Poetry

When we talk about sex we can mean one of two things. One is being physical with someone else and two to say whether a person is a man or a woman. People contain physical characteristics which distinguishes them from either being man or women. The sex of someone is what a person is, and the gender of a person is how he or she present and express themselves. They can act more feminine or more masculine.

Typically the women are more feminine, and the males are more masculine. Yet sometimes the roles of the two change. One can look and be a man, yet maybe his voice; walk and manner of presenting himself may be very much like a female. Of course then we would only be setting a stereotype on women, that they talk with soft voices, walk more elegant with shorter steps and when it comes to presenting themselves they look lovely.

When stereotypes about women are thrown down on paper many women (usually called feminist) take offense to them. They don’t believe women are the weaker sex, or think the man is the worker of the household. They don’t believe a male should put women on a pedestal, they just want to be equal. They starve for equality and criticize those with different perspectives on how it should be.

A poem which shows both gender and sex is Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare expresses his love for a woman. A man tells his love to a woman and does this by comparing her to a summers day. It is very clear that a male wrote Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day. It talks about the love of their life as beautiful and lovely.

I don’t believe a woman would be saying those things about a man. But just because a man wrote it does not mean it sounds like a male speaking. It is obvious to see this man has female characteristics, he talks with such softness, tenderness and sincerity. This is not saying that men are usually not like this, but the tendency is for a female to do so. The construct is for the lady to talk about purities and precious things, while men are talking about things that a little more rugged.

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day is a typical writing that a feminist despises. What the poem clearly shows is how precious and fragile women are. It states that women are beautiful and ageless. This is unsettling to feminist critics, it illustrates that they are a weaker sex, it puts pressure on women always looking perfect and it shows that women are not on the same level as men.

This demonstrates how men used to put women on a pedestal. How they adored them and talked so highly of them, yet keep this in mind, they would talk highly of their looks and beauty, things would not be said about their brains and bronze, just looks. Evidently feminist seem to think they have more than just looks, but back then the man did all the work.

However, this poem has more to it than a feminine male talking about a love one, what is he really doing here? Is he praising this angel on earth, or is he really praising the capabilities of a poem or piece of literature. The poet talks about how she will always be beautiful to him in his eyes and the poem preserves her beauty so people can see how he always sees her. So is he content with the magic of the poem, the magic that everyone, no matter how many years have passed, can see this beauty? Of course! This is a poet that loves nothing but his writings and his brilliant mind.

The only thing he truly loves is his poetry. He talks about an ageless woman; she is only ageless because of his poem and he loves that. He includes a woman in his poem to let people understand a little more where he is coming. He shows everyone a great love, a love everyone wants to experience and feel inside. So using what he knows, everyone is aware of is a women. A woman who is flawless in every way, only a dream can produce such a being, only a dream until it is written on paper. Bragging of her eternal youth, something he produce.

This poem was common for earlier years because the women was not on the same level as the male, nor were anything but her beauty mentioned. Yet it was unique since the poet is using his words to make people come to an understanding of such a love that he obtains. For something he is so proud of and that is definitely coming from a males perspective, he is praising the women because he thinks she wants to be praised and he is so proud and bragging of a discovery or outlook that he had done and sees.

In the short story “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry and the poem “How do I Love Thee? (Sonnet XLIII)” by E. B. Browning, they both complement and relate to the theme that love is stronger than anything. In the story, the author uses imagery, metaphors, similes, and foreshadowing to make the story more interesting and to highlight the main points. When the author says, “So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters.

It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her.” he is using imagery to emphasize and to paint a picture of how beautiful and important her hair was, not just to her. The author also uses a simile, “And then Della leaped up like a singed cat and cried, “Oh, oh!”” This shows that no matter what she did or what happened between them that she still wanted to be with him and she wanted to make sure that his love for her was just as strong and mutual despite the big sacrifices. In the last part of the story, Henry talks about the magi, whom are wise gift-giving creatures that sacrifice precious things with no doubt.

