The "music" of each poem is what's at question here. How does it influence tone and meaning? What is the tone, do you think, and what is the essential meaning or message, of each poem?
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28 comments:
Alright, this time I’ll try to condense. :P
The music and rhythm of “The Waking” is easily as important as the “sense” the poem contains. With its flowing, rather dancelike feel the poem conveys a sense of security and relaxation. The speaker is comfortable with the fact that he thinks men learn by feeling, by going where they “have to go” (3). Every line of “The Waking” has a musical sound, constantly following a pattern of “duh-DUH-duh-DUH-duh-DUH-duh-DUH” all in one long thread of text. It reminds me personally of an easy, loping gait. As the speaker describes his opinion that men learn not by books and schools but by experience, the rhythm reveals the underlying tone of comfort in explanation.
At first the tone of “God’s Grandeur” is one of weariness and despondence. The speaker, in the rhythm and sound of the poem, conveys this feeling about what humans have done to the world. One example of this is the line “Generations have trod, have trod, have trod.” This line makes the reader feel a burden with every repetition of “have trod” and understand the weight of the situation. This tone shifts, however, in the last two lines of the poem to one of optimism, describing the Holy Ghost that the speaker believes still watches over the human race with “warm breast” and “bright wings” (14). The sudden insertion of “ah!” into this line hints at this tone shift, as it is a sudden interjection that stops the previously flowing and melancholy tone to provide a brighter, more hopeful expression.
In God's Grandeur, you can see a person who fears nature is slowly losing its beauty. In the first stanza the speaker begins with the description of the God call "Father", the top point of the trangle in the Lutheran view of things. He is the one who wrecks punishment, and 'flames out, like shook foil' (line 2). The second stanza belongs more to Jesus and the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost being referred to directly with its brooding 'warm breast' and 'bright wings' (14). Lines five and six are really musical to me becuase line five repeats 'have trod' three times, and line six repeats the 'ear' sound with is combination of liquid vowel and hard consonant. The tone illicits an alomost apathetic, hopeless view of how man has treated the planet, and how we have allowed oil to make us dependent.
The Waking is one of my favorite poems because of the simplicity of the structure but the playful discription of how one feels waking up, or finally being able to understand something for the first time. Part of the musicality of the poem comes from the repeat of certain lines in strategic places. 'I wake to sleep and take my waking slowly' occurs in the poem as a common thread to connect each stanza and is either at the beginning or end of each stanza. This is alternated with 'I learn by going where I have to go'. The tone of the poem for me is steady, accepting, understanding. The speaker understands that if he wants to grow he needs to understand certain things about life before he can achieve his goal.
My favorite poem is entitled Sleep. Its set to music by Eric Whitacre and its totally awesome!!!
For me, The Waking is a lot more difficult to understand, both in terms of the sound and the sense. Repetition is the dominant musical device in this poem. The speaker repeats the two key phrases not just to follow the pattern of the villanelle, but to allow the reader to build up his or her understanding of those lines using the information provided by the rest of the poem. The repetition also contributes to the poem’s tone; it gives the poem a melancholic, resigned tone, as if the poet’s speech itself is bound to go in circles according to a predetermined order, which—my guess—is how the poet feels about life and death. Roethke repeats words and sounds as well, to the same effect as repeating full lines. For example, “wake” and “waking”, “going” and “go”, and “ear to ear” are repetitions of the same word, while “lively” and “lovely”, “away” and “always” are juxtapositions of very similar-sounding words. “Sleep” and “slow” alliterate, so do “feel”, “fate” and “fear” and “God” and “Ground”. The “l” sound repeats in “lowly worm climbs” and in the words “lively” and “lovely”. All this repetitions gives a song-like quality to the poem, which, coupled with the many long vowel sounds (as in, “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow”, “Light takes the tree”, “The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair” and “Great Nature has another thing to do/ To you and me; so take the lively air”), makes me think of a melancholic ballad or lament. The overall tone of the poem is sorrowful, heavy and resigned.
