BreakfastSurreal
Well-Known Member
I figure maybe you guys would be a good help with this, since you are all poetry buffs! Ok here is my assignment: write an essay comparing and contrasting two of the poems we read in class. I chose my 2 poem, and they are both dealing with nature so im trying to tie them together with the same theme. These are the poems:
Traveling through the Dark By: William Stafford
Traveling through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.
By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car
and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.
My fingers touching her side brought me the reason—
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.
The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;
under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.
I thought hard for us all—my only swerving—,
then pushed her over the edge into the river.
St. Francis and the Sow By Galway Kinnell
The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.
And here is my paper thus far. I did an ok job describing each poem, but i am having problems with the comparison and contrast. any ideas? (mucho rep for anyone who can contribute!
)
Sometimes people feel that life around them moves so fast that they have no time to pay attention to nature, nor do they know about the many lessons and simple pleasures it holds for them. When people do take the time to slow down and appreciate their natural surroundings, however, much can be learned from them. The lessons nature teaches those who allow it to are not to be taken lightly. Galway Kinnell’s “St. Francis and the Sow” and William Stafford’s “Traveling through the Dark” are two poems dealing with a common theme about nature, but they arrive at it in very different ways. “St Francis and the Sow” teaches the reader that even the earth’s lowliest creatures deserve to be treated with respect, and “Traveling through the Dark” is a poem that tells the story of a man finding a dead dear on the side of the road, and a tough decision he is forced to make regarding life and death. “St. Francis and the Sow” and “Traveling through the Dark” both teach the lesson that every form of life is precious. When reading these poems, the reader learns through similarities and contrasts that every creature on earth is important, and no life should ever be taken lightly.
“St. Francis and the Sow” is a beautiful poem that displays the appreciation for a very disregarded and often scrutinized creature, the pig. A sow is an animal that is considered “unclean” by many religions (do I need to cite this from something?? I didn’t look it up and I believe it is common knowledge but just want to make sure!), and the word pig itself is often used to describe a person who is unkempt or dirty. Kinnell uses imagery to demonstrate the love that St. Francis shows for the sow:
Kinnell brings to light in this poem that sometimes people are too quick to disregard things based on the perceptions that society has set for them, rather than looking at things as they truly are and forming their own opinion on them. Every life put on this earth is precious, no matter what its reputation is.
Kinnell uses an extended metaphor that starts at the beginning of the poem, as he describes a flowering bud:
“Traveling through the Dark” teaches the reader an important lesson about nature as well. The speaker finds that the dead doe is pregnant in lines 8-12 when he divulges:
Traveling through the Dark By: William Stafford
Traveling through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.
By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car
and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.
My fingers touching her side brought me the reason—
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.
The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;
under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.
I thought hard for us all—my only swerving—,
then pushed her over the edge into the river.
St. Francis and the Sow By Galway Kinnell
The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.
And here is my paper thus far. I did an ok job describing each poem, but i am having problems with the comparison and contrast. any ideas? (mucho rep for anyone who can contribute!
) Sometimes people feel that life around them moves so fast that they have no time to pay attention to nature, nor do they know about the many lessons and simple pleasures it holds for them. When people do take the time to slow down and appreciate their natural surroundings, however, much can be learned from them. The lessons nature teaches those who allow it to are not to be taken lightly. Galway Kinnell’s “St. Francis and the Sow” and William Stafford’s “Traveling through the Dark” are two poems dealing with a common theme about nature, but they arrive at it in very different ways. “St Francis and the Sow” teaches the reader that even the earth’s lowliest creatures deserve to be treated with respect, and “Traveling through the Dark” is a poem that tells the story of a man finding a dead dear on the side of the road, and a tough decision he is forced to make regarding life and death. “St. Francis and the Sow” and “Traveling through the Dark” both teach the lesson that every form of life is precious. When reading these poems, the reader learns through similarities and contrasts that every creature on earth is important, and no life should ever be taken lightly.
“St. Francis and the Sow” is a beautiful poem that displays the appreciation for a very disregarded and often scrutinized creature, the pig. A sow is an animal that is considered “unclean” by many religions (do I need to cite this from something?? I didn’t look it up and I believe it is common knowledge but just want to make sure!), and the word pig itself is often used to describe a person who is unkempt or dirty. Kinnell uses imagery to demonstrate the love that St. Francis shows for the sow:
as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of the earth on the sow, (lines 12-15)
These four lines suggest that the sow is deserving of love, and that the perceptions that society has for this species may be unjustified. Animals are a blessing from God, and have never done anything to deserve any sort of judgment or mistreatment from humans.
Kinnell brings to light in this poem that sometimes people are too quick to disregard things based on the perceptions that society has set for them, rather than looking at things as they truly are and forming their own opinion on them. Every life put on this earth is precious, no matter what its reputation is.
Kinnell uses an extended metaphor that starts at the beginning of the poem, as he describes a flowering bud:
The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing; (lines 1-11)
These lines display the beginning of the metaphor, and it continues as the speaker goes on to describe the sow, and relate its beauty to that of the flower. This also shows the reader more about how nature can teach us that every living thing needs to be loved and cared for, and that all life is valuable. The speaker also gives the reader solace in this, because humans especially need to feel this comforting love from time to time because they don’t always feel deserving of it.stands for all things,
even those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing; (lines 1-11)
“Traveling through the Dark” teaches the reader an important lesson about nature as well. The speaker finds that the dead doe is pregnant in lines 8-12 when he divulges:
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.
My fingers touching her side brought me the reason—
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated. (Stafford, lines 8-12)
The speaker’s intention is to push the dead deer off the road into the river, but he faces a challenging moral decision when he discovers that she is pregnant. This decision causes him to have doubt about whether or not he is doing the right thing. True, by pushing the deer off he is potentially saving many human lives, but in turn he is also killing an unborn deer. This causes the reader to think about how precious every life is, and shows that killing, no matter what the reason is, is a difficult thing for a moral person to do. The speaker then reveals his decision when he says: “I thought hard for us all—my only swerving—, / then pushed her over the edge into the river” (lines 17-18). These lines explain to the reader that sometimes everyone has to make sacrifices for the common good, and that these sacrifices are often tough ones. In line 4, the speaker uses the word “swerve” to have a different connotation than in line 17: “that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.” (line 4). In this line he means that if he were to hesitate or fail in making the right decision, many more lives could be lost. The distraught speaker realizes that every life is precious, and that sometimes the right choice isn’t the easiest thing to do.My fingers touching her side brought me the reason—
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated. (Stafford, lines 8-12)
