THE ANALYSES OF IMAGERY, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE,
AND THEME IN MODERN ENGLISH POETRY
A PAPER
Submitted to the Faculty of Adab and Humanities In a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For The Degree of Strata I (S 1)
By
PUTRAFAJAR ｎｉｾＮＱＰＲＰＲＶＰＲＴＶＰＵ
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
JAKARTA
AND THEME IN MODERN ENGLISH POETRY
A PAPER
Submitted to the Faculty of Adab and Humanities In a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For The Degree of Strata I (S I)
By
PUTRAFAJAR ｎｉｾＮ 102026024605
Advisor:
ｲｾ
-'
---InayatuI Chusna, 8.8., M.Hum.NIP. 150331 233
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
JAKARTA
APPROVAL SHEET OF THE EXAMINATllON BOARD
A Paper entitled "The Analyses of Imagery, FigUl'ative Language, and Theme in Modern English Poetry" was examined by The Examination Board of Faculty of Adab and Humanities, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta, on Tuesday, March 06, 2007. This Paper has been accepted as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requiremeuts for acquiring the Degree of Strata I (S 1) in English Department.
Jakarta, March 06, 2007
THE EXAMINATION BOARD:
Chief,
DR. M. khan M.Pd.
NIE 0299 480
Examiner I,
nini Masitah, S.S., M.Hum. NIP. 150317724
MEMBERS:
-I;;'!:J
Drs. ASllp Saefuddin, M.Pd.NIP. 150261902
ExaminerII, \
ｃｃｴＮｖｾ
ｾ
Drs. H. Abdul Hamid, M.Ed. NIP. 150 181 922
ｉａｾ
"thank you for being my inspirations"
-In endless rain I've been walking Like a poet feeling pain Trying to find the answers Tlying to hide the tears But it was justa circle That never ends
Am I wrong to be hurt? Am
r
wrong to fee! plIin? Am I wrong to be in the rain? Am I wrong to wish the night won't end? AmIwrong to cry? But I know, It's not wrong to sing The Last Song Cause forever fadesI see red I see blue But the silver lining gradually takes over When the morning begins I'll be in the next chapter
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah,
Lord of the Universe. And Peace and Prayers be upon His final Prophet and
Messenger, Muhammad.
First, the writer would like to give thanks to his pan:nts: Dra. Nurfahdriana
(mother), and Drs. Asril Djoni, M.Si. (father). Thank you for supporting the writer,
and always give everything in the writer's life.
The writer is deeply grateful to his advisor, Mrs. Inayatul Chusna, M.Hum.,
for the great contributions, and helps the writer in finishing this paper. Thanks for all
that she has given to the writer, and may Allah SWT bless her and her family.
Moreover, the writer wishes to say gratitude to these following persons:
I. DR. H. Abdul Chaer, M.A., the Dean of Faculty of Adab and Humanities, SyarifHidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta.
2. DR. M. Farkhan, M.Pd., the Head of Department of English Literature.
3. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M.Pd., the Secretary of Department of English
Literature.
4. All lecturers in Department of English Literature: who had taught arld
educated the writer during his study at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic
5. To the writer's good friends at Department of English Literature,
especially: Junaedi, S.S (Omponk), Tatang Suryana (Nana-choy), Yaman
(Q-mhoy), Ahmad Muzamil (Samil); Sandi Adrian (Bule), Ikhsan
Wahyudi (I-can), Agus SaefuITohman (Ustad Agus), Mustika Dendi
(Sinyo), and to all of the writer's iiiends who cannot be mentioned one by
one for giving spirit and motivation.
6. To all the writer's inspirational musicians: Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page),
Nirvana (Kllli Cobain), U2 (Mr. Bono), Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage,
Ranlmstein, Dream Theater, Metallica, Helloween, Joe Satriani, Rage
Against The Machine, X Japan, Luna Sea, ｌＧａｲ｣ｾﾷ･ｮＭｃｩ･ｬＬ and Dewa 19
(Dhani-Jenggot). Thank you for the music, spirit and motivation that they
all give to the writer during the regression and the writer's boring time.
May Allah SWT bless us all, and finally, the writer is sure that this paper is
far from being perfect. Honestly, the writer hopes iliat ally suggestioll or criticism can
enrich this paper more scientifically.
Jakarta, January 2007
ABSTRACT
Putra Fajar. "The Analyses of Imagery, Figurative Language and Theme in Modern English Poetry". Strata I (S I) Degree. English Department, Faculty of Adab and Humanities, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakmta, 2007.
APPROVAL SHEET OF THE EXAMINATION BOARD ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1
iii
v
I
A. Background of The Research I
B. Focus of The Study... 7
C. Research Question ,... 7
D. Significance of The Research 7
E. Research Methodology 7
1. Objective of The Research 7
2 The Method of The Research 8
3. Tec1mique of Data Analysis 8
4. InstIument of The Research 8
5. Unit Analysis 8
6. Place And Time 9
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Romantic Poetry .
B. Modem Poetry .
C. Imagery ..
D. Figurative Language ..
10 13 14 15
1. Simile .
2. Metaphor .
3. Personification , .
4. Symbol
5. Metonymy
6. Allegory
7. Paradox
E. Theme
...
- -.
17
18
18
19
19
20
20
21
CHAPTER III: THE ANALYSIS OF POEMS 22
A. The Lake Isle ofInnisfree 22
1. Analysis ofImagery 23
2. Analysis of Figurative Language 26
3. Analysis of Theme 28
B. Fern Hill 30
1. Analysis of Imagery 32
2. Analysis of Figurative Language 34
3. Analysis of Theme 40
C. The Horses 42
1. Analysis ofImagery 43
2. Analysis of Figurative Language 47
3. Analysis of Theme 53
CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
55
55
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Researeh
Poetry can have many definitions and forms. It can be philosophical,
emotional, or sentimental. It can paint pictures, in a descriptive mode, or tell stories,
in a narrative one. Poetry can also be satirical, funny, political, or just informative. A
definition that underscores the distinctiveness of poetry from other kinds of literary
work might be: poetry is a languagein which everyword choice, sound, pause, and
image is significant. It is significant because every element points toward or stands
together for further relationship among and beyond themselves.
As a unique media of communication, poetry is created in a brief and
concentrated foml of language. Its elements are figures, and poetry itself is a
language of figures, which each component can potentiaJly open toward new
meanings, levels, dimensions, or connections. Poetry does this through an intricate
pattern of words, and it offers language as highly organized as language can be. No
word is idle or accidental; each word has a specific place within an overarching
achievement is a continued-process, from thoughts, values, and the ideas from the
periods before.