God’s Grandeur both praises the beauty of nature and laments the turning away of people from God to more worldly pursuits. The sounds in Gods Grandeur amplify the effects of the images used in the poem. For example, the “sh” sound in “shining” and “shook” in line 2 allows the reader to not only see but hear the “foil” reflecting God’s “flame” (the repetition of the soft, light-like “f” sound is another musical device). The single word (with the period) “Crushed.” in line 4 takes the reader by surprise, suddenly breaking the flow of a series of long, slow sounds. This, like Trevor pointed out in class, makes the long sounds that follow more effective. The “o” sound in the lines that follow really stand out: “Why do men then now not reck his rod? / Generations have trod, have trod, have trod…” This vowel sound, a blend between the long “o” and the open “a”, is full and rather slow, and makes me picture an old shoe lifting itself out of sticky mud. The repetition “have trod, have trod, have trod” is like an echo that fades away as you say the phrase, and each subsequent repetition of the words becomes longer and more labored, like the action they describe. The consonant-vowel combinations in the words “seared”, “bleared” and “smeared” sound just like the action of smearing (notice that when you say the words, your tongue actually “smears” the top of your mouth). Also, the consonant combinations in “bleared”, “smeared” and “smudge” are literally consonant sounds smeared together. The repetition of the “s” sound in line 6-7 further contribute to the imagery of someone walking in soil, as the “s” sounds sort of connects the words together and carries the lines alone in a slurring, dragging motion, like the way a person would walk in slippery mud. While soft sounds like “s”, “sh”, “f” and weak consonant combinations “tr”, “bl” and “sm” dominate the first part of the poem, the second part of the poem is filled with more forceful sounds like the hard “n” in “nature is never spent”, “d” in “dearest freshness deep down things”, “l” in “last lights of the black West went” and “br” in “brown brink” and “broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings”. Some of these hard vowel sounds are also used in combination with long vowel sounds, with add to the strength of the words and lines. (I just noticed here that “Holy Ghost” is a mighty phrase indeed, because of the long “o” sounds in both words.) The hard and long sounds in the last part of the poem gives the reader a sense of the grandeur of nature and God that the poet is trying to portray. The repetition of the same sounds gives this poem, as it does in The Waking, a solemn tone; but unlike The Waking, God’s Grandeur is more like a grand symphony than a ballad, because the repetitions are more subtle (in the words and not in the lines) and the groups of sounds are more numerous and their effects more complex.
In “The Waking” I took to sleep to mean death, and by “waking” or getting up and living everyday of our lives we bring ourselves one more day closer to death. The speaker then says “I feel my fate in what I cannot fear,” suggesting a calm acceptance of the inevitability of death. This suggests that we are all just sliding along on a all-expense paid zip-line trip to kicking the bucket. Reflecting that “sense,” the “sound” contains a plethora of soft sounding words which allow the reader to flow through the poem with all the ease of a hot knife through butter. The “Ggg” sound from “Going where I have to Go” could be a reflection of the effort one must exert to continue living life despite having scheduled an appointment with Dr. Reaper in the near future.
My thoughts on God’s Grandeur are very similar to Katies. The poem flows with a heavy air as men make a mighty rumpus of “trodding, smearing, and oozing” about the whole first half. With the “Brown brink eastward springs” with get a lump of hard sounds that make the flow of this poem go “ca-thunk ca-thunk ca-thunk” like a rollercoaster nearing the disembark area, reflecting the shift in sense to a focus on what is still beautiful on earth.
Sorry if this seems sort of "out there" but it's just what came to my mind while reading. The Waking utilizes it's structure and repetition of lines to point out the circular nature of life. First you wake up into a dream world, or "sleep", (that is if one chooses to) and this world lasts a long time. There is no clear goal or purpose in life but to "learn by going where [you] have to go". It is a world driven by fate and if there is a bit of grass that catches your eye than "walk softly there". From death and the ground things will grow like trees and worms. The poem refers to the winds as some sort of fate that takes you where you need to go. The first line of the last stanza sums up the entire idea of the poem as a whole, "the shaking keeps me steady, I should know". It brings up the new paradox of keeping steady by shaking much like waking by sleeping or living by dying. It is a goal for the enlightened to follow the path that fate has set for them and from their life others will grow, much like a tree using the nutrients from a decaying tree to grow. It is a choice to live this way, which is brought up in the line "of those so close beside me, which are you?" the question being if you are awake or asleep, searching for enlightenment or living another boring empty life. Coming to terms with the inevitable end, that life is cyclical (much like the poem with the constant repetition of one of two lines) and those who realize this will live to the fullest potential.
What I have found in God's Grandeur does not seem as "out there" as what I found in The Waking. The first paragraph explains the necessity of God, making him/her (or it?) out to be an energy source of some kind, using words like "charged" or "flame out" or even as obvious as referring to God as a collection of oil. The speaker then questions why man does not automatically heed to his divine authority, "Why do men then now not reck his rod?". The phrase itself is very powerful with the repetition of the "r" sound. The next lines were great to me "Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil". These lines are full of repetition, and in the case of the repeated "trod" it has an onomatopoeic sense to it, and it seems like the speaker is trying to beat the idea into the readers head. The speaker then goes on to say that even if man is no longer as God-fearing as it once was and that is detrimental to the world, but God is still there and has the ultimate power of renewal and one day can "flash out" and prove his brilliance once again. The writer uses a lot of long open vowels and slow pacing, including a single word "crushed." that separates two slow portions to create an even slower pace. It seems like the slow tone makes it seem almost like a warning and has a very serious tone, similar to the message that the speaker is trying to convey.
