used will often influence the mood/atmosphere. Yeats’ uses a sarcastic tone to reveal his anger and frustration when he says “For men were born to pray and save” in “September 1913”.
IMAGERY = the picture the writer creates using words. eg “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman / Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish” (Plath, “Mirror”). “And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; / And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell” (Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur”). “Coming with vivid faces / From counter or desk among grey / Eighteenth-century houses” (Yeats’ “Easter 1916”)
REPETITION = repeating a word or phrase to emphasise its importance/ create a regular rhythm.
eg. “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone /It’s with O’Leary in the grave.”
The poet repeats the most important point over and over. The line remains lodged in our brains long after we have finished reading (like the chorus of a song). The repetition of this line at the end of every verse makes the poem resemble a ballad, and creates a strong rhythm. This repetition also emphasises the poets certainty.
SYMBOLISM = a word becomes a sign of something other than simply itself.
e.g. In “September 1913” John O’Leary is a real person who Yeats was friendly with, and who fought for Irish freedom, but he also becomes a symbol of bravery, self-sacrifice and devotion to your country.
ALLUSION = where the writer makes reference to ‘well-known’ figures or events from literature, history or mythology.
eg. In “Easter 1916” Yeats makes reference to Padraic Pearse: “This man had kept a school / And rode our winged horse”. In “Spring”Hopkinsrefers to the biblical story of Adam & Eve’s fall from grace, and the subsequent infection of the world with sin: “A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning /In Eden garden…”
RHETORICAL Q = a Q that doesn’t require a response (a statement disguised as a question).
eg. Yeats asks “Was it for this the wild geese spread… /For this that all that blood was shed?”
Literary devices in the poem "Sailing to Byzantium"
The diction Yeats uses in this poem is definitely elevated and reminiscent of courtly, literary, and religious speech. He uses series of three to give a sense of authority and all-encompassing completion in these phrases: "fish, flesh, or fowl," "begotten, born, and dies," and "past, or passing, or to come." Religious sentiment comes through in the phrases "holy city," "God's holy fire," "mortal dress," and "artifice of eternity." A literary or courtly mood is evoked by such words as "monuments of unageing intellect," "studying monuments of its own magnificence," and "to lords and ladies of Byzantium."
Devices: The most commonly used devices in the poem are metaphor and allegory. The clothes emptied of the person wearing them ("tattered coat upon a stick") for example, are compared to the body as garment of soul, and thus the body without soul being similarly empty. Alliteration can be found in "singing school but studying" and "Monuments of its own magnificence". The device of direct address is used in "O sages standing in God's holy fire" where the poet appears to be speaking to the venerable figures portrayed in Byzantine religious mosaics.
Literary Devices in The Lake Isle Of Innisfree
The Lake Isle of Innisfree is a three stanza poem, each quatrain made up of three long lines and one short. The rhyme scheme is abab and all end rhymes are full. This brings a sense of closure and order.
What is striking about this poem is the lilting rhythm within each line, the way the caesura play a vital role in slowing the rhythms down and the stressed repetition of certain words and phrases.
The syllabic content of each stanza is worth looking at too. Note the pattern:
Alliteration, assonance and consonance all occur in the poem. Look at lines 10, 3 and 4 for examples. Listen for: live alone in the bee-loud glade/all a glimmer/purple glow/full of the linnet's/lake water lapping with low sounds.
Anaphora, or repetition of words and phrases, occurs throughout the poem.
Take note of: build there/have there/peace there.
The Second Coming
Structure.
There are three parts to this poem. The first is two lines long, the second six and the third fourteen. There is little rhyme in the poem, although lines do occasionally end with similar sounding words. There is a relatively regular rhythm.
Poetic Devices.
Repetition - "turning and turning", "falcon... falconer", "loosed... loosed", "surely... surely", "the Second Coming... The Second Coming!"
Alliteration - "Surely some", "stony sleep"
Onomatopoeia - "vexed", "slouches"
Figures of Speech.
Simile - "blank and pitiless as the sun"
Metaphor - "stony sleep"
Imagery.
The first two images are complimentary - the spinning gyre, producing dizziness, and the lost falcon, which cannot answer the calls it is trained for, it is lost. In a sense, power is useless. The imagery of the second part is much less specific - it is general "anarchy". The third part contains the key image of the poem - the Second Coming not being the triumphant return of Christ, but the re-awakening of the pre-Christian era. Its representative is the powerful, half-animal Sphinx. Its body is that of a "lion", only the head of a man is left. Man's thoughts would be mixed with the pre-human power of the lion's claws.
The "indignant desert birds" are the expendable "shadows", the weak humans cowering before the terror, not completely understanding it. Finally, the poem focuses on the speaker's own mind, via the falling "darkness". It is knowledge that is being given to the reader. The power of the "twenty centuries of stony sleep" was woken by a "rocking cradle".
A Prayer For My Daughter
Structure.
The poem is divided into ten stanzas, of eight lines each. The rhyme scheme is aabbcddc, and the rhythm regular.
Poetic Devices.
Alliteration - "howling, and half hid", "cradle-hood and coverlid", "great gloom", "sea-wind scream", "dancing... drum", "Being made beautiful", "hatred driven hence", "bellows burst"
Assonance - "walked and prayed", "hidden... linnet", "hatred... wares"
Repetition - "self-delighting,/Self-appeasing, self-affrighting"
Onomatopoeia - "howling", "scream", "spray", "merriment", "choked", "bellows", "scowl", "howl"
Figures of Speech.
Metaphor - "Ceremony's a name for the rich horn,/And custom for the spreading laurel tree"
Simile - "all her thoughts may like the linnet be", "may she live like some green laurel"
Imagery.
Most of the images in "A Prayer For My Daughter" are actually quite literal. However, their deeper meaning is no less relevant. The "storm" is threatening outside forces, probably the future. The "cradle" signifies his daughter's babyhood, the temporary protection she has from the perils Yeats goes on to describe. The sea, being the source of the wind, is the logical source for the "future years". The "murderous innocence" that is attributed to the sea is a juxtaposition of his daughter and the world that awaits for her.
Yeats uses the image of his daughter, which is central to the poem, partly represent his ideal woman. Most of the succeeding images are parts of the ideal woman, or their opposites. Beauty is the first, too much beauty is seen as making the eye "distraught", an enemy to "intimacy". The following image is of Helen and Venus/Aphrodite, whose beauty made "life flat and dull". Beauty distorts women, making them "eat/A crazy salad with their meat", which destroys the benefit they were given by the "Horn of Plenty". .
Leda and the Swan
Structure.
The poem has four stanzas - the first two of which have four lines; the third having two and a half, and the fourth having three and a half. The rhyme scheme of the first two stanzas is abab, and the third and fourth together make up abcabc. There is a relatively regular rhythm, but the curious division of the last six lines make this one of the less regular of the poems in this regard.
Poetic Devices.
Assonance - "great wings", "his bill", "knowledge... power"
Alliteration - "broken... burning", "brute blood"
Onomatopoeia - "beating", "staggering", "caressed", "shudder"
Imagery.
The image of the swan is dealt with in great detail - "wings", "web[bed feet]", "bill", "breast", "feathered glory", "strange heart", "the loins", "brute blood", "indifferent beak". The image is meant to be of great power and beauty, and of emotions strange and wonderful - hence the "strange heart".
Leda is weaker - a "staggering girl". She is "helpless", "terrified vague", "so caught up", "so mastered". The two images - power and submission - embrace, the swan on top. The orgasm "engenders there" the fall of Troy, the death of a king.
Then Yeats explicitly names the central images of the poem - "power" and "knowledge". In the penetration and subversion of the powerless, is something gained, does their place in history become cemented.
Among School Children
Poetic Devices.
Alliteration - "cipher... sing", "sixty... smiling", "sphere... sympathy", "Plato's parable", "finger fashion", "pretty plumage", "sleep, shriek, struggle", "drug decide", "star sang", "passion, piety", "body... bruised"
Assonance - "through the long schoolroom... hood", "driven wild... living child", "shape... lap"
Onomatopoeia - "paddlers'", "shriek, struggle"
Figures of Speech.
Metaphor - "a Ledaean body" "nature but a spume that plays/Upon a ghostly paradigm of things", "Soldier Aristotle", "Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?"
Simile - "Hollow of cheek as though it drank the wind"
Imagery.
The image of the children in their classroom is a comfortable image, to match the "sixty-year-old smiling public man". It is later subverted, but is very pure as it stands, having the obvious associations of innocence. The second image is of the "Ledaean body", an image of mystic, which is associated with her childhood tale, a less pleasant story of "a harsh reproof, or trivial event/That turned some childish day to tragedy", an event harsh enough to register on the mind of such a creature, and it strikes a chord in the poet too - and their natures are able to blend. Here - the universal nature of childhood, and its power.
He remembers this as he looks back at the children, every person "can share/Something" of the children, and so the poet is reminded of her. Another image which he uses to remind the reader that every person is similar is the beauty that every child has.
The Circus Animal's Desertion
Poetic Devices.
Alliteration - "being but... broken", "Lion... woman... Lord... what", "Countess Cathleen", "players... painted", "sweepings... street".
Repetition - "sought... sought... sought", "vain... vain... vain", "dream... dream", "old... old... old... old... old" "ladder... ladder".
Imagery.
In the first stanza, the first couple of lines are nearly devoid of imagery, merely the image of the poet, the writer, searching for his themes. Then his images extend into the past - the cyclical "winter and summer". His previous images were all "circus animals" anyway, all "stilted boys... burnished chariot... Lion and woman and the Lord knows what". Then he reminisces. One of his first poems, The Wanderings of Oisin is described in the second stanza. He talks of Oisin as helpless, "led by the nose", "vain... vain... vain". It was his "faery bride" Yeats was "starved for".
2.3 The poetic devices employed in Robert Frost :
Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. Robert Frost is the master of using literary devices in his poetry.
Poetic devices in "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost:
Literary terms and poetic devices allow a poet or author to enhance their writing. Examples include sound devices like alliteration or onomatopoeia and figurative language like metaphors and similes, which are comparisons that allow the reader to understand the subject matter on a broader scale and perhaps in terms the reader had not considered previously. Imagery is another kind of poetic device; it is used to embellish a developing mental picture that the reader can appreciate. Symbolism allows the reader to relate the poem to its real meaning rather than its literal meaning, and connotation allows the reader to make assumptions about the subject matter.
In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost uses several poetic devices at his disposal. Alliteration is used subtly in "wanted wear" (the repeated w sound at the beginning of the words) and improves the musical quality of the poem. The poet creates an image for the reader of the paths which "equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black." This creates a peaceful image at odds with the difficult decision the speaker is trying to make.
The poem is clearly intended to convey a meaning far beyond its immediate scope. The decision here is quite significant, and Frost ensures that the reader understands the implications of choosing a path. "I doubted if I should ever come back" would have anyone rethinking his choice. The reader can relate to the narrator. The road functions both literally and as a symbol or metaphor; in the context of this walk in the woods, the road is just a path, but the reader is led to believe that it represents something more important—perhaps a life-changing decision. The wood with its "undergrowth" can reflect the narrator's confusion: he
There are multiple poetic devices used in Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken.
In the first line, the poet used assonance. Assonance is the repetition of a vowel sound within a line of poetry. In the first line,
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
the "o" sound is repeated in "roads" and "yellow."
In the eighth line,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
the author uses personification. Personification is the giving of human characteristics to non-human/non-living things. In this line, the path wanted wear. A path cannot want. Only humans can want. This qualifies as personification.
The poem as a whole is a metaphor. A metaphor is
a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to a person, idea, or object to which it is not literally applicable.
The poet is, therefore, comparing the paths in life to the choices one must make when reaching a crossroads. The poem speaks of the actual choices in life as roads one must choose to take. Metaphorically, the roads simply represent choices in life, but none have yet written about Frost's choice of meter.
Frost employs an "abaab" rhyme scheme. This is a cinquain, or a poem or stanza composed of five lines. Cinquains are seen in limericks, for example, though those poems employ a different rhyme scheme.
As one previous educator mentioned, the road is a metaphor for the different "paths" one may take in life. Both were "worn," meaning that many others had taken the same path, or made a similar choice in life.
Frost's choice of "morning" and autumn are also metaphoric. One's autumn years indicate late adulthood. "Morning" indicates a new beginning. Even late in life, we get chances or opportunities to make life-changing choices.
The choices that we make in life are never easy, and we face many of them in our lifetime. The poem The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost is a first person narrative poem in which Frost himself can be considered the speaker. A person walking in the woods is faced with the choice of two roads in which to take. He would like to explore both roads. He tells himself that he will explore one and then come back and explore the other, but he knows that he will probably be unable to do so (Arp 808). Through Frosts use of images and symbols, he is able to convey his theme that the choices a person makes in life are ultimately responsible for their future, yet a person can never go back to the past and experience other possibilities.
As Frost begins his poem about the road he did not take, he is standing in the woods looking at two different roads that diverge in a yellow wood. The two roads that diverged in a yellow wood represent a critical choice between two ways of life (Ogilvie 3). If he travels down one, it leads in one direction, if he takes the other, it leads him somewhere different. Words are symbols of concepts, which have acquired connotation of feeling in addition to their denotation of concept (Greenberg and Hepburn 137). Frost uses these words, about two different roads as a symbol, of the choices we make in our everyday lives. The fork in the road represents the speakers encounter of having to choose
Literary devices in the road not taken
2. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
3. And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
4. Road is used as a metaphor and as an extended metaphor. the road splitting, this is a metaphor of choices we make in life. the fork in the road is used as a metaphor throughout the poem, it is termed an extended metaphor. In line 6 where the person is thinking of taking one road, but takes another, this is a metaphor for thinking of your choices before deciding.
5. Nature is also used as a metaphor in the poem. In the beginning, the woods are yellow meaning in the autumn. This could be a metaphor of making decisions during the fall of your life or when you are getting older.