As one of literary genre, poetry is also influenced by movements, which
become a role model or trend in literary world at that time. Even, this factor beeomes
a model of the literary work in a specific period and represents the characteristic of
the literary work itself.2 In fact, literary movement has grown and developed in
Europe. From all of the movements existed, they essentially based on Realism and
Expressionism. The other movements, which based on mind thinking and life
orientation, is like Materialism and Idealism. Moreover, literary movements that
closer to Realism is Impressionism, Naturalism, and Detemlinism. On the other side,
literary movements, which are closer to Expressionism, are Romantieism,
Symbolism, Idealism, Surrealism, and Mysticism. Some of those literary movements
that we have recognized and become the role model of many poets whether in
I Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P ..Sound and Sense: An Introduction10Poetl)' Eight Edition. Orlando: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1992. p. 3.
3
Indonesia, or in other countries are Romanticism, Idealism,
Romantic-Realism, Expressionism, Naturalism, and Imagism.
Romanticism is a literary movement that based on feeling expression and
imagination. To describe these mentioned, a poet always explains the reality of life
into the most beautiful forn1 of language and words. The aim of this movement is to
make the readers could be touched by the lyric or by words emotionally. Therefore,
the poet usually arranges every existing distortion and conflicts dramatically and
completely.3 For example, a beautiful girl character is always described as perfect as
possible, without any handicaps. It has to be perfect. The same thing is also viewed
on the natural beauty themes, or even a possible sorrow, which are usually described
in details. A Romantic poet usually thinks how to touch the readers emotionally. At
the end, the readers will be drown into the lyric that has naITated by the poet.
Romantic poetry is a kind ofliterary movement that is distinguished by enthusiasm to
life and simple way of living, and natural view. attention to the original belief, the
spontaneity in mind and acts and also mind expression.4
Meanwhile, modcrnism in poctry that had come by the end of19thcentury and early 20'h century represented the result of the literary development from the previous periods. Of course, the development of modem poetry CaImot be separated from the
influence of mind concept, figures of speech and theme aspects, which have existed
in the previous movements. Among the modernist, there are so many movements,
]Ibid, p.49 - 50.
such as Imagism, pioneered by Ezra Pound, also T.S. Eliot with his Metaphysics poem, and other movement like Realism, and Naturalism. English poets of the early twentieth century declined to follow the examples of Yeats and Pound, and yet were also dissatisfied by much late Victorian verse. Some looked further back to the Romantics for a mode of literary survival.5 Therefore, Modernism is a movement in the literary world and art that attempt to determine the relationship of past time and looking for new fonns in expression.6
Even though the Romantic pattern does not appear entirely in the modern poetry, there are some of modern poets who try to return to the beauty and natural themes. These themes represent the characteristic of the Romantic poetry. Among them, are Willianl Butler Yeats, Dylan Thomas, and Edwin Muir. Those Romantic characteristics appeared on their poem. The poems are as follows: "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by William Butler Yeats, "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas, and "The Horses" by Edwin Muir that according to tlle writer have the aspects of Romanticism.
One of those modem poets whom the writer researched is Willianl Butler Yeats. In 1899 Yeats published "The Wind Among The Reeds", a book of poems which was the culminating of the early symbolist manner.7 He created a hierarchy of symbols and moods attendant upon them. The four elements, which he found instars,
5See: Richards Elmann and Robert O'Clair.A10dern Poems:AnIntroduction To Poetry.New York: W. W. Norton& Company, 1976. p. 491.
6Ibid.,p.50.
sea, winds, and woods, become aspects of feeling; bird and beast alike were
expressing the human passion. From those elements, showed the existence of the
Romantic characteristics, in which had a beauty and natural themes that represented
into the specific symbols.
Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales, and educated at Swansea
Granmlar School. He was "discovered" as a poet in 1933 through a poetry contest in a popular newspaper. The following year his Eighteen Poems caused considerable
excitement because of the strange violence of their imagery and their powerfully
suggestive obscurity. It looked as through a new kind of strength and Romantic
picturesqueness had been restored to English poetry after the deliberately muted tones
of Eliot and his followers.8Thomas did not, however, turns out to be the founder of a
Neo-Romantic movement, though some early critics took him to be so. As his poetry
became better known, and after he had clarified the somewhat clotted imagery of his
early style in his later voltmles: The Map of Love (1939), Death and Entrances
(1946), and Collected Poems (1953), it became clear that Thomas was an extremely
"craftmanlike" poem, and not the shouting rhapsodist that some had taken him to be.
His images were most carefully ordered in a patterned sequence, arid his major theme was the unity of all life, the continuing process of life, death, and new life which
linked the generations to each other.9
8M. H. Abrams, eLa!., The Norton Anthology ofEnglish Literature Third Edition.New York; W. W. Norton& Company Inc., 1974. p. 236 I-2362.
6
The other poet, Edwin Muir (1887 - 1959) was always fascinated by time, by
links between generations, by the modern meaning of ancient myths, and by the
question of identity and change. These interests provide the themes of almost all his
poetry. Even though if he had few themes, the grave precision of his language, the
translucent quality of his imagery, the supple, unforced rhythms, and the delicacy of
observation and of sensibility that underlies all this, combine to make poetry of
remarkable individuality and power.10
Referring to the explanation above, and by the attention to these dynamic
development in literary world especially poetry in the early of 20th century, also with the return of the aspects of Romanticism into these modern English poetry, the writer is interested in analyzing those poems. The analysis in this research focused on the
analysis of the intrinsic elements of poetry, they are imagery, figurative language, and
the theme of the selected poems. Then, the title of this paper is "The Analysis of
Imagery, Figurative Language, and Theme in Modern English Poetry".
B. Focus of the Study
The research is focused on the analysis of the intrinsic elements of poetry,
they are imagery, figurative language, and theme of each poem.
C. Research Question
The question of the research is:
What types of imagery, figurative language and theme are utilized in the
poems of"The Lake Isle ofInnisjree" by William Butler Yeats,"Fern Hill"byDylan
Thomas, and "The Horses"by Edwin Muir?
D. Significance of the Research
In this research, the writer have the expectation that the readers can analyzc
the literary work especially poetry, from various aspect, context and those figurative
language, without forgetting and leaving the aesthetic and emotional values that
contained on it's stanza. The writer also hopes that tlus research can give any
significance and infonnation to the readers, especially those who enjoy, understand,
and appreciate the romantic poetry, whether in English Department or in common
people, to enrich the English literature study.
