The Dolphins by Carol Ann Duffy
The Dolphins: About the poem
The Dolphins’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a dramatic monologue written from the perspective of
dolphins. It tries to enumerate the emotions of a dolphin which was once free, swimming around
at its own will, but is now confined to an aquarium or a water-park — a place where it does what
its owner or trainer tells it to do. Its master uses it to perform tricks to amuse people in the
circus.
The poem shows how dolphins and other animals are suffering in the hands of men. It urges us
to look at the world from their perspective. It conveys the poet’s massage against human cruelty
towards animals. On a metaphoric level, the poetess may also want to indicate the troubles of
humans who think they are caught in the confines of this world.
The Dolphins: Form and language
The poem is simple and straight-forward. The language for most part is plain. But the
juxtaposition of simplicity and ambiguity at some places makes an impression on the reader. It is
sometimes more suggestive than explicit. Lack of a rhyme scheme and the use of enjambment
mark the poem. The poetess uses cliches with a twist. Further, she makes use of repetition to
highlight the weariness of the dolphins.
The poem is full of pathos. Confinement of dolphins evokes emotions in the minds of readers.
The Dolphins: Line by Line Analysis
First Stanza
World is what you swim in, or dance, it is simple.
The poem starts with the dolphin speaking in second person, addressing us, the humans. The
dolphin goes on to explain its own meaning of the ‘world’, its own expectations about what the
world should be like.
Given that they reside in water-bodies, it explains that the world should be a place where one is
allowed to swim in or dance. It is an expression identifiable with joy and happiness without any
restrictions. It is that simple for them.
We are in our element but we are not free.
From now onward, the dolphin starts talking in first person (plural). Understandably it is going to
tell us its own story of imprisonment.
They are in water in the aquarium doing what they do best (in our element) but they are not free.
The poetess plays with the words ‘in our element’, a cliche used to explain what one likes to do,
to also mean water, a natural element. Water maybe all around it. But the dolphin is now
restricted to the pool and not the expansive ocean it used to dance around in.
Outside this world you cannot breathe for long.
Now, the words of the dolphin carry the tone of desolation. It says that outside its aquatic world,
it cannot breathe for long.
The other has my shape.
With this line, the poetess introduces an element of mystery. Who does “other” point to? This
essentially effects an initial ambiguity. It may point to the person who is making the dolphin
perform tricks. He may know the pose (shape) the dolphin should take to make the act most
entertaining. And the animal, without any say moulds itself into the shape.
Or it may point to another dolphin whose movement guides the dolphin’s own movement. It’s
like an orchestra where one instrument plays in tandem with others to create a beautiful
art-piece.
The other’s movement forms my thoughts.
Here, ‘other’ may point to the other dolphin whose movement not just guides the dolphin’s
movement, but also its thoughts. It shows how others are controlling its life, its movements and
its thoughts.
And also mine.
Just the way the movement of the other dolphin moulds how it acts, its actions decide the
course for the other dolphin.
There is a man and there are hoops.
Now, for the first time the dolphin mentions its tormentor. There is a man who makes the dolphin
jump through hoops while it performs. ‘Hoops’ point to the cliche ‘jumping through hoops’ but
since the dolphins actually jump through hoops on orders, the cliche is overrun.
There is a constant flowing guilt.
Once again readers find this ambiguous. What is the guilt? Who is feeling the guilt? It’s most
possibly the dolphin itself as it can only know its own feelings, not others’. The sense of guilt
comes from its inability to always perform the way its master wants. It may also feel guilty as it
got caught up in the net of the fisherman when it was careless.
Or it’s possibly the trainer, as some suggest, as he makes the dolphins do things against their
will. That’s an unlikely explanation though, as it goes against the motive of the poem.
Second Stanza
We have found no truth in these waters,
no explanations tremble on our flesh.
The dolphins usually are very sentient beings. Even their skin is very sensitive to changes
around. They have a well-developed sonar system. In spite of all these abilities, the dolphin
grieves and mentions it has found no ‘truth’ in these waters. They don’t find this water good for
living, as the ocean is their natural living place. There is nothing so pleasing that could stimulate
its skin (flesh) — no explanation which may help them make sense of this new world.
We were blessed and now we are not blessed.
The voice of dolphin resonates with a depressing tone. It says they were blessed when they
were freely roaming in the ocean. But they are not anymore ‘blessed’ to be restricted in the
man-made confine.
After travelling such space for days we began to translate.
The line signifies how the dolphins are now trying to accept their fate. The dolphins who were
used to travelling around in the open waters (space) for days have now started to translate.
Here, ‘translate’ points to the fact that the dolphin has to change its mindset to live in this limited
water now.
It was the same space. It is
the same space always and above it is the man.
The dolphins may be surrounded by water (same space). It is the same space they have
desired. It explains that what looks essentially same is so different in reality. That is, swimming
in pool and in ocean are totally different experiences.
‘Above it is the man’ points to superiority of man. It is figurative. How the man controls the
dolphins. But, it is literal when we notice that no matter what these dolphins do, the man, their
abductor would constantly watch from above.
Third Stanza
The third stanza reiterates the monotony and the problems of the dolphins. But, then it gives
voice to the collective of dolphins with ‘we’. They seem to interact and start to feel for each
other. They wish to collectively deal with the situation and try to adapt to it while depending on
each other. It teaches the nice lesson of compassion, togetherness, and friendship. They find a
way to help out each other while caught in this tough world.
And now we are no longer blessed, for the world
will not deepen to dream in.
The dolphin says that they are now accepting the fact that they are no longer with luck. The
world (pool) is not going to deepen into an ocean all of a sudden — a place where they used to
dream of their happy, free life.
The other knows and out of love reflects me for myself.
This line portrays a wonderful understanding of empathy between these dolphins, something we
readers must learn from. The dolphin says that the other dolphin knows its feelings. Despite
being in the miserable situation itself, the other dolphin reflects the dolphin for who it is. This is
because of the love for each other.
It teaches us, the readers the importance of mutual understanding and the strength it gives us in
times of adversity.
We see our silver skin flash by like memory of somewhere else.
The dolphin is too sad with this new life. Even when it sees a silver skin flash by it simply
reminds itself of free, huge ocean (somewhere else). Here, ‘silver skin’ means dolphins
swimming around in the tank.
The simile paints a visual description of how dolphins are aware of their existence in a
collective, their shoal. Not just that, it shows how astutely aware dolphins are of their bodily
knowledge.
There is a coloured ball we have to balance till the man has disappeared.
The dolphin simply remembers that they need to balance a coloured ball until their master goes
away. This is like one teaches a dog to fetch the ball thrown towards it.
It indicates how commanding and controlling humans are on them.
Fourth Stanza
The moon has disappeared.
The fourth stanza is an embodiment of utmost desolation, confinement and control.
When in ocean, it used to follow or circle around the reflection of moon. That moon is no more
with them. It can no more circle the moon.
We circle well-worn grooves of water on a single note.
Now all the dolphin can do is circle around the movements of the water (grooves of water) which
induces a sense of music, which plays on a single note.
Duffy uses ‘grooves’ to find a similarity in the water bubbles and the moon.
Music of loss forever from the other’s heart which turns my own to stone.
It intensifies when the dolphin hears the ‘music of loss’ in its companion’s voice (other’s heart).
When it hears its companions mourning the loss on continual basis, it feels the loss of freedom
and joy. This makes it saddened, turns its heart to stone.
There is a plastic toy. There is no hope.
A plastic toy is there in the tank possibly for the dolphins to play with. This artificial toy cannot
provide the joy of playing around in the free ocean. But there is no hope — no hope to go back
to their home.
We sink to the limits of this pool until the whistle blows.
The dolphin says they sink to the limits or the boundaries of the pool until the trainer blows his
whistle, signalling them to come up and perform the tricks.
The another connotation can relate to the fact that these dolphins have given in to their fate and
have sunk to their lowest hope — the hope that someone would come and blow the whistle with
a good news for them.
There is a man and our mind knows we will die here.
Yet, they know for sure there is a man. And, that they will die there. They cannot leave the place
even if they want to. ‘Our mind’ points to the collective of the dolphins and their collective
intelligence to understand what is going on around them — a sense of belonging in an
otherwise nonsense world.
Also, the repetition of ‘A man’ from the first stanza in this last stanza emphasises the cycle of
suffering the dolphins are going through.
This poem may look like collection of simple words and straight lines. But the emotions it entails
and the ambiguity it imposes, forces the readers to take a step back and reflect on the essence
of freedom. What essentially freedom means to us? How can compassion and empathy save
us? And how can we save others while facing the same adversity? The poem provides an
answer to all these.
The Gift of India by Sarojini Naidu: Summary
The Gift of India: About the poem
The Gift of India is a poem written in 1915 by the Indian poet, freedom fighter and politician
Sarojini Naidu. The poem is a tribute to the contribution of Indian soldiers in World War I. Over
ten lakh Indian soldiers from the British Indian Empire served in the Allied forces in the First
World War. A vast number of them sacrificed their lives. Indian troops fought in different
locations of significance to the allied stronghold and had an important share in many of the
battles throughout the course of the war. However, the contribution of the Indian soldiers is
overlooked in the vast expanse of the War’s history. These selfless sacrifices of the Indian
soldiers for the western agitation are captured in Naidu’s poem ‘The Gift of India’.
The poem not only concentrates on the theme of soldiers making their ultimate sacrifice for
someone else’s war, but also talks about the numerous benefits the foreign countries reaped
from India. The poet regards these benefits as gifts given by India to the colonisers.
The poem can be regarded as a kind of reminder or appeal to the allied forces to remember the
Indian contribution to their victory.
Form and language of the poem
The poem The Gift of India has a simple and elegant rhyme scheme of aabbcc. Each of the
stanzas have six lines, where the first two lines introduce either an idea or create a picture, the
next two lines build up on them, and the final two present a sort of small conclusion for the
stanza. (In many anthologies and websites the poem is treated as a whole undivided piece.