The author goes on to say “They are the magi.” which is a metaphor meaning that they resemble the wise and compassionate gift giving creatures. Dell and Jim had such a strong passion towards one another that in the end nothing mattered accept the fact that they love each other. In the poem, there were many poetic devices. The poet used many metaphors to convey the strong and intense feelings of love for one another. First she used repetition of the phrase “I love thee” showing that she could express nearly an endless supply of metaphors and reasons of why she loves “thee”. The poet says “Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.”

This metaphor means that through the days and the nights, she loves him all the time, everyday. She later says “I love thee with a passion put to use In my old grief’s, and with my childhood’s faith”, as if to say that he could do anything and like a child, she would foresee it because of the strong love for him. Lastly, she says “I shall but love thee better after death.”

This metaphor shows how she loved him to maybe the point of an exaggeration but she showed that no matter what, her love is eternal and never ending and possibly even stronger after death. These two pieces of work both have the theme that love is stronger than anything. The story shows that even though Della cut her hair and Jim sold his watch they still ended up being happy and still having a strong desire for each other and also in this poem, the poet strongly goes on to say that her love is so intense that she could foresee, forgive, and show unconditional love.

Eyes soften when she looks at him Pouts turn to smiles

That can be seen from miles

The ache in her heart is slipping away

But the calm before the storm is just awake

He watches her with burning eyes “please just stay.”

The ache is back, worse than ever

Her heart is torn and broken

The air is thick with uneasy feelings

She grabs his hand

His eyes are focused on the ground

Not a sound can be heard from all around

Her spoken words “come with me.”

She lifts a hand under his chin

Forced to look her in the eyes

A slight grin upon his pretty face

“I’ll love you forever, I’d do anything for you” Eyes soften as they walk away

In the poem, “Holy Sonnet 14,” the speaker is a religious man who wishes to be taken by God, to be with God, and to believe in God. However, the speaker desires are unattainable because God does not forcibly enter one’s soul. God only “knocks, breathe, shine and seek to mend”. God’s soft actions are overruled by Satan as Satan forcibly entrapped the speaker’s soul, engulfing it into sin. The speaker reason that must fend off Satan by God’s viceroy is too weak and misleading, which prevents him from accepting God.

However, the narrator longs for God. He wants God to forcibly enter his soul and enslave him into religion. In the first quatrain, the speaker compares God’s actions of entering a person’s soul to more forcible actions the speaker wishes God would practice. God only subject a person’s soul with his grace by soft and relevantly non-violent actions. He ‘knocks, breate, shine, and seek”. However, the speaker wants God to “o’erthrow [him by a) … force to break, blow, burn, and make”.

The two comparisons serve as a parallel to one another; one is softer while the other is harsher. The parallel indicates that God’s actions are far too weak to enter a person’s soul soul. God needs to be forceful in order to renew a person into faith as sin is very tempting. In the second quatrain, the speaker uses the analogy of the town under illegal ownership to represent the speaker’s captivity to Satan as he is possessed by another being. Reason is God’s viceroy over the town as it rules over the speaker under God’s order. However, reason “proves [to be weak or untrue as it is unsuccessful at defending the speaker from the invader.

Reason is untrue as it often misleads the speaker from the holy path by invoking the narrator to doubt god or view God as imperfect. The analogy in the first two quatrains demonstrates the speaker’s intense desire to be with God, but is imprisoned by Satan. The speaker views himself as too sinful and too convoluted with Satan to be with God. In order for the speaker to be with God, God needs to be more forceful and hold the speaker captive in order to direct his life onto a holy path.

In the last two lines of the poem, the speaker discusses his desire to be enslaved only by God so he may never be controlled by Satan or sin. The narrator goes further into his desire by stating God must “ravish” him so he may be “chast”. The paradox of the poem relies heavily on the last line of the poem as the speaker requests God to sexually assault him in order for his sin to be cleansed. Ironically, rape is considered an impure act as a victim’s purity is taken, but the speaker views God’s forceful act as liberating and pure.

The couplet of the poem resolves the speaker’s dilemma, which is presented in the beginning of the poem, by listing God methods to enter the speaker’s soul. He tells God to ravish and control him so he may be cleansed and reside with God. Although the act of rape is impure, God control over the speaker is the complete opposite as God’s embrace is liberating and cleansing. His instructions relates to the theme of the poem of repentance as God actions can wash away the speakers uncleanliness.

