Spring and Fall

1. What is the dominant meter and line length? what is the rhyme scheme? Describe the poem’s structure.

The poem is fifteen lines and generally has four accents per line.  It is an iambic tetrameter.  There are rhyming couplets generally throughout the poem.  Lines 7, 8, and 9 however all have the same rhyme.  Lines 3 and 4 and lines 14 and 15 have the same words as there ending line. 

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

The effect of the frequent use of alliteration in the poem is it helps to create a sad, gloomy mood.  The assonance and consonance combined with alliteration helps create this mood.  The alliteration in line 8 of “worlds of wanwood” and “sorrow’s springs” create this mood.  They add effect to the poem and help to establish the poems meaning and content.  The frequent use of it helps to get the message of the poem across and adds to the structure and flow of the poem.

3.  Comment of the effect created by such unusual diction as Golden grove and unleaving (line2), fresh (line 4), wanwood and leafmeal (line 8), springs (line 11), and blight(line 14.)  How do the connotations of these words create the poem’s mood?

The effect created by Goldengrove and unleaving in line 2 is the play on words they create a play on words.  Goldengove is the setting and it matches the autumn setting of the poem because goldengrove is a grove of trees whose leaves have turned gold in the fall.  Unleaving is also a good word for the setting because it describes the leaves falling to the ground in the fall.  Wanwood refers to a pale color and leafmeal refers to leaf mold and these words all have to do with fall.  Springs refer to the water sources in the ground and blight has to do with death in plants.  The connotations of these words adds to the gloominess and sadness of the poem.

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

The poet’s use of figurative language suggests the theme of the poem by using it to show that a child will breakdown their norms of thought when exposed to death when they enter adulthood.  When the speaker says, “now no matter, child, the name:/ Sorrow’s springs are the same.” This line describes the effect death has on a child.

The Oven Bird

1. What is its meter, rhyme scheme, and structure?

The poem consists of 14 lines in iambic pentameter.  The rhyme scheme is aabcdbceefghg.  Frost repeats “he says” three times.  This repetition adds structure to the poem and it is the points where the speaker interprets the birds song to help with his own feelings. 

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

The first message of the oven bird: in midsummer, the bird’s song says that the leaves are old and the flowers bring spring as you count from one to ten.  The second message says: The petals have fallen past when pears and cherry bloom after the rain shower on a sunny day when there is a moment of overcast and then comes fall.  The third message is:  He says the highways has dust all over it.  The birds leave and fly as a group and do not sing.  Fall is the changing of the seasons.  It is falling from spring to summer to autumn to winter and it symbolizes the fall of a man.

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

The last four lines say the bird would leave with other birds but would know that singing doesn’t change anything.  The question that is brought up is what to do with the things that are destroyed.  The oven bird symbolizes the human condition of good things never staying and bad things are always to come.  Human beings ruin good things all the time and that is the message to humans that they are spoiling nature and its beauty.

1. Describe a villanelle by explicating the stanza pattern and the rhyme scheme of this poem.  How many different end rhymes are in the poem? How many times is each sound repeated? Which words are repeated exactly at the ends of lines, in what pattern? How does the lat stanza use the rhyming words? Why is this appropriate at the end of the poem?

A villanelle is a short poem of fixed form, written in tercets, usually five in number, followed by a final quatrain, all being based on two rhymes.  In the poem, “The Story We Know” there are two different end rhymes.  The end of each line either rhymes with hello or fine.  The word “hello” is repeated on lines 1, 6, 12, and 18.  The last stanza uses the rhyming words by incorporating them in all four lines.  They are used to sum up the poem and basically repeat what the rest of the poem was about.  This is appropriate at the end of the poem because it rephrases the whole point of the poem to get the point across.

2. What is the significance of each of these words to whole poem?

The significance of the word fine is it answers the question to “how are you?” which is the question people ask when they first meet.  Most people’s response to this question is usually “just fine”.  However, this happy state won’t last.  The significance of the word “wine” is the second stage of people first meeting each other.  They usually have a glass of wine to begin a conversation.  “Nine” is the time when people usually part from their dinner or meeting with a person.  “Line” is what people say to each other to attract their attention and to get them more interested.  The line “snow/ begins to whiten the air, and the tall white pine” refers to the deterioration of a relationship and people beginning to part from each other.  The phrase “cold white sign” refers to the final understanding of a relationship.

3. What variations in meaning are present in the following groups of repetitions and what is their effect?

Line 1 of the first group is referring to the hello when people first meet.  Line 6 is referring to the hello when people go on their first date.  It is a little more formal than the first hello but still lacking meaning.  The hello in line 12 is talking about things always ending up the same and not much change.  The hello in line 18 is saying that all stories begin and end the same way.  The good-byes in group two start off as an introduction good-bye then develops into a relationship where people say good-bye.  After that the good-bye’s change into a sad and lonely good-bye.  The final good-bye refers to this being the only story and the way is supposed to end.  The third group of lines all refer to this story being the only story we know and that every story starts and ends the same way.  Things start off good and happily but end in sorrow and that will never change.  The repetition of “story we know” adds to the poem to truly get the point the speaker is trying to make across.

1.  In describing the prosody of Alvarez’s poem, you will be describing a sestina. 

A sestina is a poem of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy, originally without rhyme, in which each stanza repeats the end words of the lines of the first stanza, but in different order, the envoy using the six words again, three in the middle of the lines and three at the end. Alvarez’s poem follows this pattern throughout the six stanzas.

2.  In the first stanza, what is the effect of personification and allusion? What is the Spanish counterpart to each? Sum up the meaning of the stanza.

The effect of personification and allusion have on the first stanza is we see the attitude the speaker has towards the English language.  She personifies the language by saying, “this snowy, blonde, blue-eyed, gum chewing English.”  We see she somewhat is hostile towards the language.  The allusion to America’s national anthem in line 3 where is says, “dawn’s early light” tells us the speaker had some experience or memory of this event maybe back in her Spanish country.  She uses Spanish words in the stanza to add effect.  The whole stanza summarized is about her conflicting attitude towards the English language and her memories of her past Spanish experiences.

3.  What mood or feelings are evoked in stanza two?  How does language create this mood?

The mood and feelings created in stanza two are innocence and pleasant feelings.  She talks about her being a child and the innocence and carefree worries that come with it.  She has memories of Spain when she lived there as a child.  She says, “The sounds of Spanish/ wash over me like warm island waters”.  The speaker wishes to be in her beautiful home country where she can be like a child with no worries rather than being an adult in her new foreign country.

4.  What do we learn in stanzas two and three about the difference between names and vocabulary words?  How does the example of the plant called the morivivir help illustrate this gap?  What does the metaphor of the genii in the bottle tell us about the nature of language?

We learn that names aren’t vocabulary words and that they are two different things.  Vocabulary words are just labels for things and names actually have specific meanings.  The plant morivivir helps illustrate this gap because the plant is given this name because it is one specific plant with certain characteristics.  The metaphor of the genii in the bottle tells us about the nature of language that people use metaphors all the time to mean something different than their literal meaning.  People just know how to interpret them properly by the context they are used in.  Understanding connotations of words is a very important skill in doing this.

5.  In stanzas four and five, why does the speaker invoke Gladys and Rosario from her childhood?  How is her childhood sensitivity to words inextricably bound to Spanish, her first language?  What is significant about the allusion to Adam, the first man?

The speaker invokes Gladys and Rosario because they are memories from her childhood and she misses them.  These two people mean very much to the speaker and they have been a big part of her life.  Gladys seems to have taught her Spanish numbers and Rosario seems to have sung to the speaker.  Her childhood sensitivity to words inextricably bounds to Spanish because it was the first language she learned.  The Spanish language is what she grew up on and it is a big part of her life.  She grew up knowing the Spanish language first therefore it would cause her sensitivity to words.  The significance about the allusion to Adam is to show the effect Rosario had on her.  She says “not Adam, not God, but a country girl numbering the stars,…”  This line shows what kind of effect Rosario had on the speaker.  She compares her with Adam and God and this shows she had great respect for Rosario. 

Death Be Not Proud 

1. In what ways does this poem conform to a common sonnet form? What variations are notable, and what is their effect?

The ways this poem conforms to a common sonnet form is that it has three quatrains and a couplet.  Each of the quatrains and couplets contains exactly one sentence.  The rhyming scheme is in the pattern of abba for most of the poem.  The effect this brings is it gives the poem structure and shares the point of the poem in a clear way.

2.  Describe Donne’s use of apostrophe and personification.  How do these devices enhance our experience in the poem?

Donne’s use of apostrophe on the word death makes a statement on the idea of death itself.  He says, “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee/ Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;”  Donne is using apostrophe to get the point across to not be afraid of death.  He’s saying that death isn’t as bad as what people make it out to be.  Death is also personified.  The speaker says, “Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.”  The speaker is giving death human qualities.  He is giving death bad human qualities.  He views death as something people should not fear and overcome.

3. Paraphrase each of the sonnet’s three quatrains, preserving the clauses but simplifying the syntax.  Do the same for the paradoxical couplet. Retain the apostrophe and personification.

The first quatrain is saying death, don’t be proud even though some people have called you mighty and dreadful but your not.  Those who think this don’t really know but death cannot kill me.  The second quatrain is saying people get much pleasure from rest and sleep and death is like sleeping and resting forever so people will enjoy it.  The third quatrain is saying it is your fate to kill people with things such as s=poison, war, and sickness.  Poppy and charms as well kill people so why do you take such pleasure in you power?  The couplet at the end of the poem is saying the reason you have no power death is because our deaths are short sleeps and when we awaken you will have lost your power and you will be dead.

To Death

1. Describe the form and structure of the poem.

The poem consists of 16 lines composed of heroic couplets.  In these lines the speaker talks about death and gets his message across by using rhyming couplets throughout the 16 lines of the poem.

2. Which details personify death? What is their effect? With what attitude does the speaker apostrophize death? What does she request of him?

The details that personify death include “king of terrors” which refers to death as a king of horrors and bad things.  Death is described as a warrior with a sword, racks, and wheels.  He is said to snatch people up and cause despair to friends of the dead.  The speaker refers to the power of death over all living things.  The speaker list the things that make death so terrifying.  She fears dying with pain and requests to die peacefully.

3.  Paraphrase each of the three sections of the poem: lines 1-6, 7-12, and 13-16.  Use one sentence for each couplet.  This time, change all figurative language to literal rather than retaining the apostrophe and personification.

Lines 1-6 say death is something that everyone must obey.  Even kings, priests, and the Prophet are all to be victims of death.  Even God in flesh would have to deal with death and so must I.  Lines 7-12 say I don’t fear dying but rather the pain of dying such as swords, racks, wheels, fevers, and the unprepared deaths.  Lines 13-16 say If I am spared these painful ways of dying then I will be able to deal with death.  All I ask is that I die peacefully.

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