Crane and O’Brien are no different. Each depicts death in his own way just as each soldier deals with death (impending or actual) in his own way.  Chapters 9-10 in RBC are an excellent example of Crane’s technique. Explain his technique and what effect this has on the reader. Be sure to explain both the reader’s experience and the experiences of the other characters.

 Answer: The techniques Crane uses in his story are, again, naturalism and realism. He takes a real-life situation and intends to make the reader feel a certain way. The narrator says, ” At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He concieved persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage” (51). Although this isn’t anybody dealing with dealth, it is the thought of death and a wound that encourages Henry to wish hurt upon himself. The thought of having a terrible wound and maybe even dying, shows courage. Henry is dealing with hurt and the thought of death (right now at least) with a peculiar outlook. He isn’t upset, he is envious of those who might die. The reader at this point must step back and wonder why he would want to be hurt. Crane had added this aspect of the story to show a contrast with what will happen in the future. This whole event was before Henry’s friend/comrade, Jimmy, dies. At the end of chapter IX, the narrator says, “The youth turned, with sudden, livid rage, toward the battlefield. He shook his fist. He seemed about to deliver a philippic. ‘Hell—” (56). At this point, Henry is clearly upset. He was mad as he turned with “livid rage.” He shakes his fist which is a sign of anger. The tattered man has a totally different outlook on the death of Jimmy. He says, “Well, he was a reg’lar jim-dandy fer nerve, wa’n't he” (56). The tattered man is not upset. He is quietly dealing with the death of his comrade. The tattered man goes on to joke a little about his death as he says, “I wonner where he got ‘is stren’th from? I never seen a man do like that before. It was a funny thing. Well, he was a reg’lar jim-dandy” (56). He seems to have no problem whatsoever with the death of this man. Of course, he has been in the war where he must see people die every single day. But the contrast between how Henry and the tattered man deal with the death, reveals a contrast in the reader. The reader can now relate to any one of these two men. They can be upset and sympathetic or make a joke and be happy because at least it wasn’t them! Again, Henry’s reaction is explained when the narrator says, “The youth, awakened by the tattered soldier’s tone, looked quickly up. he saw that he was swinging uncertainly on his legs and that his face had turned to a shade of blue” (56). Henry was so uneasy that he was swinging back and forth and his face turned blue. Then the narrator says, “The tattered man waved his hand. ‘Narry die,’ he said. ‘All I want is some pea soup an’ a good bed. Some pea soup,’ he repeated dreamily” (57). While Henry changes color, the tattered man only wants some pea soup. He doesn’t even say much about the man who just passed away; all he does is talk about pea soup. Throughout the rest of the chapter, the same sort of contrast is seen. The reader experiences a bit of both worlds. The reader can relate to a feeling no matter what it is. They can be upset about what has happened or pass it off as nothing. The emotions the reader feels are conveyed either through Henry or the tattered man. He uses his age-old technique of realism and naturalism. This is/could be a real event, and these are/could be real people that anyone can relate to.