To me the “Waking” has a tone of easy-going and comfortableness. It makes me think of getting up after a nap and just being able to relax and think about things in my soft bed! I noticed the same thing in the “Waking” that Kathy did. The repetition of words seems very prominent in this poem. It could be like they are going back to what they thought about before but trying to think about it in a different way. Also the pattern Katie pointed out (duh-DUH-duh-DUH) makes the poem read smoothly and makes it very uniformed. The pattern which is found throughout the whole poem can give a sense that this is something that the reader may go through often; it is very familiar to them.
"God's Grandeur" does not read smoothly, even when Mr. Duncan was reading the poem it was choppy. Which I think it is suppose to be; meant to be read slowly. The tone of this poem is sadness and melancholy. The speaker sees the beauty of the earth and does not want it to disappear. I think with reading the poem slowly and the repetition of “trod” you get a sense of the slow diminish of the beauty of the earth from humans power.
The music of The Waking accentuates its paradoxical and mystical message through the slow rhythm, soft liquid sounds, long vowels, and repetition of lines, like the chorus of a song. The most prominent feature of the poem's music is the abundance of soft sounds that creates a melodic effect when read. Take for example, "What falls away is always. And is near," the consonance of "s" sounds combined with the assonance and internal rhyme of "falls" and "always" as well as "away" and "always" makes the line very melodious. The rest of the poem rolls off the tongue and there are no harsh sounds or short vowels to obstruct the rhythm.
God's Grandeur is musical in a less subtle way. The outright rhymes, liquid sounds, and long lines creates a slow, dreamy rhythm that is sometimes interrupted to add to the effect of the message. For example the lines, "It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; it gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil - crushed," the break between the first two lines and part of the third abruptly ends the flow of rhythm adds to the overall effect of God's greatness to end things so quickly without notice. The rhymes are also hard hitting and come in waves like "And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil". The cohesiveness of the rhymes also make this poem very melodious and musical.
The music in both The Waking and God's Grandeur helps add to the complexity of each of the messages behind the poems. Both poems seem to touch on ideas of the eternal or a sense of something greater than life and the language, meter, and rhyme enhances the dreamy sense of the messages. The Waking essentially, is about the individual's spiritual and emotional journey through life. The speaker says that "I wake to sleep, and take this waking slow," meaning everyday he lives a life that is already ending, since naturally, everyone has to die. But while he is living, he discovers new things about himself and the world each day he awakes and this journey is what's important ("I learn by going where I have to go"). God's Grandeur is about the divine and its control over life and fate. God's grandeur is essentially dealt out on life, whether it be positive or negative, and essentially we all succumb to the greatness of a higher power.
The consistent rhyming scheme of "The Waking" along with the iambic meter gives the poem a sense of balance, emphasizing the harmony between life and death that is addressed throughout it. Furthermore, the presence of both "liquid" and "solid" sounds supports this balance. The result of this rhythm is a very tranquil tone that accentuates the speaker's serene character that is at peace with both the world around him as he comes to know it and his imminent demise, which is lurking just beyond this slow waking. This appreciation for the balance of life which is punctuated by both the rhythm and tone of the speaker is the essential message of the poem.
The rhythm of "God's Grandeur" plays just as important of a role in reinforcing its meaning as that of "The Waking." However, instead of a fluid, brisk pattern this poem has a very slow, drudging pace that rolls off of the tongue like molasses. The lines "Generations have trod, have trod, have trod" and "All is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil," are the best examples of this creeping progression (5, 6). The "molasses" feeling is also emphasized by the diction, which primarily uses "liquid" sounds like in the lines "Like shining from shook foil," "Like the ooze of oil," and "And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell," (2, 3, 7). The speaker's tone is very melancholy, reflecting his opinion of man and his lack of appreciation of God, and it is created primarily by the crawling pace. The despondent tone is so prevalent that I find the final three words, "Ah! bright wings," a refreshing breath of fresh air and a surprisingly optimistic ending to an otherwise rather despairing poem.
Before reading these two poems I skimmed over the text on musical devices which I think helped me to pick up on a lot of the repetitions in “God’s Grandeur.” There is a lot of rhyming within the poem and not just at the end of each line as shown in “And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil” which makes the line flow and the rhyming pattern when read out loud grabs your attention. The speaker laments the loss of faith in God and how people are turning away from His obvious presence in nature. The abundant uses of alliteration, assonance and consonance are representative of the repetition of man turning against nature and the relationship that they used to have. The poem ends with the Holy Ghost watching over the corrupt world even though the world no longer looks up to Him.