E. Research Methodology
1. The Objective of the Research
The objective of the research is:
To find the types of imagery, figurative language, and the theme in"The Lake
Isle ofInnisfree" by William Butler Yeats,"Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas, and "The
8
2. The Method of the Research
Every researcher insists to use a methodology in the sdentific researches. The
attempt to identifY and describe significant qualities in several poetries must be based
on the research principles in which results of the research can be justified and
regarded as an achievement in scientific atmosphere.
This research uses method of qualitative description, which concems with the
imagery, figurative language and the themes of the three poems selected.
3. Technique of Data Analysis
In this research, the writer uses the qualitative analysis technique, through
textual approach, which based on those intrinsic aspects of poetry, namely: the
imagery, figurative language and the theme of three selected poems.
4. Instrument of the Research
The researcher himself is the instrument of this research. The Data, which
related to the three selected poems, will be obtained by scanning and tabulation.
5. Unit of Analysis
The unit of analysis of the research is three-modem poetry in early and the
middle of 20th century. The poems, and poets, are as follows: "The Lake Isle of Innisji-ee" by William Butler Yeats, "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas, and "The
6. Place and Time
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWOH.K
A. Romantic Poetry
Romanticism is a literary movement that lasted from around years 1750 to about 1870 in Europe. Characterized by the reliance on the imagination, subjectivity of approach. freedom of thought expression. and idealization of nature, the term
Romantic first appeared in 18th-century. It originally meant "romance-like", which
resembles the fanciful character of medieval romances. Romantic literature and poetry is strong in many of the European Countries. Although the adjective "Romantic" derives ultimately from the word that gIves us the expreSSIon "the romance languages", it came to mean more than a language. It means also the quality and preoccupations of literature written in those languages, especially "romances" and stories. By the seventeenth century in English, the word "Romantic" had come to mean anything from imaginative or fietitious, to fabulous or downright extravagant. The use of term "Romantic" for the poetry of this period has folded the meanings
b h· d'e 111 It.11
The Romantic period see also a shift in religious ideas. Itwas the first period in English literature when many writers failed to find Christianity satisfying. Although it was in the period a pronounced streak of rationalistic atheism, influenced
II Pat Rogers. et.al.. The 04o!'d Illustrated HistoJ)' o/English Literatu!'e.New York: Oxford
by the writers of the French enlightenment, there is noticeable among the Romantic poets a search for a spiritual reality.12 According to John Keats,13 in the search tor a spiritual truth, the Romantic poets like used two faculties, which rationalism had tended to discredit: feelings and imagination. The imagination in the Romantic period was raised from being simply the faculty for creating fictions, pleasing perhaps, but not necessarily true, to a method of apprehending and communicating truth. The result was that thc searching for the spiritual truth bccame one in which the poet played a greater role than before. The imagination, the peculiar gift of the poet, was now enlisted in man's most important endeavor.14
According to Margaret Drabble, Romanticism concerned with: the emotion, imagination, individuality and a certain sense of opposition to what had gone before which namely, the enlightenment of the late l71hand 18111 centuries with its espousal of reason as the key to all understanding. Already it should be clear that there is some common ground here. One problem, however, is that none of these terms can be pinned down by a simple definition, because they are all suqject partly to culturally fon11cd value systems, and partly to the slipperiness of language itself.IS
Moreover, the French Romantic poet named Charles Baudelaire (1821 -1867), made the vital point that "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice
12Ibid" p.277.
13John Keats is the English poet, one ofthe most gifted of the 19th century and an influential figure in the Romanic Movement. (from David Stevens. et.al.,Romanticism.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. p. Il.)
,.\ Pat Rogers. et. ai,op.cit" p.27S.
12
of subject, nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling." 16 If the poetry of the
Romantics has tended to have a special place in the hearts of readers, it is because
those poems which are most clearly Romantic, are those, which particularly defy
explication and are in the supreme sense of "poetic". Romantic poetry pushes
experience to the utmost point, where there is no direct reference to the ordinary.
world.17
The Romantic Movement purposes to seek a formal freedom, ll1creases
emotional effect, and use of ancient and folk sources ｴｾｄｲ poetry. In addition,
Romanticism emphasizes the creative expression of the individual and the need to
find and fonnulate new forms of expression. Romantic Poetry stresses strong
emotion, which now might include fear, wonder, and horror as aesthetic experiences
the individual imagination as a critical authority. There is a strong element of natural
inevitability in its ideas, stressing the importance of "nature" in literature and art. The
birth of English Romanticism is often connected to the publication in 1798 of
Wordsworth and Coleridge's "Lyrical Ballads".
The early Romantics try hard to understand the world through imagination,
not reason, and they distrust the world set out for them by Church and State. To these
hateful figures in the later nineteenth century, they add conmlerce and science,
16In order to understand this"wtry offeeling"more profoundly, it is necessary to examine in some detail the contextual factors at work. As a guiding principle, Marilyn Butler's insight rings true: "No
form is confined 10 a single political message. Evelylhing lurns on howilis used, and on how the public al a given lime is ready 10 read it". (from: Romanlics, Rebels and Reactionaries. 1981), and the reading must be in the fuliest, snggestive sense of the word: not only in the reading of printed text, but also in the ways we might "read" a situation, or "read" someone's character.(ibid, p. 17.)
creating a split in the point of view that pushes Romanticism into extreme positions,
such as Symbolism (rarefied symbols), Surrealism (irrational), and Dadaism
(anti-society).
B. Modern Poetry
Modemism is a movement in the literary world and art, which attempt to find
out the relationship of past time and look for new fOlIDs in expression.IS Most serious
poetry today is still Modernist. Modemism in literature is not easily summarized, but
the key elements are experimentation, anti-realism, individualism and a stress on the
cerebral rather than emotive aspects. Modemism is a complex and diverse movement.
From Symbolism, it took allusiveness in style and an interest in rarefied mental
states. From Realism, it borrowed an urban setting, and a willingness to break taboos.
And from Romanticism came an artist-centered view, and retreat into irrationalism
and hallucinations. 19
Modernism in poetry is also an enterprise of the mind in which many poets,
over several generations and indifferent countries, sought to change most of the
assumptions about what poets write and what poetry does. The best known of these
writers were W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, and T. S. Eliot. Then followed by: Dylan
Thomas and Edwin Muir in the middle of twentieth century. Despite the English
poets of the early twentieth century declined to follow the examples of Yeats and
Pound, and yet were also dissatisfied by much late Victorian verse. Some of them
18Adapted from: Pan uti Sudjiman.,op.cil., p. 50.
14
looked further back to the Romantics for a mode of literary sllrvival.20 The Modernist
had no wish to imitate the nineteenth-century poets, and to some extent rcacted
against them. Yet, paradoxically, any search for the origins of Modernism leads back
to Romanticism, that combination of literary and philosophical attitudes, which
dominated Europcan and American literature for most of the nineteenth-century. 21
Unlike the earlier literary movements, Romanticism provided an opporttmity for a
fuller and more diversified expression of oneself, for more various relations between
the poet and society. An element of subversion is probably presented in all great
poets. But in the early nineteenth-century, after the American and French
Revolutions, individuality rather than obedience to authority came to be seen as
positive, rather than antisocial or eccentric, and the guerrilla poets-outcast, victim,
misfit, radical, solitary, became a literary and popular model.
Additionally, Modernist poetry disavowed the traditional aesthetic claims of
Romantic poetry's later phase and no longer sought "beauty" as the highest
achievement of poetry. With this abandonment of the sublime came a turn away from pastoral poetry and an attempt to focus poetry on urban, mechanical, and industrial
settings. The new heroes would not be swains laboring in the fields, but office
workers struggling across London Bridge, and the new settings would not be
"Romantic chasms deep and wide", but vacant lots, smoked over cities, and subways.22
Modernism is a movement in the literary world and art that attempt to find out the relationship of past time and looking for new f61111S in expression. Modern poetry represents a great change of our mentality and a quick and 'vast extension of our imaginative experience. "Nature" now lives for the poet as an independent presence, a greater or equal power places side by side with nature or embracing and dominating "nature" existence. Even, the objective vision and interpretation of "nature" has develops, where it continues at all the older poetic method, strong and simply beautifi.I1 or telling effects that satisfied an earlier imagination.
Modernism evolved by various routes. From Symboli:,m, it took allusiveness in style and an interest in rarefied mental states. From Realism, it borrowed
an.
urban setting, alld a willingness to break taboos. And from Romanticism came an artist-centered view, and retreat into irrationalism and hallucinations?3C. Imagery
Imagery maybe defined as the representation through language of sense experience. Poetry appeals directly to our sense, of course through its music and rhythms, which we actually hear when it is read aloud. But indirectlyitappeals to our sense through imagery, the representation to the imagination of sense expel'ience.
" Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/modernist poetry in english html, accessed on January 21,2006.
16
An image is a language used in such a way as to help us to see, hear, feel,
think about or generally understand more clearly or vividly what is being said or the
impression that the writer wishes to convey24 The word Image perhaps most often
suggests a mental picture, something sense in the mind's eye. Therefore, visual
imagery is the kind of imagery that occurs most frequently in poetry. But an image
may also represent a sound (auditory imagery); a smell (olfactory imagery); a taste
(gustatory imagery); touch, such as hardness, softness, wetness, or heat and cold
(tactile imagery); an internal sensation, such as ,hunger, thirst, fatigue, or nausea
(organic imagery); or movement or tension in the muscles. or joints (kinesthetic imagery).25
Imagery usually calls a mental picture in a poem, where the readers can
expcrience what the poem says. Essentially the true "meaning" of a poem lies in the
total effect that it has upon the readers. Very often that effect stimulate a response
which is not just a reaction to what the poet has to say, but which draws on the
readers' own intellectual and emotional experience. Imagery can be of central
importance in creating this response within thc readers.26
D. Figurative Language
Figurative Language or Figure of Speech is a word or group of words used to
give particular emphasis to an idea or sentiment. The special emphasis is typically
24Steven Croft and Hellen Cross,Literature, Criticism, and Style.OXford: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 56.
accomplished by the user's conscious deviation from the strict literal sense of a word,
or from the more commonly used form of word order or Sentence construction.
"Figure of speech is any way of saying something other than the ordinary way",27
[image:30.595.46.556.197.693.2]and we can say more by these figurative statement rather than by literal statement.
Figure of speech offers another way of adding extra dimension to language. A number of the more widely used figure of speech, such as:
1.Simile
Simile is specific comparison by means of the words "like" or "as" between
two kinds of ideas or objects. Like a metaphor, simile also compares two different
things, but it uses a connective word. Simile is a figure of speech in which an explicit
comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. The comparison is made
explicit by the uses of some words or phrases as "like, as, than, similar to, resembles,
or seems.,,28 There are some examples of simile:
"How like a marriage is the season of clouds". (James Merrill)
"Seems he a dove? His feathers are but borrowed". (Shakespeare)29
In the line above, Merrill compares explicitly "the season of e1oud" to "a marriage",
while Shakespeare compares someone ("he") to "a dove". Merrill makes a similarity
between the seasons of clouds Witll a marriage, by comparing them. A marriage can
27Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P.,op.cit.,p. 61.
28Ibid
be happy, sad, even an anger, as same as the clouds of the season, it can be bright, dark and cold, depend on the seasons.
2. Metaphor
Metaphor is the use of a word or phrase denoting one kind of idea or object in place of another word or phrase for the purpose of suggesting a likeness between the two. According to Barnet, a metaphor asserts the identity, without a connective such as "like" or a verb such as "appears", of terms that are literally incompatible.3D While according to Perrine, metaphor is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two things essentially unalike.31 In someway metaphor is like a simile in that it to create a comparison. "Often the metaphor actually describes the subject being the thing to which it is compared.,,32 These definitions explain that metaphor is figure of speech comparing two different things directly without using a connective word such as "like, as, as if, similar to", for example: "'A dirty dog stole my money", the word dirty dog means someone who stole the money, not really a dog.
3. Personification
Personification is a representation of inanimate objects or abstract ideas as living beings. Personification is a type of metaphor in which distinct human qualities, e,g., honesty, emotion, volition, etc., are attributed to animal, object 01' idea.33 This definition is similar to Perrine explanation that personification consists in giving tlle
30Ibid" p.63.
31Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P., op.cit.,p,til. 32Steven Croft and Hellen Cross,op.cil.,p. 56.
33Anonymous, The Poetic ofRobert Frost. Retrieved from:
attribute of human being to an animal, an object or a concept. It is really a subtype of metaphor, an implied comparison in which the figurative term of the comparison is always a human being.34 Personification occurs when a poet attributes an inanimate object or abstract idea with human qualities or actions. For example, in "StoppingBy Woods On A Snowy Evening", Robert Frost personifies the horse: "my little horse must think it queer".35 Personifications differ in the degree to which they ask the readers actually to visualize the literal term in human form.36
4. Symbol
Symbol is thing that could be an object, person, situation or action, which stands for something else more abstract. For exanlple, our flag is the symbol of our country. According to Laurence Perrine in a literature, a symbol may be defined as something that means more than what it is.37"The Road Not Taken" by Robert frost, for instance, it symbolizes the choice in human life, such the choice of carrier and profession.
