Wesley Huang Period 3

Part 1:
1. End Rhyme a. The use of rhyme at the end of lines in poetry b. (1-2) Fast rhymes with past at it occurs at the end of their respective lines 2. Caesura a. A pause or break in a line of verse b. (5) the long dash in the middle of the poem serves to pause the reading, giving the line more of a dramatic effect 3. Quatrain a. A verse of poetry that consist of four lines b. (1-4) This is a quatrain because it is a unit of four lines in its own stanza, separated from other stanzas. 4. Visual Imagery a. Elements in a poem that sparks the visual senses b. (3-4) The speaker depicts the smooth snow and the few weeds and stubble on the land. This makes the reader invoke imagery of those things. 5. Paregmenon a. The use of two different words derived from the same root b. (9) The speaker uses the word lonely and loneliness in the same line. They both are from the same root lonely 6. Polyptoton a. The repetition in close proximity of words that have the same roots. b. (12) the words express and expression are a few words apart and share the same root of express. 7. Iamb a. A foot consisting of an unaccented and an accented syllable b. (5) The woods around it have it it is theirs 8. Foot a. A unit of rhythm in verse b. (5) The woods around it have it it is theirs 9. Iambic Pentameter a. A line with five feet in an unstressed and stressed syllable pattern b. (5) The woods around if have it it is theirs

Wesley Huang Period 3 10. Juxtaposition a. The act of placing two or more words/phrases side by side especially for comparison or contrast b. (1) The speaker places the words snow falling and night falling in the same line. When one thinks of snow, it is bright white and with night, it is darkness. These two are contrasts but are placed here doing the same action, falling 11. Enjambment a. The continuation of the sense and grammatical construction of a line to the next verse b. (9-10) Line 9 flows directly to line ten. There is no period, comma or any punctuation that signals a stop in the first line. Grammatically it makes sense of line 9 and 10 are combined together. 12. End-stopped lines a. Lines in which the grammatical structure and the sense reaches completion at the end. b. (7-8) The line ends with a period, signifying the end of the line, phrase and grammar. 13. Hyperbole a. Deliberate and obvious exaggeration used for effect b. (6) the speaker claims that the snow has smothered all animals In their lairs. I am sure there are winter animals like a snow hare that still wanders around, moose and foxes too. 14. Anapest a. A foot which has two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable b. (13)They cannot scare me with their empty spaces 15. Spondee a. A foot consisting of two accented syllables b. (13) They cannot scare me with their empty spaces 16. Bachius a. Unaccented followed by two accented syllables b. (14) Between stars on stars where no human race is 17. Feminine rhyme a. (13-14) They cannot scare me with their empty spaces Between stars on stars where no human race is

Wesley Huang Period 3 18. Trochee a. A foot consisting of first an accented syllable then an unaccented syllable b. (13) They cannot scare me with their empty spaces 19. Repetition a. Reiteration of a word, sound, phrase or idea b. (1) The speaker repeats fast again in the same line to emphasis the speed of night falling. 20. Pentameter a. A verse line with five feet b. (5) The woods around it have it it is theirs 21. Internal Rhyme a. Rhyme that occurs within a line b. (6) Theirs rhymes with lairs and they are on the same line 22. Archaism a. Obsolete phrasing, idiom, syntax or spelling b. (10) ere is old English for before 23. Stanza a. The number of lines of verse forming a separate unit within a poem. They have the same # of lines and same rhyme scheme b. (1-16) The poem is separated by four stanzas that have four lines each and AABA rhyme scheme 24. Epithet a. A descriptive word or phrase (adjective) b. (3) The ground is covered smooth in snow. The smooth describes the snows texture and identity 25. Epistrophe a. Repetition of a word or phrase at the end of consecutive clauses for rhetorical effect b. (1) The speaker says snow falling and night falling. Falling occurs at the end of each phrase to show the comparison and contrast between snow and night 26. Run-on a. The carrying over of grammatical structure from one line to the next b. (9-10) Line nine grammatically continues right on to line ten. If line nine was its own sentence, it would not be a grammatically right sentence.

Wesley Huang Period 3 27. Verse a. A unit of poetry, like a stanza. A section of a poem arranged together to form a single unit b. (1-4)The poem is separated by four lines each, consisting of four sections. Each section is a verse 28. Epanodos a. The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning and middle, or at the middle and end of a sentence b. (14) The speaker repeats stars at the beginning and the middle of the sentence. Between stars on stars 29. Pun a. A play on words that have more than one possible meanings b. (11) Benighted snow. Benighted can mean literally the passage of night on the land or ignorance. 30. Alliteration a. A poetic effect achieved by using several words that begin with the same or similar consonants. b. (1) falling falling fast fast All start with the fa sound.

