Continuum: Poetry and Restless Mood
Continuum / Songs of Ourselves / Grade 8 / Dept of Lit / Hiriya School / 2012 / Term 1 Page 3
M
ood And Effect
In the poem continuum by Allen Curnow, the poet creates a sense of depression, loneliness and restlessness.This in turn causes the reader to experience an effect of insignificance and powerlessness.The restless mood is made clear in the first stanza when the poet is talking about the moon as a symbol for himself. He explains that the moon ³rolls behind the roof and falls behind my house´ in an assumedly never stopping, never ending cycle. This shows that he feels in much the same way, unable to stop the cycle of his boring life. Also, the poet feels that it is ³not possible to get off to sleep´ and has to walk around. He alsofinds it hard to get off the subject at hand, which is his poem, further proving that he is restless about hisideas. Furthermore, a ³long moment´ passed since he went out the door, showing that he doesn¶t notice thetime gone, which is common in restless people. This shows that he has been here writing his poem for sucha long time and doesn¶t even feel tired. In addition, he can¶t rest until he finished his poem, at which timehe ³picks up his litter´ and goes to bed. The fact that ³paces´ is used at the end shows that he still may nothave recovered from his restlessness as restless people pace around doing apparently nothing.The poet is also depressed. This is shown by the fact that he feels insignificant amongst the stars and space.He talks about ³the dark place´ and ³washed out creation´. The fact that the poet believes that the world is adark place with only a few ³bright clouds´ shows how the poet is depressed and thinks that there is littlehope in the world for him. This shows the reader how insignificant and little each individual is whencompared to the vastness of the outside world. The fact that he thinks that even creation is washed outshows how he has lost hope for everything that was pure and bright in the
M
ood And Effect
In the poem continuum by Allen Curnow, the poet creates a sense of depression, loneliness and restlessness.This in turn causes the reader to experience an effect of insignificance and powerlessness.The restless mood is made clear in the first stanza when the poet is talking about the moon as a symbol for himself. He explains that the moon ³rolls behind the roof and falls behind my house´ in an assumedly never stopping, never ending cycle. This shows that he feels in much the same way, unable to stop the cycle of his boring life. Also, the poet feels that it is ³not possible to get off to sleep´ and has to walk around. He alsofinds it hard to get off the subject at hand, which is his poem, further proving that he is restless about hisideas. Furthermore, a ³long moment´ passed since he went out the door, showing that he doesn¶t notice thetime gone, which is common in restless people. This shows that he has been here writing his poem for sucha long time and doesn¶t even feel tired. In addition, he can¶t rest until he finished his poem, at which timehe ³picks up his litter´ and goes to bed. The fact that ³paces´ is used at the end shows that he still may nothave recovered from his restlessness as restless people pace around doing apparently nothing.The poet is also depressed. This is shown by the fact that he feels insignificant amongst the stars and space.He talks about ³the dark place´ and ³washed out creation´. The fact that the poet believes that the world is adark place with only a few ³bright clouds´ shows how the poet is depressed and thinks that there is littlehope in the world for him. This shows the reader how insignificant and little each individual is whencompared to the vastness of the outside world. The fact that he thinks that even creation is washed outshows how he has lost hope for everything that was pure and bright in the