Answer: A comrade is a person who shares one’s interests and activies or is a friend or companion. A comrade is also known as a roommate. Comrade is a word used address a fellow member of the communist party. Before knowing the definition of comrade, I thought it was a really good friend. The dictionary definition makes the word “comrade” seem sort of impersonal. It isn’t described as being a good friend, but merely as someone who shares the same interests or a “roommate.” But, the definition doesn’t suggest that the relationship is very personal either. In The Red Badge of Courage, everyone that Henry runs into is his comrade (by definition). Each person he encounters or knows shares his same activities as they are all in the war and fighting for the same thing. One part that struck me as being more personal than the dictionary definition is when the narrator says “The youth desired to screech out his grief. He was stabbed, but his tongue lay dead in the tomb of his mouth. He threw himself again upon the ground and began to brood” (56). The narrator even goes on to point out some of the other things Henry is doing to show his greif. Henry was thoroughly upset when his friend died. The dictionary defintion feels so impersonal to me, that if a “comrade” died, it wouldn’t be as much of a big deal; it would be more of a normal occurence during wartime. When Henry meets up with people passing by and tries to ask them questions, he grabs a man’s arm. This next instance seems a little too impersonal to be a “comrade.” This is becuase the narrator says, “He adroitly and fiercely swung his rifle. It crushed upon the youth’s head. The man ran on” (67). The man Henry encountered was a man that was also in the war. By definition, this is his comrade. Although the definition seems impersonal, a “friend” or “roommate,” or even a person with the same interests wouldn’t whack someone on the head with a rifle. Finally, on page 69, I found an example of what I would call a comrade. The narrator says, “At last he heard a cheery voice near his shoulder; ‘Yeh seem t’ be in a pretty bad way, boy?’ The youth did not look up, but he assented with thick tongue. ‘Uh!’ The owner of the cheery voice took him firmly by the arm. ‘Well,’ he said, with a round laugh, ‘I’m goin’ your way. Th’ hull gang is goin’ your way. An’ I guess I kin give yeh a lift.’ They began to walk like a drunken man and his friend.” To me, this is a comrade. This is a friend, a person who shares the same interests and is willing to help out. He doesn’t leave him stranded and isn’t too overly personal with him. This example seems as if it goes along with the dictionary definition very well. The word “comrade” isn’t actually used until Chapter 13, where more and more people are brought together at once. After Chapter 13, the “comrades” seem to be more like the dictionary definition of a “comrade.” None of them are too personal, or too overly impersonal. Each person seems to be together as a group. One example is when the narrator says, “He thought he must hasten to produce his tale to protect him from the missiles already at the lips of his redoubtable comrades. So, staggering before the loud soldier, he began: ‘Yes, yes. I’ve-I’ve had an awful time. I’ve been all over. Way over on th’ right, I got shot….” (72). Of course, this man is just making small talk, which it is something that might be done between comrades (not too personal, not too impersonal). In each of these instances, the characters are reavealed in very random ways. Nobody is with Henry the whole time. Each person just sort of shows up and then leaves. I’m actually not sure if this would be a comrade or not. There is nothing in the definition about this aspect. Of course, a friend can be a temporary friend or a friend forever. A roommate can live with you for a week, or for the rest of your life. That part is up in the air.

b) Courage is a characteristic in which a person shows bravery and isn’t afriad to try new things or go into a tense or dangerous situation. A hero is someone that has courage and bravery. A hero is humble and looks out for the good of others, thinking lastly of himself.

c) This defintion was built by things I have seen in the past. The first one that comes to mind is the story of Hercules. The second is Beowulf. Both of these men showed great courage and heroism and didn’t give up without a fight. Neither of them were selfish and thought of others and not themselves.

d) O’Brien and Crane achieve their goals of changing the traditional forms of the hero by making everyone in the story, not only the main character, seem cowardly. One example of this is when the narrator says, “Many of the men were constantly dodging and ducking their heads” (29). This example shows a side of men that is not heroic. Men that are heroic wouldn’t duck their heads but would face anything and try to overcome it. Another example is when the narrator says, “The men groaned. The luster faded from their eyes. Their smudged countenances now expressed a profound dejection. They moved their stiffened bodies slowly, and watched in sullen mood the frantic approach of the enemy” (38). This is a great example of imagery. The image that Crane uses is one of men who groan, have stiff, slow moving bodies and who don’t run at the enemy, but watch it approach instead.

e) The literary spin the authors are putting on the words is the fact that they are using naturalism and realism. Hercules is a tale; a story that most likely didn’t happen. It has to do with Hades and monsters, etc. Of course, people find Hercules a hero but know it isn’t real. In Crane’s novel, the characters he uses represent real people and parts of society. One ironic aspect, that I believe adds a spin on the story, is the fact that the men described are not seen as heroic while what they are doing (in general) is very heroic. If a man fights for his country, that exhibits bravery. A man fighting for something like the idea of liberty, etc. is brave in his own sense. It is ironic that the men are described as not being heroic when they actually are heroes in a sense.

Answer: “Realism and Naturalism are both responses to Romanticism but are not really comparable to it in scope or influence.” Realism and Naturalism both involve aspects of everyday life in order to help the reader relate to the story. In realism, “readers could recognize a slightly altered version of the world they themselves inhabited as they moved from story to story.” The realist novels were based on our own world and included recognizably familiar types of characters that do the sorts of things that ordinary people do every day. Naturalism is mainly characterized with a pessimistic view on humanity, usually using larger groups to symbolize humanity and individuals to illustrate different aspects of society while achieving the same sort of closeness to everyday life that realism does.