Keats, in his marvelous piece of work, “To Autumn”, describes the imaginary typical early autumn. He has an emphasis on the sun that us maturing and helping the fruits to ripe. The products of nature that are described in this work are getting to a stage of maturity and ripeness.

Keats beautifully and passionately emphasis the autumn music which is made by the natural sources like the crickets, swallows, many insects, animals, and the birds. A remarkable illustration of artistic imagination is made by Keats, to describe the end of the day, by mentioning the twitters returning to their nests in the night. The author here, in the most beautiful format, describes the love and the gift that nature has to give it to mankind

“Spring and All”

As the title suggests, “Spring and all”, in this poem the author does not mesmerize the beautiful version of spring and describes nature, rather depicts the realistic scene. Muddy field, patches of water, bushes, and scattering of trees beside a contagious hospital is portrayed in the poem.

The cold wind and the nearby hospital described in this piece of work is both gloomy and explicitly describes birth and death. It talks about the springs that the newborn would witness and the suffering who would leave this world in the hospital would not be able to see it. Ironically the reality of human life initiating with the birth and the death, with what humans give to nature and receives from nature is very well presented in this work.

The forfeit and boon of nature

“Seasons of the mist and the mellow fruitfulness”, the author in the poem, “To Autumn”, amazingly talks about the much autumn as a season and what nature has to provide to a human being. The foggy weather, the sunshine and the misty season, probably the same as in England is described. Most eminently the poet refers to the mature sun that is bringing this season early. Right from the grapes and the apples, to the plums and hazel shells, the poet describes everything that the early autumn is going to provide in the best form.

Keats describes the beautiful autumn to a beautiful gracious woman, a woman with long hairs who are dancing in the breeze, that describes as, “winnowing wind” in the poem. The poet compares the silent beauty of nature to that of a death, which is a blissful feeling of peacefulness and drowsiness that comes along with that of the opium.

When Keats describes nature in the most beautiful, romantic and gracious format, William Carlos Williams has a critic method of describing nature and keeps one thinking whether its a praise or a criticism. At the beginning of the first stanza in the poem, William Carlos compels the readers to visualize the cold wind, the molted blue sky and also a contagious hospital which looks gloomy.

Spring which is a wonderful season that brings everything around us to light, the author describes the fallen leaves and the muddy fields which portrays a sad image. “Lifeless in appearance, sluggish dazed spring approaches”, this quote and the line of the poem describes both the sorrow of the people who are admitted in the hospital and would be no longer alive to see the spring, but on an optimistic note, the author mentions about the newborn who would be a part of the amazing season.

Nature’s instinct

Both of the quotes mentions more about nature and what nature has to give to us. Ironically when they are read between the lines, it gives a feeling of joy and sorrow that automatically triggers into one’s soul and thought. The question arises here is, “Is nature a bliss or a warning in disguise that humans avoid? Both authors have mentioned both sides of nature that human sees or ignores.

Keats who goes beyond in his work to praise the gifts that nature has to give, on the other hand, “Spring and All”, does not completely sidelines the beauty of nature, but ironically warms us and shows the gloomy side of life. With some visualization of the muddy fields, the brown leaves and the bushes around the hospital that makes it appear sad, William Carlos brings out an optimistic thought by mentioning them, “they enter the new world naked cold”, here the author describes a new hope that is coming up.

Conclusion

William Carlos and Keats, both have an amazing art and sense of natures description, Keats approach is far more poetic, blissful, romantic and mesmerising in terms of describing the nature, whereas William Carlos approach is knocking the doors of reality. Both have provided the best of evidences, description and the visualization in their work, but, “Spring and All”, provides an examplanary image of the two sides of nature.

One goes beyond the praise of the natures gift whereas the other scares with the impact and the description. Keats compares the wind with the hairs of a beautiful woman standing in the breeze, where as William Carlos compares the dry leaves of spring with the new upcoming life and the ones leaving the world. One quote makes the amazing season of Spring appear gloomy and sad, and the work on, “To Autumn”, makes the season of autumn look more mesmerizing that the spring.

