Winter solitude--
in a world of one color
the sound of wind.
This haiku was written by the master of haikus, Matsuo Basho, known for his brevity and clarity. Unlike the common 5, 7, 5 format, this poem has a syllable count of 5, 7, 4. As this is a translation, the irregularity may have been caused by the difference between the English syllable and the Japanese sound, mora.
The poem is about the desolation of winter. The season is not lively... it is bland, uni-color. The haiku is fitting for my theme, "Seasons", as it portrays concisely the mood of winter. "Of" is repeated, perhaps again the stress the lack of variety in the season.
Monday, May 24, 2010
The Last Rose of Summer (Thomas Moore)
Tis the last rose of summer
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone:
No flower of her kindred,
No rose-bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.
I'll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o'er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.
So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
And from Love's shining circle
The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie wither'd,
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?
This ballad was written by Thomas Moore in 1805, and has since then been made into a popular song. It is about the last remaining rose of summer, with its friends collapsed around it. The last verse compares the flower's situation to love and friendship. Humans also dislike loneliness. This poem fits my theme, "Seasons", as it uses the change of seasons as an analogy to the human need for companionship.
Personification is throughout the poem (eg. "her blushes", "sleep", etc.), as well as apostrophe, as the speaker is addressing the rose.
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone:
No flower of her kindred,
No rose-bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.
I'll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o'er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.
So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
And from Love's shining circle
The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie wither'd,
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?
This ballad was written by Thomas Moore in 1805, and has since then been made into a popular song. It is about the last remaining rose of summer, with its friends collapsed around it. The last verse compares the flower's situation to love and friendship. Humans also dislike loneliness. This poem fits my theme, "Seasons", as it uses the change of seasons as an analogy to the human need for companionship.
Personification is throughout the poem (eg. "her blushes", "sleep", etc.), as well as apostrophe, as the speaker is addressing the rose.
Sonnet 18 (William Shakespeare)
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Perhaps the most famous of Shakespeare's sonnets, this one (typical Shakespearean sonnet: three quatrains and a couplet; ABAB CDCD EFEF GG). It is a comparison between a beloved and the summer. The lover triumphs over the season: "more lovely and more temperate"; the summer is shaken by "rough winds", and the sun is too hot.
The lover's beauty, unlike summer's, will not fade. In the ending couplet, the speaker explains the the poem will forever preserve the lover's beauty.
Though summer is compared negatively, many of its traits are still identified; it is the lesser of the two beauties.
"Rough winds do shake", "his gold complexion" are uses of personification; "the eye of heaven" is a metaphor for the sun. Apostrophe is also used throughout a poem, as the speaker is talking to a lover that is not present to respond.
This may be the most famous lyric poem of all time, and is therefore the most celebrated of all summer's poems.
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Perhaps the most famous of Shakespeare's sonnets, this one (typical Shakespearean sonnet: three quatrains and a couplet; ABAB CDCD EFEF GG). It is a comparison between a beloved and the summer. The lover triumphs over the season: "more lovely and more temperate"; the summer is shaken by "rough winds", and the sun is too hot.
The lover's beauty, unlike summer's, will not fade. In the ending couplet, the speaker explains the the poem will forever preserve the lover's beauty.
Though summer is compared negatively, many of its traits are still identified; it is the lesser of the two beauties.
"Rough winds do shake", "his gold complexion" are uses of personification; "the eye of heaven" is a metaphor for the sun. Apostrophe is also used throughout a poem, as the speaker is talking to a lover that is not present to respond.
This may be the most famous lyric poem of all time, and is therefore the most celebrated of all summer's poems.
Scent of the grass,
Prance of the deer.
Rabbits spring abound,
insects swarm around.
New is the dew so clear;
Gone is the winter, at last.
This is my acrostic poem of the word SPRING. The initials letters of each line combine to spell the word. It is appropriate for my theme, "Seasons", as it describes intricately the many features of spring. Imagery is abundant in this poem: the reader imagines grass, deer, rabbits, insects, etc., each performing its respective action.