5. Metonymy
Metonymy is a figure of speech that uses a concept closely related to the thing actually meant. As writer said before, the substitution makes the analogy more vivid and meaningful. Many metonymies and synecdoche, of course, like many metaphor, so much of the language that they no longer strikes us as figurative, this is the case
34Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P.,op.cit.,p.64.
35Anonymous, The Poetic ofRobert Frost. op.cit.
20
with: "redhead" for red headed person, "hands" for manual workers, "highbrow" for a sophisticate, "tongues" for language, and "a boiling kettle" for the water in the kettle.3s
6. Allegory
Allegory is a narration or description that has a second meaning beneath the surface. Although the surface story or description may have its own interest, the poet's major interest is in the ulterior meaning. Allegory defined sometimes as an extended metaphor and as a series of related symbols. In allegory there is usually a one-to-one conespondence between the details and one single set of ulterior meamngs.
The exanlples of allegorical is when pharaoh in the bible, for instance, has a dream in which seven fat kine are devoured by seven lean kine, story does not really become significant until Joseph interprets its allegorical meaning: that Egypt is to enjoy seven years off fruitfulness and prosperity followed by seven years offamine.39 7.Paradox
Paradox is a statement or sentiment that appears contradictory to common sense yet is true in fact. Examples of paradox are "mobilization for peace" and "a well-known secret agent". According to PelTine, a paradox is an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true. It may be either a situation or a statement from the speaker. The value of paradox is its shock value, for example:
"Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P.,op.cit.,p. 100.
when Alexander Pope wrote that a literary critic of his time would "damn with faint praise," he was using a verbal paradox, for "how can a man damn by praising?,,4o E. Thcmc
Theme is the critical idea of literary work41. According to Pickering, theme is
also used sometimes to refer to the basic issue, problem, or subject with which the work is concerncd.42 In literary tenn, theme is the central idea or insight that unifies the total work, it is also the main point an author wishes to make about his subject. The readers also will be understand the main point of the poem if he or she known the theme of the poem. Theme is what is made of the topic. Itis the comment on the topic that is implied in the process of the story43.
To get the theme of the poem, explication and some analysis of some fundan1ental elements of poetry are very valuable. The ideas, issues, and elements of poetry find theme. To find the theme of the poem we cannot avoid the elements above.
40Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P..ibid
4\Ibid., p. 23.
42James H.Pickering and Jeffrey D. Hoeper.Concise Companion/o Literature.New York: Macmillan
Publishing, 1981. p. 61.
CHAPTER III
THE ANALYSIS OF POEMS
To make a better literary competence in this research, the writer chooses the
descriptive objective approach, which describes and analyzes about the intrinsic
elements that used by a poet to make an easier interpretation and have good
understanding about the meaning of the poem. This research focused on the analysis
of the intrinsic elements of poetry. The writer also limited the research by analyzing
the imagery, figurative language, and the theme of each poem. These analyses help
the writer to understand the complicated language that used ineachp()em.
A. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree"
Written by: William Butler Yeats (1893)
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, ofclay and 'wattles made: Nine bean-rows willI have there, a hive for the honeybee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there. for peace comes dropping slow, 5 Droppingji-om the veils ofthe morning to where the cricket sings.
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening/illl ofthe linnel's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake waleI' lapping with low sounds by the shore, 10
"The Lake Isle of Irmisfree" is an interesting poem illat written by William
Butler Yeats in 1893. Yeats is one of the most influential poets of the twentieth
century among T.S. Elliot, Ezra Pounds, and the other poets. His well-known poem:
"The Lake Isle ofInnisfree", is related to a person who lives in the city, but longing
for living in the village, and be close to nature.
1. Analysis of Imagery
The images such visual or auditory imagery, are a mixture of poetic
descriptions of a realistic things such a beautiful plaee or tmth to live the images and
gives effect to the readers, whether a visual or auditory. As in the first stanza, the
speaker wants to go to a peaceful place, the speaker imagines building a small cabin
of "clay" and "wattles made" on the little island of lImisfree. Then, the speaker
dreanls about "living on beans and honey". There he will have "nine bean-rows" and
"a hive", and "live alone" in the glade loud with the sOlmd of bees as the
bee-loud glade. Speaker seems wants to get away from his people or his society. He tells
those imageries to the readers as in the first stanza:
1 will arise and go now, and go to lnnisji'ee,
And a small cabin build there, ofclay and wattles made: Nine bean-rows will! have there, a hive for the honeybee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
In the second stanza, the speaker imagines finding harmony on the island. He
has "peace" there and lives alone, and he describes that "peace" is "dropping" from
24
well, by imagining peace dropping from the moming sky. The readers know it when
speaker says:
AndJshall have some peace there. fiJr peace comes dropping slow, 5
Dropping/i'om the veils I!fthe morning to where the cricket sings.
In the.third stanza, the speaker's thoughts and action in tins poem through
visual imagery develop more. First, the speaker brings out the visual imagery of the
colorful and beautiful sky at different parts of the day to the readers imagination, as
he says in 7 - 8th line:
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And eveningfull ofthe linnet's wings.
Then, in the last stanza, he states his decision to leave the "pavements grey" in
the city. The simple imagery of the quiet life of the speaker viewed in the early
stanza, as he describes each of its qualities. He tries to bring the readers into his ideal
fantasy, until the last line shocks the readers, when the speaker back into the reality of
his uninteresting urban lives, as in line II:
While Jstand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey
From here, readers can presume why the speaker chooses the word "grey". The
speaker used "the grey pavement" to symbolize the emptiness and unpleasant
situation which he feels in the city, as same as the "grey" color itself which is
unattractive. The image of the grey pavements of the city streets is more real than
many of the other images. First, because the speaker uses the future tense such as
of the stanza when speaker uses word "While I stand" whieh is present tense one.
Second, the speaker also uses contrast especially between the colorful images of the
island and the dull image of the city. For these reasons, speaker obsesses with the
sound oflake water and thoughts that he has to leave the city.
Moreover, when speaker uses words "Bee-loud", "cricket sings", "Linnet's
wings", and "water lapping", he tries to bring the auditory imagination to the nature.
So that, the readers can imagine and hears the sound of bee:, and seeing them buzz
around a field. The speaker also uses "I hear" twice. This word-choice emphasizes
that the auditory imagery as a main image in this poem. When the speaker says: "I
hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore" (line: 10), he makes Innisfree
scems more peaceful and calm. The sound of water flowing usually perceived as
peaceful also brings the readers imagination to the peaceful beauty of water flowing
over rocks.
In the last stanza, readers know that the speaker is in the city. He admits that
he has a deep need to live in a beautiful place whieh encircled by the sound of water.
The speaker then hears his heart yearning for an idea to go there, which he hears
within himself. As in the last lines:
1 hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; 10
While1stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
1 hear it in the deep heart's core.