6. The Road Not Taken – Frost Critical Analysis. "The Road Not Taken", written by Robert Lee Frost, is a poem that has four five-line stanzas with only two end rhymes in each stanza (abaab). Several kinds of literary devices can be found in the poem. One of the literary devices employed is antithesis.
7. It contains four stanzas and each one contains five lines each. This is called a quintain, hence this poem is made up of four quintains. In total this makes twenty lines thus a middle sized poem.
8. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, (A) And sorry I could not travel both (B) And be one traveler, long I stood (A) And looked down one as far as I could (A) To where it bent in the undergrowth; (B)
9. Consonance and Assonance are widely used throughout as we can see in the following examples respectively: ''And that has made all the difference.'' ''Yet knowing how way leads on to way,''. Repetition is the final sound device that can be easily spotted in Frost's poem, especially in this line: ''Somewhere ages and ages hence:''.
10. Just like a song this poem has rhythm. The rhythm is iambic. This implies that there is a quiet syllable before a loud syllable. Diction and Imagery More concrete than abstract More formal than informal More general than specific Mostly visual
11. Figures of Speech and Symbolism Personification- Because it was grassy and wanted wear Robert Frost is not actually talking about a road fork in the woods. Rather, he is using the concept of a diverging road to relate to making decisions in life.
12. Syntax and Structure Each stanza contains 5 lines. Long I stood is an example of a different syntax because it would normally be said as I stood Long. Rhythm and Meter There is a similar syllable pattern throughout the poem. For example the first line in each stanza has 9 syllables.
13. Sound and Sense The rhymes are end rhymes. Perfect rhymes are lay and way Slant rhymes are both and undergrowth
Literary Devices in Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:
The Use of Literary Devices in Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening in Robert Frost's poem. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” the speaker uses literary devices to show the reader the poem's meaning. Symbolism plays an important role in this poem. Robert Frost uses symbolism to show the correlation between the woods and village with heaven. Mythological symbolism is also found in this poem. when the speaker talks about the lake. it is a reference to Hel in Norse Mythology. The tone of the poem, and Robert Frost's syntax. portray a tranquil yet dark feeling throughout the poem. The observations made exhibit how the speaker views life and death.
and his conscience does not think that this thought is normal. The farm house represents a point in life, something the speaker is not trying to reach. Robert Frost writes the poem using iambic tetrameter. which follows the beat of a horse. The rhythm of the poem further alludes that the horse is a part of the speaker. Death is further mentioned in the poem when the speaker says. “In between the woods and frozen lake”(7) . In Norse Mythology. the underworld is called Hel. and is located in the frozen region of Niflheim. Robert Frost puts Hel and Heaven near each other to show how close the boundaries between the two are. The “darkest evening of the year” (8) shows how deep the speaker's depression is. This depression bolsters the speaker's suicidal thoughts.
In the third stanza of the poem, the horse, the speaker's conscience, realizes the speaker's intention, and interrupts the the tranquil surroundings. When the horse gives it's harness bells a shake (9), it is trying to gain the speaker's attention. The speaker believes that the horse is trying to make the man realize how bad an idea suicide would be, as that would cause him to go to Hell (10). The speaker acknowledges the horses intent, and realizes the foolishness of suicide. Sensory imagery is used to show how easy suicide would be.
that are not simple to make. Choices such as the ones that alter one’s path in life. It would be great if there was always a guiding light to show people the way. Robert Frost wrote many didactic poems with the intent to teach people about decision making. The poems “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, are both didactic in nature because they reveal a common theme of life-changing decisions. The poem “The Road Not Taken”, focuses on the theme of choices.
Perseverance in Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Epictetus once wrote, "First say what you would be; and then do what you have to do." This aphorism of self-discovery and obligation clearly describes Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." In the course of the poem, Frost's speaker is confronted with two choices: he can either forget his problems or he can follow through with his responsibilities and make the most of life.
explain about, and in two other perspectives my ideas hardly is included. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" Complete Text Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.
Analysis of Birches by Robert Frost:
As the tree bends, the man wants to believe that it has aged with a boy swinging on it, even when he knows ice storms are responsible for the bends. Frost uses vivid imagery to describe the ice storm occurring. The snow shedding off the tree is described as an avalanche and as a collapse of the inner dome of heaven, aging the tree. The man visualizes images that contradict with reality.
When the man sees the tree, he imagines a boy isolating himself, swinging on a birch tree from entertainment which he got used to instantly. The boy learns balance by climbing to the top branches but only to jump down. The boy lives an exhilarating childhood, making the man desire to return to his adolescence. As the man dreams of returning to his childhood, leaving his adult responsibilities behind, he realizes Earth or his present is where he belongs. Even though he returns to his present, he still continues to reminisce his adolescence.
Form, Style, and Rhyme Scheme
The poem is a blank verse that consists of 10 syllables per line, no rhyme, five iambs (metrical feet that have two syllables; one unstressed followed by stressed)
It's a lyric poem because the Frost shares his emotions about his childhood
Frost has a descriptive style using vivid imagery and figurative language to appeal to the readers' senses.
Figurative Language
The poem is very stylistically rich. The use of figurative language allows the poem to be more enjoyable, as well as it acts as an aid to support the theme of reminiscing adolescence and the importance of balance
Frost uses simile, contrast, repetition, personification, onomatopoeia, symbolism, imagery, and metaphors.
Onomatopoeia: "...They click upon themselves" (7) - The sharp sound of the click of the branches contrasts the soft delicate images that he remembers of his childhood
Simile: "....trailing their leaves on the ground/Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair/Before them over their heads to dry in the sun" (18-20)
"...life is too much like a pathless wood/Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs" (44-45).-discussing how life can lack amusement, joy as one becomes an adult
Contrast: "And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk" (55). There is also a general contrast of reality vs imagination which is an active theme in "Birches"
Repetition: Frost repeats "birches bend,," boy's swinging "bends them" "swinger of birches" - represents the significance of the man imagining his childhood instead of believing reality
Personification: "trailing their leaves on the ground" (18) (imagery to describe tree)
"...Truth broke in/With all her matter of fact about the ice storm" (21-22)
"...Half grant what I wish and snatch me away" (51). (used to describe the man's desire to leave his life and return to his childhood)
Symbolism: Frost uses aging trees, as well as simply birch trees to symbolize adolescence, adulthood, and reality vs imagination
-The images of childhood transforming into adulthood was demonstrated through the symbolism of aging birch trees. The darker birch trees represent adulthood compared to white or lighter bark for childhood. He explains that swinging on them (childhood) doesn't bend them, situations as you grow up do. He uses "Across the line of straighter darker trees./I like to think some boy's been swinging them/But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay" (2-4).
-Trees are also rooted in the ground, so climbing them doesn't sever the ties with earth.
"Climb black branches up a snow-white trunk/Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more/But dipped its top and set me down again" (55-57).
For the tree not to bear no more, it would have "die" for the man to depart earth to his imagination, but it doesn't so he is sent back to reality.
Imagery: Frost creates vivid images to describe the birch tree and ice storms which represent the reality since they actually bend the birch trees "As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel/Soon the the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells/Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust/Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away/You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen (9-13). - Describes the ice storms
"Broken across it, and one eye is weeping/From a twig's having lashed across it open" (46-47)
Metaphor: "They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load/And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed/So low for long, they never right themselves" (14-16).
-this is a metaphor for old age; one may be tired, but they don't collapse
The use of symbolism is the most significant poetic device used in the poem. Like mentioned before, Frost uses birch trees to symbolize adolescence, adulthood, and most importantly reality vs imagination. The first three lines are dedicated to describing the image of childhood and adulthood. The use of contrasting darker birch trees to represent adulthood and light bark to represent adolescence demonstrates that situations and events that shape one's life causes the coming of age (transition of light bark to dark).
Frost spends a great amount of time describing the ice storms. There is elaboration in describing the ice storm since it represents the reality. The ice storms are truly the cause of the bends in the birch trees even though the man believes the boy swinging on them is. This further demonstrates the balance between reality and imagination.
To understand the poem, one must do some background research on rural areas of New England in the early 1900s and they must understand the symbolism of the birch trees and the imagery provided in the poem. If one does, they will truly be able to appreciate the stylistically rich poem with a theme generally can relate to.
Poetic devices in the poem "The Fog":
There are two poetic devices used in this poem
1- Free verse
This refers to the poems having a very natural rhythm and build around themselves. Poems of this category may not have a rhyme scheme but still they have a knack for immersive experience. They are very similar to speech.
2. Imagery
This one is the most important component of a poem and most of the poems work around this. This refers to the poet’s ability to make his readers feel and visualise everything that he says in his poem.
“The woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep”
The first line automatically forces you to visualise a dark evening with lots of snow fallimg down and the author is tempted to go in there and observe this soul soothing view but he has certain responsibilities, expectations of people from himself. Therefore, he cannot do what he is tempted to do, he has to make happy the people he love. So, he has to continue his journey sacrificing the enjoyment he think he deserves. Perhaps that’s what life is all about, sacrificing yourself for others.
All this (and more) can be inferred from these four lines. A perfect example of imagery.
Poetic devices in Robert Frost's "Out,Out-"
An allusion is a brief reference to a historical event or literary work that brings an associated meaning. The title, "Out, Out--," is a reference to Shakespeare's Macbeth. When Macbeth mourns Lady Macbeth's death, he laments, "Out, out, brief candle!" Before her death, Lady Macbeth, mad with guilt, mutters, "Out, damned spot! out, I say!" Both references apply here. The boy who dies in the accident dies too early--the candle of his life has been too brief. But the adults, who gave the boy a man's job to do, must live with the guilt all their lives of wishing they had prevented the fatal accident.
Imagery is a device that allows readers to experience a scene with their five senses. The sounds of the buzz saw ("snarled and rattled"), the description of the setting ("Five mountain ranges one behind the other/ Under the sunset"), the boy's rueful laugh, and the way he holds up his severed hand are all vivid images that bring readers into the poem.
Foreshadowing predicts what will happen later. When the poet speaks in first person, "Call it a day, I wish they might have said," readers know something unfortunate is going to happen.
Irony is when the opposite of what is expected happens. The boy's "rueful laugh" is ironic because laughter is out of place in such a tragedy. Even the statement that "he saw all spoiled" turns out to be ironic. The boy thought he was facing only amputation, which as it turned out, would have been a preferred, even blessed, outcome compared to the boy's death.
Understatement occurs when words are used that minimize the emotions or import of an event. The ending of the poem is shocking in its lack of emotion and proper tribute to the dead boy and those who witnessed the tragedy:
A literary device is a device used in writing to convey some kind of imaginative effect. Even the title uses the literary device of repetition in order to engage the reader.
Line one greets us with onomatopoeia and personification.
The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard (line 1)
Frost uses onomatopoeia in the words “buzz” and “rattled” to bring sounds of the farm into the poem. He also personifies the saw by saying it “snarled” as an angry person (or animal) might. This seems to give the saw a personality, and foreshadow danger. The words “snarled and rattled” are also repeated twice in line 7.
The saw is also personified again when the saw leaps toward the boy’s hand when his sister distracts him.
The words “as if” mark the simile, and the metaphor is the life spilling out of his hand, which is literally the blood spilling.
Poetic devices in the Poem "Acquainted With the Night"
On its surface, the poem "Acquainted with the Night" by Robert Frost is about a man who is walking through a city at night. However, when analyzing the figurative language used in the poem, such as the extended metaphors and symbolism, it becomes clear that the poem is about the narrator's melancholy and sense of isolation. The narrator is acquainted with the darkness of the soul as much as the night.
Poetic devices in “Fire And Ice”
There is an extended metaphor in this poem. Frost is comparing fire to desire and ice to hate. In particularly lines 3 & 4 ("From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire."), he basically does a direct comparison between the two and also with lines 6, 7 & 8 ("I think I know enough of hate, To say that for destruction ice, Is also great."), In these 5 lines, Frost explains that from his experience with desire, he would choose it over ice/hate. But he also thought that hate is great for destruction, and would choose it if he had another chance. This metaphor made it seem like desire and hate were much more dangerous because they were being compared to fire and ice. Other literary devices used were allegory and symbolism,.
Metaphor
Fire and Ice uses a metaphor although it is an implied metaphor where Robert Frost compares fire and ices with out implying it or pointing it out.
Some say the world will end in fire some say in ice
I hold with those who favor fire
To say that for destruction Ice is also great
Rhyme Scheme
A,B,A,A,B,C,B,C,B
Some say the world will end in fire, -A
Some say in ice.-B
From what I’ve tasted of desire -A
I hold with those who favor fire.-A
But if it had to perish twice,-B
I think I know enough of hate -C
To say that for destruction ice -B
Is also great -C
And would suffice. -B
The speaker of the poem is Robert Frost. He is narrating the poem in first person talking his opinion on hate and desire or Fire and Ice.
Is only used once or twice in the poem but is still there
I hold with those who favor fire
Idiom/ Hyperbole
I feel like the whole poem is an Idiom / Hyperbole, because it has a different meaning and is told in a very exaggerated version.
The theme of Fire and Ice is Life. Frost talks about how they are both destructive feelings and how they can be interpreted in many ways. I though of life because he talks about dying then i realized Fire is desire and Ice is hate. Frost is telling us the better feeling to die with or his option of what is better
Sense Images Described
Sight Fire, Ice, Desire on someone’s face, Hate
Sound Burning of fire, Crushing of ice, desire in voice
Smell Nothing
Taste The mood I taste is desire
Touch nothing
Poetic devices in Robert Frost's 'the Telephone'
Robert Frost's "The telephone" is a poem about an individual's interpretation of a telephone conversation with another. The speaker in the poem talks about a meeting with the same person that had happened in the past showing that there is some history and that this is a sequel to another conversation. We see constant misconceptions between both people, and in this respect it is a sort of rebirth and a sort of familiarity between the speaker and the person on the corresponding end.Through the poem we see Frost relating the phone metaphorically with natural things, in this way he also personifies the object he is relating to the phone. He relates the telephone to being a "...flower..." and thus relates the phone with a beautiful sweet smelling flower. In this respect, we come to the conclusion that the person on the other end is very close to the speaker, a significant other. Frost also links the flower with a "...bee..." making a clearer link with nature. The bee almost makes a melodious humming sound further describing the sound of the person on the other end. Frost uses ranges of metaphors throughout the poem to tie in with his link from the telephone to nature.Frost makes the poem first person singular to get an insight of the speaker and his real thoughts. He also uses the word "...you..." to get the reader involved, but symbolically we know he is referring to the other person. Using this method of first person, Frost is successfully making the conversation more genuine and in some sense more truthful. And so by using the words "...I..." and "...you..." the poem becomes more realistic and gives us a look into the speakers...