Citation

• Keats’ Poems
  https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/k/keats-poems/summary-and-analysis/to-autumn
• Spring and All Summary
  https://www.enotes.com/topics/spring-all
• Spring and All
  Shmoop Editorial Team – https://www.shmoop.com/spring-and-all/
• William Carlos Williams – Spring and All [by the Road To the Contagious Hospital]
  https://genius.com/William-carlos-williams-spring-and-all-by-the-road-to-the-contagious-hospital-annotated

Mending Wall is one of the most analysed poems of Robert Frost. It was published in the early part of his life as a poet. When he wrote the poem, he was living in the rural part of New England. The title of the poem gives us a sense of both abstract and literal aspects of mending a wall.
It has 45 lines in total which written within the range of Blank Verse.

The poet begins with a conviction that there is something in nature that doesn’t love a wall so it keeps trying to break it apart slowly. Austin Allen writes how a poem about a simple rural wall has become a part of discussions on international borders, immigration and nationalism.

The centre of questioning is around a proverbial saying ‘good fences make good neighbours.’ The poem starts with the nature of gaps in wall which happens either naturally or sometimes hunters do to facilitate their own hunting. Slowly it questions its origin when the poet finally calls his neighbour to come and go along the wall, each on his own side. He logically questions if he has apple orchards and his neighbour has pines and both doesn’t affect each other anyway then why they even need a wall. It makes us think of a wall, what is it and what are its purposes, why they should even exist. When the neighbour insists that a good wall makes good neighbours, the poet questions whether a barrier can ever make good neighbours, how should one even interact with the other person? With a wall between them.

The ironic ways of Frost make us wonder about the ambiguous stand which the poet takes regarding a wall. Yet the idea is clear from the way the poem describes his neighbour’s actions. He says that when bringing stones to mend the wall, he looks like an old-stone savage. So, building a wall must be coming from an ancient animal instinct which the poet is implying us to get rid of. It is a regressing act; the poet says that his neighbour moves in darkness. It is the darkness of that animal phase which hasn’t broadened alongside the evolution in human beings.

The act of mending a wall is described in such a way that one understands that the act of estranging one’s fellow neighbour because of some inherited tradition is an inhuman error on one’s part. Lawrence Raab writes that “The poem doesn’t begin with “I hate walls” or even “Something dislikes a wall.” Its first gesture is one of elaborate and playful concealment, a calculated withholding of meaning.” So, we finally understand in the end that building walls is a useless act. It has no practical purpose; it is a result of the animal insecurity in human beings. It has become sort of an outdoor game for human beings which they do for its own sake.

Without trying to apply the poem’s ideas in politics, one can simply comprehend the error which we commit when we fight over borders. Frost himself said that the poem was spoiled by being applied. So in the end, the neighbour gets the last word in the poem that good fences make good neighbour only to emphasises the poet’s teaching that we must mend our togetherness instead of building walls all around and between us.

‘Mending Wall’ is one of the finest poems written by the American poet Robert Frost. It was published in his collection “North of Boston” in 1914. The complex multidimensionality of the poem questions the necessity of borders in today’s worlds and our lives which make it so hard to live the way one should naturally live.
There are 45 lines in the poem without any rhyming scheme.

Poem

It begins with the famous line something there is that doesn’t love a wall. That mystery of Nature is captured here which is beyond the conception of human beings. The poet says that human beings may build walls but there is something which doesn’t love this so the ground beneath the wall starts swelling from inside causing it to fall apart. In the heat of sun, the upper boulders start falling out of the wall further and creates a gap through which two can pass abreast.

The poet makes clear that it is not hunters who break the wall. Their work is another thing. He has come after them and repaired the gap which they make in the wall for their yelping dogs running after the rabbit. He is talking about another kind of mysterious gaps which are made by itself over a period in such a way that No one has seen them made or heard them made. In spring season, the mending time comes for the wall. The poet calls his neighbour from beyond the hill and they meet to walk the line and check out the status of the wall which divides their property.

