Time In W. H. Auden's Poetry
How does Auden explore time in his poems? W. H. Auden introduces time in his poems in numerous forms, from a historical point of view, a lover’s point or view or even from a critical point of view. However in this essay I will study how, in his work, Auden explores time with the idea of movement. Time is a main factor in the development of his poems, it can go fast, slow or be suspended and he really inquires into those states. First of all, in his poems Auden describes both still and scenes in motion. In order to express time passing, we can notice that he describes actions, with verbs of movement that place those actions in time. Indeed, in the poem “Stop all the clocks” there can be found imperative action verbs such as “cut off”, “prevent” …show more content…
In “As I walked out one evening”, time passing is clearly asserted from the start; the first line with its verb in past indicative “As I walked out one evening” places the actions in the past, as a finished action in a finished time. But in the second line, the verb in the progressive form of past indicative “Walking” gives continuity to the movement that will develop through the poem as seen with the imagery. The use of a story can be also found in “Night Mail”, and time is explored mainly through the poem’s structure. The poem is divided in four parts, or chapters, and in each one of them time has in a different status. The first part has a regular structure, repeating two-line stanzas with full rhymes, marking the steps of the beginning of life: we could say ‘time’ is taking its time or taking one step at a time. As the poem develops time strikes and takes over: the third part is a very long stanza, the rhythm becomes rapid with anaphoric repetitions of “Letters”, “The”, or “And”, with internal rhymes such as in the lines “And applications for situations/And timid’ lovers declarations” or accumulations of the landscape the train goes through. The idea of time passing when your life is ending is revisited: as the rhythm speeds up, the actions speed up also. The fact the story finishes with a question gives continuity to
Alternate Ending With Dialectical Journal
2115 Words | 9 PagesWhen Vronsky looked at his watch on the Karenins' balcony, he was so greatly agitated and lost in his thoughts that he saw the figures on the watch's face, but could not take in what time it was. He came out on to the high road and walked, picking his way carefully through the mud, to his carriage. He was so completely absorbed in his feeling for Anna, that he did not even think what o'clock it was, and whether he had time to go to Bryansky's. He had left him, as often happens, only the external faculty of memory, that points out each step one has to take, one after the other. He went up to his coachman, who was dozing on the box in the shadow, already lengthening, of a thick limetree; he admired the shifting clouds of midges circling over the hot horses, and, waking the coachman, he jumped into the carriage, and told him to drive to Bryansky's.
Elie Wiesel's Now The Night
411 Words | 2 PagesThe climax of the novel was when Jason and Scream attacked the Ugly Children Brigade at their meet-and-greet party with Gabe. They showed up with baseball bats in hand, began threatening the people, and attacked John. Before the attack, they took off their masks and revealed their identities: Paul Willard and Kyle Marshall, ex boyfriends of Heather; the flirtatious girl who had her eye on Gabe. After they were taken into custody and John was driven to the hospital, Gabe found out that John was in a coma and might not recover from the blow to the head.
Paul Revere's Role In The American Civil War
1404 Words | 6 PagesThe reason why time passes is because in the poem it says," It was twelve by the village clock. When Paul Revere crossed the bridge into Medford town, it was one by the village clock. When he galloped on his horse into Lexington, he saw the gilded weathercock swim in the moonlight as he passed, and the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, gaze at him with a spectral glare, as if they already stood aghast at the bloody work which they would look upon. " Henry Wadsworth Longfellow then says," Through all our history, to the last,
Sharon Creech's Love That Dog
437 Words | 2 PagesThis proves that Jack is confident about poetry because he is being inspired by other poetics and he is now starting to write his own poems. Throughout the book, Jack’s thoughts about poetry have grow from timid, then he changed to reluctant and enthusiastic, and now he is confident about poetry because he is now starting to enjoy poetry more and write his own
Self-Discovery In Night Waitress, By Lynda Hull
1192 Words | 5 PagesThe end of the poem is the start of a new beginning which shows that instead of a destination, the man is just starting a new journey. Death is recurrent when it comes to the theme of journeys, and it is thought to be the final destination in the journey of life. In the poem “When Death Comes,” by Mary Oliver, death is the inevitable end of a journey. Oliver is not afraid of death, but rather more afraid of not having lived life to the fullest. The last line of the poem, “I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world” expands the journey (Oliver 28).
