The speaker considers each road and comes to the conclusion that “the passing there/had worn them really out the same” (line 9/10). Meaning that there is no road less travelled, they are equally worn. The man tries to bargain with himself saying if he can he will come back and take the other road, but realizes it is unlikely he will get the opportunity as seen in lines 13 and 15. This is a very simple poem in terms of meaning, yet this is also matched by its strict format. The poem follows the same structure throughout the entire piece.
So, on a deeper level, the speaker is saying that he is acquainted with an internal darkness of some kind. Through images of walking in and out of the rain, the furthest city lights, the dark night and the saddest city lane, readers are able to identify with the speaker, a lonely person who has become acquainted with the night. Nothing can be more powerful in expressing loneliness than the image of a man walking alone in the rain, in the middle of a sad street. The speaker does not give details of his own experiences and why he has been acquainted with darkness. However, the darkness in this poem evokes many images, such as sorrow, pain, loss and loneliness.
The simple subject matters of Where the Sidewalk Ends and The Lamb can be seen to disguise the true complexity and deeper significance of the poems. In Where the Sidewalk Ends, the speaker is constructed as an adult, as demonstrated by the description of children in the third person “For the children, they mark, and the children, they know”. Written in a regular verse form, the speaker is certain of a place better than the gloomy present. He (or she) describes it as a magical dwelling of soft white grass in the swaying of a cool "peppermint wind" during the first stanza. The speaker contrasts this captivating beauty with the second stanza which presents the current situation "where the smoke blows black" and the streets are dark.
The use of the adverb “mildly” makes the situation seem much less scary and daunting and the verb “whisper” is a very calming word which suits the intention of the stanza. The use of sibilance is effective because the phonological sound of a repeating “s” almost sounds like the poet is saying “shh” which is a well known way of comforting. “The breath goes now, and some say no:” This line is expressing that the death was so peaceful that some did not believe it as it was so subtle and quiet. The reason the poet says this is because he is showing how like the death, she will not even realise his absence because it was so subdued. There is a definite choice of theological lexis such as “virtuous” and “souls” in this stanza, this helps to illustrate their special and scared love.
This enhances the contrast between the barren outdoors and the warm and inviting households. This also emphasises his loneliness and isolation compared to the rest of mankind. The land is portrayed as barren when the poet mentions " The tangled bine stems scored the sky like strings of broken lyres," The stems of climbing plants remind the poet of strings of an old musical instrument. The fact that the poet mentions that the lyres are broken, implies that there is no sound therefore the land is empty and desolate. This effective metaphor paints a picture of how the poet is
How isolation and loneliness relate to the setting H. The reason the author uses the characters she chose 1. To show bright and colorful in this dark town I. How the setting express isolation. 1. How the town is always cold and lifeless “Ethan Frome” Ethan Frome is a story that the setting takes place during the winter in a rural New England town of Starkfield.
As in the rest of the poem, is simple and the point, suggesting the sincerity of the speaker’s emotions. Both “The night is starry and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance” and “Love is so short, forgetting is so long” explain the literal. In the other side, “My heart looks for her” and “My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing” are figurative. This poem’s form is informal because it does not have alliteration, although it has rhythm in some stanzas. It is like the speaker’s journal, and this is one day of his journal.
The tone of a poem is almost always driven by the rhythm and flow of the work. If a poem has a happy and upbeat feel then it is almost always about a happy subject or could even be a nursery rhyme. If a poem is more drawn out and has less lilt to it then it is generally about death and sadness. When it comes to some poems, however, the reader needs to take a closer look into the imagery of the poem to get a better feel for the true tone and what the author is trying to purvey. Imagery is the true indicator of how the tone of a poem should really feel and often gives clues to how the reader should be reading it.
The free-verse style of narration also leaves some room for an interesting arrangement of the words. The last line of each stanza should go with the ideas of the next stanza. This enjambment strings the reader along the poem, until the main idea in the last two lines. The poem has a very smooth flow and is easy to read, which instills an interest into the reader. The mood of this poem shows a paradox between life and death.
The direction and theme of "a barred owl" and "the history teacher", are quite similar, causing them to follow similar lines of diction. The titles of both of these poems speak of wisdom and knowledge of what has been. In each poem, the world around them is not necessarily friendly, and the characters are forced to watch carefully. The history teacher uses the rhyme scheme (aa,bb,cc,dd,ee,ff), while the owl uses the same exact rhyme scheme. in many ways these poems are similar, and very beautiful.