Many individuals were major players in developing both Realism and Naturalism. Jean-Baptise-Siméon Chardin and Gustave Courbet were realist painters. In literature, the novelist Honoré de Balzac is called “the grandfather of Realism.” His novels attempted to show a picture of all aspects of France in the time he lived, whether it was the poorest thief or the highest political leader. Gustave Flaubert was a realist novelist who took two real-life women and attempted to write a fictional piece about them. He wanted to “turn journalism into art while avoiding the romantic clichés he associated with his heroine’s fevered imagination.” As a Naturalist himself, Emile Zola coined the term Naturalism. He created the new “scientific novel” by placing characters with “known inherited characteristics into a carefully defined environment and observing the resulting behavior.” He used many different and new techniques to add to the Naturalist effect.

This literary movement involved many people and new ideas in order to achieve a certain effect. The authors of this movement were able to keep readers interested by making them seemingly ordinary characters. They didn’t have any special powers which made each character like a real person. The ability to make a person relate to real events by adding a known characteristic was a huge step in history. In Animal Farm, I remember reading about a mass, representing society. This seems like it would be Naturalism. East of Eden is more of a Realist work. The characters all have characteristics that anyone could find in everyday life. By relating to different types of people, there was most likely a much more diverse and abundant mass of readers.

1.  List and explain 5 tangible things and five intangible things the soldiers from your stories carry.

• The five tangible things the soldiers carry is found on page 20. “Presently few carried anything but their necessary clothing, blankets, haversacks, canteens, and arms and ammunition.” When in a war, especially when traveling, the less that is physically carried, the better. Of course, although each person doesn’t have many material possesions, each person carries feelings and ideals along with them. Something carried by everyone is rumors. “As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors” (3). The soldiers carry rumors that they hear around with them, wondering if they are true or not. These people also have dreams, and they carry them around. “He had, of course, dreamed of battles all his life- of vague and bloody conflicts that had thrilled him with their sweep and fire” (5). This one man, in particular, dreams of battles, and carries this dream with him everywhere. Aside from dreams about things to come, memories are also carried. Henry remembers what his mother told him when he was about to leave when he had been enlisted. He remembers her exact words as she says things such as “You watch out, Henry, an’- you watch out, an’ take good care of yourself” (7). The memory of what his mother said carries on through the whole page and is carried with him always. The next thing is courage. “He could concieve of men going very insignificantly about the world bearing a load of courage” (13-14). In a war, a man must carry a bit of courage with him in order to deal with the all of the fighting and killing. Another thing that is carried is salvation. “The youth had been taught that a man became another thing in a battle. He saw his salvation in such a change” (25). These men saw thier feeling of protection from harm being changed as they carried this feeling.

1. Answer this question: “What do you carry?” List and explain what you hump around life, both tangible and intangible.  

• There are many things I carry in life. In terms of tangible things, I carry items such as my chapstick, rings, my purse, my keys, my cell phone, my camera, a bottle of water, and my playbook. Of course, my purse is like a bottomless pit and has many things in it such as my wallet with my driver’s liscence, a few dollars, honey drops for my voice, a pen and pencil, and probably a few other things. The intangible things I carry around include a love for my family and friends, guilt from things I may have done wrong, dreams and goals, questions or concerns I might have on my mind, and one of the greatest things I carry lately is stress. Stress is the biggest weight on my shoulders around play week and is probably the biggest load I have to carry.

1. What is the occasion of the poem? What literary device does the poet employ? Describe what you know of the speaker, the listener, and the “she” referred to in the poem.

- The occasion of the poem is a man talking to a beautiful woman. The man says, “How sweet and fair she seems to be” (5), and “Tell her that’s young” (6).. Of course, each of these things shows what the reader knows about the “she” in the poem. The “she” is young and beautiful, fair, and sweet. The listener’s name is Rose as the first line says, “Go lovely Rose.” But, this could also be a flower/rose being sent to the “she,” not an actual person. The listener is only a messenger that must deliver the message from the speaker to the beautiful lady. The speaker is, I’m assuming, a man that is in love with the “she” in the poem. I can’t really find where there would be much evidence for an exact characterization. All I know is that he refers to her as if he is in love with her. The literary device that the poet employs is personification.

