Poetry

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Poetry

Writing the analysis of poetry may be a very hectic or a technical job, but it can be fun at the same time. You just have to keep in mind some of the major points while writing the analysis.

Three basic questions should always be kept in mind while writing a poetry analysis:

What does he say?

How does he say it?

How effectively does he say it?

Read it. Read it again; make sure you understand the words. If it's your own copy, highlight or underline any words or phrases you find particularly striking. Go through it again; try to identify what it was that made you highlight or underline those words you did earlier. Scribble brief notes to remind yourself of your reactions.

Write a brief summary of what the poem (song, really) is about. right

Write about the things you noticed about the language, the word pictures (imagery), the rhythm, the rhythm. Support the things you say by quoting bits from the poem that prove your point.

Write about its impact on you, and how it makes you feel. And explain why.

This is just a very brief guide: try it, and see how you get on.

Sometimes I eschew reflection on the big-picture themes. Let us start with a more rudimentary apprehension of the scene. Listen to the line. ”I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking."

A cerebral reading is: fire makes cold go away. At the same time, if you heat with wood you know that it must be chopped and stacked, carried to and fro from the furnace. We hear the father from the child's bedroom, the wood giving way to the pendulous swing of an ax. Listen to the ax. The wood splinters and pops apart on the block. So the cold splintering and breaking refer to a discrete scene where the wood is being chopped. Already we are quite a distance from where we started ( fire makes cold go away.). Anyways I hear wood splintering, do you think the timbre of a woodblock chopped in winter is different from that of a wet log sliced in spring? do you now? Cold splintering, breaking.

If you listen to Hayden, you can hear him rush over the cold splintering breaking line with the dutiful cadence of a log being set and broken, breaking, set and broken, breaking. The “chronic angers” of the house are perhaps assuaged by the endless chore of beating back the cold moments in life. The poem depicts the struggles of our forefathers, that they had done to bring us comfort. It glorifies the toil and the labor, that was done by them in their yesteryears. The poet is hugely sad that the younger generation does not value the sacrifices made by their forefathers in their bloom. It is a poem that how ungrateful we are, regarding the sacrifices of our elders and forefathers. We never realize this thing in our lives until unless our own children start ignoring our efforts.

In the poem, the “blueback cold” refers to the forefather’s dark unwritten history or the sacrifices that were never celebrated by us. Another metaphor, “the house” represents the sacrifices that our elders made for us; the times they went out of the way for us. The poem is actually written in gratitude for his father. The poet wants to thank his father in many ways. He is really thankful for the ways his father worked for them and made them live a happy and comfortable life while putting himself in a painful position. The poet remembers how on Sunday mornings, his father used to get up and bring wood for making the house warm. I was cold winter and everything was covered with snow outside, but still when they used to get up, the house was warm and cozy. The poet greatly feels for his father as he thinks that his sacrifices have bee greatly neglected.

If you consider the poem, it has been set in a particular sequence. In the very first stanza, the poet behaves indifferently to his father’s actions. He completely ignores the efforts his father is making. In the second stanza the poet presents a pretty fearful and horrible picture of his father and distances himself from him. In the third stanza, he finally realizes the truer worth of his father’s sacrifices and appreciates him.

The third stanza is the whole crux of the poem. It is an epiphany stanza where the poet finally realizes that he did not give worth to his father’s sacrifices and efforts as a young child. The line “What did I Know….” Implies that he is regretting that he should realize the worth of his farmer's sacrifices long ago. He now misses his father and wants him to come back but unfortunately, it is not possible. Another powerful line in the poem “No one ever thanked him” (it's in the first stanza), explains the regret of the poet. The poet says that I should have realized long ago that how my father feels for me.

As per my understanding, the main argument and the central theme of the poem are that love does not always come in a warm friendly manner. It may be in the form of care and acceptance by anyone. It seems like the peots father loves him but he does not love him back. He is quite apathetic towards his father and thinks that it is completely miserable to live and work with him. But now he realizes how much his father loved him. According to him, parents love their kids much more than the kids love them. It is quite unfortunate that they do not receive the same love back.

The writer now realizes that there was love hidden in the harshness of his father. The writer felt that the relationship between him and his father was quite dysfunctional: “the chronic angers of that house”. This indicates that the poet had a father who was quite hot-headed but was deeply caring. Although he had anger issues, still, he was completely aware of his responsibilities. He knew that he had to provide for his family which is why he kept working very hard. This aspect is also very much evident in the words “cracked hands that ached” and “blue-back cold”. These metaphors predict that his father was a hard-working man; no matter how strict or harsh he was. In fact the writer has compared his father to a safe warm house which bears all the toughness of the outside weathers but protects its inner residents.

One of the most meaningful parts of the poem is its last sentence “What did I know, what did I know / of love’s austere and lonely offices?”. These lines indicate how much the poet loves his father and how lonely he feels without him. I absolutely love this poem and will over-read another line at a later date. It a beautiful piece of poetry and a must-read. Everyone who loves English poetry or at least loves his parents should read it.