Here is one site that makes the stanza divisions clear. And we will take that for the ease of
reading.)
The poem as an entire piece has a subtle flow in it where Mother India herself proclaims proudly
her gifts to the west. The first stanza introduces the various gifts India has bestowed upon the
colonisers, which include both its riches and people. The second stanza focuses more on the
wistful state of martyred Indian soldiers. The third stanza talks of the grief those deaths have
brought. And finally, the fourth stanza is a sort of appeal to honour the sacrifices of the Indian
soldiers for the cause of the war.
The Gifts of India: Stanza-wise explanation
Stanza One
Is there ought you need that my hands withhold,
Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold?
Lo! I have flung to the East and West
Priceless treasures torn from my breast,
And yielded the sons of my stricken womb
To the drum-beats of duty, the sabers of doom.
The first stanza begins with Mother India asking if there are any more sacrifices left for her to
make. She has given the world rich gifts of cloth, food grains, and precious things like gold.
India has flung priceless treasures of her land to the countries of the East and the West.
Moreover, she has sent her sons, that is, the youth of her land in distant battlegrounds to fight
someone else’s war. She questions what more can the nations of the world expect her to give
them.
In order to understand these lines, we must look at India’s history — especially the time around
which this poem was written. It was 1915, in the middle of World War I, when India was still
under the British rule. A lot of Indian soldiers employed in the British forces fought in the World
War for the allies. The poem can be seen as the poet’s homage for these soldiers. Under the
British rule, India was exploited for its riches and resources. Here, the poet acknowledges this
fact. The very first line of the poem shows India’s sentiment of anger and the question ‘Is it not
enough that I have given everything?’
The words ‘sabers of doom’ especially catch our attention. They represent the nature of the war
and the devastation it leaves in its wake.
Stanza Two:
Gathered like pearls in their alien graves
Silent they sleep by the Persian waves,
Scattered like shells on Egyptian sands,
They lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands,
They are strewn like blossoms mown down by chance
On the blood-brown meadows of Flanders and France.
In the second stanza of The Gift of India, the speaker, Mother India, shows the sacrifice of the
Indian soldiers from a different angle. These brave soldiers who fought and gave up their lives
are buried in mass graves in the foreign countries where they died. They were away from their
homeland, and even their bodies did not get the comfort of finally resting in their own
motherland. The speaker says that “they sleep by the Persian waves, and scattered like shells
on Egyptian sands”.
The speaker says that these dead soldiers “lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands”,
further intensifying the image of death and devastation. The bodies are scattered like carelessly
trimmed flowers (blossoms mown down by chance) in the battlefields of Flanders and France.
The poet’s use of the words ‘by chance’ speaks that in her eye, the soldiers did not deserve to
die. Also, the comparison (a simile here) of the warriors to ‘blossoms’ signifies how the
motherland sees them as valuable human resource. ‘Blood-brown meadows’ expresses the
horrors of war and warfronts in a rich poetic language. Though completely contrasting with the
subject, it poses as an apt metaphor.
Stanza three:
Can ye measure the grief of the tears I weep
Or compass the woe of the watch I keep?
Or the pride that thrills thro’ my heart’s despair
And the hope that comforts the anguish of prayer?
And the far sad glorious vision I see
Of the torn red banners of Victory?
In the third stanza of The Gift of India, the speaker talks to the foreign countries. She asks them
if they can measure her grief and her tears or know her woe, her sufferings when she watches
all these. She says that they can never fathom the pride that thrills through her heart, in spite of
her despair. The poet suggests that the speaker, despite her sadness and deep rooted anguish,
is proud of her sons who have fought bravely and brought victory. She gives expression to the
voices of countless Indian mothers whose sons have fought in the war. The poet says that the
people of the warring nations can never comprehend the small hope that comforts these
mothers from the pain of praying for their sons’ safety.
She asks if they can understand the vision of glory she sees. It is a sad one, because she has
lost her sons for it. The torn red banner of victory, which has come at the expense of so much
blood, is sad and meaningless for her.
Stanza four:
When the terror and the tumult of hate shall cease
And life be refashioned on anvils of peace,
And your love shall offer memorial thanks
To the comrades who fought in your dauntless ranks,
And you honour the deeds of the deathless ones,
Remember the blood of thy martyred sons!
In the last stanza of the poem, the speaker talks about the ensuing peace after the war and the
martyrdom of the countless soldiers. The terror and tumult of hate which has created the war
shall end and there will be peace. Life will be refashioned, it will go back to normal with drastic
new changes. People will pay their respects to the dead who fought in the war, the comrades in
many ranks who gave their life. They will honour the deeds of those soldiers, who will never be
forgotten. When such a time of peace comes, the speaker asks that the blood of her martyred
sons be remembered as well, that they be honoured as well.
What is curious here is the poet’s use of phrase ‘on anvils of peace’. This implies that the
process of getting life back to normal will not be an easy one. It comments on the aftereffects of
wars in general.
The poem ‘The gift of India’ started as a celebration of India’s contribution to the causes of
others. But it ends up as a strong war poem, concentrating both on the evils of destruction wars
bring, and the mourning, as well as the courage, honour and recognition of the heroes who fight
in it. As always, Naidu’s poem arouses a sense of pride and patriotism in the hearts of her
countrymen.
John Brown by Bob Dylan: Poem Summary
John Brown by Bob Dylan: About the song
John brown is an anti-war song composed and performed by the American singer-songwriter
and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan. The song is an expression of the singer’s deep-rooted sense of
pacifism. Bob Dylan is known for upholding American folk music and his work is seen to be
highly influenced by the poets of Modernism and Beatnik movements. His songs are generally
easy to follow with a deep philosophical meaning. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in
2016 for his outstanding contribution in creating new poetic expressions in the American song
tradition.
John Brown is, as previously mentioned, an anti-war lyric. It tells the story of an American
mother who sends her son John Brown to war on some foreign land. The song follows the
young soldier and his mother’s lives. The singer shows us the true fate of the American soldiers
who are stationed in foreign countries for war. He also questions the very nature of war and
shows us that there is no nobility in warfare, thereby strengthening the idea of pacifism.
The song was written in October 1962, and has since been performed live on several
occasions. It is not however released in any of the singer’s albums but is a standalone piece. It
was released under different names around the early 60’s and an official version was released
in 2010. The song length is 4:20 in the official version and it consists of twelve verses.
The song does not follow the typical poetic metres, but depends on the vocal and intonational
changes to establish ‘poetic cadence.’ Bob Dylan has a North Central American accent with a
touch of the mid-west drawl. This makes up for the harmonious melody in his songs and
provides for the metre and internal rhyme.
Verse-wise Explanation of the Song
Verse 1:
John Brown went off to war to fight on a foreign shore
His mama sure was proud of him
He stood straight and tall in his uniform and all
His mama’s face broke out all in a grin
At the very start of the song Bob Dylan establishes a story. It starts with John Brown going off to
war on a foreign shore. His mother was proud that he was going to serve his nation. On the day
he was leaving, he stood straight and tall wearing his uniform. Here the words ‘straight’, ‘tall’
and ‘uniform’ all indicate that John Brown was proud to be a soldier and his body language
showed it. His mother smiled as she bade him farewell.
Verse 2:
“Oh son, you look so fine, I’m glad you’re a son of mine
You make me proud to know you hold a gun
Do what the captain says, lots of medals you will get
And we’ll put them on the wall when you come home”
In the second verse of the song, we see the mother of John Brown talking to her son. She says
to her son that he looks very good in his uniform and that she is very glad to have been his
mother. She is expressing how proud she is for her son. Serving in armed forces is considered
as one of the most dignified and noble professions in the world. John Brown’s mother is happy
that her son will be serving his nation. She tells him to do what his captain says and he will get
lots of medals. And when John Brown will come home from war, she will put them up on the wall
for display. The mother here is ignorant of the realities of war. She has a firm belief that her son
is going to come home unscathed from the war. She is too proud to realize that war is no game
and that she might never see her son again.
Verse 3:
As that old train pulled out, John’s ma began to shout
Tellin’ everybody in the neighborhood
“That’s my son that’s about to go, he’s a soldier now, you know”
She made well sure her neighbors understood
In the third verse we yet again witness the mother’s pride over her son. As John Brown is going
away to war in an old train, his mother is shouting out farewell to him. She is flaunting and
boasting and wants everyone to know that her son is a soldier and that he is going away to fight
in the war. Here we are acquainted with John Brown’s mother’s viewpoint: she is not just
delighted that her son is a soldier, but also wants to boast about it to the people that she has
raised a soldier, a brave boy who is off to fight for what she believes is a good cause.
Verse 4:
She got a letter once in a while and her face broke into a smile
As she showed them to the people from next door
And she bragged about her son with his uniform and gun
And these things you called a good old-fashioned war
Oh, good old-fashioned war!
In the fourth verse we see that John Brown is away at war and his mother is at home. She
receives a letter from him once in a while. Her face breaks into a smile reading them. She
shows the letters to her next-door neighbours as well and brags about her son. Wearing a
uniform and having a gun are those great feats her son has achieved. She brags about the
good old-fashioned war as if it were just some event. The mother has no idea about the realities
of war.
Verse 5:
Then the letters ceased to come, for a long time they did not come
They ceased to come for about ten months or more
Then a letter finally came saying, “Go down and meet the train
Your son’s a-coming home from the war”
After a while the son’s letters to his mother stopped coming. For a long time John Brown did not
write to his mother. It could be either because he was in action or was incapable for holding
correspondence. The mother did not receive a letter for about ten months or more. Then one
day a letter come for John Brown’s mother saying that her son was coming home from war, and
that she should go down and meet him at the train.
Verse 6:
She smiled and went right down, she looked everywhere around
But she could not see her soldier son in sight
But as all the people passed, she saw her son at last
When she did she could hardly believe her eyes
After reading the letter, the mother went right down to meet her son John Brown who has
returned home from war. She looked for him everywhere at the train station but could not find
her son amid the crowd. Here ‘her soldier son’ probably indicates that the mother expected to
see a refined soldier in her son as he returned home. When all the people passed, she finally
found her son. But when she saw him she could not believe her eyes. There was something
unforeseen there.
