theanalyses ofimagery, figurative language, and...

THE ANALYSES OF IMAGERY, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE,

AND THEME IN MODERN ENGLISH POETRY

A PAPER

Submitted to the Faculty of Adab and Humanities

In a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For The Degree of Strata I (S1)

By

PUTRAFAJARNI~.102026024605

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES

SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

JAKARTA

2007

APPROVAL SHEET OF THE ADVl[SOR

THE ANALYSES OF IMAGERY, FIGURATIVKLANGUAGE,

AND THEME IN MODERN ENGLISH POETRY

A PAPER

Submitted to the Faculty of Adab and Humanities

In a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For The Degree of Strata I (S I)

By

PUTRAFAJAR

NI~. 102026024605

Advisor:

r~-' -----InayatuI Chusna, 8.8., M.Hum.

NIP. 150331 233

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES

SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

JAKARTA

2007

APPROVAL SHEET OF THE EXAMINATllON BOARD

A Paper entitled "The Analyses of Imagery, FigUl'ative Language, andTheme in Modern English Poetry" was examined by The Examination Board ofFaculty of Adab and Humanities, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic UniversityJakarta, on Tuesday, March 06, 2007. This Paper has been accepted as a PartialFulfillment of the Requiremeuts for acquiring the Degree of Strata I (S1) in EnglishDepartment.

Jakarta, March 06, 2007

THE EXAMINATION BOARD:

Chief,

DR. M. khan M.Pd.NIE 0299 480

Examiner I,

nini Masitah, S.S., M.Hum.NIP. 150317724

MEMBERS:

-I;;'!:JDrs. ASllp Saefuddin, M.Pd.NIP. 150261902

Examiner II, \

CCt.V~ ~

Drs. H. Abdul Hamid, M.Ed.NIP. 150 181 922

IA~Inayatul Chusna, S.S., M.Hum.NIP. 150331233

This Paper is dedicated to my Mother:Ibunda Dra. Nurfahdriana,

and to my Father:Ayahanda Drs. Asril Djoni, M.Si.

"thank you for being my inspirations"

- Putra Fajar,2007 -

In endless rain I've been walkingLike a poet feeling pain

Trying to find the answersTlying to hide the tearsBut it was just a circle

That never ends

Am I wrong to be hurt?Am rwrong to fee! plIin?

Am I wrong to be in the rain?Am I wrong to wish the night won't end?

Am I wrong to cry?But I know, It's not wrong to sing The Last Song

Cause forever fades

I see redI see blue

But the silver lining gradually takes overWhen the morning beginsI'll be in the next chapter

- X Japan"The Last Song"

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah,

Lord of the Universe. And Peace and Prayers be upon His final Prophet and

Messenger, Muhammad.

First, the writer would like to give thanks to his pan:nts: Dra. Nurfahdriana

(mother), and Drs. Asril Djoni, M.Si. (father). Thank you for supporting the writer,

and always give everything in the writer's life.

The writer is deeply grateful to his advisor, Mrs. Inayatul Chusna, M.Hum.,

for the great contributions, and helps the writer in finishing this paper. Thanks for all

that she has given to the writer, and may Allah SWT bless her and her family.

Moreover, the writer wishes to say gratitude to these following persons:

I. DR. H. Abdul Chaer, M.A., the Dean of Faculty of Adab and Humanities,

SyarifHidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta.

2. DR. M. Farkhan, M.Pd., the Head of Department of English Literature.

3. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M.Pd., the Secretary of Department of English

Literature.

4. All lecturers in Department of English Literature: who had taught arld

educated the writer during his study at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic

University Jakarta.

5. To the writer's good friends at Department of English Literature,

especially: Junaedi, S.S (Omponk), Tatang Suryana (Nana-choy), Yaman

(Q-mhoy), Ahmad Muzamil (Samil); Sandi Adrian (Bule), Ikhsan

Wahyudi (I-can), Agus SaefuITohman (Ustad Agus), Mustika Dendi

(Sinyo), and to all of the writer's iiiends who cannot be mentioned one by

one for giving spirit and motivation.