The Waking is about living life each day with no direction, but learning through each experience. The tone was somewhat hopeless, it seems that the reader has accepted that life is a certain way and cannot do anything about it. Each time that lines 1 and 3 are repeated they work with the surrounding lines to further explain their meaning that is not quite understandable with just the first 3 lines. The speaker clearly explains that sleep, meaning death, is where he “has to go” when he says “God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,/And learn by going where I have to go.” I think that “waking slow” is the journey of life and going slow means that death is ultimately where he will go, but he is going to put off “sleep” as long as possible. If these lines were not to be repeated I do not think that the tone would be the same, because we would not see that the speaker has thought so thoroughly about these two lines and the different aspects of them that are explained each time they are repeated.
The nature of a villanelle is musical in itself. The repetition forms a chorus that constantly reminds readers of the subject of the poem. The line "I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow" is repeated three times, and the hard "k" slows the reader enough to properly befit a line about slowly waking up. The structure of the villanelle and it's lilting pattern emphasize the continual presence of the truths in the poem in life. "I learn by going where I have to go" is also repeated three times, which emphasizes that some things are unchanging in life. We grow through our obligations.
The tone of the poem is certainty. The speaker has faith that everything will help them grow over the course of life, and that change and turmoil "keeps [him] steady". The paradox demonstrates that stagnancy is just as unenlightening as complete disaster.
God's Grandeur contains consonants that amplify the meaning of each line. Intensive consonants are used in the description of the oppression of man: trod, bleared, smeared, smudge. They add a grittiness and aggressive aspect to the lines. The lines directly contrast in town, it's more abstract and reflective. While the previous line summon images of men trampling the earth, the next is more forlorn that men have lost their connection with the earth. "the soil/Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod". The switch to liquid consonants triggers the reader that something different is occurring. The very last lines of the poem ring with joy - the "ah!" takes simple alliteration of "b" sounds and highlights that the "wings" are the best of good things in the world.
I found out I will be in class tomorrow even though I am leaving for state. I will return to this poems if packing allows. I want to read them aloud a couple more times!
“The Waking” could pass for a chorus of a song, because of its flowy and relaxed rhythm. It constantly repeats the phrases “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” and “I learn by going where I have to go.” By using repetition, the writer is able to create an emphasis on the importance of going with the feel for things, or basically “think by feeling.” This relaxed and melancholic tone makes the poem more resigned. It’s like the author accepts the fact of life, which is that life moves on without informing us, so we need not to be panicked, but instead accepting. I think that the “Great Nature” mentioned in line 13 refers to how we should live our lives, according to the writer. Nature goes with the flow, if a “winding stair” is built in front of them, the lowly worm climbs up and sees what’s ahead of its path, and the “light takes the tree,” then the tree takes it in. We should also just accept our fate and learn by taking the path laid in front of us.
On the other hand, “God’s Grandeur” presents us with slower, liquid-like sounds, and also has many rhymes put here and there. We can see the soft consonants in phrases such as, “It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil.” Although, I think “Greatness” would be a hard sound, because of its “GRRR” sound. Also, “Like the shining from shook foil.” You can sound out all the “sh” sounds. The rhythm is strange, but it rhymes at the end of each line. “Smeared with toil…the soil.” And “Things…springs…wings.” Also, in line 4, “Why do men then now not reck his rod. Generations have trod, have trod, have trod.” The emphasis on the “o” sound stands out with its long sound. The poem speaks of people putting worldly desires over the higher power and meaning of life. The human race has destroyed the world, and the Holy Ghost watches this from above.
"The Waking" uses many soft consonants, such as F, L, W, M, to achieve a soft and dreamlike tone. This is also achieved with paradoxes--"I wake to sleep"--and with repetition, as several have said. These create an effect of circular contemplation, with the speaker going back to two refrains at the end of each cycle of thought. I think this poem is about the speaker taking life slowly and figuring out what direction he wants to go in.
"God's Grandeur" is much different. As Lindsay said, words such as "ooze", "smeared", "toil", and "smudge" give the first stanza a grittiness that is present in neither the other stanza nor "The Waking". It seems to be referencing hard work and labor--nothing that is natural or unaffected by humans, if that makes any sense. The second stanza has much lighter and somehow cleaner language, with phrases such as "dearest freshness" and "brown brink" giving it an more natural feeling. The last part, "with ah! bright wings", seems to me like a brief moment of true joy and ecstasy in someone's life.
Well, I agree with most posters above in regards to the meaning of the poem. "The Waking" is referring to each human growing closer and closer to an inevetible end (death), and their comfort with this knowledge. "God's Grandeaur" refers to the excessive trodding, searing and smearing we put the earth through today. Both poems either directly or indirectly reference a 'higher being' or a god. I feel like the meaning of the poems have been pretty well covered above, so that was just my little review.
Musical Devices wise I thought I would seek out some slow/fast lines. Here it goes-
"The Waking" has mostly slow lines. Perhaps I'm just thinking this because of its repetition of the word sleep, but in all honesty the lines really are 'slow'. I think the slowest of them all is, "I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow."
