I think the pasture spring in the phrase "I'm going out to clean the pasture spring" symbolizes the speaker's life. So when he stated he will clean his life, he really meant that he is having a new beginning. I do not know what the spring meant, but if it should have meant spring as in season, it will further support speaker getting a new life, new beginning.
The second and third line of the poem is "I'll only stop to rake the leaves away (and wait to watch the water clear, I may)" which slows the reader down by using alliteration. The phrase "(and wait to watch the water clear, I may)" may seem unimportant because it is surrounded by the parenthesis, yet it is mentioned in a very brief poem, so it must be important to the speaker. In that line alone, the speaker wants the reader to slow down and enjoy the nature he loves.
In the second stanza, the speaker says "I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's too young," I think the little calf is symbolizing the speaker's son. "It totters when she licks it with her tongue." In that line, the speaker is observing the calf's movements and responding positively to it, which also can support my idea of the calf being the speaker's son.
At the last line of each stanza the speaker repeats: "I shan't be gone long.-you come too." The speaker loves the country so much he wants the readers to come along with him and be his company.
Finally, the whole poem is basically saying that the author really loves the nature and not only will he clean up the spring and do his chores, but he will also take time to look at nature.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
The poem begins with the narrator telling herself, “A few more steps, old feet.” (line 1). The old feet she refers to are the ancestor’s feet, that appear to be old and worn out from the rigorous journey they take. The speaker then goes on to say, “In pale tea I’ll see / me with her, tasting wild grapes” (lines 4-5). This shows her reminder of her ancestors in nature. The pale tea is the symbol of the clean, clear simplicity of nature and when the speaker simplifies herself, to the bare nothingness of nature it reveals to her, her ancestors. Then in the following lines, “at dawn, tasting dew / on tender leaves, another year.” (lines 6-7). The dawn represents a new day, a new start where she can again acknowledge her heritage. After, the speaker says, “her hands still guiding me, / at sunset grinding seeds” (lines 11-12). These hands guiding the speaker, are her ancestors leading her through their stories and nature around…
- 810 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The first line contains an image of a “bronze butterfly” sleeping on a trunk. This stagnant description of such a beautiful creature demonstrates a slowly moving life, one of which hasn’t achieved much. The trunk that the butterfly is sleeping on is colored black, representing the man’s missed opportunities to leave the farm. The next line portrays a leaf blowing down a ravine found behind an empty house. Obviously the empty house and the later heard cowbells in the distance (implying that the cows are leaving the farm) are clear images of the man’s loneliness. The speaker moves on to spot some horse manure. This dung, after being left for over a year, has dried and is turning into stones. The changing of this manure symbolizes the man’s changing into an old, lifeless man. Just as the manure does, the longer the man sits there and waits for something, the more prone he is to dry up and waste his life. Before the last line of the poem, the speaker mentions the setting sun and the evening that approaches as he lays back in his hammock. A chicken hawk, a well-known hunter, flies by the man and looks for his home, just as the man is looking for his home — or the place where he belongs. As the evening envelops the man, all of these apparently “beautiful” images (yet symbolically depressing messages) pushes the man to realize that his life has become…
- 382 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
The free verse technique, personification, enhances the images portrayed in “Spring” by creating deeper meanings. Millay asks “To what purpose, April, do you return again?”(1) By referring to Spring as “April,”(1) one see’s Millay has given this season a specific name. The action of naming the season “April”(1) is an example of personification, giving an inanimate thing a woman’s name. Looking at the season from this sense, one can infer that Millay portrays Spring within the poem as an unsatisfying lover. This becomes evident when Millay states “beauty is not enough,”(2) as a reason for the seasons return. From a personified standpoint, one can interpret this as a lover’s inability to sustain a relationship with beauty alone. The element of personification is seen again when Millay professes “You can no longer quiet me.”(3) When Millay states this she provides Spring with the ability of a person to talk over another, silencing them.…
- 1526 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays -
The sentences are not structured in a conventional way, and it is slightly confusing, but also helps to create a melodic rhythm. When read out loud, the poem sounds almost like a lullaby, and even if the reader doesn’t understand the actual meaning, they still experience the atmosphere of strange contentment. The symbolic mention of the seasons and nature also contributes to this hypnotically content mood; the seasons, weather, celestial bodies, etc. are mentioned a few times, somewhat randomly; for example, on line three “spring summer autumn winter”, line eight “sun moon stars rain”, line eleven “autumn winter spring summer”, etc. These random interjections are almost like a chant, and break up the actual plot of the…
- 513 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The man in the poem seems to reiterate the fact that he is headed towards the end of his life several times. He also seems to view the trees he had planted so long ago with much endearment. The lines "He takes care of them every week; / he planted the trees forty summers ago" (5-6) make it very clear that he still much cares for the trees. As he "remembers wonderful harvests" (9) he mentions the workers on his farm "with forty hands helping and carrying," tending to the family of trees, while his "young and united family smiling. " (12) watches on.…