6. To all the writer's inspirational musicians: Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page),

Nirvana (Kllli Cobain), U2 (Mr. Bono), Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage,

Ranlmstein, Dream Theater, Metallica, Helloween, Joe Satriani, Rage

Against The Machine, X Japan, Luna Sea, L'Arc~·en-Ciel, and Dewa 19

(Dhani-Jenggot). Thank you for the music, spirit and motivation that they

all give to the writer during the regression and the writer's boring time.

May Allah SWT bless us all, and finally, the writer is sure that this paper is

far from being perfect. Honestly, the writer hopes iliat ally suggestioll or criticism can

enrich this paper more scientifically.

Jakarta, January 2007

PutraPajar

ABSTRAK

Putra Fajar. "The An:l!yses of Imagery, Figurative Language and Theme inModern English Poetry". Strata I (S 1). Jurusan Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris, FakultasAdab dan Hl1111aniora, Universitas Islanl Negeri SyarifHidayatullah Jakarta, 2007.

Peneliti membahas mengenai tiga puisi Inggris moderen pada awal dan pertengahanabad ke-dua puluh. Puisi-puisi tersebut antara lain adalah: "The Lake Isle ofbmi.\ji'ee" oleh William Butler Yeats, "Fern Hill" oleh Dylan Thomas, dan "TheHorses" oleh Edwin Muir. Dalam penelitian ini, pl:neliti ml:nggunakan pendekatankualitatif, yaitu analisa mengenai unsur-unsur intrinsik yang diglmakan oleh seorangpenyair untuk membuat penafsiran yang lebih sederhana, dan mempunyaipemahaman yang baik dalanl memaharni arti dari sebuah puisi. Penulis jugamembatasi penelitian ini dengan menganalisa Ul1sur imajinasi, penggunaan gayabahasa, dan tema yang ada didalam puisi-puisi tersebut. Untuk memahami puisiseeara mendalarn, penulis menggunakan metode deskriptif analisis. Dari analisaimajinasi dan gaya bahasa didalarn penelitian ini, peneliti menemukan tema dari "TheLake Isle of Innisfree" adalah "melepaskan did dari rutinitas kehidupan urban diperkotaan, dan kembali ke alarn yang membuat hidup seseorang terasa darnai danlebih berarti". Kemudian tema dari "Fern Hill" adalah "peIjalal1an kehidupan seorangmanusia dari sejak masa keeil, menjadi dewasa, dan akhirnya tua, selia realisasi darikematian yang seeara keseluruhan di representasikan oleh penyair melalui simbolsimbol alam". Dan tema dari "The Horses" adalah "kembali pada alam dan kepadakehidupan awal mal1usia yang mumi dan sederhana".

ABSTRACT

Putra Fajar. "The Analyses of Imagery, Figurative Language and Theme inModern English Poetry". Strata I (S I) Degree. English Department, Faculty ofAdab and Humanities, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakmta, 2007.

The researcher discusses three-modern English poetry in early and the middle of 2010

century. The poems and poets are as follows: "The Lake Isle ofInnisfree" by WilliamButler Yeats, "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas, and "The Horses" by Edwin Muir. [nthis research the writer uses the qualitative approach, which lmalyzes about intrinsicelements that used by a poet to make an easier interpretation and have goodunderstanding about the meaning of the poems. The writer also limited the researchon analyzing imagery and figurative language, and the theme of the poem. To analyzethe data, the writer uses the descriptive analysis technique. From the analysis ofimagery, figurative language ai1d theme, the writer fuund that the theme of"The LakeIsle of Innisfree" is about "escaping from the rush of modem living in the city andlonging for the living in the village that closes to nature". The theme of "Fern Hill" isrepresents "the definite-movement of human life from childhood to adulthood, untilthe realization of his mortality, which represented by the symbols of nature". And thethcme of "The Horses" is "retum to nature and to a simple and innocent way ofhuman life".

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

APPROVAL SHEET OF THE ADVISOR

APPROVAL SHEET OF THE EXAMINATION BOARD

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1

iii

v

I

A. Background of The Research I

B. Focus of The Study... 7

C. Research Question ,.................... 7

D. Significance of The Research 7

E. Research Methodology 7

1. Objective of The Research 7

2 The Method of The Research 8

3. Tec1mique of Data Analysis 8

4. InstIument of The Research 8

5. Unit Analysis 8

6. Place And Time 9

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Romantic Poetry .

