Cut Grass

Cut Grass Ingrid Wan 4D (26)
1. The setting of the poem is in summer. We can see it from “It dies in white hours of young-leafed June”. The poem begins with the ironic death of cut grass, in summer, season of life and reproduction. The poet chose this setting because he wanted to show that death can happen anytime in our life and is inevitable. Using the contrast of death and this lively season, it suggests the sudden nature of death, and it existence won’t regard the surroundings.

2. Metaphor is used in line 10. “Lost lanes of Queen Anne’s lace”, responding to the poet’s view on death in summer, Queen Anne’s lace is a plant that grows in late Spring ‘till mid-Autumn. It suggests that although death can happen in any moment, there is still life growing in the nature. The poet is seeing death in another view, suggesting that death may not be always negative, because with death, new life comes.

3. There are only 2 sentences in the poem. The first sentence which is only 3 lines is about the death of the cut grass, “brief is the breath” suggests that life is very brief comparing to death. The next long sentence which composed by 9 lines, starts with “Long, long the death”, suggesting that the poet’s majority in this poem is death. This structure suggests that life is very short, and death is eternal.

In the first sentence, the poet used bimeter, short sentences give evidence that poet thinks that life is very short. On the other hand, longer sentences are used in the second sentence, proving that death is ever-lasting.

The rhythm of this poem is rather slow, especially the line “long, long the death”. It illustrates the slow dying and prolonged death, giving the feeling of eternity. Oppositely, the first sentence, is comparatively faster than the second one, therefore suggesting that life is fast, leading to death. 4. I partly agree with this statement. The poem begins with the death of cut grass, showing how fragile life is. Throughout the poem, the poet only use three lines to describe life, and nine lines to describe death, it may seem that he thinks that death is very negative and horrible.

However, the poet also shows that death has another side. The reference of the three types of flowers seem to suggest that although they will eventually die, death is just part of a cycle of life and it is unavoidable. While the flowers die, they once had their beauty and moment of youth. Just like in life, we human cannot avoid death because it’s just part of our life, therefore, death isn’t scary but a process of life.

The poem also ends with a change of mood. “And that high-builded cloud moving at summer’s pace.” It suggests the existence of afterlife and it won’t be stopped by death. There is a hopeful tone in the last line, showing that the poem thinks that death has another side, not just horrible but innocent and pure.