2. Paraphrase each of the four stanzas.

- Go, beautiful flower Tell her that she wastes her time, and mine

As now she knows,

When I resemble her to you (the rose)

How sweet and fair she seems to be.

- Tell her that she is young

And is shy, in order to show her grace

That you have sprung

In deserts where no men live

You must have not accepted to die.

- Small is the value

Of beauty from the light that has gone

Tell her to come forward

Ache herself to be wanted

And not blush when she is admired

- Then die, that she

The normal fate of everything uncommon

May I see in you

How little time you are together

That it is wondrous, sweet, and fair.

3. Describe the prosody, including stanza form, rhyme, meter, and notable metrical substitutions (spondees), as well as the structure of the poem. How do these choices help to reinforce the poem’s content?

- There are four stanzas with five lines in each stanza. The rhyme scheme is ababb, cdcdd, efeff, and bhbhh respectively. Because I cannot tell the meter of this poem, the back of the book says, “In each, line length alternates dimeter with tetrameter lines, concluding with an extra tetrameter line (2-4-2-4-4).” The spondees in the poem can be found in lines 1, 2, 6, 13, 14 and 16. Each spondee is found at the beginning of a line. “Go love,” “Tell her,” “Tell her,” “Bid her,” and “Suffer her…” and “Then die,” are all of the spondees respectively. The last spondee helps to reinforce the poem’s content because it starts with a rose, an alive rose, that at the end, is told to just die. The structure of the poem helps to reinforce the poem’s content. Each stanza is a sentence that shows a new, slightly different idea. But, the last stanza has a slightly different feeling, reinforcing the fact that the speaker wants the person/rose to die as that is fate.

Virtue:

1. Consider first Herbert’s use of metaphor and personification. In each case, what two unlike things are being compared, and what do they have in common?

- The first use of metaphor can be found in line 2 with “The bridal of the earth and sky.” A marriage is being compared to the earth and the sky. Herbert’s first use of personification is found in line 3 when the narrator says, “The dew shall weep thy fall tonight.” This personification is of the dew as if it is crying (like a person). Each of these two figures of speech has something in common. Both the metaphor and personification make nature seem like a person.

2. How is the poem structured, and how does this structure support its meaning? Consider parallelism, order, and the turn in the poem.

- There are four stanzas with 4 lines in each stanza. Parallelism is found at the start of each stanza, introducing a new object every time. The first line is “Sweet day” (1). The second stanza starts with “Sweet rose” (5). The third stanza starts with “Sweet spring” (9), and the last stanza starts with “Only a sweet and virtuous soul” (13). Parallelism is also found in the last line of each stanza. In the first stanza, the narrator says, “For thou must die” (4). In the second it is, “And thou must die” (8), and in the third, “And all must die.” But, the last line is different when the narrator says, “Then chiefly lives” (16). The order of the poem is significant because in each stanza, the thing that is mentioned, is supposed to die. But, the last stanza breaks this chain, with the soul living as nature dies. This supports the meaning of the poem because the last stanza is so different from the others, it sticks out and gets the point across. The turning point of the poem is in line 15 when the narrator says, “But though the whole world turn to coal…” At this point, the defining conclusion is made and the meaning of the life of a virtuous soul is supported.

3. How does the prosody reinforce the poem’s meaning?

- Prosody reinforces the poem’s meaning because there are four stanzas, four lines each. This is significant as each stanza brings up a new idea, and except for the last stanza, finishes with the same idea as before. For the first stanza, the rhyme scheme is abab. The second one is cbcb. The third is dbdb and the last one is efef. The “b” rhyme is repeated in three of the stanzas, while the last stanza is totally different. The meter is primarily iambic pentameter except for the last line in each stanza, which throws the meter off. Prosody reinforces the poem’s meaning because the third stanza is so different from the other two that the last stanza is pronounced as it introduces a different idea.

- The first three lines the narrator says, are “Its quick soft silver bell beating, beating, / And down the dark one ruby flare / Pulsing out red light like and artery.” The first form of imagery is the soft silver bell that it beating. This is a form of sight imagery, as well as sound imagery in the beating (like a heart or a drum). Next, is a “dark one ruby flare,” which is also sight imagery. A ruby is big, red, and glowing. The “pulsing…red light like an artery,” serves great imagery, especially relating to the first line (of the beating sound; like the heart). These images become significant in the context of the entire poem because it sets up the setting of the poem.

