grace’s space

Robert Frost, “Desert Places”

RHYMING:

• Definite rhyme scheme: aaba:
  • 1^st stanza: “fast”, “past”, “snow”, “last”
  • 2^nd stanza: “theirs”, “lairs”, “count”, “unawares”
  • 3^rd stanza: “loneliness”, “less”, “snow”, “express”
  • 4^th stanza: “spaces”, “race is”, “home”, “places” (some slant rhyme here)
• Rhyme scheme gives a rhythm to the poem—constant throughout so the reader looks for it in the following stanzas
• Mostly perfect rhyme (i.e. “fast”, “past”, and “last”) but some slant rhyme (i.e. “spaces”, “race is”—feminine rhyme? Focused on last syllable only?)

 

SOUND ELEMENTS:

• HEAVY initial alliteration:

o    “snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast”

o    “and the ground almost covered smooth in snow”

• Internal alliteration:

o    “absent-spirited”

o    “ no expression, nothing to express”

o    “to scare myself with my own desert places”

• Assonance:

o    “I looked into going past/ and the ground almost covered smooth in snow”

o    “And lonely as it is, that loneliness/ will be more lonely ere it will be less”

o    “A blanker whiteness of benighted snow”

 

WORD CHOICE:

• Heavy repetition which creates alliteration:
  • “Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast”
  • “And lonely as it is, that loneliness will be more lonely ere it will be less”
• Also accentuates certain important lines (i.e. the setting of snow falling heavily, the idea/theme of loneliness)
• Alliteration calls importance to sounds (tone, feeling), repetition calls importance to ideas of the poem
• Interesting word choice:
  • “all animals are smothered in their lairs”à powerful, makes the place seem harmful
  • “between stars—on stars where no human race is”à very strong statement, abruptà reader’s attention drawn

 

Michael Stillman, “In Memoriam John Coltrane”

SOUND ELEMENTS:

• Alliteration:
  • “Listen to the coal/ rolling, rolling through the cold”
  • “wheel, listen to the turning of the wheels”
  • “listen to these cars carry coal, listen to the coal train roll”
• Alliteration is intensified by repetition and rhyming (the alliterated words are the ones that rhyme and repeat):
  • “rolling, rolling”
  • “wheel…wheels”
  • “cars carry coal, listen to the coal”

 

RHYME:

• Internal rhyme:
  • “turning of the wheels this night/ black as coal dust, steel”
  • “these cars carry coal listen,/ to the coal train roll”
  • Words that are repeated (coal, wheels, roll/rolling) are also those that rhyme and those that are initially alliteratedà entire poem compliments itself

 

WORD CHOICE:

• A TON of repetition of words and ideas:
  • Coal: “listen to the coal” “black as coal dust” “cars carry coal” “coal train roll”
  • Roll: “rolling, rolling through the cold” “coal train roll”
  • Wheel: “wheel on” “wheel” “turning of the wheels”
• Repeats the word coal as a tangible item, but then also uses it metaphorically (“this night black as coal dust”)
• Poem about John Coltrane, jazz musicianà smooth words to compliment a smooth type of music: “rolling, rolling” “stead rain” “wheel on wheel” “steel on steel” “listen to these cars carry coal” “listen to the coal train roll”
  • On the surface, seems like a poem about a train, but if read aloud, sounds of smooth jazz come about
  • Musical and rhythmic
  • Dark motifs running throughout give it a jazzy feel- mysterious, smooth

 

STUCTURE:

• Whole lines repeated (or similar), almost like a song
• First line of every stanza includes “listen to the”
• Every relative line in the stanzas match in syllables: first line 5 syllables, second line 7 syllable, third line 5 syllables (haiku?)
• Makes it even more like a rhythmic jazz song, internal rhyme and alliteration compliments this