Analyzing Poems Essay Throughout this last week the class has learned a few of many literary techniques used in poetry. The ones the class has worked on include imagery, symbolism, tone, and emotion. The poems Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost and Hand Shadows by Mary Cornish show theses techniques in both similar and different ways. In this essay, you as a reader will learn how they are similar and contrasted. The class first discussed Imagery, so that is what will come first.
Both of these poems have very vivid images of what they are trying to show. These authors both have very wonderful techniques in imagery. Imagery is when you can picture what is happening and you see what the narrator is talking about. Hand Shadows is a very excellent example of imagery. Throughout the entire poem you see every hand shadow that is mentioned especially in lines 9-14, “Outside our tent, skunks shuffled in the woods / beneath a star that died a little every day, / and from a nebula of light diffused / inside Orion’s sword, new stars were born. My father’s hands became two birds, linked / by a thumb, they flew one following the other. ” This quote shows the imagery of both what is happening outside and how it is peaceful inside and out of the tent with spending quality time making hand shadows. You can see the detailed image with every word that is said. In the other poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, you can also see the whole poem through imagery but it is exceptional in line 9-12, “He gives his harness bells a shake / To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake. ” This stanza of the poem is good with imagery because as a reader you can picture the horse shaking its’ bells while the rest of the woods is completely quiet and still. In addition, the reader can picture the snow softly falling with a soft gentle breeze. Imagery is a powerful technique used in both poems, but it is only one of the four that the class discussed. The next technique the class discussed was symbolism.
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The Road of Life Today we pause, to look into our pastas well as our future. We remember when we were young, starting our trek down the Road of Life. The first place on this long and winding road was the Meadow of Childhood. This is where we met many new people and formed numerous friendships; most of which still exist today. However, we were unable to stay here, and so continued on our journey ...
In the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, the woods could symbolize different aspects of life. In lines, 13-16 is where you could get this feeling. Those lines state “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles before I sleep. ” Life has is wonderfully lovely moments and is dark moments, but it is also deep and full of the unknown and secrets. In life, we keep secrets that will stay with us forever. In addition, not everyone knows when and where they will be able to sleep.
Some have a steady home but others have miles and miles to go before they can eat and or sleep. The poem Hand Shadows also displays symbolism. In Hand Shadows, the father’s hand could symbolize the creativity that a young child possesses. The whole poem is just the hands making shapes in light, for some of the pictures one must have a strongly creative imagination. Sometimes only, a child will have this ability because adults tend to block it out and want to be “Grown-Up”, but sometimes they just forgot to be creative like kids.
That takes care of two of the techniques that will be covered. The next technique discussed was tone. Tone is how the narrator feels as they are telling the poem or story. The tone of Hand Shadows is excitement and entertained. The child in the poem is being entertained by their father but they are also excited because they are sharing great memories that will be in their brain forever. If a person were really in the situation, they would have both of these feelings. In the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, the tone is adventurous and dark.
In lines 1-4 this is shown, “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. ” Also in lines 13-16, “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 quote is showing the adventurous side of the narrator because he is stopping by some random person’s woods, but the narrator thinks that they know who the woods belong to.
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“Thunder is good; thunder is impressive. But it is lightening that does the work.” The poem ‘’Ode to the West Wind’’ was written in the autumn of 1819, in the beautiful Cascine Gardens outside Florence and was published with ‘‘Prometheus Unbound’’ in 1820. The poet is himself in a mood of despondency and misery and says that he falls upon the thorns of life and is bleeding. He is seeking ...
The second quote is showing the dark nature of the narrator because he is keeping secrets and has miles to go before he can sleep so he could have done something bad for all the reader knows. Those are ways that the tone is different in the two poems, but there is also some of the same tone. Both poems have a tone of curiosity. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening shows this tone in the first stanza, “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” (1-4).
The narrator is curiously stopping by the woods of someone who lives in the village just to watch the snowfall. In addition, throughout Hand Shadows, the child never knows what animal his father will form next hence causing curiosity in the mind of the child. The final technique discussed in class was emotion. Emotion in poetry is how the poem makes the reader feel. The poem Hand Shadows can make is reader have feelings of happiness. When the reader reads the poem, it will make them smile and brighten their day because they will remember their childhood and how creative they were.
On the other hand when someone reads the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening they might feel an emotion of being mysterious, and wanting to know what is coming next. However, both poems bring back memories for some, weather they are happy, or sad, or frightening, a memory is a memory. For me Hand Shadows brings back the memory of trying to make hand shadows on my wall late at night as a child, and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening brings back memories of when I used to ride horse but got flung off and I quit riding.
Emotion is a great way to connect the reader to the poem they are reading. Poetry explores the uses of many techniques, including imagery, symbolism, tone, and emotion. The poems Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost and Hand Shadows by Mary Cornish both have contrasts and similarities in these areas. Although the two poems are very different in words and rhythm when you get down to it, they are not very different at all.
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