From overall imageries found in this poem, they are essentially based on two
contrasting images that are the different atmosphere between the city and the
26
The village (Innisfree) is bright and musical while the city is dreary and gloomy. The
readers can see this difference if they contrast "lake water lapping" on the island
(line: I), to the "roadway" in the city where there is no peace (line: II).
2.Analysis of Figurative Language
The speaker's words are simple. However, their meanings are more complex. He uses figurative language, such as:
a.Metaphor
Metaphor is kind of figure of speech in which a comparison is made between
two things essentially unlike. Metaphor is use of a word or phrase denoting one kind
of idea or object in place of another word or phrase, for suggesting a likeness between
the two. According to Barnet, a metaphor asserts the identity, without a connective
such as "like" or a verb such as "appears", of terms which are literally incompatible.44 In this poem, the speaker uses metaphor in comparing and contrasting. For
example, "the morning" does not literally or really have "veil". This word suggests
"mists" in the sky. Then, word "peace" and "drop" also do not have a physical sense.
The word "dropping" therefore, is also a metaphor when it uses with word "peace".
Then, when the speaker in the poem says: "And evening full of the linnet's
wings" (line 8), this means that the sky is not literally means full of linnet's wings.
By reading more into it, readers can understand that the speaker's meaning is the
"birds' wings".
Moreover, in the last stanza, when speaker says, "I hear it in the deep heart's core", this is also a metaphor because the ear does not really connect to the heart. It is a way to emphasize the deep and the spiritual feelings of the speaker himself.
b. Symbol
Symbol is a figure of speech, which has meaning more than what it is. Symbols appear in the poem when the speaker uses the color representation to build the peaceful atmosphere of Innisfree, then it compares with the grey atmosphere in the city: "There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow" (line: 7), and "While 1 sland on Ihe roadway, or on the pavements grey" (line: II). The word "purple" and "grey" which used by the speaker, show the contrasting-element. The speaker uses "purple:' as a symbol of the softness and the musical atmosphere in Innisfree. While "grey" symbolizes the dreary and the tmattractive atmosphere of the city.
d. Personification
Personification occurs when the speaker attributes an inanimate object, concept, or an abstract idea with human qualities or with hum:m action. Inthis poem, the speaker used personification by attributes:
1 hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore(line: 10)
28
From all of figurative language that found in this poem, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" contains various figurative language such metaphor, symbol, synecdoche, and personification, in which each of those figurative language represents both sides of the village and the city. The speaker try to make the readers believe and sure about the beauty of natural world around the Innisfree, by making some companson, analogies, symbols, and personification of every things or parts of it.
3. Analysis of Theme
It is important for the readers to get theme as the central idea of poem, before understanding the message from speaker through his poem, To get the ideas that supported the theme of this poem, the writer tries to make some description.
As it has discussed in previous discussion, the persona (the speaker) in "The Lake Isle ofInnisfree" wants to get out of the city and go to some peaceful place. The speaker loves Innisfree because he can get away from his city and return to natural world. the speaker also found this runaway as a new alternative way to unfold his boring life. For him, the perfect place to be free and have peaee must be Innisfree. In addition, this takes the readers' imagination to an island in the middle of a lake, away from the rush of everyday life in the city. The speaker's voice in this poem suggests his visions of nature.
without any interference of hwnan to disturb things. The human appearance whom
represented by the speaker is view to a minimum than the natural world itself. Almost
every line of the poem serves to enrich this idea of an ｩ､Ｌｾ｡ｬ life. This gives the
speaker a desire to go to Innisfree for its beauty, and be closer to nature. As in lines 2
- 4 of the poem:
And a small cabin build there, a/clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows willJhave there, a hive jiJr the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loudglade.
By referring to the discussion above, the writer finally concludes that the
theme of "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is about "escaping from the rush of modem
living in the city, and longing for living in the village that closes to nature". For
those who read "The Lake Isle ofInnisfree", do not have to go to Innisfree physically,
but just ean go there in their own mind. Readers just can imagine being there, and it
B. "Fern Hill"
Written by: Dylan Thomas (1946)
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green, The night above the dingle stony,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays o./his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince o./the apple towns And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers ofthe windjcllllight.
And as I was green and｣｡ｲｾｦｩＧ･･Ｌ famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun thatisyoung once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy (!/his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold, And the Sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles ofthe holy streams.
All the sun long it was running, itwas lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from thd chimneys, itwas oil'
And playing, lovely and watelY Andfire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm ｭｶ｡Ｇｹｾ
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.
And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white'
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden, The sky gathered again
And the sun grew round that velY day.
So it must have been qfler the birth ofthe simple light
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm Out ofthe whinnying green stable
On to the fields ofpraise.
And honoured amongfoxes and pheasants by the gay house Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long, In the sun born over and over,
1 ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing1cared, at my sky blue trades, that time ai/ows
In all his tunq(iJ! turning so,{ell'and such morning songs
BqjiJre the children green and golden Follow him out ofgrace,
Nothing1cared, in the lamb white days, Ihattime would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow ofmy hand, In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
1 should hear himjly with the highfields
And wake to thefarmforever jledji-om the childless land,
Oh as1was young and easy in the mercy ofhis means,
Time held me green and dying ,
Though1sang in my chains like the sea.
40
45
50
32
1. Analysis ofImagery
In this poem, the speaker deals with the old-age dilemma of growing-up. His "carefree" outlook expressed through the description of the farm where he spent his childhood. Both of visual and auditory images in tluspoem contributed to a picture of one man's outlook on life and death. Visual imagery is used in the beginning of the poem when speaker tries to give the readers some images and situation in the farm when he was child. As in line I - 4 of the poem:
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green, The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
By using those visual images, speaker tries to bring the reader:; into the atmosphere of his farm when he was child. The speaker uses simple and realistic objects that usually easy to identify and has known by human such as: "the gras!:", "the trees", "green", and "stars". So that, the readers can easily see those objects and imagine being there.
Speaker thcn describes visual image in this poem by make some images about the time of his lives from period to period when he being a young man. As in third stanza:
And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home, In/he sun/hat is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy ofhis means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang/0 my horn, the foxes on/he hills barked clear and cold...
10
In the next stanzas, speaker tells the readers that he become confused and desperate. In this problematic period is when he being older, speaker wishes that, he could be a child again:
In the sun born over and over, I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tunefiil turningsofew and such morning songs
ｂｾＯ｢ｲ･ the children green and golden Follow him out ofgrace,
40
45
The last stanza, speaker concerns with his own regression, he finally realizes that he does not young forever, which is not his willingness, and God controls his life:
Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that lime would take me Up to the swallow thronged lofi by the shadow ofmy hand,
In the moon thatisalways rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake10the farm foreverfledfi'om the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy ofhis means, Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.