Verse 7:
Oh his face was all shot up and his hand was all blown off
And he wore a metal brace around his waist
He whispered kind of slow, in a voice she did not know
While she couldn’t even recognize his face!
Oh, lord, not even recognize his face!
The seventh verse of the song is the description of John Brown’s state after he returns home to
his mother from the war. We see that his face is all shot up and one of his hands is blown-off.
He has undergone a lot of physical harm in the war. His arm is amputated and his face bears
scars from bullet and grenade wounds. He wears a metal brace around his waist to support
himself in walking. He seems to be lucky even to be alive after receiving such injuries in the
battle. But his torment is not limited to physical harm. He has also undergone mental trauma.
When he speaks his voice is slow and unrecognisable, even to his own mother. This suggests
both his pain and his horrific experience in the war. He is so altered in physical appearance that
even his own mother is unable to recognize his face. The focus is on the evils of war. And this
stanza may be marked as the climax of the narrative.
Verse 8:
“Oh tell me, my darling son, pray tell me what they done
How is it you come to be this way?”
He tried his best to talk but his mouth could hardly move
And the mother had to turn her face away
John Brown’s mother is in utter disbelief after seeing the state in which her son has returned
from war. She asks her son how he came to be this way, and what happened to him. She was
both shocked and concerned to see her son in such a broken state. John Brown tried his best to
to talk and answer to his mother about what all he has been through, but he was hardly able to
move his mouth. His mother could not bear to look at her son’s distress and pain and had to
turn her head away.
Verse 9:
“Don’t you remember, ma, when I went off to war
You thought it was the best thing I could do?
I was on the battleground, you were home acting proud
Thank God you wasn’t there standing in my shoes”
John Brown seems to condemn his mother’s act of pursuing him to be a soldier. His mother
thought joining the army was the best thing he could do. But she was wrong. He did not find it a
noble thing at all. He was on the battlefield fighting in the war whereas back at home his mother
was feeling proud of her soldier son. All the illusions are now shattered. John Brown is relieved
and thanks God that his mother wasn’t there in that situation to watch the horrors of war he has
seen.
Verse 10:
“Oh, and I thought when I was there, God, what am I doing here?
I’m a-tryin’ to kill somebody or die tryin’
But the thing that scared me most was when my enemy came close
And I saw that his face looked just like mine”
Oh, lord, just like mine!
In the tenth verse of the song John Brown is telling his mother his experiences in the war. He
says that when he was in the battlefield he wondered why he was even there. He was just trying
to kill somebody in a do-or-die situation. It was a realisation that war is chaotic, insane and
irrational. He further says that the thing that scared him the most was when his enemy came
very close to him and he saw that it was just another human being. He didn’t even know why he
was supposed to kill that person. Here Bob Dylan talks about the universal fraternity and how
wars are just men trying to kill one another. It is at the end only a loss of human lives.
The expression ‘scared me the most’ is ironic and satiric in tone and delivers a stern message
regarding the reality of war.
Verse 11:
“And I couldn’t help but think, through the thunder rolling and stink
That I was just a puppet in a play
And through the roar and smoke, this string is finally broke
And a cannonball blew my eyes away”
Amidst the chaos of war John Brown was thinking that he was just a puppet in the hands of
warmongers who were playing with them. Whether he lived or died did not matter. All that
mattered to them was the victory and defeat. Bob Dylan here compares war with a puppet show
– an apt metaphor indeed. Soldiers just follow orders and kill people when they are asked to
without the slightest consideration or remorse. However, his string of thought was broken as a
cannonball came through the smoke and roar and blew his eyes away.
Verse 12:
As he turned away to walk, his ma was still in shock
At seein’ the metal brace that helped him stand
But as he turned to go, he called his mother close
And he dropped his medals down into her hand
John Brown has finished telling his mother how he received the injury. Now he turns to walk
away from her. His mother was still in shock after seeing the metal brace that helped him stand.
When she sent her son away to war she saw him as a young handsome youth wearing a
uniform, but now she was seeing a broken man returned to her in bits and pieces. She was still
in shock to realise her loss. And just as John Brown turned to go, he called his mother close to
him and he dropped his medal in his mother’s hand. This is an overwhelming scene. The act of
John Brown placing the medal on his mother’s hand leaves us questioning if a simple medal, an
empty token of pride, was worth the suffering he went through and the damage he will carry
throughout his life.
Desiderata by Max Ehrmann : Poem Summary
Desiderata by Max Ehrmann: About the poem
Written in 1927, Max Ehrmann’s didactic poem (a morally instructional piece) Desiderata (Latin
for ‘desired things’) offers a code for life emphasizing tolerance, inclusion and optimism. The
poem is full of wise sayings and gentle guidance. The reader is urged to find peace within
themselves, and project this inner peace in their dealings with the world. We see the poem
endorsing an attitude to accept the world in all its entirety, with all its contrasts.
Considering his occupation as a lawyer, Ehrmann’s poem portrays his ethical and temperate
leanings to the art of living. Max Ehrmann once wrote in his diary “I should like, if I could, to
leave a humble gift — a bit of chaste prose that had caught up some noble moods.” That
‘humble gift’ which he mused about in his diary became a timeless legacy – Desiderata.
Desiderata is a prose poem that retains poetic elements like imagery and emotion, but in ‘prose’
or natural speech form. There is no undue embellishment in rhythm or tone. In Desiderata’s
case, its beauty stems solely from its clear meaning and tender intent. This simple telling of
universal wisdom is perhaps what will continue it for generations to come. In its wisdom, the
poem is comparable to Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem ‘If–’.
Note: Desiderata earned Ehrmann his most fame posthumously. The poem was widely
published in numerous formats, in various languages. It also came to be released as a title track
in a namesake music album by Warner Brothers in 1971.
Desiderata : Line by Line Explanation
Stanza 1
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
The opening promises a realm of tranquility ahead. The world is loud and fast. It’s easy to be
overwhelmed by the sensory overload. Keep your calm or ‘Go placidly’ is what the poet advises.
Interestingly the poet asks us to ‘remember’ this peace, implying that this is not a new
experience. On occasion, everyone has felt a serenity when left alone in silence. Sometimes,
we forget to draw into this ‘peace’ when we get lost in the frenetic pace of our lives. Therefore
the reminder – Keep calm and cool off.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Simply, give respect and keep your respect. The poet speaks of being ‘on good terms with all
persons’ or getting along well with people. It is wise to play the diplomat. And who doesn’t like
being loved by everyone? But we owe it to ourselves not to shortchange our own principles and
beliefs. The poet notes that we might need to fight to do the right thing- ‘without surrender’. Life
is never neat. The poet understands the difficulty of the choices we face and that’s probably why
he says ‘as far as possible’. Try not to get on the wrong side of people while doing the right
thing.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
‘Truth’ here is the intimate sharing of one’s self- thoughts, experiences, feelings, ideas or
beliefs. The poet guides us to speak our truths ‘quietly and clearly’. ‘Quietly’ – allowing our truth
the dignity it deserves while not imposing it on anyone. ‘Clearly’ so that those who genuinely
want to listen will take something of worth.
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
It takes courage to speak up. It takes an open mind to listen – a different sort of courage. The
poet asks us to give others the respect that we would expect for ourselves. He points out that
even people who seem dull or ignorant have their own hidden stories. It’s not necessary you’ll
gain insights from every conversation you have, but ‘listening’ keeps us humbled and aware.
Stanza 2
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
Throughout the poem Desiderata, we see an emphasis on staying calm. The poet believes this
to be vital in achieving peace. Loud and aggressive people can give out unhealthy vibes, stirring
feelings of stress and restlessness around them. They seek to dominate and become ‘Vexations
to the spirit’ – or distressing to the soul. You are the company you keep. The reactions these
people provoke will simply disturb your equilibrium. Hence, the poet advises to best avoid such
people if inner peace is the reader’s goal.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Be content with who you are. The poet advises not to evaluate our worth through comparisons
with every other person. If you see yourself as better, misplaced pride would make you
arrogant. If you perceive yourself as inferior, chances are you’ll likely turn resentful and petty.
Bottom line, stay true to yourself. You have to be your own biggest critic and your own biggest
fan.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Perhaps one of the most subtle ways anyone has said ‘Don’t rest on your laurels’. The poet tells
us to allow ourselves credit where it is due – ‘enjoy your achievements’. Savoring the fruits of
one’s labor makes the effort worth it. Yet at the same time, he tells us to enjoy our ‘plans’. This
is a gentle nudge to go onward, plan ahead to move onto greater things; don’t just rest on past
achievements.
Stanza 3
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
A career is essentially what you choose to do with your entire life. Regardless of what work you
choose, the poet asks us to ‘keep interested’. Taking an active interest in your work ensures
that your work remains interesting. Inevitably it leads to excellence. In the ‘changing fortunes of
time’, one never knows what Fate has in store. Excellence in what you do and finding joy in
doing it become invaluable in good times or bad. This is ‘a real possession’ or asset of real
value.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
The poet’s words are a warning. Be discreet and keep your own counsel in matters of income
and work. There are people who would manipulate a person’s opportunities, strengths and
weakness or failures to their benefit. The world can be a scheming place and you should not
give your faith blindly. You never know who will take advantage of your reputation or your
earnings. Be on guard and keep your counsel secret is what the poet is trying to say.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
The world might be a tricky place, but as the poet points out – there is also another side to it.
You can find heroism in equal measure. Angels walk alongside the demons. There are people
with morals and values – those who ‘strive for high ideals’. In watching your back, the poet
counsels, don’t ignore the people who have got your back – who are there to support you. As
the poem reads, ‘let this not blind you to what virtue there is’. Give your trust and respect to
people who have earned it.