Part 2: 1. This poem is not an example of any of the poetic forms we studied. There is a definite rhyme scheme(aaba) and is separated into quatrains but it is not a narrative like a ballad. It is not a pastoral because while it deals with the lands and nature, it has no longing for that pre-lasparian world. 2. This poem was published in 1936. Existentialism was on the rise during this time period especially after World War I and then the Great Depression in the 1930s. Existentialism refers to the philosophy that is concerned with having an objective view on the world, because the world is irrational and meaninglessness. There is no point to right or wrong because there is no justification for those reasonings, making them absurd. According to existentialists, humans create religion, justice and morality in order to create meaning but it is ridiculous because there is no meaning. This sense of nothingness in the universe creates a lonely feeling that makes humans try to make sense of the world. The speaker is frightened by the expressionless of the snow filled land and the lack of meaning that comes from it. The realization in the last

Wesley Huang Period 3 stanza that this fear is only a product of his imagination, NOT from the snow covered land gives him a sense of confidence. This could be an influence of the existentialist idea that man creates his own meaning and interpretations and it has nothing to do with the nature of nature. http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/existentialism.htm 3. This poem literally is about a man observing a snow-filled land. He notices that the snow has covered everything and suffocates all life that was previously on the land. He senses a loneliness that occurs from this nothingness that has happened from the blanket of snow. In the last stanza, he realizes that this nothingness will not frighten him because it is just nothing. What will scare him is his own mind; he is the product of his own fears. The snowy landscape that the speaker observes is a metaphor for the absurd universe. In this existentialist viewpoint, the world has no meaning, it just happens to exist. Humans are truly free but feel lonely because of this meaninglessness so they attempt to create meaning and rationalize an irrational world. This is the fear that the speaker feels from the snowy land but the fear is not a result of the land itself, but of the speakers imagination. In the last stanza, he realizes that there is no relationship between man and nature and that nature is truly empty. The nothingness is a product of human imagination. The universe cannot control the speaker, the speaker has the freedom to create his own meanings and connections to nature. 4. I would organize the essay by writing a paragraph for each stanza (4) that analyzes the controlling metaphor of the snow and desert places. The use of imagery, rhyme and rhythm to help convey the speakers attitude towards emptiness. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. Intro Quatrain #1 Describe the juxtaposition between snow and night and the imagery of the land Quatrain #2 Show the severe nature of the snow on the land and the speakers feeling towards it Quatrain #3 Show the change in depression, the pessimisms of the nothingness of the land. Quatrain #4 depict the new rise in confidence of the speaker and his epiphany Conclusion

5. The speaker is very observant of his surroundings and likes to connect the natural world to his philosophical ideas. He sees the effect of nature on mans creation (the snow to the cultivated field). Nature completely disregards the notion of man; the snow covers the land with no respect to what is underneath it. This emptiness of the snow causes the speaker to feel lonely and creates a sense of despair. There seems to be some influence of existentialist ideas as the

Wesley Huang Period 3 speaker realizes that the blanker whiteness of benighted snow has nothing to express. Nature has no inherent meaning and this causes discomfort in the speaker who struggles internally to accept that fact. In the last stanza, he comes to terms with the situation and understands that the fear and discomfort he feels is not the result from the emptiness of the field, but actually a product of his own mind. Even though there is a resurgence of confidence, there is still an underlying dark tone of anxiety with the reality of a meaningless universe.

