Poetry Post

“One day i wrote her name upon the strand”
 Page 409-410
Edmund Spenser

         Personification of the tide and oceanic metaphor help to create the meaning of the poem, which is immortality. The wave is personified and given the ability to speak to the man. She calls him a “vain man” for believing that by writing the woman’s name in the sand over and over again it will make her immortal. She even says that she will “decay”and her “name will be wiped out likewise”. The personification of the wave creates conflict in the man’s mind, but then allows him to convince himself that him and his love will be immortal together. Where the wave believes that once she recedes back into the ocean she is gone forever, the man believes differently. He thinks that if he writes her name enough times she will be immortal. Even though the physical name can’t be seen anymore, it is still there.
         Oceans and waves are common metaphors for life. The rising and falling of the waves represent the highs and lows of life. In this poem, the crashing of the wave on to the shore and the receding of it back into the ocean are the main focus. The wave sees the life(itself) receding back into the ocean as it dying, but in the man’s eyes, part of it still lives on the shore. Even though the woman’s name has been washed away, it still remains. The fact that the scene depicted in the poem is at a beach where waves are metaphoric for life adds to the mans questioning of life and the time that a person has to live it. I found the imagery in this poem particularly beautiful and serene. The idea that he is writing her name into the sand in the hope of making her immortal is such an incredibly beautiful gesture. In addition to seeing the poem as an opinion of immortality, I also took it as the idea that even though the name may be gone, it is still there. Even when people leave or pass on, their presence and the effect he/she had on the people around them still remains.


 “The Death of a Soldier”
Page 410
Wallace Stevens

        The use of autumnal imagery, metaphor, and repetition of the phrase “As in a season of autumn” to portray the lack of individualism and the common occurrence of death. The autumnal imagery in the poem helps to set up for the metaphor of autumn as a symbol for death. Autumn is the end of life for the year as the earth prepares for the long, bitter, winter. It is a time of end and death. The speaker uses autumn to show that the same way that we do not put special celebration on every autumn, special celebration does not happen for every death. Some soldiers die and are never celebrated or mourned by all people. Autumn, as with all seasons, come and go without much thought. They can’t be prevented, the seasons just changed. Death is inevitable. The repetition of the phrase “As in a season of autumn” also helps to drive home the meaning of the poem.
         My favorite part of this poem is the final stanza. The use of the cloud imagery is very vivid to me. Even though the wind ceases to blow, the cloud continues on. Even though death occurs on the battlefield, the battle, and the war, continues to be fought. The comparison of the death of a soldier and the season of autumn was also very vivid to me. Although this is not a joyful poem, I find the phrasing of this poem and voice that I hear with in this poem to be almost beautiful.