Stanza 4
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Be true to your heart. Disney has built an entire franchise on this concept, not to mention how
many other brands. Cliché this may be, it is still a challenge. Peer pressure, society’s
expectations and the need for acceptance are realities that we constantly face. For peace in
your heart, do not fake your feelings- ‘do not feign affection’.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Being ’cynical about love’ means to be distrustful or mocking about the existence of love. True
Love when found, is eternal. It is ‘as perennial as the grass’ – it does not die after a specified
period of time. Even when faced with tough and hopeless conditions – ‘aridity and
disenchantment’, love will happen if it has to happen. The poet’s idea behind the use of grass as
a metaphor is that like grass, love is unconditional – it does not require any special treatment or
season to grow.
Stanza 5
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
The poet portrays Age as a teacher here. Each of the years we live makes us wiser through all
we live through. ‘Counsel of the years’ includes our own individual experiences as well as the
experience and wisdom of the elders. On the other hand, youth is marked by inexperience,
passion and restlessness. When people are young, they are often guided by impulsion. The
poet here urges us to give up those emotions of the youth and be guided by the wisdom that
mankind has gathered over the ages. Use of the words ‘kindly’ and ‘gracefully’ reminds us to
stay humble to life’s lessons without losing our dignity.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
‘Strength of spirit’ is an inner force that is your own. Nurturing this strength is a disciplined
decision to build character. To the poet, this is important because it allows only you to be in
charge of your life and happiness. Especially when trouble strikes, more often than not we are
caught unawares. Help then is not usually available readily. In times like this, the strength of
spirit that you cultivated will stand you in good stead. You are not helpless or at another’s
mercy. You know that you can rely on yourself.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Sometimes our minds can be our worst enemy. The poet speaks of ‘dark imaginings’ or
negative thoughts that could come from unnecessary worrying, distrust or anger. The poem
identifies the root of most fears stemming from tiredness and isolation. Therefore he directs us
to consciously steer away from depressing situations and rein our minds in. The ‘strength of
spirit’ the poet just spoke about particularly comes in handy here.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
This is a question of setting standards. The poet is discerning enough to mention a ‘wholesome’
discipline. That refers to a code of conduct needed to promote our overall moral well-being.
Then again, the poet reminds us that we are human. Life being the unpredictable teacher that it
is, can push us into grey areas – circumstances where a rigid adherence to our principles may
not be possible. Then the poet reminds you to ‘be gentle with yourself’ – don’t be too hard on
yourself. When life demands, we must find the grace to forgive ourselves and take comfort
knowing we did our best in a particular situation.
Stanza 6
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
Sure, there is a bit of philosophical dreaminess to these lines of ‘Desiderata’. But the meaning is
still undeniable. When the poet says ‘you are a child of the universe’, he is reminding you that
you are part of a bigger world than you can imagine. Scientifically speaking, on a cellular level,
you are comprised of pretty much the same elements as the world around you – primarily
carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen. The universe nourishes you with what you require much
the same way as it nurtures other beings – right from living things like the trees to nonliving
entities like the stars.
The words ‘You have a right to be here’ are profound. No one wills themselves into existence.
Each of us were meant to be because of the designs of nature and fate. Therefore, we all have
our parts to play. By reminding us of our right to be here, the poet is asking us to appreciate our
place in the world and not belittle ourselves or our fellow entities with whom we share the
universe.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Who are we to grasp the significance of our lives in the great scheme of things? The poet is
trying to make us realize that we cannot control everything. We are but tiny specks –
infinitesimal beings in this vast universe. We cannot presume to know or fathom the logic or
pattern that the universe is working on. Seemingly unrelated events have their own significance,
becoming cause and consequence in their own right – ‘the universe is unfolding as it should’.
Stanza 7
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
Though the working of this universe is beyond our control, the poet is helping us find an anchor.
The clue is in the verse ‘Peace with God’. This means to submit to God and let things run their
course. Don’t fret on things beyond your control.
Understanding that God means different things to each person – ‘whatever you conceive Him to
be’, the poet reaches out to a broad audience, making God more accessible. At a personal
level, God represents the being that makes you face your feelings, examine your actions and
keep your hopes alive. In short, He is the being whom your inner compass – your conscience –
converses with.
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
Life is a jumble — organized and muddled, predictable and random, joyful and sad. Sometimes
one after the other, other times all at once. Then add the tangle of the way our lives crisscross
with others’. You get the poet’s picture of the ‘noisy confusion of life’.
Our thoughts and deeds (labors and aspirations) are reactions to the contradictory situations
and roles Life throws at us. Ideally these should be in sync with our souls. The ‘soul’ is your
deepest self – who you are. Yet who you become is sometimes at odds with who you want to
be. Listening to your inner self and staying true to your heart are important to keep the inner
peace intact.
Stanza 8
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Don’t lose sight of the beauty of the world. Sure, bad things happen. The poet admits there are
fraud (sham), drudgery (boring, hard work) and unfulfilled dreams. No one can pretend
otherwise. But the sweeter parts of Life are also a reality that need to be acknowledged. The
poet does not want the bad bits to blind the reader to the good that exists side by side. The
world is truly a beautiful place, if you will allow yourself to see it.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
In the final word, less is more. Few simple words to provide the most impact. The poet of
‘Desiderata’ tells us to ‘be cheerful; strive to be happy’ – look for the bright side of life. Count
your blessings. There is a lot in life to be grateful for. There are things to look forward to.
The Spider And The Fly By Mary Howitt: Poem Analysis
Introduction
Do you listen to your ‘spider sense’? That tingling instinct warning you when something doesn’t
seem quite right. It’s a feeling not easily explained, but worth regarding. Especially in a world
where not everything is what it looks like. More often than not, ignoring those stay-safe instincts
and good common sense doesn’t end well.
Now just because this is a dark topic, doesn’t mean that our approach has to be dark too.
There’s a lot of interesting work in the form of satires, black comedies, observational comedies
and other genres that allow us to look at serious things in life through not-so-serious eyes.
Humor used like this is like bitter medicine taken with sugar – helps things go down easier.
Today’s piece, ‘The Spider and the Fly’ is a funny little serious piece in this vein. The poem
takes us through a spider’s ultimately successful attempts in enticing a fly into its web. Now, if
only that fly would have kept listening to her ‘spider sense’…
Written by Mary Howitt in the 19th century, The Spider and the Fly is a cautionary fable that falls
in this dark humor category. As most fables go, it anthropomorphizes characters to convey
moral lessons. Anthropomorphism means to endow a non-human character with human traits
and behaviors. For example, throughout the poem, we see the spider’s web described with
features as in a normal human house. We see a pantry, bed, mirror, stairs and so on. These
human touches also serve as metaphors giving the poem an absurd relatability that makes its
moral lesson more memorable.
The poem syntax itself isn’t all too complicated. It follows a strict aabbcc scheme where the
couplets (2 line verses) rhyme. Since it was tailored keeping children in mind, a lot of focus is
put on visual imagery and easy sounds. Here are a few examples of the techniques we see
used to this effect:
Repetition: Where words are repeated together. It is used extensively throughout the poem for
emphasis and drama.
Line 5: “O no, no!”
Line 30: “Come hither, hither, pretty fly…”
Lines 36-37: Thinking only of her brilliant eyes, and green and purple hue;
Thinking only of her crested head — poor foolish thing!
Alliteration: Repetition of initial consonant sounds.
Line 7: soaring up so high (‘s’ sound or sibilance)
Line 19: You’re witty and you’re wise! (‘w’ sound)
Consonance: Repetition of similar consonant sounds in neighboring words.
Line 2: “’Tis the prettiest little parlor” – (‘t’ sound)
Line 16: “I’m sure you’re very welcome; will you please to take a slice?” (‘v/w’ sound)
Line 42: idle, silly, flattering talk (‘l’ sound)
Assonance: Repetition of similar vowel sounds.
Line 2: “’Tis the prettiest little parlor” – (‘i’ sound)
Line 9: curtains drawn around (‘aw’ sound)
The poet has also used elision (omission of a sound or syllable) occasionally like in ne’er,
you’re, I’ve, you’ll etc. to maintain the rhythm by dropping a syllable wherever necessary.
The Spider and the Fly: stanza wise analysis
Stanza 1
Will you walk into my parlor?” said the spider to the fly;
“’Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy.
The way into my parlor is up a winding stair,
And I have many pretty things to show when you are there.”
Thus begins the spider’s pursuit of the fly – with a charming invitation into his home. Yet this
sociable chat is edged with a sense of mistrust, a sense of danger that comes with these two
characters, the spider and the fly, being natural predator and prey.
Pay close attention to the spider’s words. The spider describes his parlor as the ‘prettiest little
parlor that ever you did spy’. The act of spying is to watch something secretly. We share secrets
and confidences with our close ones. Inviting the fly to spy into his abode, the spider is trying to
send the message that he considers the fly to be close. See how the spider portrays his home
as a mysterious wonderful place. More details are added to arouse the fly’s curiosity. The parlor
may be reached through a ‘winding stair’ and it is filled with ‘many pretty things’.
“O no, no,” said the little fly, “to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.”
Thankfully, the fly wisely sees through the spider’s deviousness. She knows that those who go
through the ‘winding stair’ into his home never come out. It implies she is aware that the spider
has eaten his previous guests. This is one extended invitation she shouldn’t be accepting. She
clearly declines, telling the spider that to ask her into his home is ‘in vain’ – or useless.
Stanza 2
“I’m sure you must be weary, dear, with soaring up so high;
Will you rest upon my little bed?” said the spider to the fly.
“There are pretty curtains drawn around, the sheets are fine and thin,
And if you like to rest awhile, I’ll snugly tuck you in.”
The spider has been keeping a close eye on the fly. He tries a different tactic for his next move.
This time the spider feigns concern.
Posing as a sympathizer, the spider pretends to fret over how tired the fly must be (I’m sure you
must be weary, dear) after what he feels is a day of intense flying. He goes so far as to
personally offer her a respite from the day’s activities. The cunning villain also adds a subtle
dose of flattery. ‘Soaring up so high’ is how he describes the fly’s flight. He hopes the fly will
lower her guard if she feels that she has a kindly shoulder to lean on.