Literary Devices in Mending Wall
"He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours." The poem ends with a repetition of the proverb. Between the two instances of the proverb, the moral stakes of the poem’s situation have become clear. Both the narrator and the neighbor desire to destroy the wall, and yet both men agree to build it anyway. The conclusion represents a triumph of civilization over primalism. This conclusion is far from simplistic or pleasant however. For each person, the confinement of the darker, more primitive sides of the self is an ongoing internal struggle. Frost uses prepositional language to convey the neighbor’s relationship to the wall. The idea of the neighbor “go[ing] behind his father’s saying” suggests that the father’s proverb—“Good fences make good neighbours”—is an object, a wall. To act against the saying and deny the importance of “good fences” would be to cross over to the other side of the wall of tradition and civility. "Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down. Here the poem’s opening line is repeated. The identity of the “something” has shifted. At first, the narrator suspects there is a force of nature seeking to destroy the wall. The word “there” points to an external cause. By this point in the poem, however, it is clear that the “something” is not out “there” but rather within the human soul. "SOMETHING there is that doesn't love a wall..." The poem opens with a mysterious phrase. The first word signals to us that the poem will uncover that “something… that doesn’t love a wall.” In the beginning, that “something” appears to be the forces of nature. But when the phrase is repeated later on, it becomes the narrator who challenges the wall’s existence.
Literary devices of A Late Walk:
Simile: "The headless aftermath smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew"
We are comparing the tree that don't have any leafs with the hatch. Qualities they share are the shape and nature.
Metaphor: "The Whir of sober birds up from the tangle of withered weeds is sadder than any words"
We are comparing the sad whir sound of the birds with the sadness of the sad words. Qualities they share is the sadness.
Personification: "A tree beside the wall stands bare"
"bare" or naked is used for humans, not for plants.
Alliteration: "garden ground"
Personification: "sober birds"
Sober means serious or practical, and birds don't have these charcterstics, only humans do.
Analyzing The Death Of The Hired Man :
Authors of poems use many different types of devices to help convey the theme of their poem. These devices can range from structural or poetic devices to examples of meter. In Robert Frost's poem, "The Death of the Hired Man," the theme of the poem that the author attempts to portray is the need to forgive and accept people for who they are before it is too late; Frost presents this to the reader through structural, poetic, and metrical devices.
The significance of most of Robert Frost's life having been spent in the New England area is because for many of his poems but especially for his poem, "The Death of the Hired man", the setting is in New England (Bloom 1). Also, for the poem, "The Death of the Hired Man", which is based on a farm in New England and its family, Frost uses personal experience in writing the poem because he has lived, worked, and owned a farm in New England (Bouchard 3). The significance of the setting and characters in this poem is that he "presents speakers who are marked by extraordinary severity and power" (Blooms 1).
The life history of Robert Frost is very important in helping the reader analyze and understand the poem and the theme of the poem. The basic summary of the poem is that the main characters, Warren and Mary, who are the owners of the farm, have a hired man who decides to leave them to find better paying work when the busy times approach; but when work is slow, then he will return looking for odd jobs to earn money. Warren has had enough, and he is seriously contemplating with his wife what actions he should take with this man. As a person, Mary is a woman of an abundance more compassion than her husband, and she realizes from the beginning that Silas is a dying man and that he has returned to the only home he knows. Now Mary is attempting everything she can to show her husband the better parts of Silas but even she realizes how hard this is; she has from the beginning already forgiven Silas for his past actions and life with wide open arms accepting him into her home and attempting her best to take care of him. This is what she is attempting to accomplish all throughout the poem with her husband so that he will feel the same way about Silas that she does before the rest of Silas's very short life ends.
Also, Bloom notices that Mary has a "perspective of compassionate identification and emotional response that contrasts Warren's more rational view of fair judgment. Frost encapsulates Mary's attitude in one present tense, active sentence, 'I sympathize'" (Bloom 2). The line that Bloom quotes from the poem is located in line eighty of the poem. This representation of Mary gives hint to the allusion that Robert Frost presents in the poem of the parable of the Lost Son which can be seen in Luke 15 verses 11-32. The attitude that Warren has toward the idea of Silas claiming their home and their farm as his one and only "home" even when he has a very wealthy brother who happens to live thirteen miles down the road is that he believes that "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, / They have to take you in," and for this reason he believes that their home should not be claimed by Silas as his "home" for that very reason (Bloom 3). That quote is located on lines one-hundred-twenty-three and one-hundred-twenty-four.
There are many different poetic, structural, and metrical devices that Robert Frost uses throughout his poem to grab the reader's attention to that point specifically and to help show the theme of the poem; these along with the allusion that is present all throughout the poem, help the reader understand the author's theme. The first of these is the characterization of the main character of Mary that Frost presents in the poem. This characterization presents her as a very kind, compassionate, loving, understanding, and motherly person who cares very much for the character of Silas because of the hard life that he has lived. The reader can see this in lines one-hundred-fifty-five to one-hundred-sixty-one when Mary says,
Another way in which the character of Mary is seen as compassionate, loving, nurturing mother is in the name that Robert Frost gives her character. Throughout history the name "Mary" has been synonymous with characters throughout the New Testament of the Bible. These characteristics can be seen through the biblical characters of Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus. This can be seen when Mary Magdalene wept at Christ's tomb after His crucifixion and when Mary, "kept all things and pondered them in heart" after the three Magi visited Jesus bearing gifts (John 20:11; Luke 2:19). Both of these examples show the love and compassion that the name Mary is famous for throughout history.
Finally, there is the biblical allusion of the Parable of the Lost Son, that Robert Frost shows throughout the whole poem and that he uses to help convey the theme of the poem (Luke 15: 11-32). Jesus tells this story to it show that even when we as Christians stray in our faith that our Heavenly Father, God, will always forgive us and accept us back with open loving arms. The reader can take this to an even more literal level and that is where the theme of the poem is realized because it also shows that we as people need to always forgive and accept others for who they are before it is too late. For this poem though Mary symbolizes the father, Warren the angry obedient son and Silas would be the foolish young son that wasted all of inheritance. Frost is attempting to show the reader that just as Mary has accepted Silas back into their home, her husband Warren needs to also before he loses the chance to, with Silas's precious life coming to an end.
Through the use of poetic devices, structural devices, and metrical devices, Robert Frost has been able to emphasize and show the many different parts of his theme throughout the poem. Also the readers are able to conclude that Frost is telling them that they need to forgive and accept anybody in their lives, and accept them before it is too late because you never know when you might not get the chance to ever attempt it again.
· C.F. Sixsmith Walt Whitman Collection, Archives Hub, retrieved 2010-08-13
· American Composers Orchestra – May 15, 1999 – Walt Whitman & Music
· Stefan Schöberlein, University of Iowa (2016). "Whitman, Walt, Kinder Adams, Children of Adam; Iggy Pop, Alva Noto, and Tarwater, Leaves of Grass (review)". Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 33 (3): 311–312. ISSN 0737-0679.
Jeffares, A. Norman. “The Byzantium Poems of W.B Yeats”. The Review of English Studies. 22.85 (January, 1946): 44-52
Stauffer, Donald A. “W. B .Yeats and the Medium o f Poetry”. ELH. 3(September, 1948): 227-246
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Foster, R. F. (2003). W. B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. II: The Arch-Poet 1915-1939. Oxford UP. ISBN 0198184654
Igoe, Vivien (1994). A Literary Guide to Dublin. Methuen. ISBN 0413691209.
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Ryan, Philip B. (1998). The Lost Theatres of Dublin. The Badger Press. ISBN 0952607611.
· Jay Parini (2000). Robert Frost: A Life. Macmillan. pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-0-8050-6341-7.
· Jeffrey Meyers (1996). Robert Frost: a biography. Houghton Mifflin. Frost remained at Harvard until March of his sophomore year, when he decamped in the middle of a term ...
· Orr, David (2015-08-18). The Road Not Taken: Finding America in the Poem Everyone Loves and Almost Everyone Gets Wrong. Penguin. ISBN 9780698140899.
"Birches by Robert Frost". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
“God is a novelist. He uses all sorts of literary devices: alliteration, assonance, rhyme, synecdoche, onomatopoeia. But of all of these, His favorite is foreshadowing. And that is what God was doing at the Cloisters and with Eudora Welty. He was foreshadowing. He was laying traps, leaving clues, clues I could have seen had I been perceptive enough.” - Lauren F. Winner ( Girl Meets God )
Poetry can follow a strict structure, or none at all, but many different types of poems use poetic devices. Poetic devices are tools that a poet can use to create rhythm, enhance a poem's meaning, or intensify a mood or feeling. These devices help piece the poem together, much like a hammer and nails join planks of wood together. Some of these devices are used in literature as well, but for the sake of clarity, we will look at all of these devices through the lens of poetry.
A poetic device is a tool that serves different purposes in a poem. Some of them are ornamental, some enhance the meaning of the poem and others add to its rhyme and lyricism. The most common poetic devices are alliteration, repetition, metaphor, simile, personification, etc. A poet is limited in the materials he can use in creating his works . All he has are words to express his ideas and feelings. Fortunately, the English language contains a wide range of words to choose for almost every thought, and there are also numerous plans or methods of arrangement of these words, called Poetic Devices, which can assist the writer in developing cogent expressions pleasing to his readers.
Poetry isn't always meant to be a first reading that wafts through the brain like a Winter mist. Sometimes the poet is actually being playful and hopes the reader or readers get these finer points. As the poet writes, the text is being bounced back and forth as he begins the initial editing during the writing or the typing stage. So while considering a rhyme, the brain is struggling with that part and with the phrase that works well in order to achieve the relevance of that rhyme. The most basic text can stop the poet in his tracks because it offers no additional portrayal of pure poetry. It merely stays on the page or computer screen lacking any real skill or improvement. So the poet sometimes recognises there's a golden opportunity within that section of the theme, a chance for alliteration of an elevated expression of the phrase.
A poetic device is a way of using words to create meaning. Poets often use words differently than prose writers do, but these can be found in any writing. Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. Consider “the sunny sidewalk started sideways from my house” where the s sound is repeated. A figure of speech is a type of poetic device. For example, a simile or metaphor is figurative language. We usually use figure of speech to refer to an idiom, or a commonly used figurative phrase. For example, “the cat’s out of the bag” or “crazy as bedbugs” are idioms. A simile is a new example of figurative language, such as “her eyes were as blue as sapphires.” If “the sun was laughing” that would be a metaphor.
The use of grand words switches from the common words and adds a sense of strength or insight. A pun can change the mood suddenly and either help or hinder a poem. Sometimes what seemed powerful or witty or clever has to be discarded to fit the overall effect, leading to a more powerful conclusion. To add the powerful middle section undermines the conclusion.
Poetic devices are the ways poets alter words to get different meanings. The editing could take an extra hour and revitalise the poem into something dramatic instead of the mundane rhymes like blue and true and you. If the words work well, then they are kept because the overall effect is to get a successful reading. Poets don't write the same theme every single time. Their minds are motivated by phrases that pop into their minds suddenly. I recognise such phrases when I count the syllables. Do they fit the common metre hymn style with the first line of eight syllables? If yes, then there's a possible prompt to write again.
Writers can take dreams and create stories and phrases that create poems. The work isn't complete till the editing is complete as well. That takes seconds, minutes, hours... sometimes even longer. Feedback may simply be... I like the poem, but critics really sift through phrases and wonder where improvements may yet remain hidden. Critics can help or hinder, offer ideas that get accepted, modified, rejected... or loved or hated. Do critics expect their names to be added to the copyright or acknowledged in any way? Many editors don't just read our poetry, they must correct errors and fit the poem to match the publisher's guidelines, too. Sometimes the poetry gets mangled and sometimes it gets blessed. The famous poems we may love to read and recite may have been edited by others and elevated to greater distinction. So don't think that poets get it right every single time.
There are many types of poetic devices that can be used to create a powerful, memorable poem. In this term paper, we are going to learn about the poetic devices employed in the poetry of W. Whitman, W. B. Yeats and Robert Frost; we are also learn about these devices and look at examples of how they are used. We will also discuss their purpose to understand the importance of using them effectively.
Table of Contents
Chapter – One
Introduction..............................................................................................(page no)
Chapter – Two
The poetic devices employed in W. B. Yeats.......................................
2.3 The poetic devices employed in Robert Frost.........................................
Bibliography………..................................................................................................
Appendix……........................................................................................................
“Write a note on the poetic devices employed in W. Whitman, W. B. Yeats and Robert Frost.”
Chapter – One
A poetic device is a plan or method of arranging words that allows poets to express themselves to their readers. Literary devices and terms are the techniques and elements—from figures of speech to narrative devices to poetic meters—that writers use to create narrative literature, poetry, speeches, or any other form of writing. "Poetic device" is a non-precise, almost pejorative, term, referring loosely to all the linguistic variations available to a writer (rhyme, meter, figurative language, etc.). Among them are metaphors, such as similes, litotes, personifications, etc.
