Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Meeting at Night by Robert Browning

Robert Browning's short poem, "Meeting at Night," Browning uses both imagery and figurative language to entice the audience into the image Browning is creating. The poem is about a man traveling to meet his lover after a long period of time. On the mans trip to see his lover, he describes the scenery as he passes it and what he is feeling on the way.
As the man travels, he recounts his journey as he undertakes it, briefly describing the scenery as he passes it. He only merely notes them as if they as if they are of no significance to him. Browning offers no reason of why the man is traveling or any background information on him or his lover, only the mans perceptions and observations on his travels.
If you notice, Browning never uses the word, love, in the poem. He wants the audience to see the romantic way the scenery is being described and to realize that the poem is about love, even though Browning does not use love in the context of the poem. He uses imagery to let the audience see the romantic scenery and realize that Browning is describing love, without using the actual word.
In the beginning of the first stanza, Browning describes the "yellow half-moon" while the man is traveling on the ocean. Browning uses the moon to show the little light there is on the mans travel and at what time of day it will be when he sees his lover.
Browning uses symbolism with the waves being used as a characteristic to the mans lover. The wave look startled when the moonlight hit them, just as the lover was startled out of her sleep when the man arrived home. Browning also uses the word 'pane' to either represent the window pane or actual pain. Browning uses symbolism to create different views and meanings for the audience to interpret. He also uses personification in his poem when he describes the waves being "startled from their sleep." He gives the waves human characteristics when him gives them the action to sleep, which everyone knows, waves can not do.
Every line in Robert Browning's poem, "Meeting at Night," is filled with images of the scenery surrounding the man on his journey home. The imagry, symbolism, and personification are all used in "Meeting at Night." All the devices used by Robert Browning intice the audience into his poem, "Meeting at Night."

Monday, January 18, 2010

The Man he Killed by Thomas Hardy

The short poem, "The Man he Killed," by Thomas Hardy shows the senselessness and futility of war, where one man killed the other simply because they were fighting on opposite sides during the war. It is written in a conversational tonne, making it seem that the soldier is addressing the audience personally. It makes it easier for the reader to see how pointless the war and forces the reader to view themselves if in another position, would have things gone differently?
The first stanza explains that if the two men who fought had met under different circumstances, for example, if they met outside a pub they would have, "sat us down to wet, Right many a nipperkin." The two men, if under different circumstances, could have been two friends having a drink. Hardy is trying to send the reader a message that the men who fight in wars are not natural enemies, but are told to hate each other.
In the second stanza, Hardy is describing the real way the two men met, on the battle field. That when, "staring face to face," the only reaction the two men have is to shoot at the other. They both do not know the other, nor have any reason to hate each other than that they are enemies in the war. The same ideas continue into the third stanza when the speaker tries to justify himself for the reason he killed the man. He says, "I shot him because - because he was my foe," which Hardy wanted the reader to see the speaker trying to convince himself that their were reasons of why he killed him. Hardy uses the repetition of the speaker saying "my foe" to show that the speaker wants to believe the man is actually his foe. Hardy's reason for ending the third stanza with the word "although" is he wants the reader to see that the speaker is still not convinced in his reasons for killing the man.
The forth stanza is the speaker contemplating the reason for his "foe" to have enlisted in the army. If he "was out of work" just like the speaker himself. The speaker than says that he was only in the army because he had no where else to go, "no other reason why."
The final stanza of the poem retells Hardy's main idea for the poem, how "quaint and curious war is." That war makes a soldier kill a man for now other reason than the man is on the opposite side of the war. The soldier is pleading with the audience for them to believe he had a just reason for the death.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

"Winter" by William Shakespeare

In William Shakespeare's poem, "Winter," he wants the reader to imagine the harsh affects on people and the world around them. Shakespeare's choice of words helps the reader imagine the world he is creating in his peom. Unlike Shakespeare's companion piece for "Winter," "Spring" helps the reader imagine a beautiful season. In "Winter" Shakespeare chooses to protray a harsh outlook on the season of winter. Shakespeare's word choice is very important in "Winter." He makes the reader be absorbed in his poem by incorporating all of the readers senses, including; sight, sound, feeling, and even taste.
Shakespeare helps the reader imagine a harsh landscape, in an even harsher enviroment. Shakespeare wants the reader to not like the scenery he is protraying in "Winter." He incorporates the readers sight by using sentences the reader can imagine easily, for example, Shakespeare's opening line, "When the icicles hang by the wall." The reader can imagine the icicles and the harsh landscape around them. Shakespeare incorporates sound by repeating the sound of the nightly owl, "Tu-whit, tu-who!" It is a lonely sound and is shown its importance in "Winter" by Shakespeare repeating the line. When Shakespeare decribes the blowing wind and "Marian's nose looking red and raw," by incorporating the readers sense of feeling, he wants them to feel the harshness of the winter season. Shakespeare even uses the readers taste by describing, "roasted crabs."
Shakespeare invites the reader to participate in the poem, "Winter" by incorporating the reader by making them use their senses in the poem to help them imagine the scene Shakespeare is setting.