"God's Grandeur" has a few slow lines but otherwise most our fairly fast. I think one of the fastest lines is "And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;"
I know both poems are filled with a ton of musical devices but I felt like tackling the slow and fast aspects of the poems instead of re-writing what has already been said. To all you late nighters after me- have a good night!
I simply reveled in all the wonderful sounds of “God’s Grandeur”. The poem begins with pairings of alliterations, such as “ooze of oil”, to describe the “grandeur of God”. Then the poem moves to a repetition, of “trod…trod...trod”, followed by the consonance of “seared….bleared…smeared” to emphasize the wear of mortal man upon the earth. In the last section, paired alliterations are again used to describe the enduring quality of the wilderness, how “nature is never spent”. The tone of this poem reminds me of a preacher giving a sermon, critical and forbearing, and then finishing on a forgiving, fresh note.
The second poem, “The Waking” contains subtler use of musical devices, not quite the tongue twister of “God’s Grandeur”. Again there is the repetition of the first sound of a word with “sleep” and “slow” in the first line, then “fate and “fear” in the second, and “going” and “go” in the second. I almost feel like this poem is an inverse, with this choice of alliteration, it is as if each line reverses itself, creating microscopic paradoxes. In the opening line the speaker says, “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow”. The paradox lies in the diction, for a person cannot wake to literally sleep more, but instead meaning to “sleep” through life, as many of us do. These humble paradoxes are sprinkled throughout, “We think by feeling”, and then again, “this shaking keeps me steady”. I agree with Kathy and Amber about the uniformed nature of this poem, for it has a form without being blatantly obvious, but I disagree that the poem “flows”. To me, the poem is not supposed to flow, it stumbles more, and pauses as the speaker of this poem remains pensive. The tone is hesitant as he hypothesizes the meaning and significance of his life, of choosing route opposed to the “lowly worm [that] climbs up a winding stair”.
First off, I just want to say that, for some reason, I love the part in "God's Grandeur", "like the ooze of oil Crushed." Putting the idea of oozing oil aside with the idea of being crushed is brilliant. Oozing oil gives off the image of flowing while when I read the word crushed I think of something hard being smashed and making a noise that oozing oil would not make. I'm getting way too into this but, for real, everytime I've read this poem that part sticks out to me!
Okay. Second of all, I wish I was in bed three hours ago... but that's my own fault.
And finally, third, to the blog assignment. I don't understand "The Waking". I have read it multiple times along with some of the blog comments but it just confuses me. So, skipping past the meaning, let's go on to the music in it :) "The Waking" compared to "God's Grandeur", reads faster and is more flowy. Consonant sounds that seem to appear over and over again are S, F, and T. It makes for a softer poem even with the slight hard sound with the Ts. Although I am having some issues with understanding this poem, the song "Let It Be" comes to mind when I read it. That may not make any sense but in case it does, I'll explain. It seems as though the speaker is taking life as it is and going with it..."I learn by going where I have to go." Meh?
Alright, now on to "God's Grandeur". You must take more time when reading this poem. It has more rhyming in it and if you try to read it fast the words get slushy (I can't think of the word I was looking for but slushy seems to work just fine). There are a lot of phonetic intensives (that's what they're called right?) as well. "And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man's smudge and share's man's smell" contains bl, sm, sh and also uses alliteration and internal rhyme. And honestly, if I attempt to explain what this poem means I might sound crazy, so I will work on that later, and go to bed now so I am more sane for class tomorrow. Apologies for the useless wordiness... it happens when I need sleep. Goodnight to all! See you in the morning :)
If you look at "The Waking" melodiously you notice it has lyrical features. The repetition that it has within gives it that musical feeling. The repetitiveness of "I learn by going where I have to go" and "I wake to sleep..." not only gives you a chorus but also a set message. The speaker tells us that real education comes from experience and this message reaches us because of the slow soft and hard wording the author uses. "We think by feeling. What is there to know?" I think this was one of my favorite lines. It's a slow sentence but it has both hard and soft consonants and they add to the meaning of each word. The softness of the consonants in "feeling" give it a subtle sensation and meaning and the "k" in "think" give the word an edge and a more powerful meaning and emotion.
"God's Gradeur" has many liquid and hard consonants and many of the descriptive words the author uses sound like the actual meaning of the word. A few words stuck out to me: "ooze" and "reck". Ooze is a much softer word and it also is slow to read and the soft slowness of the word helps you picture the actual slow movement of an "ooze". The consonant sound of "reck" is very strong because of the "ck" sound and you read it fast. A reck of any sort is not normally pleasant and neither is the sound of "reck" when you read or say it. The word choice according to sound is what gave this poem a much deeper meaning, not only can you read and understand the poets messages but you can experience melodiously as well. The meaning I received from this poem was, God made a masterpiece and it can be seen everywhere on the planet, "it will flame out, like shining from shook foil," but we humans have a way of messing things up a bit, "and wears man's smudge and shares man's smell" but God's gradeur runs deep.