2. On a literal level, what contextual significance do the following words and phrases have: mangled (line 9), “tolls once” (line11), “terrible cargo” (line 12), “rocking, slightly rocking” (line 13), “deranged and composed” (lines 15 and 16)?

- The word “mangled,” is used in line 9 with “Stretchers are laid out, the mangled lifted…” This line is said very casually. Mangled is used as a noun, not as a descriptive word, which actually makes it more horrific than if it was an adjective. Line 11 says, “Then the bell, breaking the hush, tolls once.” The significance this has is the word “toll.” An ambulance siren doesn’t “toll.” So this word is symbolizing the tolling of bells at a church steeple, showing there will be a funeral for the “mangled.” The next line exclaims, “And the ambulance with its terrible cargo.” The “terrible cargo,” refers to all of the people who were in the crash. But, “cargo” isn’t a word that describes humans, so this line is showing the fact that for many people dealing with a crash, the people are only seen as cargo. Line 13 exclaims, “Rocking, slightly rocking, moves away.” My interpretation of this line would be symbolic of the rocking of a cradle. Babies are rocked at the beginning of their lives and near the end of someone’s life, they must be nourished like a baby once again. The second stanza starts with, “We are deranged, walking among the cops / Who sweep glass and are large and composed.” These lines show a contrast between the cops and other people involved in the accident. For the cops, this accident is something they have seen before; something that is normal. For the people involved, they are in shock and deranged.

3. Analyze the metaphors in lines 3, 18, 22 and 29-30. What pattern do they create and why is it appropriate to the poem?

- Line 3 says, “Pulsing out red light like an artery.” This metaphor compares the red light to blood, pulsing, and pumping through an artery. Line 18 says, “One with a bucket douches ponds of blood.” Blood is being compared to ponds, obviously showing that there is a lot of it. In line 22 the narrator says, “Our throats were tight as tourniquets.” A tourniquet is a device used to stop bleeding by compressing a blood vessel. This metaphor is interesting because the people observing the crash were so shocked, their throats were very tight. It is ironic though because they are as tight as tourniquets, which were probably used for the victims of the crash. The last metaphor is found in lines 29-30 with “But we remain, touching a wound / That opens to our richest horror.” The metaphor compares the people’s horror to an open wound that will not stop bleeding. The metaphors create a pattern of references to death, or parts of the body that could be hurt. The first, is blood through an artery, the second, a lot of blood, the third, a tourniquet, and the fourth an open, bleeding wound. This is appropriate for the poem because it is about an Auto Wreck that has mangled and hurt people and that insinuates death.

4. What is added to the theme of the poem by the metaphors in lines 20-21 and the simile in 24-27?

- The theme of this poem is that life is important and significant and a small, little moment, can change everything. Lines 20-21 exclaim, “One hangs lanterns on the wrecks that cling, / Empty husks of locusts, to iron poles.” This metaphor is comparing the lanterns on the car wreck to a husk of a locust. This relates to the theme because if someone were to see a husk of a locust, it would be passed by, just as the policemen clear things up without emotion. That one small event is almost insignificant; but can kill someone. Lines 24-27 say, “Like convalescents intimate and gauche, / We speak through the sickly smiles and warn / With the stubborn saw of common sense, / The grim joke and the banal resolution.” The observers of the accident are compared to “convalescents” because they are slowly recovering from what they have seen in the accident. They speak through “sickly smiles,” showing that they are sickened by the events they have just witnessed. The observers do things and feel things as if they were the actual victims of the accident. They realize, at this moment, how precious life can be and how this one event has taken people’s lives.

- Rime royal is a stanza with seven lines of iambic pentameter rhyming ababbcc. Complaint to His Purse is in this form until the Envoy to Henry IV. I actually don’t quite understand that part.

