Preview

As I Ponder D In Silence Explanation

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
628 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
As I Ponder D In Silence Explanation
Poem Explanation
When I first saw the title “As I Ponder’d in Silence” I thought it was going to have a transcendentalist type of feel to the poem. I imagined that it would talk about walking through the woods as Whitman maybe thought back on his life.
This poem starts off with the narrator looking back and possibly re-reading or editing poems that they may have done in the past. Then a ‘Phantom’ appeared before the narrator, and this phantom was described as “The genius to poets of old lands”. The phantom says to the narrator that he has a different style of writing than the poets before his time. Poets before his time wrote traditional epics about war and the perfect soldiers who fought. The narrator says to the phantom that he does too wrote about war, a war that is more horrific and extended than any other war written about. The narrator explains that the war that he writes about is the battle of life. The narrator too says that they believe that they are living in their own war. Lastly, at the end of the poem, the narrator says “I above all promote brave soldiers”. When they say this I believe that they believe that a brave soldier is a common man, a man who is living the ultimate battle.
There are many metaphors in this poems, but not many of them are very obvious. I believe that a brave soldier is a metaphor for the common man. Also I think real War in the narrators mind is the life of the common man.
In the beginning of the poem, I feel like there is an ominous tone because the narrator is seeing the phantom for the first time. Towards the end the poem has a prideful tone to it, I believe. The narrator says that they promote brave soldiers and they basically say that they support themselves because the narrator, too, because they’re also in a battle.
There is a shift in the poem in the twelfth line when the narrator starts to talk. You can tell there is a shift because the tone is different and it’s showing a different perspective.
I believe that the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    For example, the lines “there are zepplins helicopters, rockets, bombs bettering rams armies with trumpets whose all at once blast shatters the foundations” give strong mental images of war, destruction and death. This also is another large detail that may signal the reader to realize that this poem is taking place during a war. Internment and concentration camps occurred historically during major wars. Also, “wailing prayers to utter special codes to tap birds to carry messages taped to their feet” gives images of people praying and of a bird with a paper message tied to its feet. This is another historical clue as during the war as this was a way of communicating. The lines “a voice cries faint as in a dream from the belly of the wall” gives the mental picture of being in a kind of dream-like state where you can hear a faint voice but can’t see anything…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The beginning of the poem starts out very depressing, the soldier talks as if they are old men on their death beds. ""Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge"(2), this line implies how miserable the soldier 's are, their sick, weak, and enduring unbearable conditions. They are walking toward their camp, which the poem tells us is quite a distance away. But they are so tired they are sleeping as they walk toward the camp. These men don 't even have sufficient clothing, some have lost their boots and most are covered in blood. "Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots / Of tried, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind"(6-7). This line tells us that these men are so exhausted they have become numb to the war and blood-shed around them. The soldier 's have become numb to the 5.9 inch caliber shells flying by their heads, the bombs bursting behind them, and their fallen comrades body 's lying next to them.…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the middle of the poem, the author describes the constant reminders the speaker has of the war and the lingering effects it has using allusion, symbolism, and imagery.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The imagery in this poem is relating to the human body, like broken ribs and punctured lungs; and the mechanics of familiar objects. Also the poet is trying to point out that war created an unhappy life.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poet uses numerous metaphors to describe the ancient medieval feelings that war can make return: life is described as a tournament, the medieval tradition in which shiny armor knights fought and won honor and fortune; the poet uses this resemblance to picture a man that has never lived at all “no lance broken”.…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    War Poetry Analysis

    • 880 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The government tried conscriptions, which backfired on them greatly. Protests started and the people were standing up against the war. The battles may have been fought by soldiers, but the war was played by politicians. This war showed that it didn’t bring disgrace to your family if you didn’t fight, but rather showed your ability to keep up what the politicians were spouting; and in some cases if you went to war people would disrespect you for that choice. The history behind these two poems are overwhelmed with war and all its horrors.…

    • 880 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The speaker generates different moods in the course of the poem by a shift of tone of voice. Although the poem is written in one single stanza, we can clearly see that there is a division between the first half compared to the second half of the poem. There are specific word choice sequences that support the voice shift. The :proofs;, :figures;, :columns;, :charts;, :diagrams; are all words that imply the dry, stale connotation of the lecturer. The lecturer, by :[dividing], and [measuring]; things, turns the speaker :tired and sick;. After this, word choice sequence changes to make the rest of the poem into a dreamier tone. Whitman describes how the speaker :[glides] out; and :[wanders]; off by himself in the :mystical; night to silently gaze up at the stars. With words that offer different connotations, Whitman achieves the immediate effect of how scientific deciphering of nature cannot compare to self- experience and observation.…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    A summary of the first stanza is it describes soldiers who are hunched over carrying their gear through thick sludge. Some of the soldiers walking had lost their boots in battle, so they now have bloody feet, yet they still trudged through. They had been deafened earlier by the sounds of artillery and gas shells, and to add to that they were exhausted. The second stanza tells us the soldiers are bombarded by gas, and they hurry to put their masks on, but some soldiers unfortunately were not able to put them on in time. The narrator (Owen), who is a soldier, lost his comrade right before his own eyes. The third couplet shows us that the narrator is asking himself whether or not this is a dream when he says “In all my dreams before my helpless…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the poem, it shows the pain and suffering the soldiers went through along with the mothers, whose sons are in battle. Don’t send a mother’s son, just to go die in a war; The soldiers’ injury caused the other to look in agony; the speed of a bullet can cause death instantly, just with a hit on a soldier’s body; The canon can instantly kill many people; Don’t pay attention to the injured or dying soldiers, just keep going; You (soldier) know the drill, don’t be…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Poem Is Structured Into five stanzas with the first describing the speed of an attack on the town. The second describes the violence and damage left behind from the attack from the planes. In the third stanza it goes on to describe what should happen, the violence continues "It would not stop". The fourth shows the difference between the people, there are "the wild boys of the streets" who seem to enjoy what is happening. In the final Stanza It tells us that war brings out the most wild and primitive emotions in people…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem begins by describing the physical state of the soldiers. The poet uses similes to convey the ill-health of the men. The soldiers are described as being “Bent double, like old beggars” which characterizes soldiers as being prematurely old, and extremely weak for their young age. Metaphors are also used to draw attention to their weak state of mind, “Men marched asleep” is used to imply the exhaustion of the fighters, not only the soldiers are here physically but suggests also as they are mentally and “Drunk with fatigue”. The poet uses the personification of bombs when he writes “disappointed shells” which suggests the soldiers from the enemy side had thrown bombs and grenades unsuccessfully. This implies that in war, soldiers had a lot of chances to be bombed easily.…

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Self Implicated Wounds

    • 894 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Prologue : the structure of this is similar to classical poetry , epic poetry (a poem about important historical moments) and narrative poetry. Taking this typical structure and using it in order to connect with the war and for him it is also an epic moment as it is causing chaos in life.…

    • 894 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is no shift really in this poem. The whole poem is talking to one person.…

    • 362 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drum Taps By Walt Whitman

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages

    While this was rarely the case, Smith says that the early readers of “Leaves of Grass” started a religious group and even made a church that studied his work which shows the power of Whitman’s writing. Ernest also brings up the theme of most poems in the collection “Drum Taps’ which is humanity, Throughout all of his poems he is trying to show that everyone is important and that if we cared for each other as people instead of as the side they were fighting for then the Civil War wouldn’t have been so…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Circular saws response

    • 404 Words
    • 1 Page

    As the end of the poem approaches, there is a very evident shift ,begining in the thrid stanza…

    • 404 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays