Week 2: Poetry Analysis

The Use of Imagery to Express the Self

Everyone lives their life which ever way they feel is suitable for themselves. Through the experiences of life one is able to reflect and analyze their own existence or current experience. The writers of the poems assigned for this week are no exception to this. One connection the speakers of the poems share is the self. The poems express some sort of analysis of the self and whether it has been a positive or negative experience. The poets use imagery to describe their experience.

Beginning with "Dover Beach," by Arnold, the speaker is expressing a great sadness that is within himself. He is analyzing the uncertainty that his life is now experiencing since the light's gleam has been gone. The writer creates vivid imagery and one can imagine how the sea is beginning to change and become more violent towards the end of the poem with the speaker expressing his sadness and putting his energy into the ocean. On the other hand, the speaker in Yeats poem, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," expresses how he wishes to be away from the bustling city and somewhere peaceful by the lake. The speaker longs to have that soothing calmness that being in nature with the lake brings him. Yeats also used imagery to create a vivid image in the mind of the reader, the reader almost can feel it too. In Yeats poem, "When You Are Old" the self is also the main focus. This poem expresses the negative feeling of a rejected love. The love is gone and he hides his sadness among the people, like Arnold hides his sadness in the ocean.

Imagery was the main literary device that the poems also shared. Each poem was able to paint a picture in the mind of the reader and provide further medium to have the reader understand them. In Frosts', "The Road Not Taken," The speaker describes what the two roads look like, the reader can surely imagine what a picture of the that may look like.