A poetic device is a tool that poets use to enhance their poetry. It is any type of language or stylistic choice that can manipulate rhythm, rhyme, mood, or feeling. According to Lauren F. Winner “God is a novelist. He uses all sorts of literary devices: alliteration, assonance, rhyme, synecdoche, onomatopoeia. But of all of these, His favorite is foreshadowing. And that is what God was doing at the Cloisters and with Eudora Welty. He was foreshadowing. He was laying traps, leaving clues, clues I could have seen had I been perceptive enough.” (Girl Meets God )
A poetic device is a way of using words to create meaning. Poets often use words differently than prose writers do, but these can be found in any writing. Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. Consider “the sunny sidewalk started sideways from my house” where the s sound is repeated. A figure of speech is a type of poetic device. For example, a simile or metaphor is figurative language. We usually use figure of speech to refer to an idiom, or a commonly used figurative phrase. For example, “the cat’s out of the bag” or “crazy as bedbugs” are idioms. A simile is a new example of figurative language, such as “her eyes were as blue as sapphires.” If “the sun was laughing” that would be a metaphor.
A poet is limited in the materials he can use in creating his works: all he has are words to express his ideas and feelings. These words need to be precisely right on several levels at once, they must sound right to the listener even as they delight his ear they must have a meaning which might have been unanticipated, but seems to be the perfectly right one they must be arranged in a relationship and placed on the page in ways that are at once easy to follow and assist the reader in understanding they must probe the depths of human thought, emotion, and empathy, while appearing simple, self-contained, and unpretentious.
Fortunately, the English language contains a wide range of words from which to choose for almost every thought, and there are also numerous plans or methods of arrangement of these words, called poetic devices, which can assist the writer in developing cogent expressions pleasing to his readers. Even though most poetry today is read silently, it must still carry with it the feeling of being spoken aloud, and the reader should practice “hearing” it in order to catch all of the artfulness with which the poet has created his work.
Poetry isn't always meant to be a first reading that wafts through the brain like a Winter mist. Sometimes the poet is actually being playful and hopes the reader or readers get these finer points. As the poet writes, the text is being bounced back and forth as he begins the initial editing during the writing or the typing stage. So while considering a rhyme, the brain is struggling with that part and with the phrase that works well in order to achieve the relevance of that rhyme. The most basic text can stop the poet in his tracks because it offers no additional portrayal of pure poetry. It merely stays on the page or computer screen lacking any real skill or improvement. So the poet sometimes recognises there's a golden opportunity within that section of the theme, a chance for alliteration of an elevated expression of the phrase.
A poetic device is a way of using words to create meaning. Poets often use words differently than prose writers do, but these can be found in any writing. Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. Consider “the sunny sidewalk started sideways from my house” where the s sound is repeated. A figure of speech is a type of poetic device. For example, a simile or metaphor is figurative language. We usually use figure of speech to refer to an idiom, or a commonly used figurative phrase. For example, “the cat’s out of the bag” or “crazy as bedbugs” are idioms. A simile is a new example of figurative language, such as “her eyes were as blue as sapphires.” If “the sun was laughing” that would be a metaphor.
The use of grand words switches from the common words and adds a sense of strength or insight. A pun can change the mood suddenly and either help or hinder a poem. Sometimes what seemed powerful or witty or clever has to be discarded to fit the overall effect, leading to a more powerful conclusion. To add the powerful middle section undermines the conclusion.
Poetic devices are the ways poets alter words to get different meanings. The editing could take an extra hour and revitalise the poem into something dramatic instead of the mundane rhymes like blue and true and you. If the words work well, then they are kept because the overall effect is to get a successful reading. Poets don't write the same theme every single time. Their minds are motivated by phrases that pop into their minds suddenly. I recognise such phrases when I count the syllables. Do they fit the common metre hymn style with the first line of eight syllables? If yes, then there's a possible prompt to write again.
There are many types of poetic devices that can be used to create a powerful, memorable poem. In this term paper, we are going to learn about the poetic devices employed in the poetry of W. Whitman, W. B. Yeats and Robert Frost; we are also learn about these devices and look at examples of how they are used. We will also discuss their purpose to understand the importance of using them effectively.
Chapter – Two
2.1 The poetic devices employed in the poetry of W. Whitman :
Walter "Walt" Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass (1819–1892). The poems of Leaves of Grass are loosely connected, with each representing Whitman's celebration of his philosophy of life and humanity. This book is notable for its discussion of delight in sensual pleasures during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral. Where much previous poetry, especially English, relied on symbolism, allegory, and meditation on the religious and spiritual, Leaves of Grass (particularly the first edition) exalted the body and the material world.
Walt Whitman is a great master of using poetic devices in his poetry. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism into his work. During his time his work was often considered controversial. Whitman was one of the most influential poets and was often called the father of the free verse. In his poem Song of Myself is based on movie-like or photograph-like scenes and emotions which are juxtaposed to convey glimpses into who the speaker is or what they are describing. Through this, the author can both observe and participate in the experience. Whitman is widely celebrated as "America's greatest poet." Such "greatness" is neither exclusive nor comprehensive, as the work of other American poets--Dickinson, Stevens, Eliot, Frost, Plath, Lowell--may be finer, subtler, and more learned.
Before we analyze Walt Whitman's poems, we need to take a general look at the poet and his style.
Whitman is considered the father of free verse, although he did not invent it. Free verse is poetry without regular patterns of rhyme, rhythm or meter. Note: free verse has rhythm and meter. The pattern, however, is irregular. Rhythm is often created through the use of other poetic devices, including repetition, alliteration, and other sound devices.
The form of Whitman's poetry matches the content. Whitman celebrates the freedom of the individual and a celebration of freedom enjoyed in the United States. Because the attitude toward individual liberty in America was a break from European attitudes, he felt his poetry needed to break from European models as well.
Whitman wrote about ordinary people, which isn't altogether a break from European poets. The British Romantics celebrated the individual, for example, and they too wrote in a style which was a break from traditional forms as well.
Whitman celebrated the body and felt that the body was a gateway to the soul.
Walt Whitman is best known for creating the “truly American free verse.” (Introduction to Leaves of Grass) He wrote long, flowing sentences that almost could be considered a tangent of information that dealt with the way in which he viewed America at the time. Although most of Whitman’s poems were written in free verse, he used iambic meters through out many of his poems to allow for a rhythm which he felt would add to the understanding and flow of his poetry. For example, in the poem Leaves of Grass, Whitman uses iambic meter in the following verse: “Come live with me and be my love." (Introduction to Leaves of Grass)
Another literary device employed by Whitman is that of anaphora. He used the constant repetition of the first word of each line in order to create a pleasing sound to the reader. (Introduction to Leaves of Grass) He also used this in order to give his poetry the sound of an epic tale or give it more weight and create a sound that would be more intense for the reader to follow. (Introduction to Leaves of Grass)
Finally, Whitman uses “catalogs” in order to create lists and organize ideas with in his poems. This literary device is used to give images and group together ideas for the reader. He uses this in order to give specifics about types of people, situations, etc. Catalogs are very difficult to use but Whitman was able to do it well and with ease. He made it something that he was able to employ through out many of his works. (Introduction to Leaves of Grass)
Analyze of Walt Whitmans’ Song of Myself :
Quite simply, Whitman's poem is an unabashed celebration all about himself, exemplifying the Transcendental Movement to a "T." The poem had no title when first published in his collection, Leaves of Grass (1855). It was called A Poem of Walt Whitman, an American until he changed it in 1881 to Song of Myself, a reflection of the work's broader implications: that the divine spirit resides within all of us, and that we have knowledge about ourselves that "transcends" the world around us. We see all, are part of everything, and condemn nothing.
Through a multitude of literary devices and techniques, Walt Whitman's poem, "Song of Myself," is one of his most famous contributions to American literature. He uses simile and metaphor, paradox, rhythm, and free verse style, to convey his struggle between the relation of the body and soul, the physical and the spiritual being. He continues to disobey all social restrictions of the romantic time period. From the beginning, Whitman begins by stating, "What I shall assume, you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you," proposing that the reader listen to him, for he possesses all of the answers to life. The setting is somewhat naturalistic, and offers an image of the speaker, relaxing, possibly sprawled out across a blanket, philosophizing about life, while in the middle of a peaceful meadow. As the poem later shifts in tone, and setting, Whitman starts to think about the answers to life he has come up with, based upon the past, and decides that the reader should hear him out, one final time, as his ideas have changed.
In section #44 of, "Song of Myself," Whitman's first stanza begins: "It's time to explain myselflet us stand up. What is known I strip awayI launch all men and women forward with me into the unknown. The clock indicates the momentbut what does eternity indicate? Eternity lies in bottomless reservoirsits buckets are rising forever and ever, they pour and they pour and they exhale away." Whitman is simply stating that he wants to tell the purpose of his Form:
Leaves of Grass belongs to no particular accepted form of poetry. Whitman described its form as "a new and national declamatory expression." Whitman was a poet bubbling with energy and burdened with sensations, and his poetic utterances reveal his innovations. His poetry seems to grow organically, like a tree. It has the tremendous vitality of an oak. Its growth follows no regular pattern: "Song of Myself," for example, seems at first almost recklessly written, without any attention to form. Whitman's poetry, like that of most prophetic writers, is unplanned, disorganized, sometimes abortive, but nevertheless distinctively his own.
Rhythm and Meter:
Whitman's use of rhythms is notable. A line of his verse, if scanned in the routine way, seems like a prose sentence, or an advancing wave of prose rhythm. Yet his work is composed in lines, not in sentences as prose would be. The line is the unit of sense in Whitman.
Whitman experimented with meter, rhythm, and form because he thought that experimentation was the law of the changing times, and that innovation was the gospel of the modern world.
Imagery:
Imagery means a figurative use of language. Whitman's use of imagery shows his imaginative power, the depth of his sensory perceptions, and his capacity to capture reality instantaneously. He expresses his impressions of the world in language which mirrors the present. He makes the past come alive in his images and makes the future seem immediate. Whitman's imagery has some logical order on the conscious level, but it also delves into the subconscious, into the world of memories, producing a stream-of-consciousness of images. These images seem like parts of a dream, pictures of fragments of a world. On the other hand, they have solidity; they build the structure of the poems.
The Self:
To Whitman, the complete self is both physical and spiritual. The self is man's individual identity, his distinct quality and being, which is different from the selves of other men, although it can identify with them. The self is a portion of the one Divine Soul. Whitman's critics have sometimes confused the concept of self with egotism, but this is not valid. Whitman is constantly talking about "I," but the "I" is universal, a part of the Divine, and therefore not egotistic.
The Body and the Soul:
Whitman is a poet of both these elements in man, the body and the soul. He thought that we could comprehend the soul only through the medium of the body. To Whitman, all matter is as divine as the soul; since the body is as sacred and as spiritual as the soul, when he sings of the body or its performances, he is singing a spiritual chant.
Cosmic Consciousness:
Whitman believed that the cosmos, or the universe, does not consist merely of lifeless matter; it has awareness. It is full of life and filled with the spirit of God. The cosmos is God and God is the cosmos; death and decay are unreal. This cosmic consciousness is, indeed, one aspect of Whitman's mysticism.
Mysticism:
Mysticism is an experience that has a spiritual meaning which is not apparent to the senses nor to the intellect. Thus mysticism, an insight into the real nature of man, God, and the universe, is attained through one's intuition. The mystic believes in the unity of God and man, man and nature, God and the universe. To a mystic, time and space are unreal, since both can be overcome by man by spiritual conquest. Evil, too, is unreal, since God is present everywhere. Man communicates with his soul in a mystical experience, and Whitman amply expresses his responses to the soul in Leaves of Grass, especially in "Song of Myself." He also expresses his mystical experience of his body or personality being permeated by the supernatural. Whitman's poetry is his artistic expression of various aspects of his mystical experience.
Death:
Whitman deals with death as a fact of life. Death in life is a fact, but life in death is a truth for Whitman; he is thus a poet of matter and of spirit.
Transcendentalism:
Transcendentalism, which originated with German philosophers, became a powerful movement in New England between 1815 and 1836. Emerson's Nature (1836) was a manifesto of American transcendental thought. It implied that the true reality is the spirit and that it lies beyond the reach or realm of the senses. The area of sensory perceptions must be transcended to reach the spiritual reality. American transcendentalism accepted the findings of contemporary science as materialistic counterparts of spiritual achievement. Whitman's "Passage to India" demonstrates this approach. The romanticist in Whitman is combined with the transcendentalist in him. His quest for transcendental truths is highly individualistic and therefore his thought, like Emerson's, is often unsystematic and prophetic.
Democracy:
Whitman had a deep faith in democracy because this political form of government respects the individual. He thought that the genius of the United States is best expressed in the common people, not in its executive branch or legislature, or in its churches or law courts. He believed that it is the common folk who have a deathless attachment to freedom. His attitudes can be traced to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century because he thought that the source of evil lay in oppressive social institutions rather than in human nature. The function of literature is to break away from the feudal past of man and artistically to urge the democratic present. Princes and nobles hold no charm for Whitman; he sings of the average, common man. He follows Emerson in applauding the doctrine of the "divine average" and of the greatness of the commonplace. A leaf of grass, to Whitman, is as important as the heavenly motion of the stars. Whitman loves America, its panoramic scenery and its processional view of diverse, democratically inclined people. He loved, and reveled in, the United States as a physical entity, but he also visualized it as a New World of the spirit. Whitman is a singer of the self as well as a trumpeter of democracy because he believes that only in a free society can individuals attain self-hood.
Analysis of Walt Whitmans’ “ A Noiseless Patient Spider”
The poem can be read in a number of ways resulting in a number of interpretations. However, this is not what is unique to this poem. What is unique to this poem is its overlapping levels and literary devices.
Poetic Devices- Figures of speech:
Stanza 1: A noiseless, patient spider: this is an instance of transferred epithet. The word, ‘noiseless’ is used to indicate the absolute stillness of the spider. Spiders are not noisy creatures, even if they make noise, humans are not attuned to the frequency to catch their sounds; hence, the word is not used literally. It is used to give the semblance that the spider is so still that it doesn’t make any sound. The word ‘patient’ is used to drive home the point that the spider in intent on doing its job and will not stop until it has finished.