"God's Grandeur" concerns the destruction of the earth, the beauty that God created. "The Waking" is, as Lindsay said, concerned with certainty. The speaker's experiences, the turmoil, leads him to a better and more certain understanding of his world.
I agree with Sarah about the slow and fast difference between the poems. Both poems have a naturally musical rhythm. "God's Grandeur" has more of a quick, flowing quality to it. This hurriedness reflects the "trodding" of mankind on nature, mirroring the message of the poem.
"The Waking" is slower, and does not flow as well. The rhythm conveys tranquility and calmness, which the poem as a whole also communicates.
I just want to add a few musical devices I noticed:
In “The Waking”, the musical device that immediately jumps out of the poem (at least to me) is the repetition of the two refrains “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” and “learn by going where to go”. These lines are crucial to the speaker’s view of how people are unavoidably heading toward their ends, and how he prefers to take it slow live by experience and emotion.
This meaning is directly related to the musicality of the poem. The pace is slow and calm, created by the iambic villanelle format, the repetition, the repeated ABC end rhyme pattern, and the overwhelming presence liquid consonants and long vowel sounds. Lines such as “we think by feeling, what is there to know?” and “and, lovely, learn by going where to go” are filled with soft ‘wh’, ‘f’, ‘g’, and ‘l’ sounds.
“God’s Grandeur” is packed with assonance, consonance, and alliteration. The end rhyme (abbaabba cdcdcd) holds together this conglomeration of rolling sounds. Repetition is found with “have trod, have trod, have trod” and one of many uses of assonance with “seared… bleared… smeared”. I also found the alliteration of the “S” sound in the line “and wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil” to be pretty powerful. For me, all the musical devices and rhyme in “God’s Grandeur” made the poem slower to read & pronounce, and intensified the meaning of the lines. They illustrated, often onomatopoetically, the degeneration man and the omnipresence of nature and God.
First of all, ‘The Waking’ contains many slow sounding vowels such as ‘u’ and ‘o’ that enhance the poem’s sound as well as its meaning. The structure of the poem also easily reveals the sounds of the poem, ending with similar sounding words every first and last line, and every middle line. This creates a feel of unity and ties together the feeling of slowness and gradualness. Having the repeated ‘I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow’ also generates some sense of musicality, as an emphasized point as well as having the same sounds reinforced throughout. Also, the last stanza of the poem cements a heavy tone to the poem, having many slow, short-length phrases piled on top of one another. The tone sounds dragged and dense, and the long sounding vowels and consonants add to the meaning of living out through experience.
As for ‘God’s Grandeur’, it also contains a large share of musical devices. The sound of the poem is not as obvious as ‘The Waking’, but it is there nonetheless. Consonants are used throughout to create a more hard and sharp feeling for the meanings of the lines. Some such as ‘trod, seared, bleared, smeared, smudge, shod’ help portray the dirt and grit of the poem’s feel. Shook foil, ooze of oil, toil, and soil also maintains hard, laborious sounds. Others such as the repeat of trod and shod and the alliteration of brown brink or deep down add strength to the poem, as well as ‘world broods with warm breast and with, ah! Bright wings”. The single word sentence ‘crushed’ also cements the strength of the poems meaning. Gathers, greatness, and grandeur of God all contribute to the unifying meaning of the poem and tone. The overall complex sounds, yet working together, orchestrates a reflection of ‘God’s Grandeur”.
The Waking’s rhythm is so consistent and repetitive that each line contains ten syllables. Most of the lines contain soft consonants, making the poem very mellow and giving it almost a trance-like beat. The repetition of the last two lines adds a sense of chanting. The poem is very vague, however, and multiple interpretations can be made. Does waking represent a revelation of knowledge or understanding? After all, the speaker “learn[s] by going where [he] has to go” could be interpreted as finding what learn and explore. Could the poem be about life and death, hence the cycle of stanzas’ endings and the sleeping being death? Regardless, the fact that there are a ton of paradoxes in this poem make it hard for me to get a firm interpretation. Still, the tone I’m getting is one of calm introspection, which is compounded by the rhythmic softness of the poem.
Like The Waking, there is definitely a rhythm and repetition to God’s Grandeur. However, this one seemed to move at a much faster pace than The Waking. There are many hard consonants following each other: “Why do men then now reck his rod?” “Generations have trod, have trod, have trod.” These give the poem a plodding rhythm, emphasizing the speaker’s rhetorical questions. The speaker is upset that God is not as appreciated in contemporary society. The harshness and tempo of the poem emphasize the speaker’s strong feelings regarding the subject of God by creating a stern, questioning tone.
Sorry for posting so late! I don’t usually. It was just one of those days. I found that “The Waking” is filled with repetition. This repetition gives the poems a sort of monotonous and relaxed quality, and it also serves to make the speaker’s main argument. I think that the speaker believe he must understand life to a certain extent in order develop as a person. He also accepts death as a part of life, a simple part of the circle. This is reflected in the musical repetition throughout the poem. I also find it to be a more subtle poem than the other.
In “God’s Grandeur,” rhythm is important. The tone is full of melancholy, but the speaker also praises the beauty of nature. There is also a lot of rhyming throughout the poem: “bleared, smeared with toil.” As everyone has mentioned, this poem is much slower when read. It doesn’t flow as easily as “The Waking.” This results from the diction and use of consonance, assonance, and alliteration, and it brings greater significance to each part of the poem.
Compared to God’s Grandeur, The Waking is flowy—iambic pentameter. The only line that doesn’t fit with this rhythm is “I hear my being dance from ear to ear”(5) which causes the reader to stumble on it before finding the rhythm again. This seems to be commentary(?) from the poet to point out that the line is important for the poem’s meaning. The repetition of “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” and “learn by going where I have to go” are like choruses—at least one of them is present in each stanza. However, they also serve to reestablish the main ideas of the poem: death is inevitable, but we should take that “waking slow” in order to get the most out of life. The further the reader gets into the poem, the more understandable the meanings of the first and third lines become. The tone is resigned—understanding.
God’s Grandeur is choppy and harsh: “crushed”, “trod”, “seared”, “bleared”, “smeared”, etc. The musicality comes from the repetition “-od” and “-oil” words. These words give the poem a heavy, thick feeling—like molasses—which also sets the tone as being melancholy.
The Waking:
I think this poems meaning is a little vague but its tone is not. While it can be considered melancholy it is more of an acceptance of the circle of life, which death is a part of. This villanelle says that you only learn about life through experiance, like many poems we've encountered before. The meter is iambic i believe and this attributes to the repetition and slow moving rhythm.
God's Granduer:
This poem varies in its movements. the fourth line is a celebration of stressed syllables,"Why do men then now not reck his rod?" and following that is an onomatopeoia extravaganza," have trod, have trod, have trod," steps ring in your ear! And in line 14,"World broods-warm breast-bright wings" alliteration is apparent while assonance can be reconginzed in line 11 "last black, West went"
The internal rhyme used in " seared, bleared, smeared, gives off an unpleasant feeling that disturbs the senses. The theme of this poem helped by these musical devices is that man is ignorant of God's power and while he desecrates the land he relieves himself of a spiritual connection.
In The Waking, there is an eloquent flow established by the rhythmic nature of the villanelle. The speed of the poem is dramatically slowed by the structure of the poem. Instead of lines connecting through commas, acting as continuations of ideas, each line contains a period or question mark, signifying that each line encapsulates a distinct idea. The poem also utilizes a balance between repetition and novel ideas to reconcile the separations created by the grammatical construction. Different ideas are tied together by the repetition of various lines such as “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow,” and “I learn by going where I have to go.” Instead of progressing like a story, the various notions attack the same higher concept from slightly different perspectives, combining to act synergistically.
The tone of The Waking is contemplative. It’s the sort of thing that sounds like someone is considering ideas of life, death, and the nature of being. Unlike a few others, I don’t think the tone fits the description of certainty because the many rhetorical questions convey the need for confirmation. In other words, you don’t ask something you know the answer to. And the rhetorical questions are rhetorical in the sense that they aren’t supposed to be answered, but more significantly, they do not come with a prepackaged implication or any sort of obvious meaning. The purpose is thought and thought retains doubt. My favorite line is, “I hear my being dance from ear to ear.” At least in part, this line digs deeper into the meaning of the poem. We know we exist because we think (the whole “I think therefore I am”) and we can feel our thoughts. This means we only truly exist when we are thoughtful and feeling.
God’s Grandeur is much chopper and any hint of musical flow results from the well outlined rhyming structure. In musical terms, The Waking is a piano playing and God’s Grandeur is a drum beating. God’s Grandeur exhibits extreme repetition throughout the poem, especially in the second half of the poem. Repetition exists in God’s Grandeur on a few levels. The first and most basic level is the repetition of words to express emphasis on a certain idea. For example, “Generations have trod, have trod, have trod” is used to expressed the unceasing nature of human trial. The second level of repetition is alliteration and rhyming within a line. For example, “And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil” demonstrates both alliteration and rhyming within a line. The third and in my mind, the most interesting repetition is the repetition of sounds without a rigid alliteration or rhyming structure. The line, “nature is never spent;” showcases this idea. Nature and never are tied together through alliteration using the “n” sound but the line becomes even more significant when the same “n” sound is found in the middle of the next word--speNt. Stylistically, I much prefer the repetition of sounds within words because it feels more nature and retains an intangible subtly.
