In order to imply a connection between nature and the human mind, Wordsworth uses the technique of identification and comparison whereas Coleridge does the opposite in 'The Ancient Mariner' and 'Kubla Khan'.
Both admire nature's healing strength and hope that their children will grow up in a natural environment instead of growing up in cities. For Wordsworth nature seems to sympathise with the love and suffering of the persona. Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Frost deliberately uses the form of a sonnet, using the octave for a discussion and the sextet for questioning the fact that there is a force that controls our existence.
There are natural characters and some degrees of irony also that give this poem a naturalistic feel. Frost uses the style of a sonnet in "Design" to present a philosophical problem - who controls our destiny. The octave is a single, smooth flowing sentence full of description.
We are introduced to three things the narrator happened upon one day. There is a scene of contradictory pictures. The color of the white heal--all, the white spider, and the white moth all suggest purity and innocence. These are the, as the speaker describes them, "characters of death and blight. Even thought the tone is lighter there still seems to be a tension and seriousness that flows evenly to the sextet, which seems to bring chills to the reader's spine.
The sextet is a series of questions that reveals a blend of emotions. The sextet brings about an unexpected change in tone. The poet is no longer observing, but questioning. The first question sounds like he is questioning something that doesn't fit in.
The next question brings about a harsher image. The last question is the revelation into the speaker's torment. In the sextet, where the issues are raised, they should be solved in the following octet. What had how long it takes a birch to rot To do with what was in the darkened parlor.
You couldn't care! The nearest friends can go With anyone to death, comes so far short They might as well not try to go at all. No, from the time when one is sick to death, One is alone, and he dies more alone. Friends make pretense of following to the grave, But before one is in it, their minds are turned And making the best of their way back to life And living people, and things they understand.
But the world's evil. I won't have grief so If I can change it. Oh, I won't, I won't! You won't go now. You're crying. Close the door. The heart's gone out of it: why keep it up. There's someone coming down the road! I must go-- Somewhere out of this house. How can I make you--' 'If--you--do! First tell me that. I'll follow and bring you back by force. I will! Robert Frost To Earthward Love at the lips was touch As sweet as I could bear; And once that seemed too much; I lived on air That crossed me from sweet things, The flow of—was it musk From hidden grapevine springs Downhill at dusk?
I had the swirl and ache From sprays of honeysuckle That when they're gathered shake Dew on the knuckle. I craved strong sweets, but those Seemed strong when I was young; The petal of the rose It was that stung. Now no joy but lacks salt, That is not dashed with pain And weariness and fault; I crave the stain Of tears, the aftermark Of almost too much love, The sweet of bitter bark And burning clove. When stiff and sore and scarred I take away my hand From leaning on it hard In grass and sand, The hurt is not enough: I long for weight and strength To feel the earth as rough To all my length.
Christmas Trees A Christmas circular letter The city had withdrawn into itself And left at last the country to the country; When between whirls of snow not come to lie And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove A stranger to our yard, who looked the city, Yet did in country fashion in that there He sat and waited till he drew us out, A-buttoning coats, to ask him who he was. He proved to be the city come again To look for something it had left behind And could not do without and keep its Christmas.
He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees; My woods—the young fir balsams like a place Where houses all are churches and have spires. I hadn't thought of them as Christmas trees. I doubt if I was tempted for a moment To sell them off their feet to go in cars And leave the slope behind the house all bare, Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon. I'd hate to have them know it if I was. Andrew has a keen interest in all aspects of poetry and writes extensively on the subject.
His poems are published online and in print. Design is a fourteen line sonnet which explores the notion that nature and the whole universe is designed by a malevolent intelligence. It is based on the everyday observation of a spider on a flower holding up a dead moth but essentially the poem is playing around with theological argument. From a simple first person scenario the poem moves into more complex narrative, using paradox and allusion and other devices, before ending up with a sestet of puzzling questions.
Frost's first attempt at this poem came in and he titled it In White. This first draught was altered ten years later when it was first published as Design American Poetry A Miscellany , the definitive version appearing in a collected volume, A Further Range, in It was whilst teaching his New Hampshire students metaphysics in that Frost came across the ideas of William James, a well known psychologist, in his book Pragmatism, which deals with the nature and application of truth.
In Lecture 3 there is a fascinating paragraph directly related to Frost's poem:. The mere word 'design' by itself has, we see, no consequences and explains nothing. It is the barrenest of principles. The old question of whether there is design is idle.
The real question is what is the world, whether or not it have a designer -and that can be revealed only by the study of all nature's particulars.
So, it is possible to imagine Frost the poet going out one day and observing the spider with the moth on the flower and being inspired to create his sonnet, having had inspiration from the writings of William James. Design is often seen as Frost's dark response to the classical argument from design, the argument for an intelligent benevolent God. This is why some teachers shy away from this powerful poem, believing it to be a construct against the existence of this good God.
Design does ask some profound questions about the nature of the universe, whether or not it is godless - or if there is an omnipotent intelligence why design darkness into the fabric of life? This sonnet starts off innocently enough, the steady iambic rhythm, familiar and safe, taking the first person speaker outdoors, where a slightly unusual spider is discovered on a wild flower, called a heal-all.
The spider has probably just eaten. It's fat, well fed, dimpled like a baby, and sits on a flower - white against white.
What if—gulp—there's no design at all, and everything in life is just totally random occurrences? The reader is left with just as many questions as Frost. This short poem takes a simple little thought and pushes us all the way to questioning the very nature of creation and life as we know it. Well played, sir. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources.
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