50
The speaker uses the color representation to strength imaginary effects to the readers, and brings the atmosphere of each situation in his age. Begin in his childhood: "As I was green and carefi'ee" (line: I 0), then in Iris youth age: "Fire as
green as grass" (line: 27), and in the last stanza when the speaker old and wish to
young and easy again: "Before the children green and golden" (line: 44), "Time let
34
The speaker also uses some words-choice that has an auditory effect to the
readers. The readers can hear and imagine through speaker's words when he wishes
that he could have cherished time as a child as he now cherishes and values it (line 41
- 44). "The children" are spoken of "before...golden". This is because as an adult, the
speaker is no longer as powerful as he was as a child. "Golden" time has forever
taken him far away from his "childless land" (line 51), and he can only remember it.
All imageries that found in this poem are created by the speakers to show the
change of his life to the readers by making the atmospheres in each age, and its
situational circumstances. The readers reminded about the passage of time, which
holds the speaker being "green" and "dying". The speaker moves to a wisdom about
himself and the natural world around him by making some de:scription of time in his
life as a child, young, and finally old, and by using nature, color, and time
representation.
2. Analysis of Figurative Language
a. Allegory
Allegory is a narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the
surface. Allegory has been defined sometimes as an extended metaphor and as a
series of related symbols. In allegory, there is usually a one-to-one correspondence
between the details and one single set of ulterior meanings.45
In complex allegories such in "Fern Hill", the details may have more than one
meaning, but these meaning tend to be definite. Meanings do not ray out from
allegory as they do from a symbol. Though less rich than a symbol, allegory is an
effective way of making the abstract concrete and has occasionally been used
effectively. TIn'Ough this poem, speaker tells the readers about the journey of his life
from one period to the other period when he was a child, then a young man, and until
he being an old man. Beginning with cherish time in childhood of the speaker, as in
line I -- 4 of the poem:
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs; About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green;
The night above the dingle stan)'; Time let me hail and climb.
Then when the speaker young:
And as I was green and carejree, famous among the barns; 10
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home; In the sun that is young once only;
Time let me play and be;
Golden in the mercy ojhis means; And green and golden.
Finally when the speaker being an old man, he wishes that he could have cherished
time as a child as he now cherishes and values it:
My wishes raced through the house high hay;
And nothing I cared. at my sky blue trades, thatlime allows; In all his tunejill turning so few and such morning songs; Before the children green and golden;
Follow him out ofgrace. 45
36
Time held me green and dying;
Though 1sang in my chains like the sea.
b. Simile
Simile is a specific comparison by means of the words "like" or "as" between two kinds of ideas or objects. In "FemHill",the speaker try to describes his life when he was child as same as the color of "green", which are happy, fresh and natural. This comparative-similarity appears in some of lines of the poem Huch"And happy as the grass was green" (line: 2), and "Singing as the farm was home"(line: 11).
Speaker then desctibes some problematic times that he was going through in his young age by making another simile, "And to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer while" (line: 28), "Andfire green as grass"(line: 22). The speaker uses the images of "fire" and "green", to describe that something destructive has occulTed in his young life that has changed or altered the course of his natural growth.
Moreover, in the last stanza when speaker being old, he realized that the immortality he felt as a child was merely a stage in the definite-movement of life toward death: "Though1sang in my chains like the sea"(line: 54).
c. Symbol
younger than their fathers. This symbol appears as in line 6: "And honoured among
wagons1was prince ofthe apple towns".
The symbol of young age of the speaker also uses the colors representation. The speaker symbolizes his happiness as a child as being as Happy as the grass is
green (line: 2), which means that the speaker feels alive and healthy. Speaker then
directly refers himself to being Green and careji·ee (line: 10). As a young boy he was bright and full oflife, likeGreen as grass (line: 22). This means that there is a natural course that life has to follow, which is birth to death.
"White" symbolizes the purity and innocence. The speaker describes himself as a "wanderer white" (line: 28), "wanderer" means: delirious or roaming46and these symbols are paired together and give the impression that the speaker was confused about his growing up and his maturity, because now he is no longer being a child anymore. Speaker then looks back at his "Iamb white days" (line: 46). These terms is used in the Christian holly-book. "White lamb" was an animal of purity used for sacrifices to God. The speaker was merely an innocent "white lanlb" graciously following his shepherd (God) to his own sacrifice (death).
"Gold" usually used witl1 youthful objects, tI1us, gold represents "brightness" in which is usually associated with the youtl1 age. This symbol appears in these following lines: "Golden in the heydays of his eyes" (line: 5),"Golden in the mercy
ofhis means" (line: 14),"And green and golden1was huntsman and herdsman" (line:
15), and ＢｂｾｪｩＩｊﾷ･ {he children green and golden" (line: 44).
38
In line 22 when the speaker says, "And.fire as green as grass", he wants to
symbolize that something "destmctive" has occurred in his youth which has changed his "natural growth". The speaker uses word "Fire" or "bummg" to symbolize those
changes, and then pair it with word "grass"
"Time" symbolizes an authority figure that has strict control of his life, and
with descriptions of holly book figures, the readers can presume that speaker is a
religious person who believes that God is in control of his de:;tiny. Time is only seen
as golden and valuable thing, but is also looked upon as a concrete figure. The
speaker characterizes time as a father figure that "allows" him to play and be young.
He associates "time" with an adult who is supervising him and who has strict control
of his life.
d. Metaphor
There are some metaphors in this poem concerning the opposite of youth and
old age, which are located in the entirety of the last part of the stanzas. Line 48 below
reveals that the speaker has experience that seems like countless days and nights:"In the moon that is always rising". Then, "The childless land" (line 51), means that
where the speaker was before, everyone has grown up by now.
In line 54: "Though I sang in my chains like the sea", explains that the
"chains" of old age are slowing the speaker down. He becomes older and slower like
the sea. TIllS last part of the poem is a kind of "eoming back to reality" for the
speaker. The realization that his youthful days are over, but those have fond
c. Pcrsonification
The speaker in this poem uses a personification to describe the house as "the
lilting house" (Line: 2). This line describes the cherish time when the speaker's
childhood, as the boy that playful through the yard, "the house" seems like
"springing" and "moving" for a child like him. This introduces the boy's acceptance
of his own interpretation of life, and his mind which Imtainted by the outside world.