And how temptingly he offers his prospect of a little rest like offering water to a thirsty traveler. A
cozy little bed, with light sheets to rest on. A quiet place, with pretty curtains drawn around to
make it cool and dark. To an exhausted person, this would be a bliss. The perfect atmosphere
to ‘snugly tuck’ in. This means to ensure a comfortable snooze, by securing the bedsheets
closely around oneself.
Interestingly, the ‘fine and thin’ sheets bring to mind the fine silk of a cobweb. If the spider tucks
the fly into this bed, she could find herself in permanent slumber.
“O no, no,” said the little fly, “for I’ve often heard it said,
They never, never wake again, who sleep upon your bed.”
Then again, perhaps the spider tried too hard when he proposed to personally tuck the fly in.
Weary or not, the fly is still alert to the perils of falling for the spider’s flattery. She turns him
down on his own offer, remarking that everyone knows of the spider’s ill repute as a host. As
she hears, no one who goes for a sleepover at the spider’s, ever wakes up again. Her refusal is
not just based on her own observations now.
This time, she is even more firm. In addition to her “O no, no!” note her repetition of ‘never’ for
emphasis- “They never, never wake again, who sleep upon your bed.”
Stanza 3
Said the cunning spider to the fly, “Dear friend, what shall I do,
To prove the warm affection I’ve always felt for you?
I have within my pantry good store of all that’s nice;
I’m sure you’re very welcome; will you please to take a slice?”
Still the spider perseveres. Now he tries to manipulate the fly into feeling guiltyfor not accepting
his many gestures of friendship.
“Dear friend, what shall I do…? Here’s the catch though- the spider is eager to prove his
friendship – but is still on his terms. At the end of the day, he’s using guilt as another
roundabout way to get the fly into his ​home.“I​ have within my pantry good store of all that’s
nice”– These constant invitations to see or sample something or another in his house is almost
a pitiful refrain. He is desperate and at his wit’s end (or so it seems) on how to gain the fly’s
trust.
“O no, no,” said the little fly, “kind sir, that cannot be;
I’ve heard what’s in your pantry, and I do not wish to see.”
It’s commendable the way the fly fights politeness with politeness. She addresses the spider as
‘Kind sir’ – a dainty reply to his ‘Dear friend’. It shows that while the fly shows courtesy to the
spider, she is not keen on him as a friend and will still keep her distance. The fly then proceeds
to firmly turn down his invitation and tactfully alludes that she already knows what’s in the
spider’s pantry (his past victims) and is not interested in knowing more.
Stanza 4
“Sweet creature!” said the spider, “You’re witty and you’re wise!
How handsome are your gauzy wings, how brilliant are your eyes!
I have a little looking-glass upon my parlor shelf,
If you’ll step in one moment, dear, you shall behold yourself.”
Vanity is the spider’s choice weapon now. He heaps flattery on the fly. In praising her wit and
wisdom, the spider sends the message that he acknowledges that the fly is a smart cookie. This
well-placed compliment could have lulled her into a false sense of security, for the fly could
assume that she was smart enough to see through the spider’s evil plans. And the enemy
himself admitting this – heady praise indeed!
Immediately after, the spider begins to praise her loveliness – those gauzy wings and brilliant
eyes. The spider speaks as if the fly does not realize her own beauty. He wants to show her
how lovely she is. Again an invitation, to see herself in the looking glass. One moment is all he
asks of her, one moment is all he needs.
It’s something to note that until now, the spider used to ask for the fly’s consideration – Will you
walk into my parlor? Will you rest upon my little bed? Will you please to take a slice? But this
time he’s not asking. His temptation takes the form of a suggestion. It’s almost as if there is a
strategy to these tactics he uses.
“I thank you, gentle sir,” she said, “for what you’re pleased to say,
And bidding you good-morning now, I’ll call another day.”
You sense the change in tone. From the earlier unhesitating “O no, no!” our little fly doesn’t
seem too vehement in her refusal now. True, she hasn’t accepted the spider’s invite; we could
even say she is stalling. After all, the fly still hasn’t specified when she will visit the spider. But
while she hasn’t said yes, she hasn’t given an outright ‘no’ like she used to earlier either.
This hesitation from the fly and not an outright falling for the spider’s flattery is an insight into the
poet’s understanding of the human psyche. Very rarely do people change their stances/opinions
suddenly unless something drastic occurs. This juncture is also a kind of watershed moment
where the reader senses that the fly may actually be warming up to the spider. It also creates
suspense – will the fly fall for the spider or will she stand by her better instincts?
Stanza 5
The spider turned him round about, and went into his den,
For well he knew the silly fly would soon be back again:
So he wove a subtle web, in a little corner sly,
And set his table ready to dine upon the fly.
After all that talk of the fly being witty and wise, we now see what the spider actually thinks of
the fly – he calls her ‘silly’. Like so many others he has lured before, he is confident that she
has predictably fallen for his honey tongued scheme. Up until now, just like the fly, we had our
suspicions – the fly’s discomfort, her observations on the guests that never return, the rumors
about the spider, the spider’s continuous wheedling to come to his home. But it is at this point in
the poem, that the spider’s evil intent becomes clear.
While we may still be guessing as to whether the fly will stay away, the spider seems to be in no
doubt of the outcome (For well he knew the silly fly would soon be back again). You can literally
see him gloating. He weaves a web not easily noticeable (a subtle web) – ready to trap the fly.
His devious plan comes to light as he sets his table for the fly – not as his guest to dine with, but
as his feast to dine on.
Then he came out to his door again, and merrily did sing
“Come hither, hither, pretty fly, with the pearl and silver wing:
Your robes are green and purple; there’s a crest upon your head;
Your eyes are like the diamond bright, but mine are dull as lead.”
‘Come hither, hither, pretty fly,’ the spider calls out eagerly. Feeling like he has baited his prey,
the spider rapidly reels the fly in with vivid flattery. The ‘robes of green and purple’ refer to the
color of the fly’s body, the ‘crest’ or crown likely the fly’s antenna. ‘Gauzy wings’ have now
become ‘pearl and silver wing’; ‘brilliant eyes’ are now ‘eyes like diamond bright’. More exquisite
detail follows – in fact, you’ll be hard pressed to find a fly described so tantalizingly anywhere
else.
Note the use of simile here. The poet likens the fly’s bright eyes to diamonds, against the
spider’s dull eyes which are compared to lead. The spider is self-depreciating so as to highlight
the fly’s beauty.
Stanza 6
Alas, alas! how very soon this silly little fly,
Hearing his wily flattering words, came slowly flitting by.
‘Alas, Alas!’ – The poetic lament for ‘Oh no!’ is uttered! With these words, one can only foresee
doom for the fly. What’s even more vexing is that the fly was actually a wise creature at the
beginning. But as the poet says Alas! – Vanity will be her downfall and she becomes silly and
foolish. Lured in by the spider’s devious sweet talk – his ‘wily, flattering words’– the fly sets
aside her sensible self. Yet, there’s still a part of her that is wary of how safe the situation is. We
see her ‘slowly flitting by ’– guardedly testing the waters as she comes closer to the spider’s
home.
With buzzing wings she hung aloft, then near and nearer drew
Thinking only of her brilliant eyes, and green and purple hue;
Thinking only of her crested head — poor foolish thing! At last,
Up jumped the cunning spider, and fiercely held her fast.
He dragged her up his winding stair, into his dismal den,
Within his little parlor; but she ne’er came out again!
Our worst fears are realized. Mesmerized by thoughts of her reflection, she gradually
approaches the spider’s web. Unheeding her instincts, the fly hardly offers any resistance. Note
the lines where the poet repeatedly stresses how the fly is ‘thinking only of her…’ Clearly
engrossed in her own beauty, the fly is impervious to the danger she is in.
This was the moment the spider had been building up so long for. Quickly, he pounces on her –
‘fiercely held her fast’. Now deadly and focused on his goal, the spider wastes no time. The
home that he had so charmingly described before reveals its deadly designs. As the poem
rapidly takes us through the spider’s winding stair, his dismal den, his little parlor; our foreboding
is realized and we know there is a grisly end for the poor fly. For just like she remarked once of
the others before her, ‘she ne’er came out again!’
Consider the portion ‘at last’. It is an example of enjambment and is the only such line that
occurs in the poem. Enjambment is a poem composition technique where a verse breaks
midway to continue as the next line of verse. So you see the ‘at last‘ portions serves a dual
purpose. It can be read as a common part of 2 sentences in this case:
…poor foolish thing! At last — The fly finally fell victim to the ​spider.At​ last, Up jumped the
cunning spider — The spider finally achieved his goal.
Stanza 7
And now, dear little children, who may this story read,
To idle, silly, flattering words, I pray you ne’er give heed;
Unto an evil counselor close heart, and ear, and eye,
And take a lesson from this tale of the Spider and the Fly.
There’s a change in the narration style of the poem as the poet ends her tale. She breaks off
from the storytelling mode and directly addresses her audience, offering up a warning or moral
to conclude the poem.
‘Take a lesson from the Spider and the Fly’, the poet counsels. Be distrustful of useless, sweet
talk that is insincere. Not all praise or advice is genuine, therefore you must be careful of who
you listen to. ‘Unto an evil counselor close heart, and ear, and eye’ – For that matter, the poet
would rather like us not coming into contact at all with sweet tongued people with not-so-sweet
intentions.
Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold: Summary and Analysis
“Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold: About the Poem
English Victorian poet Matthew Arnold’s most famous poem “Dover Beach” is a dramatic
monologue where the poet expresses his frustration and hopelessness of the modern chaotic
world. He also expresses his view that this kind of situation where there is “neither joy, nor love,
nor light, / nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain” has been created by the decline of ‘faith’,
religious faith to be precise.
The poem begins with a straightforward description of nature and the speaker calling his
beloved to see the beautiful sea and to hear the sound of the waves. The setting is inside a
room, may be a hotel, on the coast of the English Channel near the English town Dover. The
speaker and his beloved are looking outside their window at the French coast across the sea.
