whitsun wedding :: essays research papers

Frosts poem is wo and nostalgic in timbre and soothing, almost hypnotic, in rhythm. Peaceful and calm in the natural scene it describes, it seems to sway between restful repose and final stage. Sleep and death, and a seeming longing for both, are evoked by the images of night, long travel, winter and isolation. The simple, formulaic phrasing and rhythm of the poem controvert something hidden, beneath and in the past, which is more complex. Frost, differently from Haydens free verse, uses the formal body structure and rhythm of his verse in juxtaposition to the more troubling, less controllable, tinge of death. The nervous horse, keenly attune to its environment and master, is juxtaposed to the easy combine of the poem and the falsely assuring repetition of the last line. Similarly the juxtaposition of lovely with dark and deep woods (like a grave) is unsettling.The tone of the poem starts off suspect and almost light-hearted- a father dancing in a recklessly with his son, knocking over pots and pans. But the son clings onto his father like "death" while the mother is clearly discontented with the berth. "Whisky on your lead could make a small boy dizzy" connotes excess, a situation beyond acceptable limits - too some(prenominal) for the boy and too much for his mother. The verse jerks back and forth in tone and imagery from movements of dance, to buffet movements. Waltzing and beating time are juxtaposed to a tight hold on the wrist, battered knuckle and scraped ear. Lightness and humor change to satire and a vituperative edge. Like Frost, Roethke uses the rhythm of his verse to carry the reader along, like a waltz, exactly one that becomes increasingly dizzying as the reader realizes the confusion, even terror, the child feels. The childs reference to his father as you helps the reader feel the emotions more forthwith and drives home the physical closeness of father and child. It also enforces a tone that is almost accusator y.Haydens poem moves from a description of the father, to the speaking "I" of his unripened son, to the matured recognition and remorse of the now grown poet. The shattering problem of a laboring father who warms the house and polishes his sons good shoes but is greeted with indifference is not lost on the reader. Yet, the rawness demonstrated by the father is through the provision of physical comforts (survival) and the son seems to languish for something more, or at least is not able to see the affection demonstrated in his fathers labors.