Language

“Words” by Dana Gioia

The world does not need words. It articulates itself
in sunlight, leaves, and shadows. The stones on the path
are no less real for lying uncatalogued and uncounted.
The fluent leaves speak only the dialect of pure being.
The kiss is still fully itself though no words were spoken.

And one word transforms it into something less or other—
illicit, chaste, perfunctory, conjugal, covert.
Even calling it a kiss betrays the fluster of hands
glancing the skin or gripping a shoulder, the slow
arching of neck or knee, the silent touching of tongues.

Yet the stones remain less real to those who cannot
name them, or read the mute syllables graven in silica.
To see a red stone is less than seeing it as jasper—
metamorphic quartz, cousin to the flint the Kiowa
carved as arrowheads. To name is to know and remember.

The sunlight needs no praise piercing the rainclouds,
painting the rocks and leaves with light, then dissolving
each lucent droplet back into the clouds that engendered it.
The daylight needs no praise, and so we praise it always—
greater than ourselves and all the airy words we summon.

Gioia uses a single word to describe her feelings towards language in and of itself. By using the word “word”, she is able to emphasize her feelings by not only by giving the word, but also the definition or description of an image or object the world views as greater than what the word alone encompasses. From the beginning, it is stated that “The world does not need words. It articulates itself/ in sunlight, leaves, and shadows”. Gioia's view of the world is that language is not necessary because meanings can be explained though action and observation. A kiss can be “illicit”, yet the single word as a description does not fully explain the action or the feelings. A single word as a description causes the action to become categorized by the definition of the one word description. A kiss would then be seen as only illicit rather than all that a kiss is. Likewise, the author uses an object as proof that words are not the only way to view the world. A “red stone” is given much more meaning when it is described in terms of its relationship to the world. The author, however, seems to contradict herself as the poem progresses. The opening line is “The world does not need words”, but Gioia later states that “To name is to know and remember”. “To name” would simply be to give the “word” that relates to the object rather than remembering an observation or a history of the “word”. By using a single word, in both the title and throughout the poem, Gioia creates a question about language and observations. Her question throughout the poem of if words are necessary or not creates an uncertainty about the word “word” itself and what exactly “word” means.

Language

“The Beautiful Changes” by Richard Wilbur

One wading a Fall meadow finds on all sides
The Queen Anne's Lace lying like lilies
On water; it glides
So from the walker, it turns
Dry grass to a lake, as the slightest shade of you
Valleys my mind in fabulous blue Lucernes

The beautiful changes as a forest is changed
By a chameleon's tuning his skin to it;
As a mantis, arranged
On a green leaf, grows
Into it, makes the leaf leafier, and proves
Any greenness is deeper than anyone knows.

Your hands hold roses always in a way that says
They are not only yours; the beautiful changes
In such king ways,
Wishing ever to sunder
Things and things' selves for a second finding, to lose
For a moment all that it touches back to wonder.

Wilbur's poem uses a variety of natural elements to show how influenced humans are by one another. By using the aspect of beauty, he is able to show how, although ever changing yet always remaining beautiful, people's ideas change. The picture that is formed in the readers mind emphasizes the change. The reader can visualize the elements of nature that Wilbur describes. “The beautiful changes as a forest is changed/ by a chameleon's tuning his skin to it”. Someone may see the forest as less than beautiful, but then when someone else decides it is beautiful, the first person changes their mind. The chameleon represents the influence of others, an ever changing force. However, Wilbur mentions that “Any greenness is deeper than anyone knows”. Such a statement allows for the reader to grasp the idea that opinions, like beauty, are infinite and that they will never be completely revealed, even to the owner of the opinions. The whole aspect of opinions being influenced by others is further emphasized by “Your hands hold roses always in a way that says/ They are not only yours”. The obvious bit of information revealed in the line is that although one may hold an object on their own, their ideas about the object are “not only [theirs]”, but belong to someone else. The elements of language the author uses, elements that create a picture in the readers mind help to emphasize a point. Rather than simply stating the message behind the poem, the author intends for the reader to form their own opinion based on how they view the visual aspect of the poem and how it fits into their own life.

Speaker

Speaker:

“The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter” by Ezra Pound

While my hair was still cut straight
across my forehead
I played at the front gate, pulling
flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing
horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with
blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of
Chokan:
Two small people, without dislike or
suspicion.

At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never
looked back.

At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with
yours
Forever and forever and forever.
Why should I climb the lookout?

At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-en, by the river
of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noise
overhead.

You dragged your feet when you went
out,
By the gate now, the moss is grown,
the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in
wind.
The paired butterflies are already
yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me. I grow older.
If you are coming down through the
narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
As far as Cho-fu-sa.

The speaker of the poem is speaking to her husband in the form of a letter to him. By having her tell the story, especially in the form that is used, the poet allows the reader to know not only the story, but also the feelings involved. Since the poem tells a story of love and longing, the speaker chosen makes a difference. If Pound had decided to use a third person narrative, or have the speaker be someone who is witnessing the story taking place, the poem would be completely different. At the same time, if the story was told from the point of view of the husband who has left, the readers would not get the same emotions as the wife. The emotions that are shown throughout the poem are that of everlasting love. “I desired my dust to be mingled with yours/Forever and forever and forever./Why should I climb the lookout?” While the wife tells her husband that she will never leave his side, she also tells him that if and when he is dead, she will not be able to move on to a new husband because she loves hers whole heartedly. Such is also suggested by the wife observing her surroundings. “The paired butterflies are already yellow with August”. The wife notices the pairing of the butterflies, a pairing that she lacks in her own life now that her husband is gone from her. Also, the butterflies are described as “yellow with August”, perhaps alluding to how they are aging with one another, something the wife dreams of doing with her own husband. The last lines of the poem show the reader how the speaker will do anything and go anywhere for her husband. The distance between the two locations must be large, showing the wife's one desire to meet up with her husband again.

“Lazarus Comes to Dinner” by Anonymous

Of course, I'm an oddity,
   not another one around.
   I've been there and back,
   and what's more, I stank.

   When I give a banquet,
   they come; no no-shows,
   no compelling them to come.
   No one without a wedding garment.

   Talk about a conversation piece!
   Sidelong glances
   as I break a crust of bread
   -- "Had he eaten with the angels?" --

   I raise my glass of wine,
   they nudge their neighbors
   -- "Can he be thirsty, who drank
   from the ultimate barrel?" --

   I speak to the Master about
   the price of barley -- "Do they share
   memories from the cave that would
   stupefy the mountains?" --

   OK, I have smudged the clear
   edges of reality, broken
   the quantum barrier? Only this I say:
   truth is a moving target.

In the case of this poem, the speaker is not just a nameless, faceless person but a literary allusion. The fact that the speaker is one that is relatively well known allows the poet to bypass telling the complete story of Lazarus. Instead, the poet wrote the poem from the point of view of the famous biblical character. Lazarus is able to overhear conversations from his fellow dinner guests that question the time he spent while dead before coming back to life. The questions are never answered by Lazarus, but the reader understands his feelings towards such questions that are asked behind his back. He seems to never give a second thought to those who ask the questions, he simply lives with the fact that he is an “oddity” and will always be treated differently from others.

Situation/ Setting

Setting/Situation:

“Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost

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.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
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.
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.
“Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening” seems to be an obvious choice for a poem that encompasses the element of setting/situation, but it does so so perfectly. One has to read no further than the title of Robert Frost's poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” to get a clear depiction of what the setting will be. That being said, the setting goes farther than just being woods on a snowy evening. The setting of this particular poem is what makes the entire story. If the setting was changed in any way, the poem would be completely different. As it is, the speaker is traveling, the reader can only assume he is on his way home, his only company his horse. Setting and situation go hand in hand, especially in this poem. Frost manages to connect the two so that they almost cannot exist without the other. While on his travels, the speaker has decided to stop and examine his surroundings. Such surroundings evoke thoughts of the speakers life beyond the moment that is spoken of. One wonders why the speaker is in the middle of the woods on “the darkest evening of the year”. While the woods and the darkness as well as the isolation of his location should frighten him, the speaker feels a calmness that is nowhere else. Being away from society, yet close enough to it as is suggested by the land whose owner “is in the village though”, allows the speaker to be seen as trying to be further from society yet is pulled towards its influence. By adding a horse as his companion, an animal that is domesticated and lives harmoniously with humans, the speaker has a direct link to society. The blanket of snow suggests issues that go deeper than what is on the surface of the poem. They may, perhaps, be issues that the speaker wishes to conceal, to cover as snow covers the surface of the dark, deep woods with a white lightness of purity. The speaker sees the woods as “lovely” even though they are “dark and deep”. Such imagery suggests a pull towards the darker side of being, perhaps death, an element that may be the only way of escaping and covering the problems that society would be better off without. However, the repetition of the last two lines: “And miles to go before I sleep”suggest that the reader, although contemplating death as shown through “sleep”, must return home to face the world; that there are years to come before he will allow himself to die.