The poem clearly outlines distinguishing details of the season.
Prance of the deer.
Rabbits spring abound,
insects swarm around.
New is the dew so clear;
Gone is the winter, at last.
This is my acrostic poem of the word SPRING. The initials letters of each line combine to spell the word. It is appropriate for my theme, "Seasons", as it describes intricately the many features of spring. Imagery is abundant in this poem: the reader imagines grass, deer, rabbits, insects, etc., each performing its respective action.
The poem clearly outlines distinguishing details of the season.
Spring's
Sun
Bathes
Daffodils
In Serenity
Swaying to the tune of the breeze.
This is a Fibonacci poem, a 20-syllable piece (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8). It is about the springtime and its beautiful flowers. It relates to my theme, "Seasons", as it is focused on the spring. Personification is used to describe the "bathing" by the sun and the "swaying" of the daffodils. The imagery of the flowers and sunlight is easy to picture, and the reader should feel a sense of calmness.
Sun
Bathes
Daffodils
In Serenity
Swaying to the tune of the breeze.
This is a Fibonacci poem, a 20-syllable piece (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8). It is about the springtime and its beautiful flowers. It relates to my theme, "Seasons", as it is focused on the spring. Personification is used to describe the "bathing" by the sun and the "swaying" of the daffodils. The imagery of the flowers and sunlight is easy to picture, and the reader should feel a sense of calmness.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Sonnet 97 (William Shakespeare)
How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness every where!
And yet this time removed was summer’s time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me
But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.
This is evidently a Shakespearean sonnet. It has 14 lines, with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and is in iambic pentameter.
The sonnet is about the speaker's yearning for the beloved, whose absence is compared to the desolation of winter. This comparison is exclaimed in the first quatrain. In the second, the speaker claims that the season was actually summer or autumn, when the summer's blooming was reaping fruit. In the third, the bounty of the summer is dismissed as unreal, for "summer and his pleasures" wait on the arrival of the beloved. When the lover is gone, even the birds sing with "so dull a cheer".
My theme, "Seasons", is very prominent in this poem. In fact, summer, autumn, and winter are all mentioned. Seasons and their typical characteristics are often used to portray relationships, as they are here.
In Line #1, "like a winter" is a simile.
Lines #11 and 14, personification is used on summer and leaves.
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness every where!
And yet this time removed was summer’s time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me
But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.
This is evidently a Shakespearean sonnet. It has 14 lines, with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and is in iambic pentameter.
The sonnet is about the speaker's yearning for the beloved, whose absence is compared to the desolation of winter. This comparison is exclaimed in the first quatrain. In the second, the speaker claims that the season was actually summer or autumn, when the summer's blooming was reaping fruit. In the third, the bounty of the summer is dismissed as unreal, for "summer and his pleasures" wait on the arrival of the beloved. When the lover is gone, even the birds sing with "so dull a cheer".
My theme, "Seasons", is very prominent in this poem. In fact, summer, autumn, and winter are all mentioned. Seasons and their typical characteristics are often used to portray relationships, as they are here.
In Line #1, "like a winter" is a simile.
Lines #11 and 14, personification is used on summer and leaves.
Pink cherry petals,
Delivering spring’s blithe air,
Through the cool March wind.
A haiku is a 17-sound poem (5, 7, 5)that originated from Japan. Incidentally, "seasons" is a common topic on which haikus were written. Also, as cherry blossoms were a favorite of the Japanese, they were a common topic in their poems.
March is a spring season. In Vancouver, one can often see cherry blossoms decorating their surroundings.
"Delivering", an action by the petals, is personification.
Delivering spring’s blithe air,
Through the cool March wind.
A haiku is a 17-sound poem (5, 7, 5)that originated from Japan. Incidentally, "seasons" is a common topic on which haikus were written. Also, as cherry blossoms were a favorite of the Japanese, they were a common topic in their poems.
March is a spring season. In Vancouver, one can often see cherry blossoms decorating their surroundings.
"Delivering", an action by the petals, is personification.
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