They walk along the line whereas the wall is standing between them. The boulders have fallen to the both sides and each of them put them back in balance. Their fingers become rough by dealing with boulders so long.

It is like just another kind of out-door game but the poet starts questioning that it comes to a point where they don’t even need a wall because he has an apple orchard and his neighbour has only pine trees. There is no way that his apple trees will go across the wall and eat his pine cones. Yet his neighbour says that good fences make good neighbors.

The poet says that the spring time makes him mischievous so he questions again that why the fences make good neighbours. One may need fences where there are cows but they don’t have cows here. Firmly he questions that what is it exactly that he was walling in or walling out or giving offense before the wall was even built. He again reiterates that something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.

He could say that it is elves but it is not. He sees his neighbour bringing a stone firmly as if he is an old-stone savage. It seems to the poet as if his neighbour moves in darkness and it is a different darkness not only thr literal darkness as the result of dense woods or the shade of trees. Anyone who builds a border, divide things is in darkness. The poet thinks that the neighbour is probably happy of having though of it so well what his father said that ‘good fences make good neighbours.’

The poet makes us think whether walls are even necessary or they are primitive in front of a broader thought.

It is a poem by Robert Frost illustrates a relationship between individual and neighbors. He also asserts, “Good fence, good neighbors”. Which attracts the reader and lead us to discuss about it further up. A stone wall separates the speaker’s property from his neighbor’s. In spring, the two meet to walk the wall and jointly make repairs. The speaker sees no reason for the wall to be kept—there are no cows to be contained, just apple and pine trees. He does not believe in walls for the sake of walls.

The neighbor resorts to an old adage: “Good fences make good neighbors.” The speaker remains unconvinced and mischievously presses the neighbor to look beyond the old-fashioned folly of such reasoning. His neighbor will not be swayed. The speaker envisions his neighbor as a holdover from a justifiably outmoded era, a living example of a dark-age mentality. But the neighbor simply repeats the adage.

In my point of view, making the wall its not a symbol of separate them from neighbors rather it brings them every year in spring. Blank verse is the baseline meter of this poem, but few of the lines march along in blank verse’s characteristic lock-step iambs, five abreast. Frost maintains five stressed syllables per line, but he varies the feet extensively to sustain the natural speech-like quality of the verse.

There are no stanza breaks, obvious end-rhymes, or rhyming patterns, but many of the end-words share an assonance (e.g., wall, hill, balls, wall, and wellsun, thing, stone, mean, line, and again or game, them, and him twice). Internal rhymes, too, are subtle, slanted, and conceivably coincidental. The vocabulary is all of a piece—no fancy words, all short (only one word, another, is of three syllables), all conversational—and this is perhaps why the words resonate so consummately with each other in sound and feel. They work together to restore the wall every year and it make connection between them. If they really want isolate themselves from each other they could make a strong wall. Moreover, it shows the feeling for a community.

Although, I completely understand author’s statement, but I have different point of view. Likewise, writer says,

“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.”

When we make partition between two person for fondness, we ask ourselves, do we really make that distance or partition to get away from that person or to get closer that person? Sometimes, we make invisible and fragile wall between a person that it could be destroyed and we can get the person more closer who we love most. Also, sometimes we sacrifice our affection for the situation. it doesn’t mean we mean we make the wall.

Situation could be an obstacle but its never can reduce our feelings. Rather we reveal our affection by silence with respect. At the end, we realize, we don’t want that wall between us. We make the wall to make our relationship more stronger.

The poem “Mending Wall” by Frost is about the world. More about community. In a same manner, there are six houses beside our house. And we all have backyard together. Even though its not barrier by wall, its just a white line. In Winter, we really don’t go to backyard that often, but in summer time we all play basketball with our neighbor, kids are ride by cycle play around, we cook barbecue all together. It’s a fine community. We send food and gift in every house in any occasion. We don’t care about the barrier even we can’t see the white line anymore. Its mixed up with the ground.

Eventually, we could say, barrier and wall between neighbor, its just formality. Rather in reality, its symbol to get our neighbor more closer.