2. What is the structure of the poem? How do the imagery and argument of each stanza develop and intensify the appeal?

- I do not know the structure of this poem, although I tried to figure it out. The imager and argument of each stanza help to develop and intensify the appeal. I’m not quite sure what the argument of each stanza is though; I don’t understand this. But I found imagery so I’ll try to explain that as well as I can. In the first stanza, the line that creates the most imagery is “Me were as life be laid upon my beere” (5). A beere, or bier, is the frame or stand on which a corpse or coffin is laid before burial. This creates the imagery of a funeral, evoking a feeling of sadness and pity. In the second stanza, the narrator says, “Or see youre colour, lik the sonne bright, / That of yelownesse hadde never peere” (10-11). These lines create the imagery of a person who is bright and happy, like the glowing color of the sun. In the third stanza, the imagery is found in line 18 when the narrator says, “Sith that ye wol nat be my tresorere; / For I am shave as neigh as any frère.” In this line, the imagery of a “treasure” (gold or silver) emerges while we here next that the man is broke. All in all, this is a very hard poem to understand, especially because of the language. In reading the back of the book, it seems I’m not understanding in the way I should be.

3. In exploring the extended metaphor of the poem, consider how diction accounts for the humor of Chaucer’s parody.

- In the first line of the poem, it is clear that the narrator’s purse is being compared to a lady’s love. The narrator says, “To you, my purs, and to noon other wight.” In this poem, diction accounts for the humor of Chaucer’s parody. Throughout the whole poem, it is silly how he talks about the lady. She is always seen as great and the words almost seem like something that would be said in a soap opera. In lines 10-11 the narrator says, “Or see youre colour, lik the sonne bright, / That of yelownesse hadde never peere.” He talks about the lady glowing beautifully like the sun. Again, he raises her up by saying, “Quenne of confort and of good compaignye” (13). In this line, he is calling her a queen. When the narrator says, “Ye purs, that been to me my lives light / And saviour, as in this world down here…” (15-16), he is talking about his purse. But, in talking about his purse, he is also talking about this beautiful lady and saying that she gives him his life’s light. Oh, how sweet!

4. How does the envoy continue the tone of the poem even as it addresses a specific person?

- The envoy continues the tone of the poem, even as it addresses a specific person. I will not re-type the whole stanza, but the narrator also talks very highly and kindly to Henry IV. He says, “mownen alle oure harmes amende” (25), trying to be nice and tell Henry IV that everything will be fine, and any harms should be forgiven.

1. Hopkins’s short lyric shares some elements with the sonnet, but it is a nonce form, invented for this poem only. Hopkins’ idiosyncratic meter, which he dubbed “sprung rhythm,” uses accent marks over certain syllables. What is the dominant meter and line length? What is the rhyme scheme? Describe the poem’s structure. (Hint: The anomaly in the rhyme scheme is the key).

-         The dominant meter is iambic, with three or four stressed syllables in each line. The line length varies, but isn’t so different that it makes a difference in the rhythm of the poem. The rhyme scheme is aa, bb, cc, ddd, ee, ff, gg. The whole poem pretty much consists of rhyming couplets except for the ddd scheme, where words rhyme three times. I am actually not sure what the structure of this poem is. It seems like the first nine lines deal with one idea while the last 6 lines deal with a new idea to finish off the poem.

1. What is the effect of the frequent use of alliteration in the poem? Combined with assonance and consonance, what mood does this device create?

-         Alliteration is used many times in the poem. One of these examples can be found in line 7 where alliteration is used twice. “By and by, not spare a sigh,” uses the “b” sound twice and the “s” sound twice as well. First of all, in this line, there is an internal rhyme, which is really cool. Next, this line alone is saying not to “spare a sigh,” and helps create the mood of sorrow. This line creates great sound imagery of someone sighing. This type of thing happens many times in the poem, creating the same mood. Assonance can be found in line 2 with the words “Over Goldengrove” where the “oh” sound is heard twice. Consonance is also found in this poem quite frequently. One example can be found in lines 5-6 when the narrator says, “Ah! As the heart grows older / It will come to such sights colder.” In these lines, the “s” sound is repeated many times. Because of these repeated noises and sounds, a mood of sorrow (realize the “s” in sorrow) and unhappiness is created. The words alone create this mood, and the sounds magnify it.

1. Comment on the effect created by such unusual diction as Goldengrove and unleaving (line 2), fresh (line 4), wanwood and leafmeal (line 8), springs (line 11), and blight (line 14). How do the connotations of these words create the poem’s mood?

