英诗鉴赏_Stopping_by_Woods_on_a_Snowy_Evening

英诗鉴赏_Stopping_by_Woods_on_a_Snowy_Evening
The Interpretation of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening was written in 1923 by Robert Frost in his New Hampshire volume. Imagery and personification are prominent in the work.
Robert Frost is a well-known American pastoral poet. For his achievement, Frost got awarded the Pulitzer Prize four times in his life. Nature and his rural surroundings were for him a source to create, that’s why he made a great many pastoral poems. Frost’s poems show deep appreciation of natural world and sensibility about the human aspirations and realizations. The images like woods, stars, roads, houses, brooks are usually taken from everyday life. Readers always find it is easy to follow the poet into deeper truths about life or the author himself. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is generally regarded as Frost’s masterpiece one which he viewed a s his “best bid for remembrance.”
The poet expressed the symbolic meaning by describing nature. In his poems, a theme: of using natural scenery as a symbol to display some feelings; emotions; interests and liking of readers and feelings of the poet can be reflected and the plain of ultra-naturalism and the aesthetic sense of symbolism can be shown by the poet.
The poem is written in iambic tetrameter. It consists of four identically constructed stanzas. The poet employs the drawing back the rhyme, i.e. in the first stanza the third line is b, while in the second stanza the poem draws back to continue the rhyme b. Within the four lines of each stanza, the first, second, and fourth lines rhyme. The third line does not, but it sets up the
rhymes for the next stanza. For example, in the third stanza, queer, near, and year all rhyme, but lake rhymes with shake, mistake, and flake in the following stanza. The notable exception to this pattern comes in the final stanza, where the third line rhymes with the previous two and is repeated as the fourth line. It gives the poem a tone of hesitation, which shows the poet's deliberate consideration.
On the surface, this poem is simplicity itself. The speaker is stopping by some woods on a snowy evening. He or she takes in the lovely scene in near-silence, is tempted to stay longer, but acknowledges the pull of obligations and the considerable distance yet to be traveled before he or she can rest for the night. Like the woods it describes, the poem is lovely but entices us with dark depths--of interpretation, in this case.
The first stanza leads us to a piece of beautiful woods filled up with snow. The speaker is captivated by the beauty and stops in such a fascinating pastoral landscape. In the deep mind of him, perhaps the woods means wealth, beauty or other attractions, and he just cannot refuses these allure. He is fed up with the routine duties, and wants to rest forever. The woods happens to provide an ideal place. The second stanza depicts the surro undings of the woods through the speaker’s little horse’s eye.“The darkest evening of the year” tell us that the snow is cold and the evening dark, all of which indicate that the poet is depressed inside. And now is the darkest time of the sp eaker’s life, so when he meets the good views in the traveling, he couldn’t help to enjoying the world of fair allure and loneliness. In the third stanza, the little horse wonders why the poet stops when he should have go on. He cannot understand why the speaker—his owner stops there and gazes at the woods. The
extreme qu ietness actually reflects the speaker’s confusing mind. The little horse actually represents another self of speaker and the two speakers have the conversation in heart to decide what he should do. The last stanza is the speaker’s decision and conclusive idea. Finally, the speaker makes his mind to go back to the world with responsibilities. “The promise” could be an obligation or a goal. It represents responsibilities in the human world. The last two repeated lines emphasize the speaker’s determination and he has to keep all the promises and takes the responsibilities. “Sleep” means death, the end of one’s life. The speaker has to deal with chores and promises in the rest of his life.
In this poem, Robert Frost gives the effect of sighting. The narrator wants to rest but he cannot, and the horse is reminding him to come back. And he discusses the relation between mortal obligations and the eternal rest. One leaves no regrets after he dies, as long as one has reached his goal. The speaker is tempted toward de ath which he considers “love,dark and deep”.
"O Captain! My Captain!" is an extended metaphor poem written in 1865 by Walt Whitman, concerning the death of American president Abraham Lincoln.
Contents [hide]
1 Analysis
2 The Poem
3 Modern versions
4 In popular culture
4.1 References
4.2 External links
[edit]Analysis
Walt Whitman wrote the poem after Abraham Lincoln's
assassination. Repeated metaphorical reference is made to this issue throughout the verse. The "ship" spoken of is intended to represent
the United States of America, while its "fearful trip" recalls the troubles of the American Civil War. The title role "Captain" is Lincoln himself.[1]
With a conventional meter and rhyme scheme that is unusual for Whitman, it was the only poem anthologized during Whitman's lifetime. Many articles of the time stated that Whitman was planning to change his writing style, and after reading this poem, they were shocked with his counter-attack on the media. This was the only poem that he had ever written like this.
Rhyme Scheme - aabb xcxc - the opening couplets of the first two stanzas establish a happy mood, which juxtaposed with the shortened succeeding lines, brings out the disappointment experienced by the poet over the captain's death. Note the progression: Stanza 1 begins with two happy couplets; Stanza 2 begins with two celebrating couplets, but something isn't quite right as demonstrated by the off rhyme of "bells" and "trills." Stanza 3 re-establishes the rhyming couplet pattern, but the message is as clear as the rhyme: the captain is dead.
Meter and Rhythm - there is no fixed meter; there is, however, a pattern of four long lines followed by four short lines in each stanza. The shortened lines emphasize the personal grief experienced by the poet against the backdrop of a broader victory. The poem's rhythm is created by the varying line lengths.
Extended Metaphor - The captain is Abraham Lincoln. The fearful trip is the Civil War. The ship is the United States. The prize is the preservation of the union.
The repetition of "heart" in line 5 emphasizes the poet's grief at the death of his captain. "Fallen cold and dead" is repeated at the end of each stanza to emphasize the poet's deep loss.
Apostrophe - an apostrophe is a form of personification in which an individual addresses someone who is dead, someone who is not there, or an inanimate object. "O Captain! My Captain!" at the start of the first two stanzas are examples of apostrophe, as is "Exult O shores, and ring O bells!" in the third stanza.
The poet refers to the fallen captain as "father," representing his deep respect for president Lincoln and Lincoln's role as father of the Union.
Word Choice - words and phrases such as "grim and daring," "weathered every rack," "fearful trip," "flag is flung," "bugle trills," "ribboned wreaths," and "swaying mass" cast a shadow over the celebration, much in the same way the dead cast a shadow over any victory in war celebration.。