Poetic Explication on Charles Martin's "Taken Up"
Charles Martins Taken Up is a poem that could illustrate two possible scenarios. This poem can be interpreted as viewing a group of people waiting on, meeting, and leaving with extraterrestrial beings. It could also be a personified colony of aspen trees that are awaiting the sun on a spring day. It is written in free verse that does not have a specific amount of syllables per line. The poem consists of seven terza rima rhyming verse stanzas, which displays the authors control over the free verse form. These stanzas are constructed simply by using the rhyme scheme a a a, b b b, and so on. This poem is written in the third person narrative and describes the interaction between humans and aliens. It could also describe the scene of a colony of aspen trees waiting on a spring morning. The poem uses descriptive language so that one may easily construct a visual scene with their mind. The poem presents the use of literary devices—imagery, alliteration, metaphors, and personification are most common.
The poem was written in 1978 by the American poet Charles Martin, and could possibly capture the ideals of the American popular culture at the time. The Roswell incident of 1947 gave rise to a multitude of thoughts regarding the possibilities of extraterrestrials coming to earth. On the other hand, the poem could simply be about beauty and life as seen in nature. The opening lines of the poem possibly illustrate the extraterrestrial idea as well as a colony of aspen trees waiting for the sunrise on a spring morning. It begins:Tired of earth, they dwindled on their hill,Watching and waiting in the moonlight untilThe aspens leaves quite suddenly grew still,If we assume the poet is referring to people in this poem, these lines would illustrate a group of people dwindled, or sitting, on a hill watching upwards towards outer space. Line three, "The aspens leaves quite suddenly grew still" could possibly refer to the silence before something big happens. This type of silence can
The poem was written in 1978 by the American poet Charles Martin, and could possibly capture the ideals of the American popular culture at the time. The Roswell incident of 1947 gave rise to a multitude of thoughts regarding the possibilities of extraterrestrials coming to earth. On the other hand, the poem could simply be about beauty and life as seen in nature. The opening lines of the poem possibly illustrate the extraterrestrial idea as well as a colony of aspen trees waiting for the sunrise on a spring morning. It begins:Tired of earth, they dwindled on their hill,Watching and waiting in the moonlight untilThe aspens leaves quite suddenly grew still,If we assume the poet is referring to people in this poem, these lines would illustrate a group of people dwindled, or sitting, on a hill watching upwards towards outer space. Line three, "The aspens leaves quite suddenly grew still" could possibly refer to the silence before something big happens. This type of silence can
References: ason, David. Western Wind. New York: Mcgraw-Hill, 2006. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspen Retrieved on 10-07-2007. Last modified 10-04-2007.