The vacant, vast surrounding: this is an instance of alliteration. Alliteration is the use of series of words in a sentence beginning with the same consonant or sound to produce a sense of rhythm.
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself: this is also an instance of alliteration.
Stanza 2: O my Soul: an instance of apostrophe. This is where the speaker addresses a person, who is absent or dead, or an abstract idea or an inanimate object.
Soul: the poet’s soul also symbolizes the collective soul of mankind.
Measureless oceans of space: an instance of metonymy/synecdoche. The vast space of life and its immensity is compared to the seeming endlessness of oceans.
Seeking the spheres, to connect them: it is an instance of imagery. The soul seeks the meaning of life. And all his musings, venturing and throwing are attempts towards achieving that end. This attempt is likened to the webs spun by the spider. The poet wishes to connect these web-like, spherical experiences to pave the way of his journey, to create a bridge that will lead him to the answers he is searching for.
Ductile anchor: an instance of juxtaposition. A spider’s web is of high tensile strength and is stretchable. It can withhold extreme duress. And an anchor is universally known for its grounding ability. Both the words indicate the strength and tenacity to stand pressure. However, it is unusual to describe an iron anchor as ductile. This is where Walt Whitman uses his wit and unique point of view to drive home the image of a double-pronged strength. Both ideas are juxtaposed together to emphasize this aspect of a secure holding.
Gossamer thread you fling: this is a metaphor. The poet’s soul is compared to the spider. The poet undertaking the journey of life is similar to the spider spinning its web. Hence, each step the soul takes or each thought it muses on is akin to secretion of the spider’s filament.
Rhyme Scheme:The poem is divided into two stanzas, each consisting of 5 lines. The poem is written in free verse. Hence, it forms the following rhyme scheme:- Abcde/fghij.
Analyze of Walt Whitmans’ "To a Stranger"?
"To A Stranger," probably written in 1860, is part of Whitman's collection "Leaves of Grass," published in 1900.
The only literary devices I can possibly see is that the stranger symbolizes a possible friend and the tone is kind of hopeful because he wants to bump into the stranger again and maybe he'll have the courage next time to start talking.
The principal literary device Whitman uses here is the framework of the poet's experience of the stranger--essentially, a dream vision. In fact, the poem is reminiscent of Medieval dream visions in which a poet envisions a combination of elements from several experiences that expresses his current psychological state. In the second line, for example, Whitman says "You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me as of a dream)." One of the ways we know this is occurring as a dream vision is that Whitman clearly is seeing no particular person; rather, the vision of the stranger is close to an allegory in which the stranger doesn't represent an individual (neither a man nor a woman) but a generic "everyman" or "every person."
Analysis of "I Hear America Singing"
Now that we've quickly analyzed Walt Whitman, we can begin our literary analysis of Walt Whitman's poems with an analysis of "I Hear America Singing." Literary terms used in this peom include rhythm, synecdoche, metaphor, repetition, and imagery.
Rhyme Scheme - There is no rhyme scheme. Whitman is the father of free verse. We just analyzed Walth Whitman's poetry. You've forgotten already?
Rhythm and Meter- There is no metrical pattern. Whitman is the father of free verse. He does use repetition, hwoever, to create rhythm.
Synecdoche - Of all the "I Hear America Singing" literary terms, none makes its mark more strongly than synecdoche. "America" in line 1 represents individual Americans, more specifically, workers. Each line of the poem is an example of synecdoche (a special type of metaphor where the parts equal the whole or the whole equals the parts). Whitman is celebrating the greatness of America by celebrating the greatness of its individuals.
Word Choice - "Carols" in line 1 is a connotatively charged word. It is most often associated with holy songs about Christmas. What better way to celebrate individuals and the physical body than connecting it with the physical manifestation of God himself.
Metaphor - the sounds and actions of laborers working is compared to music. Note that all the jobs described by Whitman require physical effort.
Repetition - The repetition of "the" in the final seven lines help create rhythm much in the same way the repetition of worker actions establishes a work rhythm.
The democratic nature of Whitman's poetry is reflected by his subject matter. He celebrates mechanics, carpenters, masons, mothers--the type of people usually not discussed in poems. For Whitman, it is the individual who matters and the individual freedom that allows him to be grea--"Each singing what belongs to her"--that matters
.
Analysis of "Beat! Beat! Drums!"
The most striking element of "Beat! Beat! Drums!" is its rhythm, demonstrating that free verse, when done well, carefully crafts its rhythm to imitate the sounds of life. In this instance, Whitman imitates the orderly beat of a drum and the rhythmic cadence of an army on the march. It is a difficult task, indeed, to read this poem and not picture a neatly dressed military outfit, drummers and buglers in front, on their way to create chaos.
Speaking of chaos and order, the poem's form and content contain these contrasting features. Much like an orderly army is more capable of inflicting disorder and destruction, so is a carefully crafted rhythm essential to the effectiveness of free verse. There is a reason Whitman is considered the father of free verse.
Whitman champions freedom in his poetry and there's a lot to be learned from the structure of this poem regarding freedom. It's clear Whitman understands the tenets of traditional poetry. He has a firm grasp on rhythm and meter, yet chooses not to write as others did. Whitman could have written in any form he chose. Freedom is only present when there's a choice. Choice is only present when there is knowledge.
The alliteration of the b sound and the repetition of "Beat! beat! drums!--blow! bugles! blow!" imitate the sound of an army on the march and does so forcefully.
The opening line of the poem, repeated thrice, overtakes the reader, much in the same way war overtakes "peaceful farmers," "bargainers," "lawyers" and others.
Whitman uses paradox to emphasize the chaos of war: "No sleepers must sleep" (10), "No bargainers' bargain" (11), no talkers are talking, no lawyers "rise in the court to state his case before the judge" (13). In short, war creates chaos and upsets the natural order of things.
Whitman uses metonymy: the beating of drums and the blowing of bugles represents something with which it is closely associated, a marching army.
He also uses synecdoche, the marching army represents military forces engaged in war; the individuals lawyers, farmers, etc. represent citizens whose lives are disrupted by war.
Theme: war disrupts all.
Analysis O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
Rhyme Scheme - aabb xcxc - the opening couplets of the first two stanzas establish a happy mood, which juxtaposed with the shortened succeeding lines, brings out the disappointment experienced by the poet over the captain's death. Note the progression: Stanza 1 begins with two happy couplets; Stanza 2 begins with two celebrating couplets, but something isn't quite right as demonstrated by the off rhyme of "bells" and "trills." Stanza 3 re-establishes the rhyming couplet pattern, but the message is as clear as the rhyme: the captain is dead.
Meter and Rhythm - there is no fixed meter; there is, however, a pattern of four long lines followed by four short lines in each stanza. The shortened lines emphasize the personal grief experienced by the poet against the backdrop of a broader victory. The poem's rhythm is created by the varying line lengths.
Extended Metaphor - The captain is Abraham Lincoln. The fearful trip is the Civil War. The ship is the United States. The prize is the preservation of the union.
The repetition of "heart" in line 5 emphasizes the poet's grief at the death of his captain. "Fallen cold and dead" is repeated at the end of each stanza to emphasize the poet's deep loss.
Apostrophe - an apostrophe is a form of personification in which an individual addresses someone who is dead, someone who is not there, or an inanimate object. "O Captain! My Captain!" at the start of the first two stanzas are examples of apostrophe, as is "Exult O shores, and ring O bells!" in the third stanza.
The poet refers to the fallen captain as "father," representing his deep respect for president Lincoln and Lincoln's role as father of the Union.
Word Choice - words and phrases such as "grim and daring," "weathered every rack," "fearful trip," "flag is flung," "bugle trills," "ribboned wreaths," and "swaying mass" cast a shadow over the celebration, much in the same way the dead cast a shadow over any victory in war celebration.
Figurative language is an umbrella term to describe many different techniques that bring flavor and life to writing. Without it, poetry would be nearly impossible. Many different literary devices make up figurative language. Metaphor is a figurative language that implies comparison between seemingly unlike things. The entire text of 'O Captain! My Captain!' functions as an extended metaphor to honor his subject, Abraham Lincoln. The poem is an ode to the president written after his assassination. Let's break down the metaphor to its main parts.
In Whitman's metaphor, Lincoln is the captain in the poem. The captain has seen his ship through tough times but ultimately is successful, returning home to a hero's welcome. Sadly though, the captain has 'fallen cold and dead.' The captain lies on the deck of the ship, implying that he died while at his post. The comparison to Lincoln is clear: Lincoln also died at his post, that is in the middle of his presidency.
Whitman begins his poem with an apostrophe when he writes, 'O Captain! My Captain!' Apostrophe is another facet of figurative language. It involves a writer addressing a dead or absent person, an inanimate object, or an idea. In this case, the poet speaks directly to the deceased captain. The purpose of an apostrophe is not to elicit a response from the addressee, but to stir up emotions in the reader. The poet's impassioned cry to the noble, dead captain is an example of that appeal to emotion.
Analyze of Walt Whitmans’ "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"
Take the sentence “You’re an asshole,” which is pretty common these days. Taken as a literal assertion, that sentence means that the person addressed is an anus, and has none of the other parts appurtenant to a human being — no legs, no head, no torso, etc., and no rectal canal or intestines or other organs, just a giant O-ring. Separated from a body, I’m not even sure what an “asshole” looks like, or if it retains the essential characteristic of an “asshole,” which is to be the anal or cloacal meatus of some organism’s body. But a human being cannot literally be an asshole. I’m not sure an asshole can even exist independent of the ass of which it is the hole.
We can go further and say that because people have holes in their face, especially their mouths, from which issue excrementitious speeches, that calling someone an asshole is a metaphor by way of synecdoche — you know, the pars pro toto trope? — which takes the defecating orifice of the person for the whole person and implicitly likens the defecating orifice of the person to the speaking orifice of the person. Perhaps some sediment of asshole is present in David Yow’s delightful lyric,
Now. You probably think this is a joke answer, but it is not. I have just demonstrated that the metaphoricity of a piece of language is not always patent, that sometimes one must decide whether a literal or figurative meaning is primary in a given utterance. “You’re an asshole,” for reasons I’ve discussed, is always a metaphor, unless it is possible for a sentient being that’s nothing more than an asshole to exist. But “hey shitmouth” may or may not be a metaphor, depending on whether or not the addressee is literally or only figuratively an unhygienic coprophage.
But I have delivered on my promise of help. The first line of the poem — and the title — consists of a metaphor. And if you maybe kindasorta see why that is now, I think you’ll find that there are a whole lot of others. Like, a fuck-ton. And I just quoted the first sentence.
2.2 The poetic devices employed in W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. He belonged to the Protestant, Anglo-Irish minority that had controlled the economic, political, social, and cultural life of Ireland since at least the end of the 17th century. Most members of this minority considered themselves English people who happened to have been born in Ireland, but Yeats was staunch in affirming his Irish nationality. Although he lived in London for 14 years of his childhood (and kept a permanent home there during the first half of his adult life), Yeats maintained his cultural roots, featuring Irish legends and heroes in many of his poems and plays. He was equally firm in adhering to his self-image as an artist. This conviction led many to accuse him of elitism, but it also unquestionably contributed to his greatness.
An Analysis Of The Poetic Devices In Yeats' Work
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, The Lake Isle of Innisfree and When You Are Old are three poems by Yeats which reflect his ability to capture the reader in a subtle, yet confronting context and allow them to explore aspects of the human condition. While each of the poems are spoken from different positions, the first two engage the reader as a third party, while the latter, intended for Maude Gonne, addresses the reader directly which provides for a more confronting experience of the human condition. Yeats’ take on the human condition is enhanced in each of these poems as a result of his innovative use of various poetic devices, some of which are more distinctive in certain poems.
In An Irish Airman Foresees His Death and The Lake Isle of Innisfree, Yeats deals with themes relating to humanity’s restrictions and apathy. The former does this by explaining the situation of an Irish Airman in the First World War from the first person perspective. The Airman notes how indifferent he feels about the current situation, primarily due to his position as an Irishman in a war which does not directly concern his country, “No likely end could bring them loss/Or leave them happier than before.” The Airman, who considers his past and future life a waste, accepts his predicament and allows himself to live entirely for “A lonely impulse of delight”, that he experiences in the sky. In The Lake Isle of Innisfree, Yeats uses his own voice to demonstrate the disconnection with nature that humanity experiences in the modern world. Yeats explains with conviction how he intends to lead a life of solitude in the peaceful atmosphere of Innisfree, expounding the attractiveness of the plan by contrasting it with a city setting, “I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;/While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey.” When You Are Old takes a different approach to the other poems, exploring love and the possibility of regret for a woman later in her life. As it is directly addressing Maude Gonne, this poem becomes intriguing when Yeats’ one way relationship with her is considered. Thus, it appears that Yeats wrote the poem in a final attempt to win Gonne over, showing her the life she may have if she continued to reject his love, “But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you…Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled.”
In each of the poems, Yeats creates a reflective atmosphere which evokes empathy and intrigue in the reader. An Irish Airman Foresees His Death does this by creating a series of confounding contrasts that the Airman’s situation brings and highlights these strongly using a constant iambic pattern throughout, leading to an overall sense of balanced indifference: “Those that I fight I do not hate/those that I guard I do not love.” Similarly, The Lake Isle of Innisfree makes use of contrasting – in this case, between nature and a roadway - not to highlight the indifference of the speaker but rather to demonstrate the speaker’s urge to escape humanity’s repression from nature. This determination is also shown in terms of the language itself with the repetition of the phrase, “I will arise and go now” and the contrasting feelings stirred up by Yeats’ language. For example, serenity is induced by soft, emotive language with an emphasis on peace: “Dropping slow, glimmer, purple glow, lake water lapping”, but is disrupted by a single line ending with “pavements grey”, bringing the reader back to reality. While The Lake Isle of Innisfree and An Irish Airman Foresees His Death create the atmosphere through contrasts and language, When You Are Old does this through the scene of pity and regret, detailed in what is essentially short narrative form, in the first stanza. The reflective atmosphere is also contributed to via the rhyming pattern which establishes a contrast between future settings of When You Are Old and the contemporary setting of the other two. While they all utilize a four line stanza model, the former two use an ABAB rhyming pattern and When You Are Old uses an ABBA pattern, causing the reader to wait for the rhyme, reflecting the protagonist’s own sense of age and regret. In each poem, the emotive atmosphere created assists the reader’s overall understanding of the poem.
As with all poetry, the sounds and rhythm created by the poet often enhances the reader’s understanding of the speaker’s situation much more than thousands of words of non-poetic prose, and this is especially true in the case of Yeats’ poetry. These elements are paramount in this selection of Yeats’ poetry as he avoids the use of complex literary devices, preferring instead to let natural rhyme and simple format to flow easily with the reader. When You Are Old takes a soft sounding approach - pushing forward the reflective, sad nature of the protagonist with such words as deep, grace, true and stars used as the rhyming words. Combining this with the stilted rhythm of the poem, the reflective, solemn nature of the protagonist which Yeats is trying to convey to his intended audience, Maude Gonne, is also pushed onto the reader. In contrast to this, The Lake Isle of Innisfree’s rhythm in the first three lines of each stanza aligns with the progression and determination of the speaker. However, the distorted fourth line breaks the reader’s focus on nature. This yearning for nature is ultimately the purpose of the poem, to illustrate man’s exile from nature and his desire to be returned to it and is emphasized by the final line, “I hear it in the deep hearts core.” In the case of An Irish Airman Foresees His Death the sound and rhythm play a lesser role, with the contrasting language in the statements, rather than the sound itself being the major contributor to the reader’s understanding of Yeats’ poem.
In creating these three poems Yeats has employed numerous techniques and poetic devices to convey his message to the reader. While many have only been outlined and some not even mentioned here, it is Yeats’ innovative use of language, sound and rhythm which primarily appeal to the reader. Yeats’ minimal use of complex literary devices and obscure references in these poems (which he has been known for) allow the widest demographic to appreciate his take on the human condition.
Yeats’ Poetic techniques & terminology
Rather than alphabetical, the following list is organised from simple basic terms & techniques that you must be able to identify and discuss, to more complex ones of which a passing knowledge is sufficient.
THEME= the message of the poem; the point the author wishes to make.
eg. In “September 1913”, Yeats points out that Ireland has become a greedy, soulless country & laments that the sacrifices our ancestors made in pursuit of Irish freedom have been forgotten.
TONE = the attitude of the writer towards his subject matter.
eg. Yeats’ tone is bitter and resentful in “September 1913”; Hopkins tone is awestruck and accusatory in “God’s Grandeur”; Plath’s is both celebratory and cautious in “Morning Song”. The tone can vary; many tones can be contained within a single poem.
MOOD = feelings expressed. Includes what the writer/speaker feels AND how the reader feels when they read the poem. May also be related to the atmosphere created..
eg. In “Felix Randal” the mood varies from relief, to sympathy, to impatience, to acceptance, to comfort, to admiration, and ends with a triumphant and fiercely energetic mood in the space of 14 lines!
NOTE: Tone & mood are closely related. The tone of voice used will often influence the mood/atmosphere. Yeats’ uses a sarcastic tone to reveal his anger and frustration when he says “For men were born to pray and save” in “September 1913”.
IMAGERY = the picture the writer creates using words. eg “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman / Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish” (Plath, “Mirror”). “And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; / And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell” (Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur”). “Coming with vivid faces / From counter or desk among grey / Eighteenth-century houses” (Yeats’ “Easter 1916”)
REPETITION = repeating a word or phrase to emphasise its importance/ create a regular rhythm.
eg. “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone /It’s with O’Leary in the grave.”
The poet repeats the most important point over and over. The line remains lodged in our brains long after we have finished reading (like the chorus of a song). The repetition of this line at the end of every verse makes the poem resemble a ballad, and creates a strong rhythm. This repetition also emphasises the poets certainty.
SYMBOLISM = a word becomes a sign of something other than simply itself.
e.g. In “September 1913” John O’Leary is a real person who Yeats was friendly with, and who fought for Irish freedom, but he also becomes a symbol of bravery, self-sacrifice and devotion to your country.
ALLUSION = where the writer makes reference to ‘well-known’ figures or events from literature, history or mythology.
eg. In “Easter 1916” Yeats makes reference to Padraic Pearse: “This man had kept a school / And rode our winged horse”. In “Spring”Hopkinsrefers to the biblical story of Adam & Eve’s fall from grace, and the subsequent infection of the world with sin: “A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning /In Eden garden…”
RHETORICAL Q = a Q that doesn’t require a response (a statement disguised as a question).
eg. Yeats asks “Was it for this the wild geese spread… /For this that all that blood was shed?”
Literary devices in the poem "Sailing to Byzantium"
The diction Yeats uses in this poem is definitely elevated and reminiscent of courtly, literary, and religious speech. He uses series of three to give a sense of authority and all-encompassing completion in these phrases: "fish, flesh, or fowl," "begotten, born, and dies," and "past, or passing, or to come." Religious sentiment comes through in the phrases "holy city," "God's holy fire," "mortal dress," and "artifice of eternity." A literary or courtly mood is evoked by such words as "monuments of unageing intellect," "studying monuments of its own magnificence," and "to lords and ladies of Byzantium."
Devices: The most commonly used devices in the poem are metaphor and allegory. The clothes emptied of the person wearing them ("tattered coat upon a stick") for example, are compared to the body as garment of soul, and thus the body without soul being similarly empty. Alliteration can be found in "singing school but studying" and "Monuments of its own magnificence". The device of direct address is used in "O sages standing in God's holy fire" where the poet appears to be speaking to the venerable figures portrayed in Byzantine religious mosaics.
Literary Devices in The Lake Isle Of Innisfree
The Lake Isle of Innisfree is a three stanza poem, each quatrain made up of three long lines and one short. The rhyme scheme is abab and all end rhymes are full. This brings a sense of closure and order.
What is striking about this poem is the lilting rhythm within each line, the way the caesura play a vital role in slowing the rhythms down and the stressed repetition of certain words and phrases.
The syllabic content of each stanza is worth looking at too. Note the pattern:
13,13,14,9 / 13,15,13,9 / 13,13,13,8 so this is definitely not a poem of fourteeners (regular 14 syllable lines) as many would have us believe. The caesura occurs after 7 syllables in the first three lines of each stanza, except for line 6, which is exceptional.
The opening line, with the narrative verb, will, implies that the speaker is looking into the future, promising himself peace and an ideal existence. He wants to escape now, while he's in the present, standing in the midst of the traffic, in the crowds, in the dreary hubbub of the city. So the poem's progress reflects an inner wish, to get away from the anxiety of the current life to the harmony of a rural idyll.
The opening line, with the narrative verb, will, implies that the speaker is looking into the future, promising himself peace and an ideal existence. He wants to escape now, while he's in the present, standing in the midst of the traffic, in the crowds, in the dreary hubbub of the city. So the poem's progress reflects an inner wish, to get away from the anxiety of the current life to the harmony of a rural idyll.
Alliteration, assonance and consonance all occur in the poem. Look at lines 10, 3 and 4 for examples. Listen for: live alone in the bee-loud glade/all a glimmer/purple glow/full of the linnet's/lake water lapping with low sounds.
Anaphora, or repetition of words and phrases, occurs throughout the poem.
Take note of: build there/have there/peace there.
The Second Coming
Structure.
There are three parts to this poem. The first is two lines long, the second six and the third fourteen. There is little rhyme in the poem, although lines do occasionally end with similar sounding words. There is a relatively regular rhythm.
Poetic Devices.
Repetition - "turning and turning", "falcon... falconer", "loosed... loosed", "surely... surely", "the Second Coming... The Second Coming!"
Alliteration - "Surely some", "stony sleep"
Onomatopoeia - "vexed", "slouches"
Figures of Speech.
Simile - "blank and pitiless as the sun"
Metaphor - "stony sleep"
Imagery.
The first two images are complimentary - the spinning gyre, producing dizziness, and the lost falcon, which cannot answer the calls it is trained for, it is lost. In a sense, power is useless. The imagery of the second part is much less specific - it is general "anarchy". The third part contains the key image of the poem - the Second Coming not being the triumphant return of Christ, but the re-awakening of the pre-Christian era. Its representative is the powerful, half-animal Sphinx. Its body is that of a "lion", only the head of a man is left. Man's thoughts would be mixed with the pre-human power of the lion's claws.
The "indignant desert birds" are the expendable "shadows", the weak humans cowering before the terror, not completely understanding it. Finally, the poem focuses on the speaker's own mind, via the falling "darkness". It is knowledge that is being given to the reader. The power of the "twenty centuries of stony sleep" was woken by a "rocking cradle".
A Prayer For My Daughter
Structure.
The poem is divided into ten stanzas, of eight lines each. The rhyme scheme is aabbcddc, and the rhythm regular.
Poetic Devices.
Alliteration - "howling, and half hid", "cradle-hood and coverlid", "great gloom", "sea-wind scream", "dancing... drum", "Being made beautiful", "hatred driven hence", "bellows burst"
Assonance - "walked and prayed", "hidden... linnet", "hatred... wares"
Repetition - "self-delighting,/Self-appeasing, self-affrighting"
Onomatopoeia - "howling", "scream", "spray", "merriment", "choked", "bellows", "scowl", "howl"
Figures of Speech.
Metaphor - "Ceremony's a name for the rich horn,/And custom for the spreading laurel tree"
Simile - "all her thoughts may like the linnet be", "may she live like some green laurel"
Imagery.
Most of the images in "A Prayer For My Daughter" are actually quite literal. However, their deeper meaning is no less relevant. The "storm" is threatening outside forces, probably the future. The "cradle" signifies his daughter's babyhood, the temporary protection she has from the perils Yeats goes on to describe. The sea, being the source of the wind, is the logical source for the "future years". The "murderous innocence" that is attributed to the sea is a juxtaposition of his daughter and the world that awaits for her.
Yeats uses the image of his daughter, which is central to the poem, partly represent his ideal woman. Most of the succeeding images are parts of the ideal woman, or their opposites. Beauty is the first, too much beauty is seen as making the eye "distraught", an enemy to "intimacy". The following image is of Helen and Venus/Aphrodite, whose beauty made "life flat and dull". Beauty distorts women, making them "eat/A crazy salad with their meat", which destroys the benefit they were given by the "Horn of Plenty". .
Leda and the Swan
Structure.
The poem has four stanzas - the first two of which have four lines; the third having two and a half, and the fourth having three and a half. The rhyme scheme of the first two stanzas is abab, and the third and fourth together make up abcabc. There is a relatively regular rhythm, but the curious division of the last six lines make this one of the less regular of the poems in this regard.
Poetic Devices.
Assonance - "great wings", "his bill", "knowledge... power"
Alliteration - "broken... burning", "brute blood"
Onomatopoeia - "beating", "staggering", "caressed", "shudder"
Imagery.
The image of the swan is dealt with in great detail - "wings", "web[bed feet]", "bill", "breast", "feathered glory", "strange heart", "the loins", "brute blood", "indifferent beak". The image is meant to be of great power and beauty, and of emotions strange and wonderful - hence the "strange heart".
Leda is weaker - a "staggering girl". She is "helpless", "terrified vague", "so caught up", "so mastered". The two images - power and submission - embrace, the swan on top. The orgasm "engenders there" the fall of Troy, the death of a king.
Then Yeats explicitly names the central images of the poem - "power" and "knowledge". In the penetration and subversion of the powerless, is something gained, does their place in history become cemented.
Among School Children
Poetic Devices.
Alliteration - "cipher... sing", "sixty... smiling", "sphere... sympathy", "Plato's parable", "finger fashion", "pretty plumage", "sleep, shriek, struggle", "drug decide", "star sang", "passion, piety", "body... bruised"
Assonance - "through the long schoolroom... hood", "driven wild... living child", "shape... lap"
Onomatopoeia - "paddlers'", "shriek, struggle"
Figures of Speech.
Metaphor - "a Ledaean body" "nature but a spume that plays/Upon a ghostly paradigm of things", "Soldier Aristotle", "Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?"
Simile - "Hollow of cheek as though it drank the wind"
Imagery.
The image of the children in their classroom is a comfortable image, to match the "sixty-year-old smiling public man". It is later subverted, but is very pure as it stands, having the obvious associations of innocence. The second image is of the "Ledaean body", an image of mystic, which is associated with her childhood tale, a less pleasant story of "a harsh reproof, or trivial event/That turned some childish day to tragedy", an event harsh enough to register on the mind of such a creature, and it strikes a chord in the poet too - and their natures are able to blend. Here - the universal nature of childhood, and its power.
He remembers this as he looks back at the children, every person "can share/Something" of the children, and so the poet is reminded of her. Another image which he uses to remind the reader that every person is similar is the beauty that every child has.
The Circus Animal's Desertion
Poetic Devices.
Alliteration - "being but... broken", "Lion... woman... Lord... what", "Countess Cathleen", "players... painted", "sweepings... street".
Repetition - "sought... sought... sought", "vain... vain... vain", "dream... dream", "old... old... old... old... old" "ladder... ladder".
Imagery.
In the first stanza, the first couple of lines are nearly devoid of imagery, merely the image of the poet, the writer, searching for his themes. Then his images extend into the past - the cyclical "winter and summer". His previous images were all "circus animals" anyway, all "stilted boys... burnished chariot... Lion and woman and the Lord knows what". Then he reminisces. One of his first poems, The Wanderings of Oisin is described in the second stanza. He talks of Oisin as helpless, "led by the nose", "vain... vain... vain". It was his "faery bride" Yeats was "starved for".
2.3 The poetic devices employed in Robert Frost :
Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. Robert Frost is the master of using literary devices in his poetry.