- 336 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
When most people hear the word “Spring” they think of a typical Sleeping Beauty situation, the birds are chirping and the flowers are blooming. It is always a cheerful time coming out of winter, but for the narrator in Williams's Spring and All, spring is a dreadful time of sorrow and death. Gluck’s For Jane Meyers focuses on a more positive tone, describing a kid excited for the coming of spring so much than he could just die. These two poems use numerous instances of imagery to illustrate the worst and best qualities of spring. In Spring and All, the poem focuses on the dull, sluggish qualities of spring as it is arriving, and For Jane Meyers, holds the tone of spring as a beautiful and exciting.…
- 858 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Spring reflects a deep communion with the natural world, offering a fresh viewpoint of the commonplace or ordinary things in our world by subverting our expected and accepted views of that object which in turn presents a view that operates from new assumptions. Oliver depicts the natural world as a celebration of wonder and awe, the almost insignificant wonders capturing the true beauty nature beholds.…
- 748 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The first line in this poem make you think a seasonal change will follow these events, the arrival of spring is to come with the arrival of May. It's a device used to suggest a possible end to bitter times but this is undermined in…
- 1210 Words
- 4 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Robert Frost was an extraordinary poet who wrote from his heart. He is known for his use of everyday objects and settings in his poems. Many times he uses nature, such as trees, birds, rain, and flowers, for subjects in his poetry. As simple as they may seem, the poems are much more detailed than meets the eye. He also writes from many different perspectives, for example first person omniscient. In his poem "The Road Not Taken", Frost creates an analogy between a walk in the forest and moving through life. He also writes from a first person narrative, as if he were not only representing himself in this walk but everyone else in the world, in particular the reader. In this poem, Frost shows that each person comes to a point in their life when they have a choice of how to live. There are two different paths, and he took the path in life most do not, which ultimately benefited him.…
- 825 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
On the beginning of the first stanza we can see that the first sentence is the same…
- 733 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
These messages are a lot less generalised and a lot more personal to the character than the previous paragraphs messages. There are messages of thoughts of countrymen, thoughts of townsfolk, thoughts of location and lifestyle and thoughts of the choices of life and their consequences. When comparing the verses;And the bush has friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet himIn the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,And at night they wondrous glory of the everlasting starsandAnd the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt meAs they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.the character implies that countrymen are generally a lot more nice, free, simple, accepting and laid-back than the sheep-like, haunting, pallid-faced, hasty townsfolk who are bound to the uniformity of a schedule. The last verse basically states that the character feels that, although the country feels more like home and where he/shes meant to be, the predictable uniformity is where he/she belongs and has accepted that…
- 578 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In stanza one, I think there is a narrator narrating what is going on. I think this is the case for stanza three and four as well. I think that stanza two is his friends and family speaking, and the final stanza the man is speaking.…
- 571 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
I think that they put the poem in there because it means that you should life your life right now like it will be gone tomorrow. Basically this is your chance to be young once you grow up your life isn't as interesting. When you are young those are the best possible years you will have. He starts talking about nature because just like a flower we are all going to die. He chose this specific poem because has romanticism and transcendentalism in it.…
- 84 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
The story opens with a description of the transition of the spring season. The weather becomes warmer, the birds come out to sing, and flowers reopen themselves up to the world. April showers bring the greenery back to life. This can also be said about the humans excited for tolerable weather. By celebrating the vitality and richness of spring, it gives the opening lines a dreamy feel which invokes romantic elements of a love story. To the reader’s surprise though, the story is not about a romance at all, but a pilgrimage. Excited for beautiful weather, everyone seems to be planning out a venture to distant lands for spiritual indulgence.…
- 1730 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
An important aspect is the structure of the poem. It is composed of two stanzas, each stanza containing one sentence that is broken up at various intervals. Both stanzas have each ten lines. The intervals that the sentences are broken differ from line to line, the longest line being 8 syllables and the shortest being 3 syllables. This structure gives the author flexibility, writing this poem like he is writing a story. He is breaking up the sentence into various intervals in order to create “musicality” among the last words of each line.…
- 1585 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays