An Analysis of A Considerable Speck by Jack Frost

In Jack Frost's "A Considerable Speck", the speaker is a writer who, before completing his piece notices "a speck that would have been beneath my sight" (line 1). Initially, the speaker remarks, the writer "poised my pen in air to stop it with a period of ink" before this microscopic mite grabbed the writer's attention and "made me think" (Lines 4-5). The speaker is in aw and is fascinated with the minute creature as it races across his white sheet of paper. "With inclination it could call its own...Then paused again and either drank or smelt" (lines 10 & 13). The reader carefully examines the actions of the mite in detail, as if it were a complex being with emotions and intelligence. The imagery used by the speaker is vivid in description describing the mite in detail. Phrases such as "paused again and either drank or smelt...With loathing, for again it turned to fly" aids the reader in visualizing the actions of the mite. A Considerable Speck is divided into three distinct stanzas each entailing a different aspect of the speaker's contemplation of the mite. In stanza I, the speaker describes the mite using imagery, evoking lifelike images in the mind. In stanza II, the speaker's attitude towards the "speck" is introduced. Stanza III concludes the poem with the speaker's justification for not killing the helpless mite. In A Considerate Speck the speaker expresses his thought of a mite with detailed description of its actions and proposed feelings. The speaker uses figurative language in this poem to describe the mite whilst providing the reader with a source of pleasure in the exercise of the imagination.

"A speck that would have been beneath my sight" (Line 1)

The speaker introduces the poem in a captivating manner, indicating to the reader that something was about to occur, an object or creature - hence the word speck and its denotation: "A slight but appreciable addition" and "a tiny piece of anything" (Websters.com). The writer's level of appreciation for