-         The effect of the unusual diction in the words “Goldengrove unleaving” (2), is that it shows a sense of imagery. The image created is a grove, a small closed in forested area that is always colored with golden leaves. Line 4 uses the word “fresh” which creates an effect as a feeling of something new and unfamiliar. In line 8, wanwood and leafmeal are words that I’ve never heard before. Obviously, they aren’t really words, but I don’t know how to pick them apart to get a meaning. Unless someone could do this, these words might suggest a sense of strange confusion or silliness. In line 11, the word “springs” seems like it is a happy thing; like a spring of water trickling down somewhere. In line 14, the word “blight” means the rapid and extensive discoloration, wilting, and death of plant tissues. But of course, the phrase is “blight man,” which makes it very ironic. All of these words produce a strange irony. “Goldengrove,” and “springs” are words with positive connotations and that are contrasted with the sorrow in the poem. “Wanwood” and “leafmeal,” to me, are just strange, and contrast in that they don’t seen to be sorrowful words either. Of course, “blight” is a sad thing, but doesn’t have a very negative connotation, therefore adding to the contrast.

1. Analyze the poet’s use of figurative language. How does it suggest the theme of the poem?

-         Figurative language is seen throughout this poem many times. Antithesis is found in this poem as one of the most prominent forms of figurative language. In line 11 the narrator says, “Sorrow’s springs are the same.” Sorrow is obviously a sad word. But, when paired with springs, which has a positive connotation and is a good thing in life, an antithesis is formed. Another antithesis is found in lines 5-6 when the narrator says, “Ah! As the heart grows older / It will come to such sights colder.” The word “heart” has a very positive connotation, making someone think of love or life while “older” and “colder” are negative and create a great contrast. Another form of figurative language used in this poem is rhetorical question. The narrator asks, “Margaret, are you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving?” (1-2). Throughout the whole rest of the poem, the narrator talks to Margaret, assuming that she is grieving over this fact and doesn’t even wait for an answer. Therefore, the question is rhetorical and didn’t need an answer, as the narrator already knows. This figurative language helps to suggest the theme of the poem because with antithesis, there is a great contrast between two different things, adding to confusion about the poem. Therefore, it adds to the theme of confusion and the fact someone is trying to understand what is happening, and growing up through sorrow, along with the contrast of good things.

 The Oven Bird 

1. Frost’s poem, like Hopkins’s borrows from the sonnet form. What is its meter, rhyme scheme, and structure?

-         Frost’s poem is written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is aabcbdcdeefgfg. There are five main parts to the poem. The first part is in lines 1-3. The second part starts with the words “He says” (4). This idea goes on until line 7 when the line is started, again, with “He says.” In line 10, “He says,” starts another line. The rest of the poem is the narrator’s own thoughts about the subject.

1. Paraphrase the three messages of the oven bird, then analyze the meaning of the word fall as it encapsulates the theme of the poem.

-         First the oven bird says, (4-5) leaves are old and that for flowers, mid-summer isn’t nearly as good a time for them to bloom, especially compared with spring. Spring, on a scale, is ten while mid-summer is one. The second time the narrator uses “He says,” (6-9) the bird is saying that the time that early petals start to fall has passed; the time when pear and cherry blooms fell down like showers of rain. Then, instead of sunny days come moments of overcast and leaves start to fall, which is the season we call “fall.” Next, all the bird says is that the dust of the highways, our roads, is all over (10). The word “fall” is used twice in line 9. The narrator says, “And comes that other fall we name the fall.” Here, the narrator is referring to the leaves dying and falling off the tree, as this is the time of year we call fall (or autumn). This encapsulates the theme of the poem because as the leaves fall, nature falls as we pave our roads through the beauty of nature.

1. Paraphrase the last four lines of the poem. How does the oven bird symbolize the human condition?

-         The last four lines of the poem have a great significance to the rest of the poem, adding a great conclusion. The narrator is saying that a bird would stop and be like other birds, knowing that as the bird sings, it would do just as well not to sing. The question that the bird puts together cannot be put into words and that is what makes up a “diminished” thing. The oven bird symbolizes the human condition because many people can see what is going on, just as the bird can see the “highway dust…over all” (10). But, even in talking (in the birds case singing) others still won’t listen. So the questions that need to be asked cannot be put into words and all hope is gone.