Poetic devices in "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost:
Literary terms and poetic devices allow a poet or author to enhance their writing. Examples include sound devices like alliteration or onomatopoeia and figurative language like metaphors and similes, which are comparisons that allow the reader to understand the subject matter on a broader scale and perhaps in terms the reader had not considered previously. Imagery is another kind of poetic device; it is used to embellish a developing mental picture that the reader can appreciate. Symbolism allows the reader to relate the poem to its real meaning rather than its literal meaning, and connotation allows the reader to make assumptions about the subject matter.
In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost uses several poetic devices at his disposal. Alliteration is used subtly in "wanted wear" (the repeated w sound at the beginning of the words) and improves the musical quality of the poem. The poet creates an image for the reader of the paths which "equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black." This creates a peaceful image at odds with the difficult decision the speaker is trying to make.
The poem is clearly intended to convey a meaning far beyond its immediate scope. The decision here is quite significant, and Frost ensures that the reader understands the implications of choosing a path. "I doubted if I should ever come back" would have anyone rethinking his choice. The reader can relate to the narrator. The road functions both literally and as a symbol or metaphor; in the context of this walk in the woods, the road is just a path, but the reader is led to believe that it represents something more important—perhaps a life-changing decision. The wood with its "undergrowth" can reflect the narrator's confusion: he
There are multiple poetic devices used in Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken.
In the first line, the poet used assonance. Assonance is the repetition of a vowel sound within a line of poetry. In the first line,
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
the "o" sound is repeated in "roads" and "yellow."
In the eighth line,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
the author uses personification. Personification is the giving of human characteristics to non-human/non-living things. In this line, the path wanted wear. A path cannot want. Only humans can want. This qualifies as personification.
The poem as a whole is a metaphor. A metaphor is
a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to a person, idea, or object to which it is not literally applicable.
The poet is, therefore, comparing the paths in life to the choices one must make when reaching a crossroads. The poem speaks of the actual choices in life as roads one must choose to take. Metaphorically, the roads simply represent choices in life, but none have yet written about Frost's choice of meter.
Frost employs an "abaab" rhyme scheme. This is a cinquain, or a poem or stanza composed of five lines. Cinquains are seen in limericks, for example, though those poems employ a different rhyme scheme.
As one previous educator mentioned, the road is a metaphor for the different "paths" one may take in life. Both were "worn," meaning that many others had taken the same path, or made a similar choice in life.
Frost's choice of "morning" and autumn are also metaphoric. One's autumn years indicate late adulthood. "Morning" indicates a new beginning. Even late in life, we get chances or opportunities to make life-changing choices.
The choices that we make in life are never easy, and we face many of them in our lifetime. The poem The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost is a first person narrative poem in which Frost himself can be considered the speaker. A person walking in the woods is faced with the choice of two roads in which to take. He would like to explore both roads. He tells himself that he will explore one and then come back and explore the other, but he knows that he will probably be unable to do so (Arp 808). Through Frosts use of images and symbols, he is able to convey his theme that the choices a person makes in life are ultimately responsible for their future, yet a person can never go back to the past and experience other possibilities.
As Frost begins his poem about the road he did not take, he is standing in the woods looking at two different roads that diverge in a yellow wood. The two roads that diverged in a yellow wood represent a critical choice between two ways of life (Ogilvie 3). If he travels down one, it leads in one direction, if he takes the other, it leads him somewhere different. Words are symbols of concepts, which have acquired connotation of feeling in addition to their denotation of concept (Greenberg and Hepburn 137). Frost uses these words, about two different roads as a symbol, of the choices we make in our everyday lives. The fork in the road represents the speakers encounter of having to choose
Literary devices in the road not taken
2. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
3. And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
4. Road is used as a metaphor and as an extended metaphor. the road splitting, this is a metaphor of choices we make in life. the fork in the road is used as a metaphor throughout the poem, it is termed an extended metaphor. In line 6 where the person is thinking of taking one road, but takes another, this is a metaphor for thinking of your choices before deciding.
5. Nature is also used as a metaphor in the poem. In the beginning, the woods are yellow meaning in the autumn. This could be a metaphor of making decisions during the fall of your life or when you are getting older.
6. The Road Not Taken – Frost Critical Analysis. "The Road Not Taken", written by Robert Lee Frost, is a poem that has four five-line stanzas with only two end rhymes in each stanza (abaab). Several kinds of literary devices can be found in the poem. One of the literary devices employed is antithesis.
7. It contains four stanzas and each one contains five lines each. This is called a quintain, hence this poem is made up of four quintains. In total this makes twenty lines thus a middle sized poem.
8. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, (A) And sorry I could not travel both (B) And be one traveler, long I stood (A) And looked down one as far as I could (A) To where it bent in the undergrowth; (B)
9. Consonance and Assonance are widely used throughout as we can see in the following examples respectively: ''And that has made all the difference.'' ''Yet knowing how way leads on to way,''. Repetition is the final sound device that can be easily spotted in Frost's poem, especially in this line: ''Somewhere ages and ages hence:''.
10. Just like a song this poem has rhythm. The rhythm is iambic. This implies that there is a quiet syllable before a loud syllable. Diction and Imagery More concrete than abstract More formal than informal More general than specific Mostly visual
11. Figures of Speech and Symbolism Personification- Because it was grassy and wanted wear Robert Frost is not actually talking about a road fork in the woods. Rather, he is using the concept of a diverging road to relate to making decisions in life.
12. Syntax and Structure Each stanza contains 5 lines. Long I stood is an example of a different syntax because it would normally be said as I stood Long. Rhythm and Meter There is a similar syllable pattern throughout the poem. For example the first line in each stanza has 9 syllables.
13. Sound and Sense The rhymes are end rhymes. Perfect rhymes are lay and way Slant rhymes are both and undergrowth
Literary Devices in Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:
The Use of Literary Devices in Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening in Robert Frost's poem. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” the speaker uses literary devices to show the reader the poem's meaning. Symbolism plays an important role in this poem. Robert Frost uses symbolism to show the correlation between the woods and village with heaven. Mythological symbolism is also found in this poem. when the speaker talks about the lake. it is a reference to Hel in Norse Mythology. The tone of the poem, and Robert Frost's syntax. portray a tranquil yet dark feeling throughout the poem. The observations made exhibit how the speaker views life and death.
and his conscience does not think that this thought is normal. The farm house represents a point in life, something the speaker is not trying to reach. Robert Frost writes the poem using iambic tetrameter. which follows the beat of a horse. The rhythm of the poem further alludes that the horse is a part of the speaker. Death is further mentioned in the poem when the speaker says. “In between the woods and frozen lake”(7) . In Norse Mythology. the underworld is called Hel. and is located in the frozen region of Niflheim. Robert Frost puts Hel and Heaven near each other to show how close the boundaries between the two are. The “darkest evening of the year” (8) shows how deep the speaker's depression is. This depression bolsters the speaker's suicidal thoughts.
In the third stanza of the poem, the horse, the speaker's conscience, realizes the speaker's intention, and interrupts the the tranquil surroundings. When the horse gives it's harness bells a shake (9), it is trying to gain the speaker's attention. The speaker believes that the horse is trying to make the man realize how bad an idea suicide would be, as that would cause him to go to Hell (10). The speaker acknowledges the horses intent, and realizes the foolishness of suicide. Sensory imagery is used to show how easy suicide would be.
that are not simple to make. Choices such as the ones that alter one’s path in life. It would be great if there was always a guiding light to show people the way. Robert Frost wrote many didactic poems with the intent to teach people about decision making. The poems “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, are both didactic in nature because they reveal a common theme of life-changing decisions. The poem “The Road Not Taken”, focuses on the theme of choices.
Perseverance in Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Epictetus once wrote, "First say what you would be; and then do what you have to do." This aphorism of self-discovery and obligation clearly describes Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." In the course of the poem, Frost's speaker is confronted with two choices: he can either forget his problems or he can follow through with his responsibilities and make the most of life.
explain about, and in two other perspectives my ideas hardly is included. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" Complete Text Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.
Analysis of Birches by Robert Frost:
As the tree bends, the man wants to believe that it has aged with a boy swinging on it, even when he knows ice storms are responsible for the bends. Frost uses vivid imagery to describe the ice storm occurring. The snow shedding off the tree is described as an avalanche and as a collapse of the inner dome of heaven, aging the tree. The man visualizes images that contradict with reality.
When the man sees the tree, he imagines a boy isolating himself, swinging on a birch tree from entertainment which he got used to instantly. The boy learns balance by climbing to the top branches but only to jump down. The boy lives an exhilarating childhood, making the man desire to return to his adolescence. As the man dreams of returning to his childhood, leaving his adult responsibilities behind, he realizes Earth or his present is where he belongs. Even though he returns to his present, he still continues to reminisce his adolescence.
Form, Style, and Rhyme Scheme
The poem is a blank verse that consists of 10 syllables per line, no rhyme, five iambs (metrical feet that have two syllables; one unstressed followed by stressed)
It's a lyric poem because the Frost shares his emotions about his childhood
Frost has a descriptive style using vivid imagery and figurative language to appeal to the readers' senses.
Figurative Language
The poem is very stylistically rich. The use of figurative language allows the poem to be more enjoyable, as well as it acts as an aid to support the theme of reminiscing adolescence and the importance of balance
Frost uses simile, contrast, repetition, personification, onomatopoeia, symbolism, imagery, and metaphors.
Onomatopoeia: "...They click upon themselves" (7) - The sharp sound of the click of the branches contrasts the soft delicate images that he remembers of his childhood
Simile: "....trailing their leaves on the ground/Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair/Before them over their heads to dry in the sun" (18-20)
"...life is too much like a pathless wood/Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs" (44-45).-discussing how life can lack amusement, joy as one becomes an adult
Contrast: "And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk" (55). There is also a general contrast of reality vs imagination which is an active theme in "Birches"
Repetition: Frost repeats "birches bend,," boy's swinging "bends them" "swinger of birches" - represents the significance of the man imagining his childhood instead of believing reality
Personification: "trailing their leaves on the ground" (18) (imagery to describe tree)
"...Truth broke in/With all her matter of fact about the ice storm" (21-22)
"...Half grant what I wish and snatch me away" (51). (used to describe the man's desire to leave his life and return to his childhood)
Symbolism: Frost uses aging trees, as well as simply birch trees to symbolize adolescence, adulthood, and reality vs imagination
-The images of childhood transforming into adulthood was demonstrated through the symbolism of aging birch trees. The darker birch trees represent adulthood compared to white or lighter bark for childhood. He explains that swinging on them (childhood) doesn't bend them, situations as you grow up do. He uses "Across the line of straighter darker trees./I like to think some boy's been swinging them/But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay" (2-4).
-Trees are also rooted in the ground, so climbing them doesn't sever the ties with earth.
"Climb black branches up a snow-white trunk/Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more/But dipped its top and set me down again" (55-57).
For the tree not to bear no more, it would have "die" for the man to depart earth to his imagination, but it doesn't so he is sent back to reality.
Imagery: Frost creates vivid images to describe the birch tree and ice storms which represent the reality since they actually bend the birch trees "As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel/Soon the the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells/Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust/Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away/You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen (9-13). - Describes the ice storms
"Broken across it, and one eye is weeping/From a twig's having lashed across it open" (46-47)
Metaphor: "They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load/And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed/So low for long, they never right themselves" (14-16).
-this is a metaphor for old age; one may be tired, but they don't collapse
The use of symbolism is the most significant poetic device used in the poem. Like mentioned before, Frost uses birch trees to symbolize adolescence, adulthood, and most importantly reality vs imagination. The first three lines are dedicated to describing the image of childhood and adulthood. The use of contrasting darker birch trees to represent adulthood and light bark to represent adolescence demonstrates that situations and events that shape one's life causes the coming of age (transition of light bark to dark).
Frost spends a great amount of time describing the ice storms. There is elaboration in describing the ice storm since it represents the reality. The ice storms are truly the cause of the bends in the birch trees even though the man believes the boy swinging on them is. This further demonstrates the balance between reality and imagination.
To understand the poem, one must do some background research on rural areas of New England in the early 1900s and they must understand the symbolism of the birch trees and the imagery provided in the poem. If one does, they will truly be able to appreciate the stylistically rich poem with a theme generally can relate to.
Poetic devices in the poem "The Fog":
There are two poetic devices used in this poem
1- Free verse
This refers to the poems having a very natural rhythm and build around themselves. Poems of this category may not have a rhyme scheme but still they have a knack for immersive experience. They are very similar to speech.
2. Imagery
This one is the most important component of a poem and most of the poems work around this. This refers to the poet’s ability to make his readers feel and visualise everything that he says in his poem.
“The woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep”
The first line automatically forces you to visualise a dark evening with lots of snow fallimg down and the author is tempted to go in there and observe this soul soothing view but he has certain responsibilities, expectations of people from himself. Therefore, he cannot do what he is tempted to do, he has to make happy the people he love. So, he has to continue his journey sacrificing the enjoyment he think he deserves. Perhaps that’s what life is all about, sacrificing yourself for others.
All this (and more) can be inferred from these four lines. A perfect example of imagery.
Poetic devices in Robert Frost's "Out,Out-"
An allusion is a brief reference to a historical event or literary work that brings an associated meaning. The title, "Out, Out--," is a reference to Shakespeare's Macbeth. When Macbeth mourns Lady Macbeth's death, he laments, "Out, out, brief candle!" Before her death, Lady Macbeth, mad with guilt, mutters, "Out, damned spot! out, I say!" Both references apply here. The boy who dies in the accident dies too early--the candle of his life has been too brief. But the adults, who gave the boy a man's job to do, must live with the guilt all their lives of wishing they had prevented the fatal accident.
Imagery is a device that allows readers to experience a scene with their five senses. The sounds of the buzz saw ("snarled and rattled"), the description of the setting ("Five mountain ranges one behind the other/ Under the sunset"), the boy's rueful laugh, and the way he holds up his severed hand are all vivid images that bring readers into the poem.
