The Importance of Nature in Poetry
€Consider: "Snowbound" is a good poem for many reasons, including Whittier's record of the natural world around his snowbound home. What is the value of nature in poetry?
€Consider this poem
"The Real Work" by Gary Snyder:
[Today with Zach & Dan rowing by Alcatraz and around Angel Island]
sea-lions and birds,
sun through fog
flaps up and lolling,
looks you dead in the eye.
sun haze;
a long tanker riding light and high.
sharp wave choppy line&emdash;
interface tide-flows&emdash;
seagulls sit on the meeting
eating;
we slide by white-stained cliffs.
the real work.
washing and sighing,
sliding by.
Break into groups of four and discuss the following:
1) What poetic value is there in observing, recording, and reflecting on things of nature?
2) What does Snyder call his poem "The Real Work," and what is he suggesting about nature's importance relative to our own?
3) Regarding Snowbound: consider his nature images p. 826, lines 272 to end of stanza: What can you get (or did you get) out of the rich texture of natural imagery running through this poem?
Share answers with class.
Making Words Make Music
Whittier uses a fairly regular rhythm (imabic tetrameter U/ U/ U/ U/ ) and a strict aa bb cc rhyme scheme. However, he's careful not to be absolutely regular. Why?
Music is made not only by regularity of rhythm and sound but by variations on that rhythm. In poetry, irregularities are thrown into a regular meter/scheme not only to break up the pattern but to place emphasis on one line, one word, one phrase &emdash; the one which trips you up. Consider on lines 8-11. Which is the irregular line? Why would Whittier purposefully create irregularity here?
While he doesn't break his rhyme scheme, he does employ a trick (though only rarely) that does work to reduce the sing-songiness of this work. Rather than having a sentence or phrase end at the end of a line, he runs the sentence or phrase into the next line to soften the rhyme. Look at lines 341-342 for an example of this.
A better example of this is found in st. 1 of "Death of a Vermont Farm Woman," by Barbara Howes.
Is it time now to go away?
July is nearly over; hay
Fattens the barn, the herds are strong.
Our old fields prospoer; these long
Green evenings will keep death at bay.
Your exercise: write six lines following a regular rhyme scheme employing this device.
Discussing Snowbound:
1. p. 820, lines 20ff. What do these specific nouns do -- what is there purpose in the poem?
2. p. 821, first full stanza: The snow makes the known world into an unknown world. Thus, the snow does to the familiar world what poetry (and this poem in specific) does to our everyday reality -- making us see it in news ways.
3. p. 822: the solitude of the snow is contrasted with the community gathered around the fire. What contrasting images, and the abstractions they symbolize, come to mind? p. 823, top: what does the fire do to the snow? Symbolic value?
4. p. 824: establishes our p.o.v. How old was Whittier when he wrote this poem? How old is he in this poem? bottom of stanza: Life conquers Death &emdash; how have we already seen this pictured?
5. p. 826, l 268: Old hearths grow wide to give us room? explain.
6. p. 828, top: another effective technique in poetry is to have the second line change the meaning of the first line. An example of this are these top two lines.
7. p. 829: Perhaps the most significant part of the poem: here he discusses the how summer and witner, how joy and sorrow, how desire and longing, are intermixed.
8. p. 831: Here's a fantastic character study of Harriet Livermore: underline contrasting images here.
9. p. 833: back to the fire. What has Whittier done up to this point? Why would he want to?
10. p. 835: The roads are cleared, the newspaper arrives, and the news of the world comes pouring in: these images are far removed from the homey scenes we just encountered. Does Whittier regret the intrustion of the larger world into his smaller, private world? Would you?
11. p. 835, l. 715: What is the "Angel of the backward look"?
12. What's the point to this poem? If you don't think it has one, then do you think it should have one?