Literary Analysis Of Mary Oliver's Death At Wind River
800 Words | 4 PagesThe poem transitions into the past tense and mentions their grandmothers and children. In contrast to the first half of this piece, the grandmother is now old and the children are now ghosts. This represents the rambunctious, naive young man looking back on his life and truly beginning to see the pointlessness of his ways. The final line in the third stanza may perhaps be the most important line in the entire poem. Oliver writes “After that, all their nerves click like frozen leaves.”
The Use Of Suspense In Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven
270 Words | 2 PagesThe multiple stanzas that all end with “more” (1) create a certain type of suspense that changes depending on the word that is before the “more” (2). The use of multiple sentences in stanzas makes the poem longer but also gives the reader more time to speculate what will happen next, which creates suspense. The use of the five different parts of a story is used in the poem. This makes the poem longer but it also makes it more interesting as there is a lot of
Similarities Between I Heard It's A Fight And My Number
688 Words | 3 PagesHe hides from the fact that his life is coming to a slow and impatient end. The two protagonists in these poems both take on the idea of death in two different ways. They know that death is lurking in the shadows waiting to take them down an unknown road. The personification of death in both of these poems also create
Lisa Parker's Snapping Beans
816 Words | 4 PagesParker introduces her poem by using imagery to announce the simple development in the setting. It begins by saying, “as the sun rose” (line 7) and continues until she writes, “We didn’t speak until the sun overcame” (line 10). It is an uncomplicated way to provide an additional thought of change. By mentioning the small difference in the setting, Parker wants the reader to understand the importance of the many different aspects, large and small, that are evolving.
The Poem 'Heritage' By Linda Hogan
672 Words | 3 PagesThe last sentence of the poem leads the reader to believe that it will end happily, but she alludes once again to the discrimination against her heritage. After being discriminated against and removed from their land, the ancestors of the speaker pass on their history
Symbolism In Robert Frost's Acquainted With The Night
816 Words | 4 PagesIn “Acquainted with the Night”, poet Robert Frost examines the inner workings of a lonely, depressed mentality. Through his extensive use of symbolism, Frost demonstrates exactly how confined and flustered someone in that conditions feels. There are two specific symbols that, if analyzed, unravel the meaning behind the poem: the symbol of darkness, the symbol of walking, and the symbol of large distances. Darkness is a perpetually popular symbol, and in this poem, it is certainly prominent/ Historically, darkness has been used to symbolize malice, evil, sadness — generally, anything adverse.
Because I Could Not Stop For Death Essay
975 Words | 4 PagesThe theme of the of is that death need not be feared and in this poem the speaker shows how death is a part of life, and how death really is not as scary as it seems. The speaker in the poem “Because i could not stop for death” by Emily Dickinson personifies death as a gentlemen to make death seem less scary. The speaker states “Because I could not stop for death--He kindly stopped for me…” (568). Death normally cannot stop to let a person inside a carriage.
Wilfred Owen War Comparison
1096 Words | 5 PagesThe last stanza consists of 12 lines. This is a funeral march and therefore a slower moving stanza which is achieved by the many commas used. The poem is written in chronological
American Literature: Literature Changed Over Time
1749 Words | 7 PagesIn this poem Henry Longfellow describes a seaside scene in which dawn overcomes darkness, thus relating to the rising of society after the hardships of battle. The reader can also see feelings, emotions, and imagination take priority over logic and facts. Bridging the Romantic Era and the Realism Era is the Transcendental Era. This era is unusual due to it’s overlapping of both the Romantic and Realism Era. Due to its coexistence in two eras, this division serves as a platform for authors to attempt to establish a new literary culture aside from the rest of the world.
Allen Curnow's Time And Because I Could Not Stop For Time
1197 Words | 5 PagesThere is a capitalisation of ‘Time’ because in this context, the use of this effect suggests personification. This use of repetition combined with a similar structure for most of the stanzas: three lines, with enjambment on the third, beginning with “I am”; reinforce the connection to time, routine and thus, the mundane tone of the events. Curnow’s ‘Time’ features a rhyme, that resembles the ticking of the second hand, found at the end of each line of the first four stanzas: “pines”, “lines” and “signs”. This technique appeals to the auditory senses of the audience and subtly emphasises the passing of time between the beginning and the ending of the poem. The aforementioned statement about the passing of time is also echoed and shown in the use of two tenses throughout the poem- past and present.
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