The tone of God’s Grandeur is that of a hopeless romantic. The speaker praises the beauty of nature and of God yet nostalgically wonders what is happening to the faith of his fellow man. The tone is dreamy, idealistic, and impractical. The meaning is found through a combination of tone and content. The non-poetic content of the poem suggests that an eternal presence of God, but humans have separated themselves from the spirituality and holiness of the nature surrounding everything. Perhaps the most significant metaphor is that of the shoe that separates a person from the ground, symbolizing a permanent separation of humanity and the Earth. The meaning of the poem, although always open to interpretation, is somewhat evident. Individuals will always be able to find the works of God if they are looking and although, the past generations have “soiled” the Earth, we must not prevent ourselves from being regenerated through spirituality and nature.
The musicality of “The Waking” is very calming and peaceful, which conveys the tone of this poem very well. The repetition of the refrains from the first and third line creates a calming and stabilizing sense throughout the poem. As Katie pointed out, the steady rhythm of iambic pentameter throughout this poem easily flows right off the tongue. The easiness of the musicality of the poem fits nicely with the tone which is very uplifting, encouraging people to enjoy the journey though death is inevitably upon us all.
“God’s Grandeur” on the other hand has very harsh and heavy musical elements to it. There is no constant rhythm and phrases such as “shining from shook foil” or “bleared, smeared with toil” are difficult to pronounce, unlike “The Waking” where everything reads very smoothly. It does include musical elements such as consonance and assonance such as “seared, bleared, smeared” or alliteration such as “world broods with “warm breast”; however in comparison to “The Waking” these words don’t blend. Rather, they have a strong presence and accent which demands attention. The musicality of this poem reflects the pessimistic and heavy view of how humans have abused “God’s Grandeur” with “man’s smudge” and “man’s smell”. Only in the last two lines, does the tone shift to a more positive note. And with the positive tone, the musicality of the poem also shifts to a smooth combination of “w” and the soft “br” sound with the calming phrases of “world broods”, “warm breasts” and “bright wings”.
Yes, it's late again, but I was gone at MUN.
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“The Waking” seems to have a slow, loping pace to me. It doesn’t seem to rush, but goes at a rather easy pace like a person who has not a care in the world while he’s strolling down a street. The poem is in iambic pentameter and has a nice easy rhythm about it. The poem’s meaning is about self-knowledge, about the different ways a person can learn by themselves. One must learn as much as they can in their lifetime, before one dies. “Sleep” symbolized death and waking symbolizes life. People need to slow down and enjoy life instead of rushing around before death. One way is to learn is “by feeling”, another to “learn by going” (4, 9). The tone of understanding and acceptance reflects the slow, easy cadence of the poem. One cannot rush when reading this poem, they must linger on the words and the alliterations within. Each line repeats some consonant. For example, the first line repeats both the “w” and the “s” sounds in “waking” and “wake” and “sleep” and “slow”. The second line alliterates the “f” sound in “fate”, “fear”, and “feel”.
The tone in “God’s Grandeur” is a lot more somber and sad. It is almost like a slow, sad mournful dirge or song. One cannot read this poem fast either without stumbling over words and messing up the poem. The first paragraph of the poem repeats the “o” sound over and over again with the words “God”, “ooze”, “foil”, “shook”, “trod” and “oil”. The “o” sound is slow and steady. There is no need to rush. Many words are used to slow down the poem, like “shining”, “grandeur”, and “greatness”. A person must slow down to stay those words or many of the sounds in them will be lost. The meaning of the poem is that people are not appreciating religion enough and realizing that God is truly there. However the last line of “God’s Grandeur” has an optimistic outlook, and has the image of an omnipotent god bent over the world and protecting it.
I enjoyed reading both of these poems. The “music” of these poems depicts its tone and the attitude.
“The Waking” can be sung in a chorus format, because of the smooth rhythm and the repetition. “ I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” (1), is repeated many times throughout the poem. Through the use of repetition the speaker is able to communicate the musical aspects of the poem clearly to the audience and it adds emphasis to the specific phrase. The tone of the speaker in “The Waking” is modulate or relaxing one. The speaker seems like he wants the audience to live a relaxing, easy going life. “Light takes the tree; but who can tell us how? God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there” (7-8), here the speaker relates nature to life. He wants life to be as swift and peaceful as nature. The speaker wants to walk softly on this “Ground”, because he wants to accept his fate peacefully and enjoy the relaxing life.
“God's Grandeur” revolves around consonant sounds, which emphasize the meaning of each line. Words like “shinning”, “shook”, “seared”, “smeared” are all soft consonant words, which define the peaceful nature of this poem. The speaker seems as if he praises the beauty of nature. The musical devices which add to the meaning of this poem are alliteration, consonance, and assonance.
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