Personification also appears when the speaker attributes human actions with "time", which has controlled his lives. This can be seen inthese lines: "Time let me
hail and climb" (line: 4), "Time let me play and be" (line: 13), "That times allows"
(line: 42), "Follow him out of grace" (line: 45), "1 should hear him fly with the high
field" (line: 50), and "Time held me green and dying" (line: 53).
From the figurative language that found in this poem, the speaker seemstryto
make a descnption of the changes of his lives, and natural world around him. He
makes some symbols of nature, through the colors representation, which all of them
purposed to remind the readers that every thing could be happen in this life, but time
is the certainty thing in this live. Man cannot be free from it circle and circUll1stances,
and nature have a significant role in human live, because a man in this world still
40
3. Analysis ofTheme
In this poem, the speaker uses mne six-line stanzas to illustrate his
experiences when he was a boy. The speaker, is a grown man, he can tell readers in
retrospection about his youthful ignorance regarding the process of time. In the tirst stanza, the readers introduced to life through the youth of the speaker's eyes. He goes
on to use assonance to ask time to let him "hail and climb" (line: 4). He wishes time
to let him stay the way he is. The speaker uses the words "honored", "prince" and
"lordly" to describe his feeling of faith and hope in his own potential. Speaker also
uses words and phrases which recreate a child's interpretation of the world, by
describing how he "rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away". Then he
recreates a typical childish fantasy that the world disappears when it is no longer
visible. The form of the poem reinforces the sense of youthful freedom, with regular
and simple verses that free flowing and umestrained. by a restrictive rhynle scheme,
such as "Now as I was young and easy " (line: I and 52), "And as I w3sgreen and
carefree" (line: 10), "And nothing I cared " (line: 42 and 46).
The use of Allusion from the Bible also appears when the speaker encounters
his turning point of view about the life. For the first four stanzas, nothing of bad
images is put into the speaker's youthful paradise. Even "Eve" is indirectly refers as a
maiden in her "pre-fall" il1l1ocent state. However, in the fmal stanzas the mood
changes and the readers reminded about the passage of time, which holds him "green
endless progression of time. "Green" and "golden" suggests freshness and innocence
of a child and young, but it can also refcr to being gullible or immature.
Referring to the discussion above, the writer concludes that the theme of
"Fern Hill" represents "the definite-movement of human life from childhood to
adulthood until the realization of his mortality, which represented by the symbols of nature", The speaker in this poem moves to a greater wisdom about himself and the
natural world around him by making some description of time in his life as a child,
young, and finally old,and by using nature, color, and time representation. Through
the religious language, readers more understand the speaker's emotions, believe, and
passage through life. But the significant point above those all is: the speaker's
realization that the immortality he felt as a child is merely a stage in the
definite-movement oflife toward death. As the speaker says in the last lines:
017 as I was young and easy in the mercy ofhis means; Time held me green and dying;
C. "The Horses"
Written by: Edwin Muir (1956)
Barely a twelvemonth aJier
The seven days war that put the world to sleep, Late in the evening the strange horses came. By then we had made our covenant with silence,
But inthefirst/ew､Ｈｾｊｬｓ it wasso still
We listened to our breathing and were afi'aid. On the second day
The radios/ailed: we turned the knobs, no answer. On the third day a warship passed us, headed north, Dead bodies piled on the deck. On the sixth day A plane plunged over us into the sea. Thereafler Nothing. The radios dumb;
And still they stand in corners
0/
our kitchens,And stand, perhaps, turned on, in a million rooms
All over the world. But now
if
they should speak,J.f
on a sudden they should speak again,J.f
on the stroke a/noon a voice should i>peak,We would not listen, we would not let it bring
That old bad world that swallowed its children quick At one great gulp. We would not have it again.
Sometimes we think
0/
the nations lying asleep,Curled blindly in impenetrable sorrow,
And then the thought confounds us with its strangeness. The tractors lie about ourfields; at evening
They look like dank sea-monsters crouched and waiting. We leave them where they are and let them rust:
"They'll molder away and be like other loam. " We make our oxen drag our rusty plows, Long laid aside. We have gone back Far past our/athers' land.
And then, that evening
Late in the summer the strange horses came. We heard a distant tapping on the road,
A deepening drumming; it stopped, went on again And at the corner changed to hollow thunder. We saw the heads
Like a wild wave charging and were afi'aid.
We had sold our horses in ourfathers' time To blly nell' tractors. Noll' they were strange to us Asfhbulous steeds set on an ancient shield
Or ililistrations in a book(ifknights. 40
We did not dare go near them. Yet they waited,
Stubbol'/1 and shy, as
if
they had been sentBy an old command to find our whereabouts And that long-lost archaic companionship.
In the first moment we had never a thought 45
That they were creatures to beO'tl'ned and used.
Among them were some halfa dozen colts Dropped in some wilderness ofthe broken world, Yet nell' as ifthey had come from their own Eden.
Since then they have pulled our plows and borne our loads, 50
But thatfi'ee servitude still can pierce our hearts, Our life is changed; their coming our beginning,
Edwin Muir (1887-1959), is a mysteriously gorgeous and emotionally
penetrating poet From all of the many "pieces of writing" that stimulatcd by World
War I - II, and by the threat of nuclear-apocalypse, his poem "The Horses" may be
the most effective one, because it is so calm and, gentle but also a dark poem, The
plainness of the writing, the persuasive speech-rhythms are culminating ina last line
of "The Horses". In this poem, the speaker imagines one wodd has en.ded and a new
one has begun. Previous world represents the machinery, and new world represents
the nature.
1.Analysis oflmagery
The speaker in this poem refers to "a seven day war" :md to "the arrival of the
magical horses". In the first stanza, speaker tells the readers that people's community
44
days of the war, when they lived in shock and fear and afraid of the sound of their
own breathing. In line I - 6, the speaker tries to bring the atmosphere and images of
fear to the readers. As same as when he uses word "silence" in the opening of the
poem, and the sudden eoming of the horses ereates a mysterious atmosphere:
Barely a twelvemonth ({(ter
The seven days war that put the world to sleep, Late in the evening the strange horses came. By then we had made our covenant with silence, But in thefirst few days it was so still
We listened to our breathing and were ({(raid
5
The speaker also uses dark image of war, such "dead bodies piled on deck"
(line: 10). Then, he gives some details of war such; on the sixth day an airplane fell
into the sea, and after the war, radios evelywhere remained silent. Soon it became
clear people never again wanted to hear the radios. If the radios ever star! to broadcast
again, people will ignore them because they represent the bad old days of war that
killed children instantly. This visual imagery showed as in line 9 - 20 of this poem:
On the third day a warship passed us, headed north Dead bodies piled on the deck. On the sixth day A plane plunged over us into the sea. Thereajier No