B. Modem Poetry .

C. Imagery ..

D. Figurative Language ..

10

13

14

15

16

1. Simile .

2. Metaphor .

3. Personification , .

4. Symbol

5. Metonymy

6. Allegory

7. Paradox

E. Theme

... - - .

17

18

18

19

19

20

20

21

CHAPTER III: THE ANALYSIS OF POEMS 22

A. The Lake Isle ofInnisfree 22

1. Analysis ofImagery 23

2. Analysis of Figurative Language 26

3. Analysis of Theme 28

B. Fern Hill 30

1. Analysis of Imagery 32



C. The Horses 42

1. Analysis ofImagery 43



CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

55

55

B. Suggestion 56

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX

A. Tahle of Imagery

B. Table of Figurative Language

C. Table of Theme .

58

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Researeh

Poetry can have many definitions and forms. It can be philosophical,

emotional, or sentimental. It can paint pictures, in a descripti ve mode, or tell stories,

in a narrative one. Poetry can also be satirical, funny, political, or just informative. A

definition that underscores the distinctiveness of poetry from other kinds of literary

work might be: poetry is a language in which every word choice, sound, pause, and

image is significant. It is significant because every element points toward or stands

together for further relationship among and beyond themselves.

As a unique media of communication, poetry is created in a brief and

concentrated foml of language. Its elements are figures, and poetry itself is a

language of figures, which each component can potentiaJly open toward new

meanings, levels, dimensions, or connections. Poetry does this through an intricate

pattern of words, and it offers language as highly organized as language can be. No

word is idle or accidental; each word has a specific place within an overarching

pattern. Together they create meaningful and beautiful designs of words.

ages. Each text on poetry's stanza holds its own values £lad cultures. Poetry has

grown and developed from time to time, and brought perf,~ction in literary work,

which are imaginative expressions, expressive and naturalistic by entirely. This

achievement is a continued-process, from thoughts, values, and the ideas from the

periods before.

As one of literary genre, poetry is also influenced by movements, which

become a role model or trend in literary world at that time. Even, this factor beeomes

a model of the literary work in a specific period and represents the characteristic of

the literary work itself.2 In fact, literary movement has grown and developed in

Europe. From all of the movements existed, they essentially based on Realism and

Expressionism. The other movements, which based on mind thinking and life

orientation, is like Materialism and Idealism. Moreover, literary movements that

closer to Realism is Impressionism, Naturalism, and Detemlinism. On the other side,

literary movements, which are closer to Expressionism, are Romantieism,

Symbolism, Idealism, Surrealism, and Mysticism. Some of those literary movements

that we have recognized and become the role model of many poets whether in

I Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P.. Sound and Sense: An Introduction 10 Poetl)' Eight Edition.Orlando: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1992. p. 3.2 Adapted from: Zainuddin Fananie, Te/aah Sas/ra. Surakarta: MUhammadiyah University Press, 2000.p.48.

3

Indonesia, or in other countries are Romanticism, Romantic-Idealism, Romantic-

Realism, Expressionism, Naturalism, and Imagism.

Romanticism is a literary movement that based on feeling expression and

imagination. To describe these mentioned, a poet always explains the reality of life

into the most beautiful forn1 of language and words. The aim of this movement is to

make the readers could be touched by the lyric or by words emotionally. Therefore,

the poet usually arranges every existing distortion and conflicts dramatically and

completely.3 For example, a beautiful girl character is always described as perfect as

possible, without any handicaps. It has to be perfect. The same thing is also viewed

on the natural beauty themes, or even a possible sorrow, which are usually described

in details. A Romantic poet usually thinks how to touch the readers emotionally. At

the end, the readers will be drown into the lyric that has naITated by the poet.

Romantic poetry is a kind ofliterary movement that is distinguished by enthusiasm to

life and simple way of living, and natural view. attention to the original belief, the

spontaneity in mind and acts and also mind expression.4

Meanwhile, modcrnism in poctry that had come by the end of 19th century and

early 20'h century represented the result of the literary development from the previous

periods. Of course, the development of modem poetry CaImot be separated from the

influence of mind concept, figures of speech and theme aspects, which have existed

in the previous movements. Among the modernist, there are so many movements,

] Ibid, p. 49 - 50., Adapted from: Panuti Sudjiman. Kallllls ISIilah Saslra. Jakarta: PT Gramedia, 1984. p. 65 - 66.

