Part I: Scansion and Analysis This analysis is going to be over Robert Frost’s poem “Range Finding” divided into two stanzas symbolizing the effects of war through the comparison of nature. The rhyme scheme is (abbaabba ccdeed) ultimately giving the poem a smooth and calming flow. This rhyme scheme indicates that the poem is a Petrarchan sonnet also known as an Italian sonnet. Although the poem does have a rhyme scheme, it doesn’t have any type of meter to the way it read.
The speakers show the hawks to be naturally mortal. In a world where there is danger the hawks soar high. The hawks are described as fierce and daring. They have arrogance in them, even in the face of death, they do not beg for mercy from god. The Hawks imbibe nature’s purest form of freedom, which is missed by most people who live in fear.
As the poem continues, H.D. introduces “a red swan” (3) with “red wings” (3), “darker beak” (4), “purple down/ of his soft breast” (5-6), and “coral feet” (7). H.D.’s use of colors, such as red, purple, and coral, to describe the swan deviates from an ordinary swan. These exotic colors reveal that this is not an ordinary swan, but a creature higher than itself. In fact, the
The poem uses sophisticated words to remind us of the hawk’s obvious intelligence, but also of his cockiness. He repeatedly talks about his vantage point and how it is an advantageous perspective. The hawk believes he is
The Bird and the Arras, is a poem written by Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661-1720), she has always been a recognised author, but the recognition of her works have been revived in the last years. Her poetry reflects her thoughts and personal experiences, but also the social and political situation of the era (18th century, England). As in the case of the poem “The Bird and the Arras”, the author describes the situation of the women of the time by the using of the symbol of the bird. During the poem, the room where the bird is trapped, which has a high ceiling, has an arras, and the bird tries to follow the birds that appear on the arras. As a consequence of trying to follow the birds that appear on the arras it hits against the ceiling.
“Hurt Hawks”, by Robinson Jeffers, tells the story of a hawk whose wing is hurt and a man who makes the decision to take the hawk out of its misery by killing it. Jeffers describes the hawk in the first stanza of the poem by stating, “The broken pillar of the wing jags from the clotted shoulder, / The wing trails like a banner in defeat, / No more to use the sky forever but live with famine” (Lines 1-3). Jeffers is describing the hawk’s broken wing as the bone protrudes from the skin and blood has clotted on its wing. He describes the wing as white like a flag of surrendering to his fait.
The speaker's perception was limited even at its "most knowing eye". Conversely, the second stanza emits a different tone as a new stage of life is introduced. The bird metaphor reappears in the image of a condor. Condors are drastically different a "painted paroquet". Condors are often black and white, balding, and large.
In the poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, figurative language is used to emphasize and intensify the growing emotions of the narrator. To the narrator, the raven symbolizes bad fortune. Moreover, the raven is black and black can represent death or evil. Poe twists the bird into a controlling being who torments him over the death of a loved one and he is able to enhance that effect with the use of metaphors. The use of metaphors in this poem adds an eerie background to the bird and adds quality to the writing.
The human connection to birds is a fascinating thing that is often depicted in stories. Humans want to be free like birds and fly away from the troubles that are present in their life. Birds reflect the image of freedom in life, so it’s no wonder that the Bald Eagle is the emblem of the United States; a country built on the principles of freedom and equality. Two famous poets by the names of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Maya Angelou used the image of the bird to describe how they felt in their own life. Even though Dunbar wrote in the Reconstruction Era and Angelou wrote around the time of the Civil Rights Movement, their ideas were almost identical.
For instance, in stanza two it’s stated “His wings are clipped and/ His feet are tied/ So he opens his throat to sing.” If we compare the bird’s wings to Tom Robinson’s hope, the feet to his heart, and his action of running to the action of opening his throat to sing, we can visualize the song that Tom Robinson would sing, one about him losing hope and not wanting anyone to control his life anymore, and so in this manner he is very much like the
In the poem, identity, the theme of being true to yourself is also conveyed through a simile of living like an eagle .The narrator wants to take off the
The poem makes some allusions, for example when referring to the bust of shovels, refers to the bust of atene or atena or "shovels athena" ie the crow perches on the Greek goddess of wisdom, civilization, war, art and strategy . "That bird or demon" rests on wisdom, according to the author of the poem, the time of year in which the poem is located is December, a month of much magic, but the most important allegory is the raven itself, "bird of the demon "" that comes from the plutonic riviera of the night "also refers to the crow as a messenger from beyond, in a few words it refers to the Roman god Pluto of the underworld, its equivalent for the Greeks was hades as a curious fact the Romans instituted exclusive priests to plutón called "victimarios" of all the Roman gods plutón was the most ruthless and feared, then the crow was a messenger of the beyond, perhaps invoked by that "old book, rare and of forgotten science", during the poem was speaks of seraphim that perfumed the room, with censers, according to the Christian angelology the seraphim have the highest ranks in the celestial hierarchy, since they are not made in image and Likeness of God, rather they are part or essence
The literary device that seems ubiquitous in this poem is alliteration. The first one found in lines 633-634, “ still brave, still strong/ And with his shield at his side, and a mail shirt on his breast.” The “S” sound is repeated. Another example of alliteration shown is on lines 717-718.
Lines one through seven define the free bird as one that “floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays” (Angelou) this is a representation of freedom and joy. The second and third stanza lines, eight through fourteen defines the caged bird that “stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage” (Angelou) where these words reference isolation and despair compared to the freedom in stanza one. These lines create a visual response of the bird’s environments. The third stanza is repeated at the end of the poem for prominence as it reflects the two birds are so different.
The soft alliteration portrays how peaceful freedom is, “the wind stirs soft through the springing grass.” To be freed from the cage and being able to experience the world, the feeling of liberation, that's what freedom feels like. The bird started with freedom but ended up being caged. Freedom did not last long for the bird. In the first and last line of the stanza its creates a cage by repeating, “I know what the caged bird feels.”