So, at the beginning it would seem to be a love poem, or even a sonnet, as the first stanza
consists of fourteen lines like a sonnet, with a change of tone at the ninth line as it should be the
case for a sonnet. But, obviously, the rhyme scheme does not comply.
It is only in the fourteenth line of the poem that the readers are introduced to some serious
thoughts with the “eternal note of sadness”. The unpleasant roar of the waves brings a sense of
melancholy to the speaker’s mind. In the second stanza the speaker is reminded of the ancient
Greek playwright Sophocles who also heard the sounds of the Aegean Sea and then wrote
tragedies on human misery. In the next stanza, the speaker laments the lack of faith in the
modern society. Here he compares faith with the receding tides. In the last stanza of ‘Dover
Beach’, the speaker urges his ladylove to “be true to one another” as the new world, that seems
to be so beautiful apparently, does not evoke much hope for him.
To talk about the stylistic aspects of the poem, the lines are mostly rhyming. The poem consists
of 37 lines and is divided into four unequal stanzas. Use of enjambment (continuation of a
clause or sentence to the next line of a poem) gives the poem faster pace.
Example: The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone;…
It is also rich in the use of visual and auditory images while describing the sea and the waves.
Example:
On the French coast the light gleams and is gone; (visual imagery)
… the sea meets the moon-blanched land, (visual imagery)
you hear the grating roar of pebbles (auditory imagery)
… tremulous cadence slow, (auditory imagery)
Metaphor has been used in the line “The sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full, and round
earth’s shore“. And there’s a Simile in the line “Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.”
Line-by-line Explanation of “Dover Beach“
First Stanza
The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits;
It is night. The calm and quiet sea is filled with water at the time of high-tide. The moon is
shining brightly (fair) upon the narrow English channel (straits).
…on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Our speaker is staring at the French coast some twenty miles away on the other side of the
channel. He sees the light on the French coast gleaming. And now, as the light has gone off, he
concentrates on the English shore instead. The famous cliffs (steep rocks on the sea shore) of
Dover stand tall with their large wavering reflections in the quiet sea.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
The speaker asks his mistress to come to the window to enjoy the sweet night-air coming from
where the sea meets the moonlit land of France.
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
He now asks her to listen to the continuous and irritating (grating) sound of the pebbles drawn
by the waves. The waves are drawing the stones backward to the sea and then again throwing
(fling) them back onto high shore (strand) on their return journey.
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
The sound of the waves begins and stops, and again begins. The trembling rhythm continues
slowly. But now, it brings the eternal note of sadness — the monotonous rhythm of the waves
makes the speaker depressed. The tone of the poem now changes from cheerful to melancholy.
Second Stanza
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The speaker is now reminded that Sophocles also heard the same sound sitting on the shore of
the Aegean Sea. That brought to his (Sophocles’) mind the picture of human sufferings like
muddy water (turbid) going in and out (ebb and flow).
Our speaker has also found a feeling of sadness hearing similar sound beside the northern sea
(The Strait of Dover is between the English Channel and the North Sea.) far away from
Sophocles’ Aegean Sea.
Third Stanza
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
Human Faith, the religious faith and faith in fellow people once covered the earth like sea water.
It was at its fullest as the tide is now. Faith covered the earth like the folds of a bright girdle
folding (furled) well. The comparison suggests that it was not loose, but tightly attached to this
world. It was the time when faith made everything easy and solved many problem, made people
united and brought meaning to life.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
The speaker regrets that those days are now past. Faith is fading away from the society just like
the wave is from the shore. Now he only hears the sorrowful roar of the retreating steps of faith
with the receding tides. It only leaves behind the chill night wind whistling (breath) over the
desolate beach with dull (drear) edges of the cliffs and raw (naked) pebbles (shingles). The poet
here creates a fearful picture of the underlying nakedness of the colourful modern world.
Fourth Stanza
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
The desolate speaker now again turns to his beloved and urges her to be faithful to each other.
The dreamy modern world which seems so beautiful with its varieties, is not really a source of
joy, love, light, certainty, peace or help for pain for the speaker. This chaotic artificial world
doesn’t induce much hope for him.
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
Now the speaker compares this world to a dark place where we are completely unaware of what
we are doing. We are in a confused struggle as if ignorant soldiers are fighting with each other
in the darkness. This is Matthew Arnold’s assessment of the morally corrupted modern world full
of vanity.
Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold... summary
The popular poem "Dover Beach" is a famous lyric poem. It is written by the Famous English
poet Matthew Arnold. It was published in 1867 in the "New Poem." This poem has an
autobiographical note in it. It is an elegy giving expression to the poet's own sadness and
problems in life. The poet expresses here his own doubts related to life. He saw miseries and
pains of people in this world. He has given expression to his own doubts and disbelieves in the
poem. He found relief in true love only. The poemDover Beach is an excellent work of Matthew
Arnold. It is an elegy expressing the misery and sorrows of human beings. An elegy is a poem
expressing sorrow on something. It is judged by its theme or subject matter and not by its meter
or stanza form.
Analysis
In this poem, the poet expresses his deep sorrow for human beings In this world. Only love can
give relief to human beings from their suffering. There is everywhere sorrow in the world. Nature
also suffers from this misery. This poem is set nearDover, along with the Southeast coast of
England. It is said that Arnold and his wife spent their honeymoon here in 1851.
In this poem, the poet is standing alone on the beach at Dover. It is the night time. The moon is
shining brightly in the sky. The rise and fall of the sea are on full swings. It is not a dark night. It
is a full moon night. Everything is visible in the moonlight. The white steeps rocks, huge and big
are dimly visible in the moonlight. The sand on the beach is also looking wight due to moonlight
falling on it. And the moonlight is also falling on the narrow passages of sea water. The poet
says that there is a silence in the atmosphere at night. There is a serious calmness everywhere
in the atmosphere. The poet thinks that there is everything seeming beautiful outside but inside
there are many problems and sorrows. Even nature is also suffering from the loneliness and
sorrows.
There is everyone looking calm outside but in reality, they have a great pain inside. It is really
very painful for the people and the world. Here poet request Marguerite or miss Wightman to
come to the window to view the beauty of the beach. The moonlight is scattering everywhere on
the beach.
So the poet requests his wife to see this beauty. The air is full of fragrance blowing at night. The
scene of the beach is really looking very pleasant. Every object of nature is calm and quiet. But
only a harsh and rough sound is coming from the sea. Because it caused by the rise and fall of
the sea waves. This harsh sound is created by the rise and fall of the sea waves. and It disturbs
the peace of the beach. This harsh sound symbolizes internal sadness of the human beings in
the world.
The thrilling sound is echoed by the pebbles. In other words, this world is full of miseries and
sorrow. Everybody is disturbed internally but look fine outside. The sound of the grating pebbles
is the symbol of sighs and grief of human beings. Here the poet expresses his feelings that here
the atmosphere is very calm and beautiful but a harsh voice of falling pebbles is disturbing the
atmosphere. Like this, the world is also full of beauty and comfort outside but If you look
internally there are many problems in the life of human beings.
The voice coming from the rise and fall of the pebbles is the symbol of the human miseries
hidden in the in the soul of the people. In fact, nature is also suffering from this misery inside
and express his sorrow through this harsh voice. Thus the life of human beings is full of sorrow
and happiness.
Now poet thinks about a great Greek tragedian, named Sophocles, the poet further says that
Sophocles was also once inspired by the Aegean sea to think over the miseries of human life. It
indicates that the sea has ever been a source of inspiration to the philosophers to think over the
problems of human beings.
Now the poet observes the calmness of the atmosphere and also the harsh sound coming from
the pebbles. the poet says that the sound caused by the waves striking against the pebbles is
still a great source of inspiration. It symbolizes the miseries of the people in this world. There is
no happiness in this world. Even the objects of nature are sufferings from loneliness and
miseries. The poet again says that only human beings seem to be sad but also the objects of
nature seem full of sorrow.
The elegiac note is remarkable in the poemDover Beach. and poet observes that the life is full
of pain and sufferings. The man never enjoys it. A man works hard but he cannot get true
happiness out of it. Happiness is an internal feeling of human beings. It cannot be got from
outside worldly objects.
Now the poet compares faith to the sea. The poet further says that there was a time when faith
played an important role in this world. Just as sea acts as a circle around the earth. Faith also
dominated the hearts of all human beings on the earth. But now It has faded from the hearts of
people because of growing doubts and disbelieving. Now It is departing itself from the world and
is producing miseries in the world.
The poet again points out that there was a time when there was faith in the heart of everyone
but now It has departed itself. And in place of faith doubts has taken place in the heart of human
beings Now people have no faith in others. Asceticism and doubts have taken place of faith.
There is no harmony among them. Therefore people are not happy even lonely in this crowded
place.
The poet addresses his beloved saying that this world is full of sorrow. Love is like a light in the
darkness of sorrows and miseries. The poet points out that this world seems very charming and
attractive extremely but internally It does not give joy and happiness to the people. It offers
nothing that can give permanent joy to them.
It has neither joy nor hope nor light. It is an illusion. The poet says that the only thing to give the
people comfort in this world is true love. True love gives people support to be strong in bad
situations. True love can relieve us of the sorrows and sufferings.
Arnold expresses the philosophy of life. He considers life full of criticism. The poet says that the
people in the world run after the luxuries and worldly things to get peace and happiness. They
totally ignore the reality of the world. They forget the reality of this world while achieving other
things but they do not know that these worldly things cannot give them inner peace and
happiness.
The poet further says that we all are living in the world of doubts, disbelief, confusions, and
struggles. This world is only full of extreme sorrows and miseries. It can not give us relief in the
hard times. Only true love may be the source of consolation in a hard time. The people are not
familiar with the realities of life. They are living in the darkness of ignorance. The minds of
people are filled with disbelief, doubts and miseries. So they have neither peace nor hope nor
joy in their life. If happiness can be achieved, It can be achieved through love only.