4

such as Imagism, pioneered by Ezra Pound, also T.S. Eliot with his Metaphysics

poem, and other movement like Realism, and Naturalism. English poets of the early

twentieth century declined to follow the examples of Yeats and Pound, and yet were

also dissatisfied by much late Victorian verse. Some looked further back to the

Romantics for a mode of literary survival. 5 Therefore, Modernism is a movement in

the literary world and art that attempt to determine the relationship of past time and

looking for new fonns in expression.6

Even though the Romantic pattern does not appear entirely in the modern

poetry, there are some of modern poets who try to return to the beauty and natural

themes. These themes represent the characteristic of the Romantic poetry. Among

them, are Willianl Butler Yeats, Dylan Thomas, and Edwin Muir. Those Romantic

characteristics appeared on their poem. The poems are as follows: "The Lake Isle of

Innisfree" by William Butler Yeats, "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas, and "The

Horses" by Edwin Muir that according to tlle writer have the aspects of

Romanticism.

One of those modem poets whom the writer researched is Willianl Butler

Yeats. In 1899 Yeats published "The Wind Among The Reeds", a book of poems

which was the culminating of the early symbolist manner.7 He created a hierarchy of

symbols and moods attendant upon them. The four elements, which he found in stars,

5 See: Richards Elmann and Robert O'Clair. A10dern Poems: An Introduction To Poetry. New York:W. W. Norton & Company, 1976. p. 491.6 Ibid., p. 50.7 Richards Elmann and Robert O'Clair, op.cit" p. 488.

5

sea, winds, and woods, become aspects of feeling; bird and beast alike were

expressing the human passion. From those elements, showed the existence of the

Romantic characteristics, in which had a beauty and natural themes that represented

into the specific symbols.

Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales, and educated at Swansea

Granmlar School. He was "discovered" as a poet in 1933 through a poetry contest in

a popular newspaper. The following year his Eighteen Poems caused considerable

excitement because of the strange violence of their imagery and their powerfully

suggestive obscurity. It looked as through a new kind of strength and Romantic

picturesqueness had been restored to English poetry after the deliberately muted tones

of Eliot and his followers. 8 Thomas did not, however, turns out to be the founder of a

Neo-Romantic movement, though some early critics took him to be so. As his poetry

became better known, and after he had clarified the somewhat clotted imagery of his

early style in his later voltmles: The Map of Love (1939), Death and Entrances

(1946), and Collected Poems (1953), it became clear that Thomas was an extremely

"craftmanlike" poem, and not the shouting rhapsodist that some had taken him to be.

His images were most carefully ordered in a patterned sequence, arid his major theme

was the unity of all life, the continuing process of life, death, and new life which

linked the generations to each other.9

8M. H. Abrams, eLa!., The Norton Anthology ofEnglish Literature Third Edition. New York; W. W.Norton & Company Inc., 1974. p. 236 I-2362.9 Ibid

6

The other poet, Edwin Muir (1887 - 1959) was always fascinated by time, by

links between generations, by the modern meaning of ancient myths, and by the

question of identity and change. These interests provide the themes of almost all his

poetry. Even though if he had few themes, the grave precision of his language, the

translucent quality of his imagery, the supple, unforced rhythms, and the delicacy of

observation and of sensibility that underlies all this, combine to make poetry of

remarkable individuality and power. 10

Referring to the explanation above, and by the attention to these dynamic

development in literary world especially poetry in the early of 20th century, also with

the return of the aspects of Romanticism into these modern English poetry, the writer

is interested in analyzing those poems. The analysis in this research focused on the

analysis of the intrinsic elements of poetry, they are imagery, figurative language, and

the theme of the selected poems. Then, the title of this paper is "The Analysis of

Imagery, Figurative Language, and Theme in Modern English Poetry".

10 M. H. Abrams. et.al., ibid., p. 2315.

7

B. Focus of the Study

The research is focused on the analysis of the intrinsic elements of poetry,

they are imagery, figurative language, and theme of each poem.