Foreshadowing predicts what will happen later. When the poet speaks in first person, "Call it a day, I wish they might have said," readers know something unfortunate is going to happen.
Irony is when the opposite of what is expected happens. The boy's "rueful laugh" is ironic because laughter is out of place in such a tragedy. Even the statement that "he saw all spoiled" turns out to be ironic. The boy thought he was facing only amputation, which as it turned out, would have been a preferred, even blessed, outcome compared to the boy's death.
Understatement occurs when words are used that minimize the emotions or import of an event. The ending of the poem is shocking in its lack of emotion and proper tribute to the dead boy and those who witnessed the tragedy:
"No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs."
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs."
A literary device is a device used in writing to convey some kind of imaginative effect. Even the title uses the literary device of repetition in order to engage the reader.
Line one greets us with onomatopoeia and personification.
The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard (line 1)
Frost uses onomatopoeia in the words “buzz” and “rattled” to bring sounds of the farm into the poem. He also personifies the saw by saying it “snarled” as an angry person (or animal) might. This seems to give the saw a personality, and foreshadow danger. The words “snarled and rattled” are also repeated twice in line 7.
The saw is also personified again when the saw leaps toward the boy’s hand when his sister distracts him.
At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap—
He must have given the hand. (lines 14-16)
A simile and metaphor are also used to describe the boy’s reaction to losing his hand.
The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. (lines 18-21)
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap—
He must have given the hand. (lines 14-16)
A simile and metaphor are also used to describe the boy’s reaction to losing his hand.
The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. (lines 18-21)
Poetic devices in the Poem "Acquainted With the Night"
On its surface, the poem "Acquainted with the Night" by Robert Frost is about a man who is walking through a city at night. However, when analyzing the figurative language used in the poem, such as the extended metaphors and symbolism, it becomes clear that the poem is about the narrator's melancholy and sense of isolation. The narrator is acquainted with the darkness of the soul as much as the night.
Poetic devices in “Fire And Ice”
There is an extended metaphor in this poem. Frost is comparing fire to desire and ice to hate. In particularly lines 3 & 4 ("From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire."), he basically does a direct comparison between the two and also with lines 6, 7 & 8 ("I think I know enough of hate, To say that for destruction ice, Is also great."), In these 5 lines, Frost explains that from his experience with desire, he would choose it over ice/hate. But he also thought that hate is great for destruction, and would choose it if he had another chance. This metaphor made it seem like desire and hate were much more dangerous because they were being compared to fire and ice. Other literary devices used were allegory and symbolism,.
Metaphor
Fire and Ice uses a metaphor although it is an implied metaphor where Robert Frost compares fire and ices with out implying it or pointing it out.
Some say the world will end in fire some say in ice
I hold with those who favor fire
To say that for destruction Ice is also great
Rhyme Scheme
A,B,A,A,B,C,B,C,B
Some say the world will end in fire, -A
Some say in ice.-B
From what I’ve tasted of desire -A
I hold with those who favor fire.-A
But if it had to perish twice,-B
I think I know enough of hate -C
To say that for destruction ice -B
Is also great -C
And would suffice. -B
Speaker
The speaker of the poem is Robert Frost. He is narrating the poem in first person talking his opinion on hate and desire or Fire and Ice.
Assonance
Is only used once or twice in the poem but is still there
I hold with those who favor fire
Idiom/ Hyperbole
I feel like the whole poem is an Idiom / Hyperbole, because it has a different meaning and is told in a very exaggerated version.
Theme
The theme of Fire and Ice is Life. Frost talks about how they are both destructive feelings and how they can be interpreted in many ways. I though of life because he talks about dying then i realized Fire is desire and Ice is hate. Frost is telling us the better feeling to die with or his option of what is better
Imagery
Sense Images Described
Sight Fire, Ice, Desire on someone’s face, Hate
Sound Burning of fire, Crushing of ice, desire in voice
Smell Nothing
Taste The mood I taste is desire
Touch nothing
Poetic devices in Robert Frost's 'the Telephone'
Robert Frost's "The telephone" is a poem about an individual's interpretation of a telephone conversation with another. The speaker in the poem talks about a meeting with the same person that had happened in the past showing that there is some history and that this is a sequel to another conversation. We see constant misconceptions between both people, and in this respect it is a sort of rebirth and a sort of familiarity between the speaker and the person on the corresponding end.Through the poem we see Frost relating the phone metaphorically with natural things, in this way he also personifies the object he is relating to the phone. He relates the telephone to being a "...flower..." and thus relates the phone with a beautiful sweet smelling flower. In this respect, we come to the conclusion that the person on the other end is very close to the speaker, a significant other. Frost also links the flower with a "...bee..." making a clearer link with nature. The bee almost makes a melodious humming sound further describing the sound of the person on the other end. Frost uses ranges of metaphors throughout the poem to tie in with his link from the telephone to nature.Frost makes the poem first person singular to get an insight of the speaker and his real thoughts. He also uses the word "...you..." to get the reader involved, but symbolically we know he is referring to the other person. Using this method of first person, Frost is successfully making the conversation more genuine and in some sense more truthful. And so by using the words "...I..." and "...you..." the poem becomes more realistic and gives us a look into the speakers...
Literary Devices in Mending Wall
"He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours." The poem ends with a repetition of the proverb. Between the two instances of the proverb, the moral stakes of the poem’s situation have become clear. Both the narrator and the neighbor desire to destroy the wall, and yet both men agree to build it anyway. The conclusion represents a triumph of civilization over primalism. This conclusion is far from simplistic or pleasant however. For each person, the confinement of the darker, more primitive sides of the self is an ongoing internal struggle. Frost uses prepositional language to convey the neighbor’s relationship to the wall. The idea of the neighbor “go[ing] behind his father’s saying” suggests that the father’s proverb—“Good fences make good neighbours”—is an object, a wall. To act against the saying and deny the importance of “good fences” would be to cross over to the other side of the wall of tradition and civility. "Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down. Here the poem’s opening line is repeated. The identity of the “something” has shifted. At first, the narrator suspects there is a force of nature seeking to destroy the wall. The word “there” points to an external cause. By this point in the poem, however, it is clear that the “something” is not out “there” but rather within the human soul. "SOMETHING there is that doesn't love a wall..." The poem opens with a mysterious phrase. The first word signals to us that the poem will uncover that “something… that doesn’t love a wall.” In the beginning, that “something” appears to be the forces of nature. But when the phrase is repeated later on, it becomes the narrator who challenges the wall’s existence.
Literary devices of A Late Walk:
Simile: "The headless aftermath smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew"
We are comparing the tree that don't have any leafs with the hatch. Qualities they share are the shape and nature.
Metaphor: "The Whir of sober birds up from the tangle of withered weeds is sadder than any words"
We are comparing the sad whir sound of the birds with the sadness of the sad words. Qualities they share is the sadness.
Personification: "A tree beside the wall stands bare"
"bare" or naked is used for humans, not for plants.
Alliteration: "garden ground"
Personification: "sober birds"
Sober means serious or practical, and birds don't have these charcterstics, only humans do.
Analyzing The Death Of The Hired Man :
Authors of poems use many different types of devices to help convey the theme of their poem. These devices can range from structural or poetic devices to examples of meter. In Robert Frost's poem, "The Death of the Hired Man," the theme of the poem that the author attempts to portray is the need to forgive and accept people for who they are before it is too late; Frost presents this to the reader through structural, poetic, and metrical devices.
The significance of most of Robert Frost's life having been spent in the New England area is because for many of his poems but especially for his poem, "The Death of the Hired man", the setting is in New England (Bloom 1). Also, for the poem, "The Death of the Hired Man", which is based on a farm in New England and its family, Frost uses personal experience in writing the poem because he has lived, worked, and owned a farm in New England (Bouchard 3). The significance of the setting and characters in this poem is that he "presents speakers who are marked by extraordinary severity and power" (Blooms 1).
The life history of Robert Frost is very important in helping the reader analyze and understand the poem and the theme of the poem. The basic summary of the poem is that the main characters, Warren and Mary, who are the owners of the farm, have a hired man who decides to leave them to find better paying work when the busy times approach; but when work is slow, then he will return looking for odd jobs to earn money. Warren has had enough, and he is seriously contemplating with his wife what actions he should take with this man. As a person, Mary is a woman of an abundance more compassion than her husband, and she realizes from the beginning that Silas is a dying man and that he has returned to the only home he knows. Now Mary is attempting everything she can to show her husband the better parts of Silas but even she realizes how hard this is; she has from the beginning already forgiven Silas for his past actions and life with wide open arms accepting him into her home and attempting her best to take care of him. This is what she is attempting to accomplish all throughout the poem with her husband so that he will feel the same way about Silas that she does before the rest of Silas's very short life ends.
Also, Bloom notices that Mary has a "perspective of compassionate identification and emotional response that contrasts Warren's more rational view of fair judgment. Frost encapsulates Mary's attitude in one present tense, active sentence, 'I sympathize'" (Bloom 2). The line that Bloom quotes from the poem is located in line eighty of the poem. This representation of Mary gives hint to the allusion that Robert Frost presents in the poem of the parable of the Lost Son which can be seen in Luke 15 verses 11-32. The attitude that Warren has toward the idea of Silas claiming their home and their farm as his one and only "home" even when he has a very wealthy brother who happens to live thirteen miles down the road is that he believes that "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, / They have to take you in," and for this reason he believes that their home should not be claimed by Silas as his "home" for that very reason (Bloom 3). That quote is located on lines one-hundred-twenty-three and one-hundred-twenty-four.
There are many different poetic, structural, and metrical devices that Robert Frost uses throughout his poem to grab the reader's attention to that point specifically and to help show the theme of the poem; these along with the allusion that is present all throughout the poem, help the reader understand the author's theme. The first of these is the characterization of the main character of Mary that Frost presents in the poem. This characterization presents her as a very kind, compassionate, loving, understanding, and motherly person who cares very much for the character of Silas because of the hard life that he has lived. The reader can see this in lines one-hundred-fifty-five to one-hundred-sixty-one when Mary says,
No, but he hurt my heart the way he lay
And rolled his old head on that sharp-edged chair-back.
He wouldn't let me put him on the lounge.
You must go in and see what you can do.
I made the bed up for him there to-night.
You'll be surprised at him - how much he's broken.
His working days are done; I'm sure of it.
And rolled his old head on that sharp-edged chair-back.
He wouldn't let me put him on the lounge.
You must go in and see what you can do.
I made the bed up for him there to-night.
You'll be surprised at him - how much he's broken.
His working days are done; I'm sure of it.
Another way in which the character of Mary is seen as compassionate, loving, nurturing mother is in the name that Robert Frost gives her character. Throughout history the name "Mary" has been synonymous with characters throughout the New Testament of the Bible. These characteristics can be seen through the biblical characters of Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus. This can be seen when Mary Magdalene wept at Christ's tomb after His crucifixion and when Mary, "kept all things and pondered them in heart" after the three Magi visited Jesus bearing gifts (John 20:11; Luke 2:19). Both of these examples show the love and compassion that the name Mary is famous for throughout history.
Finally, there is the biblical allusion of the Parable of the Lost Son, that Robert Frost shows throughout the whole poem and that he uses to help convey the theme of the poem (Luke 15: 11-32). Jesus tells this story to it show that even when we as Christians stray in our faith that our Heavenly Father, God, will always forgive us and accept us back with open loving arms. The reader can take this to an even more literal level and that is where the theme of the poem is realized because it also shows that we as people need to always forgive and accept others for who they are before it is too late. For this poem though Mary symbolizes the father, Warren the angry obedient son and Silas would be the foolish young son that wasted all of inheritance. Frost is attempting to show the reader that just as Mary has accepted Silas back into their home, her husband Warren needs to also before he loses the chance to, with Silas's precious life coming to an end.
Through the use of poetic devices, structural devices, and metrical devices, Robert Frost has been able to emphasize and show the many different parts of his theme throughout the poem. Also the readers are able to conclude that Frost is telling them that they need to forgive and accept anybody in their lives, and accept them before it is too late because you never know when you might not get the chance to ever attempt it again.
Bibliography
· American Composers Orchestra – May 15, 1999 – Walt Whitman & Music
· Stefan Schöberlein, University of Iowa (2016). "Whitman, Walt, Kinder Adams, Children of Adam; Iggy Pop, Alva Noto, and Tarwater, Leaves of Grass (review)". Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 33 (3): 311–312. ISSN 0737-0679.
Jeffares, A. Norman. “The Byzantium Poems of W.B Yeats”. The Review of English Studies. 22.85 (January, 1946): 44-52
Stauffer, Donald A. “W. B .Yeats and the Medium o f Poetry”. ELH. 3(September, 1948): 227-246
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Foster, R. F. (2003). W. B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. II: The Arch-Poet 1915-1939. Oxford UP. ISBN 0198184654
Igoe, Vivien (1994). A Literary Guide to Dublin. Methuen. ISBN 0413691209.
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Ryan, Philip B. (1998). The Lost Theatres of Dublin. The Badger Press. ISBN 0952607611.
· Jay Parini (2000). Robert Frost: A Life. Macmillan. pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-0-8050-6341-7.
· Jeffrey Meyers (1996). Robert Frost: a biography. Houghton Mifflin. Frost remained at Harvard until March of his sophomore year, when he decamped in the middle of a term ...
· Orr, David (2015-08-18). The Road Not Taken: Finding America in the Poem Everyone Loves and Almost Everyone Gets Wrong. Penguin. ISBN 9780698140899.
"Birches by Robert Frost". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
Appendix
“God is a novelist. He uses all sorts of literary devices: alliteration, assonance, rhyme, synecdoche, onomatopoeia. But of all of these, His favorite is foreshadowing. And that is what God was doing at the Cloisters and with Eudora Welty. He was foreshadowing. He was laying traps, leaving clues, clues I could have seen had I been perceptive enough.” - Lauren F. Winner ( Girl Meets God )
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