6. The most important poetic device is the controlling metaphor of the emptiness of the snow covered land to the emptiness of the universe. The speaker sees a connection between both worlds as he feels the same sense of loneliness and meaningless in both situations. When the speaker sees the few weeds and stubble, he notices that the snow has covered the entire man-made field. Just like how natures indifference to the concept of man in its place, the universe remains indifferent to human actions. Weeds can only happen with man-made crops, with all the meaning that man conjures up to define the world, the universe glosses over all, smothering everything leaving a few man made idea. The blankness of the snow creates loneliness with the speaker because of the nothingness of the object. This compares to the anxiety and aloneness that occurs with the realization of a meaningless universe. By controlling the metaphor throughout the poem, one can successfully compare the relationship between a piece of nature to man with the universe to man. Both are indifferent towards humans and humans try to justify the existence of both. 7. Desert Places a. Desert Places alludes to the Great Saharan desert, a place filled with nothing but death and sand. Frost travelled around the world and understood the main geography around him. He was also born in California therefore knows about Death Valley, a place of desert death. Deserts are common around the world and serve no beneficial purposes. Besides a few animals and cactuses, it is literally empty. Little to no people live on them and humans generally just stay away from them. Governments and societies have found no reason, no meaning for these natural landscapes. b. The image is important to the poem because it serves as an ideal comparison to the emptiness of a snow-covered land. By choosing deserts as the metaphor of the speakers human soul, he shows the fear of loneliness and emptiness that the speaker feels from noticing empty nature such as the snow-covered field. It helps evoke the existentialist idea of the epiphany that the world has no meaning. The

Wesley Huang Period 3 insignificant idea of deserts gives the speaker a perfect comparison to the pointlessness of meaning to an irrational universe. c. Main image: Desert Places 1) (1)Snow falling and night falling As the speaker walks through the evening, he notices snow falling on the land. Snow falling usually evokes images of bright whiteness, of pristine cold beauty and of beautiful snowflakes dancing to the floor. In this poem though, snow is seen as a degrading force, desolating the land. The speaker juxtaposes snow falling with night falling to contrast the brightness of snow and the darkness of night. Yet paradoxically, they relate to each other as they both smother the area with their respective attributes, night descending her darkness on the land with the same swiftness of snow dropping himself onto the land. The snow falling connects to the sandstorms that take place in desert places. Both areas have emptiness that is smothered either by snow or by sand. The snow brings an ominous feeling to the speakers epiphany that nature inherently has no meaning and is indifferent to its own surroundings. 2) (1) Snow falling and night falling Just how the speaker notices the snow falling, he notices the night falling as well. These natural aspects both quickly cover the field he is walking by. Both serve to cover the land and overwhelm whatever lied beneath them. They overpower the cultivated field of man, destroying the meaning of the land. Night gives images of evil, of darkness, of an foreboding attitude. Night is just the absence of light. This empty feeling compares to the emptiness of a desert place. The void of meaning in desert places compares to the void of light in night. The snow contrasts with the darkness with the night but they actually work together to take over the man-made existence of the land. It kills the land just like the universe ends up killing any man-made meaning that are created. Nothing ever stays permanent in an irrational universe. Even with the harsher pronunciation of the word night, the repetition of euphonious sounds with the s f and os of snow falling gives a calming introduction but it results in a false beginning attitude that foreshadows a much darker realization. 3) (4)But a few weeds and stubble showing last Out of all the blankness of the snow-covered field, the speaker observes that

Wesley Huang Period 3 some weeds and stubble still remain. These plant remains are the remnants of human existence in a natural piece of land. weeds and stubbles juxtapose each other as weeds are natural plant pests that choke and kill good plants while stubbles are just the remains of grain crops that were harvested. These two supposedly enemies are disregarded by the falling snow and night however, relating to the natures persistence in subduing non-natural features. This creates a nothingness that shares the same concept of deserts vanquishing mans attempts to cultivate and civilize the deserts themselves. Deserts eventually cover all man-made buildings in the wasteland if they are unattended to such as the many Egyptian artifacts lost in the Saharan desert. The Sphinx was only found due to mans discovery; it was originally covered and lost in the sand that naturally piled up. Even with the initial contrast between weeds and stubbles, the speaker shows that nature (the universe) does not care about the artificial conflicts and will only continue to envelop non-natural existences. 4) (6)All animals are smothered in their lairs The snow has smothered all animals in their lairs. This phrase evokes images of hibernating animals but the choice word of smothered makes it seem as if the animals are forcefully caged into their lairs. The snow shows an indifference towards whatever it is smothering, whether it is living or not. This is just like how the desert covers nearly everything in its path. This apathy of nature serves as a warning to the universes disregard for meaning and existence. It only exists just to exists, there lies no deeper meaning. This creates the isolation of the speaker relative to the separateness of physical objects to the universe. The emptiness of the land instills fear in the speaker as he realizes that in his soul, it seems to just be the same, that his soul is just another empty place, a desert place. 5) (7) I am too absent-spirited to count The speaker realizes that he also is part of that emptiness of nature, of that loneliness. The phrase absent-spirited suggests a lack of soul or that of a foolish wanderer. It clearly describes a person such as Meursault from The Stranger, one who strolls through life without thinking about whats right or wrong. The speakers own description of himself seems almost paradoxical as he understands his place in the cosmos through discovering the relation to the

Wesley Huang Period 3 emptiness of the snow-covered land to his own desert places. His own emptiness and the realization of natures emptiness create meaning to his understanding of life. The absence of spirit and life in a desert coincides with the absence of life in a snow-smothered land. The connection between the speaker and the universe is actually the lack of connection. The bridge between them is that there is no bridge. That nothingness is the anxiety and loneliness the speaker feels. 6) (9)And lonely as it is that loneliness The speaker claims that the loneliness of the land will only continue to become more lonely. The idea of loneliness evokes images of isolation, of a man stranded on an island or of a man stranded in a desert. Without human intervention, the snow will just continue to cover and cover the land, erasing not only the signs of man, but the signs of the land itself. The utter subtle destruction of the land by the snow will only continue to make it more empty and lonely. The human artifacts of the Saharan desert were only discovered out of human persistence. Without that, the sands would have just continued to swell up and hide any touches of humanity. This paregmenon adds emphasis on the idea of loneliness and prepares the tone of despair that follows in the lines after this one. 7) (11) A blanker whiteness of benighted snow The speaker realizes that the more passage of snow on the land will only make the area a blanker whiteness of benighted snow. This image evokes ideas of contrasting dark and white snow and of a pure white area shadowed by darkness. The pun of benighted helps to convey the metaphorical meaning behind the snow. The snow can be described as snow falling at night or an ignorant snow. The ignorance relates to the indifference of nature and the universe to the existence of others. The snow disregards whatever man attempts to create on the field and squashes all meaning. The speaker claims the increasing whiteness of the snow has nothing to express. This contradicts the meaningless and loneliness that the speaker initially was talking about. The speaker makes it seem like the nothing is something, that it is actually a tangible aspect. The lack of meaning is the meaning? This somber mood coincides with the worthi8o9plessness of the speakers own desert

Wesley Huang Period 3 places. The speakers own soul has nothing to express and is void of meaning. 8) (13) They cannot scare me with their empty spaces In this stanza, the speaker demonstrates a new sense of confidence towards the emptiness of the snow-covered land. An empty space is difficult to comprehend pictorially as there are no images to represent nothingness. This abstract concept conveys a sense of fear as it lacks any sort of meaning. There is no way to quantify this emptiness. They could refer to nature in general as nature is where the speaker sees the empty spaces. The speaker appears confident but the feminine ending of the line allows one to see that the confidence is just a faade. The multiple trochees were meant to demonstrate a sense of triumph over the fear of the empty spaces but the feeble ending of each foot displays the anxiety that still lies in the speaker. The speaker realizes that there is no need to fear the empty spaces as he already has his own empty spaces with his desert places. Both are empty and void of meaning. He does not need to fear nature, the really fear is the lack of value in his very own soul. 9) (14)Between stars on stars where no human race is The speaker compares the void between stars to the void in the speakers desert places. The depth in ones soul is as limitless and breathtaking as the space between the stars in the cosmos. This extreme deepness of the speakers desert places seem to show that there is some sort of meaning, that all the space cannot be just nothing. Yet just like the millions of miles of empty space between stars, all what is in the speakers desert places is emptiness. This does not mean that the speaker is lifeless and objectifying like Meursault because the speaker feels the void, and has emotions (fear) with the situation. He understands the phenomenon of nothingness and the meaningless in nature and the universe. The repetition of stars emphasizes the plethora of stars in outer space and the dash serves as the meter stick that measures the distance between the stars. 10) (15)I have it in me so much nearer home The speaker does not need to fear the empty spaces of nature because he already has the empty spaces close to him, the desert places. A home evokes

Wesley Huang Period 3 images of comfort, of somebodys own house. The speaker realizes that the feelings that were evoked when he saw the snow-covered field were a result of his desert places, his own mind. The existentialist theory is influence here as the speaker understands that all meaning is conjured from the inside, not from nature or from the universe. The fear and terror he experiences are from his own creation. The emptiness of deserts, of nature, of the universe are only a result of the existence of humanity. Without humans, there is no nothing because there is nothing to quantify the nothingness of the world. The meaning of meaningless comes from humans attempts to justify the worlds irrationality. Home contrasts with the great distance between stars in the previous line, showing that emptiness can exist far away and in close distances inside ones comfort zone.