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Emily Mullins

Jeff Jaeckle

English 210

1 November 2006

An Interconnectedness of Nature, God, and the Speakers

Robert Frost’s “Design” and Wallace Stevens’ “Sunday Morning” are written on

complex relationships with God, the natural world, and the speakers. Both poems have an

outlook that is both skeptical and also earnestly intrigued. The triangular relationship

articulates to readers the reasoning for each author’s specific use of diction, structure, and

imagery. Both poems diverge in different directions but each uncovers the complex

emotions and attitudes that are evoked when the speaker questions the role of God in the

natural world. The speakers in both poems, or in the case of “Sunday Morning,” the

speaker and the woman, contemplate religion and the natural world while looking at a

natural phenomenon and having distinct responses and approaches to the natural

occurrence being witnessed. These two poems not only describe a natural phenomenon

from the speaker’s perspective, but use distinct patterns of language to show the

interconnectedness of the natural world and that by which it is governed and designed.

“Design” and “Sunday Morning” both begin in a positive moment using imagery

in the first stanza to show the significant contrast between light and dark. The speaker in

Frost refers to the natural world in a manner that we do not see to be at all dark or dismal

at first. The speaker uses the word “white” three times illustrating the spider, the heal-all,

as well as a simile to compare the moth to the “white piece of rigid satin cloth” (Frost 3).
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White has positive connotations of purity, innocence and holiness, which contrasts the

sudden mood changes as the words “death”, “blight”, “dead” and “witches” are used and

the poem darkens (Frost 4-6). Stevens begins in a similarly light manner with a woman

leisurely eating a late breakfast on Easter Sunday morning, presumably. She is seemingly

satisfied with her world, understood by the “complacencies of the peignoir, and late

coffee and oranges in a sunny chair” (Stevens 66). She is complacent with her life the

way it is, without the weight of religion constantly clouding her thoughts. She is satisfied,

that is, until “she feels the dark encroachment of that old catastrophe” and her thoughts of

death and darkness create a mood that will continue throughout the rest of the poem

(Stevens 67). This effect of using images and colors to change a poem’s mood also draws

to the conclusion of the darkening effect the natural world and religion can seem to play

in either the context of the bible, or in the death and disparity that occurs on Earth.

Imagery that uses color and negatively connotative words create obvious parallels

between the two poems in the movement from bright colors and life and to death and

darkness. “Design” begins by defining everything as white, invoking a feeling of purity

and innocence, and then moves into words of “death” and “witches” which have negative

connotations (Frost 4, 6). “Sunday Morning” starts with “oranges in a sunny chair” and

“green freedom” but then changes abruptly as her mind wanders to “the dark” and to the

“old catastrophe”, as well as a calming “darkness” (Stevens 67). The stanza then reverts

to the colors of “pungent oranges and bright, green wings” in the same way Frost’s poem

brings back the word “white” as well as “blue”, “innocence”, and “kindred” (Stevens 67,

Frost 10-11). This cycle of changing connotations of imagery can symbolize the cycle of

life in the natural world. Other parallels between the two poems are of the birds and their
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wings. In “Design”, the spider carries the moth which has “dead wings” which were

fragile “like a paper kite” (Frost 8). In a different way, Stevens’ “Sunday Morning” talks

about both cockatoos and pigeons. The cockatoos have “bright green wings” and the

pigeons in the last stanza had “extended wings” (Stevens 67, 70). These images of wings

on the birds and the moth describe the natural phenomenon of creatures with wings.

These animals or insects are seen in a somewhat metaphysical context. Animals with

wings, especially birds, have the most potential of obtaining freedom. They can go the

closest to heaven but also come back to Earth. They are somewhat spiritual beings, in that

their wings are their way of moving from one sphere to the next, from the sky to the

earth. Their wings are also fragile, but they are powerful as well. Life is fragile in

comparison, and God has the power to give or take life away.

In Frost’s poem the speaker contemplates nature’s interactions with the universe

and the order that allows the natural world to affect life. This is apparent by the mood and

tone changes at the beginning of the sestet, as fear and doubt enters the speaker’s mind

and they question “what had that flower to do with being white, the wayside blue and

innocent heal-all?” (Frost 10). The pattern changes and the speaker questions why the

heal-all, which is normally blue, was white. The speaker sees that this natural

phenomenon is a significant coincidence, and they want to know what this might mean in

terms of the universe and its potential role in dictating life. He suggests this could be

occurring from the actual “design” of nature or perhaps it could be the “design of

darkness” (Frost 13). The speaker questions what might have steered “the kindred spider

to the height” of the “innocent” heal-all, and what might have then steered the moth there

that night as well (Frost 10-11). This phenomenon witnessed by the speaker demonstrates
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the need to acknowledge that no human can ever be sure of the reason why certain things

occur in nature. The relationship between the natural world and God, or whatever design

is believed to be involved, can not be proved but can only be theorized. One might never

know the true design of nature.

On the other hand, the speaker in Stevens’ poem takes an approach that is one of

both acceptance and skepticism of the natural world and its relation to the universe, to

God, and to the cycle of life. The speaker questions if the woman should “not find

comforts in the sun” and they state that the woman is “content when wakened birds,

before they fly, test the reality” (Stevens 67,68). And although she seems content with the

reality of the human and Earthly land, she is in turn skeptical of the fact that if the birds

no longer return after they have flown away, “where, then, is paradise?” (Stevens 68).