Birches by Robert Frost : Summary & Analysis
Birches by Robert Frost: About the poem
Robert Frost’s icy ‘Birches’ is more than just the fond ramblings of a nature lover. It is also a
personal quest to achieve balance between different worlds. Frost expresses this idea using
birch trees as an extended metaphor and the recurring motif of a lively lad climbing and
swinging down on them. By openly sharing his thoughts and feelings, Frost encourages the
reader to identify with the poem and seek out their own harmony. We deal with so many
expectations, realities and duties in our daily lives; sometimes we lose focus on the plain joy of
living. Birches then becomes relevant today, gently reminding us to find an oasis of calm and
refreshment that one can tap into when things get tough.
Birches, originally titled ‘Swinging on Birches’ was one of Frost’s early works published in 1916
— right in the middle of World War I. Behind its simple charm, there is a world weariness that
hints of the turmoil during that period, especially in the middle verses (Lines 11-17). Perhaps in
his own way, the poem was Frost’s attempt to soothe in troubled times — telling us to embrace
Life’s simple pleasures and find peace. It probably explains why the poet chose the theme of
escaping to transcendence— a state of existence that is better than the normal one.
Frost speaks as a friend sharing his inner self, adopting a first person conversation style. The
poem becomes a dramatic monologue — a steady one-person talk to another. There’s an
easygoing feel with a certain wistfulness, as the poet merges his current reality with his youthful
memories.
Structurally, Birches is a stichic — a poem with no stanza breaks. This gives the poem a free
flowing tone, enhanced with the use of enjambment — a style where verses break into the next
line without punctuation. The poem is chiefly written in blank verse— an unrhymed iambic
pentameter. Along with the beat in the words, Frost uses the sense of sound to add aural
(relating to sound) texture to the poem. We see techniques like:
Onomatopoeia — Words that mean what they sound.
They click upon themselves (Line 8)
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. (Line 10)
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish (Line 40)
Sibilance — Hissing sounds that come from words with s, z, sh and zh.
Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells (Line 11)
Consonance — Repetition of similar sounding consonant sounds in neighboring words.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
(Lines 44-48)
All in all, Frost may have had a special corner for the Birch trees themselves. In Fifty Poets: An
American Auto Anthology, he remarked that if an ark (In Christian belief a giant lifeboat that
housed one pair of earth’s living beings during the Great Flood) was sailing and Frost were
allowed to choose a single plant on board, he would select the birch tree. Thanks to the birches
playing muse to Frost, we have this charming poem that teaches us to look inside for
happiness. Hear the poem in Robert Frost’s own voice.
‘Birches’ : Explanation by Line
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.
But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay
As ice-storms do.
There is something almost playful about the Birches. Unlike their seemingly serious
counterparts — “lines of straighter, darker trees”— the birches do not conform, they are
scattered to left and right. Their odd angles trigger the poet’s imagination and he fancies that a
boy has been swinging about them. Then again, the poet’s rational side is aware that the bent
birches aren’t really the aftermath of a boy’s mischief; rather this is the work of an ice storm.
Reality might not lend itself to a delightful backstory, but it doesn’t lessen the beauty of the icy
birches either. Have a glimpse of what Frost saw in the winter birches.
Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Observe how the poet involves the reader in sharing experiences — “you must have seen
them”. The ice storm has created a silver thaw — a glaze caused by freezing rain on an
exposed surface. Stirred by the breeze, the fragile ice make clicking sounds against each other.
We see the birches filled with icy prisms, turning “many colored” as they refract the winter
sunlight. Birch-bark is scored with horizontal markings called ‘lenticels’ — these are the tree’s
pores. The poet compares the overall effect of the ice in the scored birch-bark to ‘enamel’ in
cracked glaze pottery.
Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
As the sun further softens the ice, the birches release a shower of ice crystals to the relatively
hard snow crust. We see brittleness with a hint of violence in the poet’s language — shattering,
avalanching, broken glass, fallen inner dome of heaven.
Old planetary models have the concept of Celestial spheres — an outdated belief that each
heavenly body was enclosed in spheres. More significantly, these were ‘imagination based’
concepts. Science proved otherwise. So when Frost says, “You’d think the inner dome of
heaven had fallen”, what he probably also means is that the factual world has crashed into his
imaginary world, represented by the inner dome of the celestial sphere. There is an internal
conflict as realism makes him shed his daydreams and reflections, indicated by the “heaps of
broken glass to sweep away”.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
… to dry in the sun.
Here, the poet contemplates the suppleness of the birches, thinking about endurance in the face
of Life’s struggles. “They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load” — Life can
sometimes weigh heavy on our creative selves forcing us closer to ground realities. The parallel
is seen in the birches bent heavy by ice towards the ‘withered bracken’, a type of fern that grows
at ground level. Still bent so much, the birches do not break. And yet because they are bent for
a long time, they are never quite the same — warning us of the danger of suppressing
ourselves.
Then as if to move away from the serious turn of his thoughts, the poet suddenly springs up an
aesthetic simile — a more direct form of comparison than a metaphor. Just for the sheer poetry
of it, the poet now compares the perennially bent birch trees to young girls sunning out their wet
hair. This is his rebellion — like the birch trees, he has to bow to reality, but he isn’t going to be
broken by it. He will bounce back. He does so by letting his artistic thoughts run wild.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
… could play alone.
We keep seeing the poet alternating between whimsy and practicality. But the lines here speak
of his willful choice on how he perceives the world. Despite Truth’s persistence, personified here
like an adult, prim, precise and more often than not, a fun spoiler; the poet prefers the whimsy.
The spunky lad of his imagination swings back into view. Out on an errand to bring back the
cows, the boy still finds the time and inspiration for pleasure. Even in this world, work is mixed
with play. We find our imaginary friend happily romping around the birches; not put out by
anything, whether it be the lack of playmates, special equipment, season or circumstance. Like
him, the poet too finds a carefree thrill in his own playground- his imagination. No excuses not to
have fun!
One by one he subdued his father’s trees
… I dream of going back to be.
Frost once remarked, “…it was almost sacrilegious climbing a birch tree till it bent, till it gave and
swooped to the ground, but that’s what boys did in those days”. Nostalgia fills these lines, as the
poet details the boy’s skill in climbing and swinging from the birches. We can sense the poet
reliving his childhood in his daydreams. There is also a subtext of becoming worldly wise here
where the boy practices and learns of aiming high, testing boundaries, knowing how much to
push, making the most of what’s at hand and Life’s other big little lessons.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
… come back to it and begin over.
The poet acknowledges his escapist tendencies. Sometimes Life gets tough and becomes “a
pathless wood” – another simile – with no guidance to ease the confusion or harshness along
the way. In times like this, the poet feels the need to take a break. He has “considerations” or
responsibilities, so physically leaving might not be an option. His mind provides an instant
vacation instead, offering a refresher before he gets down to tackle Life’s challenges again.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth’s the right place for love:
I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.
Be careful what you wish for – The poet becomes wary of his wishful thinking. Fate is
personified here, like a naughty sprite that could purposely twist the poet’s yearnings –
snatching him into a dream world with no point of return. Frost is clear that he doesn’t desire to
stay only in one world or the other. Love on earth anchors him and he cherishes the bonds that
hold him here.
I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
But the imaginative world still beckons. The birch trees call out to the poet, tempting him to
scale the heights of his imagination, towards the carefree bliss that is ‘heaven’–but still within
the borders of his sanity – “till the tree could bear no more”. Refreshed after touching this
glorious high point, the poet wants to land where he left from. The birch tree becomes the bridge
between two worlds, inviting us to touch the sky yet keeping us rooted at the same time.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.
Sometimes, it helps to take a breather. A mini holiday can energize your soul, giving you a
chance to unbend from life’s harshness. It may not be an actual get-away, but even the
imaginative world offers a powerful alternate reality. What’s important is that there is time to let
go of ourselves, to introspect. It is meaningful that the poet specifies ‘both’ when he says “That
would be good both going and coming back”. The ‘going’ offers one a chance to rejuvenate, the
“coming back” offers the relief of a lighter, if not fresher perspective to life. At the end of the day,
this poem is all about dealing with realities and still finding a happy place – even if it’s in your
mind, and even if it is as simple as swinging through birches in a winter wonderland.
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“Birches” Complete Text
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.
But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay
As ice storms do. Often you must have seen them 5
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells 10
Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust—
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed 15
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun. 20
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter of fact about the ice storm,
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows—
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball, 25
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father’s trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them, 30
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise 35
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground. 40
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs 45
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May not fate willfully misunderstand me 50
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth’s the right place for love:
I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.
I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk55
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.
Summary
When the speaker sees bent birch trees, he likes to think that they are bent because boys have
been “swinging” them. He knows that they are, in fact, bent by ice storms. Yet he prefers his
vision of a boy climbing a tree carefully and then swinging at the tree’s crest to the ground. He
used to do this himself and dreams of going back to those days. He likens birch swinging to
getting “away from the earth awhile” and then coming back.
Form
This is blank verse, with numerous variations on the prevailing iambic foot.
Commentary
The title is “Birches,” but the subject is birch “swinging.” And the theme of poem seems to be,
more generally and more deeply, this motion of swinging. The force behind it comes from
contrary pulls—truth and imagination, earth and heaven, concrete and spirit, control and
abandon, flight and return. We have the earth below, we have the world of the treetops and
above, and we have the motion between these two poles.
The whole upward thrust of the poem is toward imagination, escape, and transcendence—and
away from heavy Truth with a capital T. The downward pull is back to earth. Likely everyone
understands the desire “to get away from the earth awhile.” The attraction of climbing trees is
likewise universal. Who would not like to climb above the fray, to leave below the difficulties or
drudgery of the everyday, particularly when one is “weary of considerations, / And life is too
much like a pathless wood.” One way to navigate a pathless wood is to climb a tree. But this act
of climbing is not necessarily so pragmatically motivated: For the boy, it is a form of play; for the
man, it is a transcendent escape. In either case, climbing birches seems synonymous with
imagination and the imaginative act, a push toward the ethereal, and even the contemplation of
death.
But the speaker does not leave it at that. He does not want his wish half- fulfilled—does not
want to be left, so to speak, out on a limb. If climbing trees is a sort of push toward
transcendence, then complete transcendence means never to come back down. But this
speaker is not someone who puts much stock in the promise of an afterlife. He rejects the
self-delusional extreme of imagination, and he reinforces his ties to the earth. He says, “Earth’s
the right place for love,” however imperfect, though his “face burns” and “one eye is weeping.”
He must escape to keep his sanity; yet he must return to keep going. He wants to push
“[t]oward heaven” to the limits of earthly possibility, but to go too far is to be lost. The upward
motion requires a complement, a swing in the other direction to maintain a livable balance.
And that is why the birch tree is the perfect vehicle. As a tree, it is rooted in the ground; in
climbing it, one has not completely severed ties to the earth. Moreover, as the final leap back
down takes skill, experience, and courage, it is not a mere retreat but a new trajectory. Thus,
one’s path up and down the birch is one that is “good both going and coming back.” The “Truth”
of the ice storm does not interfere for long; for the poet looks at bent trees and imagines another
truth: nothing less than a recipe for how to live well.
“Birches”
A poem as richly textured as “Birches” yields no shortage of interpretations. The poem is whole
and lovely at the literal level, but it invites the reader to look below the surface and build his or
her own understanding. The important thing for the interpreter is to attune her reading to the
elements of the poem that may suggest other meanings. One such crucial element is the
aforementioned swinging motion between opposites. Notice the contrast between Truth and
what the speaker prefers to imagine happened to the birch trees. But also note that Truth, as
the speaker relates it, is highly figurative and imaginative: Ice storms are described in terms of
the “inner dome of heaven,” and bent trees as girls drying their hair in the sun. This sort of truth
calls into question whether the speaker believes there is, in fact, a capital-T Truth.
The language of the poem—the vocabulary and rhythms—is very conversational and, in parts,
gently humorous: “But I was going to say when Truth broke in / With all her matter of fact about
the ice storm.” But the folksiness does not come at the cost of accuracy or power; the
description of the post-ice storm birch trees is vivid and evocative. Nor is this poem isolated,
with its demotic vocabulary, from the pillars of poetic tradition. The “pathless wood” in line 44
enters into a dialogue with the whole body of Frost’s work—a dialogue that goes back to the
opening lines of Dante’s Inferno. And compare line 13 with these well-known lines from
Shelley’s elegy for Keats, “Adonais”: “Life, like a dome of many colour’d glass, / Stains the white
radiance of Eternity, / Until death tramples it to fragments.” In “Birches,” the pieces of heaven
shattered and sprinkled on the ground present another comparison between the imaginative
and the concrete, a description of Truth that undermines itself by invoking an overthrown, now
poetic scheme of celestial construction (heavenly spheres). Shelley’s stanza continues: “Die, / If
thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek.” Frost’s speaker wants to climb toward heaven
but then dip back down to earth—not to reach what he seeks but to seek and then swing back
into the orbit of the world.
Frost also imbues the poem with distinct sexual imagery. The idea of tree-climbing, on its own,
has sexual overtones. The following lines are more overt:
One by one he subdued his father’s trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer.
As are these more sensual:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
The whole process of birch swinging iterates that of sex, and at least one critic has noted that
“Birches” is a poem about erotic fantasy, about a lonely, isolated boy who yearns to conquer
these trees sexually. It is a testament to the richness of the poem that it fully supports readings
as divergent as those mentioned here—and many more.
Two more items to consider: First, reread the poem and think about the possible connections
between getting “away from the earth for awhile” (line 48) and death. Consider the viewpoint of
the speaker and where he seems to be at in his life. Secondly, when the speaker proclaims, in
line 52, “Earth’s the right place for love,” this is the first mention of love in the poem. Of what
kind of love does he speak? There are many kinds of love, just as there are many potential
objects of love. Try relating this love to the rest of the poem.
The darkling thrush Thomas Hardy
Published in December 1900, at the end of the 19th century, ‘The Darkling Thrush’ symbolically
mourns the passing of an era. In that respect, it is an elegy — a mournful poem that deals with
death — here, the death of the century. As a matter of fact, the poem was originally called ‘The
Century’s End, 1900’. But it was also the dawn of the 20th century. Probably giving way to his
guarded optimism about what the new age would bring, Hardy renamed the piece to the more
cheery title as we know today — The Darkling Thrush.
‘The Darkling Thrush’ is rich in metaphor. ‘Darkling’ means ‘of the darkness’, and conveys an
‘end of days’ metaphor. Here the dusk doesn’t just refer to the dimming of light. On a deeper
level, we deal with despair and death of the century. Add the winter landscape to this, and
things get more dismal.
Thankfully not all is doom and gloom. There is another focal point to this poem — the Thrush. A
complete antithesis (contrast) to what everything else in the poem represents, the bird speaks of
Hope, Joy and Change. This play of light and shade called chiaroscuro effect is treated equally
in the poem. All these are lofty concepts that go beyond our five senses. Such poems based on
abstract ideas are called abstractions.
Change is never easy. More often than not, we do not have a choice but to accept it. ‘The
Darkling Thrush’ is about one person’s reaction to this change. It is about hope in the face of
despair, about endings and cautious beginnings, about courage when all seems lost, depending
on the way you look at it.
Form and language of the poem
Hardy does not bring any drama with the structure and wordplay in the poem. He was seeing
enough of that in real life. Rather the poet chose to bring symmetry to the poem. He neatly
divides the poem in two halves, allocating 2 of the 4 stanzas for his two main subjects — the
winter evening, then the thrush. Each stanza is an octet— i.e. it comprises of 8 lines. Hardy
even coined his own words — outleant, blast-beruffled, spectre-grey, contributing to the ordered
meter/ rhythm of the poem. These words don’t occur anywhere else in the English language and
are called nonce words (Have fun coming up with your own).
We have an ababcdcd rhyme scheme; each stanza repeats the same pattern but with a
different end rhyme. The other sound devices used in the poem are:
Assonance: Repetition of similar vowel sounds.
At once a voice arose among (O and A sounds- Line 17)
Consonance: Repetition of similar consonant sounds in neighboring words.
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day (Lines 4-5)
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom. (Lines 24-28)
Alliteration: Repetition of initial consonant sounds.
That I could think there trembled through (Line 29)
His crypt the cloudy canopy, (Line 11)
Alliteration is a type of consonance. Here is an instance where the two overlapped:
In blast-beruffled plume (Line 25)
Consonance (L sound) + Alliteration (B sound)
The Darkling Thrush: Line by Line Explanation
First Stanza
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The poet paints a somber picture of the world. The mood feels lonely and meditative, the
speaker watching as a silent bystander leaning upon the coppice gate — a gate that opens onto
the woods. In his loneliness, the poet has personified Winter and Frost. Frost is described as
‘specter–grey’ or ghost-like grey. The Winter’s dregs — the fallen snow and heavy fog — are
making the twilight/ dusk (the weakening eye of day) look desolate. So, as you can see, the
Winter and the Frost are bleak company — they cannot arouse any sense of cheerfulness.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires
Climbing plants, dead for winter, have left behind only their climbing stems or bine stems. They
add to the gloominess as the poem compares them to the simile of strings of broken lyres (a
musical instrument) notching the sky. This comparison is also important in suggesting the lack
of music or happiness for that matter.
Even people seem listless and haunting, instead of living their lives. Then people going home
and seeking their household fires add to the image of the gloomy end of the day. There is no
vibrancy in life or color.
Second Stanza
The land’s sharp features seemed to be
The Century’s corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
Winter in the Northern Hemisphere is also the end of the year. Here it becomes even more
meaningful, as the end of the year in this case also marks the end of the century. This is why
the century is personified as a corpse; the harsh winter landscape defining its wasted body. The
‘cloudy canopy’ or sky covers the century’s tomb and the sad wind becomes a song of death.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
In winter, Nature is generally at a standstill. Life’s vibrancy (ancient pulse of germ and birth)
seems to have stopped (shrunken hard and dry). The dormant environment feeds the poet’s
brooding frame of mind. The scale of his pessimism increases. Dull observations escalate to a
despairing mindset and the poet only sees a world without promise or future.
Third Stanza
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
Suddenly, like the proverbial silver lining to dark clouds, a joyful song breaks into the poet’s
despairing outlook from among the frosty twigs overhead. The poet calls the thrush’s melody a
‘full-hearted evensong’ — prayers sung at the end of the day, in the evening. The song was
coming out of boundless joy. Look at the use of word ‘illimited’, suggesting something
uncommon.
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
But who was it singing? It was an old thrush bird — feeble, lean and small, with its feathers
disarranged by the wind (blast-beruffled). Though the thrush’s appearance does not arouse any
hope, heedless of the oppressive environment and the growing darkness — the mark of
struggling to survive in winter — the thrush sings. The bird puts his soul into his voice as he
belts out a happy tune to no one but the Eternal Listener (Remember the word ‘evensong’, a
prayer?).
Though the title of the poem suggested that it was all about a thrush, it took two and a half
stanzas to get to the first mention of the bird. But still, the thrush and its song seem to overcome
the initial melancholy that the atmosphere brought even to the readers.
Fourth Stanza
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
No one knows what inspires the darkling thrush singing (compared to singing Christmas carols).
The ‘ecstatic sound’ of the thrush is in complete contrast to such a hopeless situation. The poet
cannot think of any earthly event or cause, near or far away that could be responsible.
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
The thrush’s song is an enigma, and the poet marvels at the blessed Hope or knowledge the
bird has. There are no straight answers. Does the thrush sing a song of farewell — a hymn of
gratitude for the good things that have been? Or does he sing a song of hope — a reassurance
of good things that are to come? Like the poet, we can only wonder, keep our hearts open and
just be glad that there is a reason to be happy at all.