“Fairy-Land” by Edgar Allan Poe

Dim vales--and shadowy floods--
And cloudy-looking woods,
Whose forms we can't discover
For the tears that drip all over
Huge moons there wax and wane--
Again--again--again--
Every moment of the night--
Forever changing places--
And they put out the star-light
With the breath from their pale faces.
About twelve by the moon-dial
One more filmy than the rest
(A kind which, upon trial,
They have found to be the best)
Comes down--still down--and down
With its centre on the crown
Of a mountain's eminence,
While its wide circumference
In easy drapery falls
Over hamlets, over halls,
Wherever they may be--
O'er the strange woods--o'er the sea--
Over spirits on the wing--
Over every drowsy thing--
And buries them up quite
In a labyrinth of light--
And then, how deep!--O, deep!
Is the passion of their sleep.
In the morning they arise,
And their moony covering
Is soaring in the skies,
With the tempests as they toss,
Like--almost any thing--
Or a yellow Albatross.
They use that moon no more
For the same end as before--
Videlicet a tent--
Which I think extravagant:
Its atomies, however,
Into a shower dissever,
Of which those butterflies,
Of Earth, who seek the skies,
And so come down again
(Never-contented thing!)
Have brought a specimen
Upon their quivering wings.
Some poems use the setting as a secondary element. In Edgar Allen Poe's "Fairy-Land", the setting of the poem is the primary focus. Poe uses rich language and imagery to allow the readers to really see the setting of the story he is telling in this poem. The title of the poem, "Fairy-Land", allows the reader to know, right from the beginning that the poem is not going to be about something realistic, but instead will revolve around a fantasy. The setting depicted throughout the poem further creates a world of fantasy for the reader to escape to. The poem repeatedly mentions the moon, suggesting the cycles of nature. The use of the moon also depicts that the poem takes place at night, which re-enforces the feeling that the speaker is in some dream world. Other natural elements include the mountains, woods, sea, and “butterflies/ of Earth”. However, Poe also adds a “hall” suggesting that the natural world and the fantasy world that the speaker is dreaming of are closely related and can ultimately intermingle.

Tone

Tone:
“The Lamb” by William Blake

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed,
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee? Little Lamb, I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee.
He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and He is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!

The tone of “The Lamb” is that of meekness and gentility, a tone that brings comfort to the reader. Not only is the subject of the poem, the lamb, an example of an animal that is, in character, rather meek and gentle, but the physical attributes of a lamb are also gentle, soft, and comforting. It has a white color, soft wool, and delicate lines that make up an innocent face. The white color itself evokes thoughts of holiness and innocence. The lamb is placed in surroundings that are also comforting. A “stream” rather than a river is used as the location where the lamb drinks. The idea of the lamb, as seen by the speaker, is one that makes “all the vales rejoice”. The idea of a lamb brings great peace and comfort to everyone. The lamb is likened to a child, a being of innocence, one that is incapable of doing harm to anything or anyone. At the end of the poem, the speaker asks that “Little Lamb, God bless thee!”. The acceptance of the speaker towards the lamb enables the reader to also be accepting of the lamb. By accepting the lamb, the reader further gains the feeling of innocence and peaceful comfort.

“The Tyger” by William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

The tone of “The Tyger” is that of fear and the unknown. Throughout the poem, the speaker questions the tiger and from where and how it was originally brought to life. The first question the speaker asks is “what immortal hand or eye/ could frame thy fearful symmetry?”. Such a question, one that suggests an immortal being, likens the creator to the devil or some other satanic being. As the speaker continues to question the existence of the tiger, he ponders how one would be capable of creating such a beast as the tiger. The objects that the speaker relates to the creating of the tiger are rather rough objects that are used for rough and dangerous purposes. A “hammer”, “chain”, “furnace”, and “anvil” are believed by the speaker to have a part in the making of a tiger. The speaker then asks: “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”. When read alongside Blake's “The Lamb”, the reader understands the opposite natures of the two animals. By adding the element of the Lamb into the poem, the reader feels just how horrible a tiger is by visualizing the opposite natures of the two animals, furthering the fearful tone of “The Tyger”. Another element of the poem that likens to fear is that of the home of the tiger: “the forests of the night”. Forests and night time separately bring about fearful thoughts. Together, however, the two elements combine to form an extremely fearful setting. The very last question of the poem repeats the first question that the speaker asked about the tiger. However, by changing the word “could” to “dare”, the speaker evokes thoughts of hatred towards the creator of the tiger for bringing such an unwanted and feared creature into the world.

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