The woman and the speaker in “Sunday Morning” discuss the God created natural Earth

and how it compares to paradise and heaven. If humans, and the woman, can accept that

the earth is perishable, then they can value the Earth and all it has to offer. The speaker

wonders too that if there is no loss, how one can appreciate gain. The line in which the

woman “still feels the need of some imperishable bliss” demonstrates to readers heaven is

seen as the place of perfect happiness (Stevens 68). There is also the paradoxical loss of

something, and the awareness of something being temporary, which in turn gives it its

value and beauty. The line “death is the mother of beauty” represents how the cycle of

life, which is thought by Christians to be created by God, gives beauty to a perishable

earth (Stevens 68). So even though life may change and loss may occur over time, beauty

and the ability to appreciate life are the result of knowing good things will come to an

end. One must also understand, as well as the nature and life cycle of the Earth, the
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reasons the Earth is not a heavenly paradise. The belief there is some design that has

constructed the way the Earth is created, will help to comprehend the beauty of the

design.

In the sestet of “Design” the speaker provides answers for his questioning of the

significance of the coincidence of all the white organisms coming together at one place at

one point in time. They question the implications of God or perhaps another being that

could either be looking over the earth or not. The speaker then moves from questions to

statements in order to provide possible answers. The first answer which is hypothesized is

that there is a “design of darkness” (Frost 13). The evil design of this possibility

demonstrates that a higher being is allowing this coincidence to happen because the being

might enjoy and relish in destructing innocence and purity. The speaker also suggests that

there may be no design at all, and that this was merely chance that “design [would]

govern in a thing so small” (Frost14). If God is thought to have created everything, no

matter how small or insignificant, then it leads the speaker to question the opposite,

whether God might not design the small things, or perhaps not design the larger things as

well. The speaker also suggests a third conclusion. Natural design, which involves the

flower, the spider as a predator that uses camouflage to lure in prey, and the moth which

might have been drawn to the white flower purely for protection is another potential

reasoning. The three possible designs, or lack there of, are the speaker’s response to the

question of life and natural occurrences.

The speaker in “Design” has demonstrated that there are multiple possibilities for

why and how the moth and spider all came together at the unusual white heal-all. The

poem shows that evil is possible in a world where a God might also exist. It then comes
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to formulate a hypothesis that if evil does exist, does God then exist? Or if God is

involved, does He not design everything to how He wants the natural world to play out?

The governor of the design in this poem is up to interpretation. Readers question whether

or not God is part of the design for the cycle of life, and if God can help to explain how

the universe works in relation to humans and how we operate according to the natural

world. This leads to responses involving the absence or presence of God and the tendency

of humans to engage in involving oneself in natural processes.

“Sunday Morning” discusses the realization of the value of imperfections and the

beauty of the temporary. If we know we will eventually perish, as the “ring of men”

understood in stanza seven, one can see the value of the rebirth (Stevens 69). The group

of naked men are worshipping the sun by song. They are devoted to the sun “not as a god,

but as a god might be” (Stevens 70). The speaker uses Christian language in a non

Christian context to mock the Christian religion. The men are described to be connected

to the Earth, and this stanza represents a pagan and humanism view of the universe and

life. The speaker is shedding light to another view of the Earth and how it is governed

and by which spirits or natural beings are being worshipped or praised for their

involvement with nature and humans.

Stevens ends his poem on paganism and natural religion using dew as a metaphor

for the temporary aspect of human life. This leads readers to question how the cycle of

life is reflected in the poem through the point of view of the speaker. The speaker

discusses “the dependency of day and night” because as human beings we are dependent

of nature and of the cycle of life, whether or not there is a God that is dictating the cycle

(Stevens 70). The end of stanza eight discusses “the isolation of the sky,” which shows
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the separation of heaven and the earth, as well as the “casual flocks of pigeons” sinking

“downward to darkness on extended wings” (Stevens 70). A question of uncertainty of

death and darkness is raised, as well as to the acceptance of death and the cycle of life. It

can be concluded that God has a plan for every being on earth, but the speaker proposes

that if God is cut out of the equation, and the pigeons are not created by God, then their

actions are not planned or designed. Upon taking God out of the equation, understanding

and contemplating things that occur in life and the natural order became more

complicated. Everything and everyone must find and forge their own path if God is not

designing it for them. The line “downward to darkness” symbolizes the uncertainty and

possible death the pigeons are facing, but with “extended wings” the pigeons accept their

fate as they are prepared for the fact death is a definite (Stevens 70). They immerse

themselves in the earth, which is seemingly similar to death and burials, but also to

rebirth with soil, both continual parts of the Earthly life.

The two poems end in a somewhat ambivalent manner, as “Design” is left with a

feeling of skepticism and questioning about the design of a seemingly natural occurrence,

and “Sunday Morning” accepts the uncertainty of life, but also the constant cycle of the

Earth, as the pigeons fly into the unknown darkness. Both speakers are intrigued to

understand the ways the Earth works and a lot of questions are raised to how the natural

world is designed and governed. The two poems are paralleled in the way each

represents a triangular relationship between the speakers (or subject) and the natural

world and God, as well as the way the authors use diction, color, and symbolism for the

cycle of life.