C. Research Question

The question of the research is:

What types of imagery, figurative language and theme are utilized in the

poems of"The Lake Isle ofInnisjree" by William Butler Yeats, "Fern Hill" by Dylan

Thomas, and "The Horses" by Edwin Muir?

D. Significance of the Research

In this research, the writer have the expectation that the readers can analyzc

the literary work especially poetry, from various aspect, context and those figurative

language, without forgetting and leaving the aesthetic and emotional values that

contained on it's stanza. The writer also hopes that tlus research can give any

significance and infonnation to the readers, especially those who enjoy, understand,

and appreciate the romantic poetry, whether in English Department or in common

people, to enrich the English literature study.

E. Research Methodology

1. The Objective of the Research

The objective of the research is:

To find the types of imagery, figurative language, and the theme in "The Lake

Isle ofInnisfree" by William Butler Yeats, "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas, and "The

Horses" by Edwin Muir.

8

2. The Method of the Research

Every researcher insists to use a methodology in the sdentific researches. The

attempt to identifY and describe significant qualities in several poetries must be based

on the research principles in which results of the research can be justified and

regarded as an achievement in scientific atmosphere.

This research uses method of qualitative description, which concems with the

imagery, figurative language and the themes of the three poems selected.

3. Technique of Data Analysis

In this research, the writer uses the qualitative analysis technique, through

textual approach, which based on those intrinsic aspects of poetry, namely: the

imagery, figurative language and the theme of three selected poems.

4. Instrument of the Research

The researcher himself is the instrument of this research. The Data, which

related to the three selected poems, will be obtained by scanning and tabulation.

5. Unit of Analysis

The unit of analysis of the research is three-modem poetry in early and the

middle of 20th century. The poems, and poets, are as follows: "The Lake Isle of

Innisji-ee" by William Butler Yeats, "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas, and "The

Horses" by Edwin Muir.

9

6. Place and Time

This research took place in the Library of Department of English Literature

Faculty of Adab & Humanities, American Corner, and The Center Library of Syarif

Hidayatullah State Islamic University. The research was also taken place in several

libraries such as: the British Council Library, and the Library of the Cultural Science

Department, The University of Indonesia. The writer started doing this research from

January 02, 2006 until February 06, 2007.

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWOH.K

A. Romantic Poetry

Romanticism is a literary movement that lasted from around years 1750 to

about 1870 in Europe. Characterized by the reliance on the imagination, subjectivity

of approach. freedom of thought expression. and idealization of nature, the term

Romantic first appeared in 18th-century. It originally meant "romance-like", which

resembles the fanciful character of medieval romances. Romantic literature and

poetry is strong in many of the European Countries. Although the adjective

"Romantic" derives ultimately from the word that gIves us the expreSSIon "the

romance languages", it came to mean more than a language. It means also the quality

and preoccupations of literature written in those languages, especially "romances"

and stories. By the seventeenth century in English, the word "Romantic" had come to

mean anything from imaginative or fietitious, to fabulous or downright extravagant.

The use of term "Romantic" for the poetry of this period has folded the meanings

b h· d' 11e 111 It.

The Romantic period see also a shift in religious ideas. It was the first period

in English literature when many writers failed to find Christianity satisfying.

Although it was in the period a pronounced streak of rationalistic atheism, influenced

II Pat Rogers. et.al.. The 04o!'d Illustrated HistoJ)' o/English Literatu!'e. New York: OxfordUniversity Press Inc., 1987. p. 275.

11

by the writers of the French enlightenment, there is noticeable among the Romantic

poets a search for a spiritual reality.12 According to John Keats,13 in the search tor a

spiritual truth, the Romantic poets like used two faculties, which rationalism had

tended to discredit: feelings and imagination. The imagination in the Romantic period

was raised from being simply the faculty for creating fictions, pleasing perhaps, but

not necessarily true, to a method of apprehending and communicating truth. The

result was that thc searching for the spiritual truth bccame one in which the poet

played a greater role than before. The imagination, the peculiar gift of the poet, was

now enlisted in man's most important endeavor. 14

According to Margaret Drabble, Romanticism concerned with: the emotion,

imagination, individuality and a certain sense of opposition to what had gone before

which namely, the enlightenment of the late l71h and 18111 centuries with its espousal

of reason as the key to all understanding. Already it should be clear that there is some

common ground here. One problem, however, is that none of these terms can be

pinned down by a simple definition, because they are all suqject partly to culturally

fon11cd value systems, and partly to the slipperiness of language itself. IS

Moreover, the French Romantic poet named Charles Baudelaire (1821 -

1867), made the vital point that "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice

12 Ibid" p.277.13 John Keats is the English poet, one ofthe most gifted of the 19th century and an influential figure inthe Romanic Movement. (from David Stevens. et.al., Romanticism. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 2004. p. Il.),.\ Pat Rogers. et. ai, op.cit" p.27S.15 David Stevens. et.a!.. 0p.cil.

12

of subject, nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling." 16 If the poetry of the

Romantics has tended to have a special place in the hearts of readers, it is because

those poems which are most clearly Romantic, are those, which particularly defy

explication and are in the supreme sense of "poetic". Romantic poetry pushes

experience to the utmost point, where there is no direct reference to the ordinary.

world. 17

The Romantic Movement purposes to seek a formal freedom, ll1creases

emotional effect, and use of ancient and folk sources t~Dr poetry. In addition,

Romanticism emphasizes the creative expression of the individual and the need to

find and fonnulate new forms of expression. Romantic Poetry stresses strong

emotion, which now might include fear, wonder, and horror as aesthetic experiences

the individual imagination as a critical authority. There is a strong element of natural

inevitability in its ideas, stressing the importance of "nature" in literature and art. The

birth of English Romanticism is often connected to the publication in 1798 of

Wordsworth and Coleridge's "Lyrical Ballads".

The early Romantics try hard to understand the world through imagination,

not reason, and they distrust the world set out for them by Church and State. To these

hateful figures in the later nineteenth century, they add conmlerce and science,

16 In order to understand this "wtry offeeling" more profoundly, it is necessary to examine in somedetail the contextual factors at work. As a guiding principle, Marilyn Butler's insight rings true: "Noform is confined 10 a single political message. Evelylhing lurns on how il is used, and on how thepublic al a given lime is ready 10 read it". (from: Romanlics, Rebels and Reactionaries. 1981), and thereading must be in the fuliest, snggestive sense of the word: not only in the reading of printed text, butalso in the ways we might "read" a situation, or "read" someone's character. (ibid, p. 17.)17 Pat Rogers. et. aI., op.cit., p.309.

13

creating a split in the point of view that pushes Romanticism into extreme positions,

such as Symbolism (rarefied symbols), Surrealism (irrational), and Dadaism (anti-

society).

B. Modern Poetry

Modemism is a movement in the literary world and art, which attempt to find

out the relationship of past time and look for new fOlIDs in expression. IS Most serious

poetry today is still Modernist. Modemism in literature is not easily summarized, but

the key elements are experimentation, anti-realism, individualism and a stress on the

cerebral rather than emotive aspects. Modemism is a complex and diverse movement.

From Symbolism, it took allusiveness in style and an interest in rarefied mental

states. From Realism, it borrowed an urban setting, and a willingness to break taboos.

And from Romanticism came an artist-centered view, and retreat into irrationalism

and hallucinations. 19

Modernism in poetry is also an enterprise of the mind in which many poets,

over several generations and indifferent countries, sought to change most of the

assumptions about what poets write and what poetry does. The best known of these

writers were W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, and T. S. Eliot. Then followed by: Dylan

Thomas and Edwin Muir in the middle of twentieth century. Despite the English

poets of the early twentieth century declined to follow the examples of Yeats and

Pound, and yet were also dissatisfied by much late Victorian verse. Some of them

18 Adapted from: Pan uti Sudjiman., op.cil., p. 50.19 Retrieved from http://www.poelrymagic.co.uk.html. accessed on January 21,2006.

14

looked further back to the Romantics for a mode of literary sllrvival.20 The Modernist

had no wish to imitate the nineteenth-century poets, and to some extent rcacted

against them. Yet, paradoxically, any search for the origins of Modernism leads back

to Romanticism, that combination of literary and philosophical attitudes, which

dominated Europcan and American literature for most of the nineteenth-century. 21

Unlike the earlier literary movements, Romanticism provided an opporttmity for a

fuller and more diversified expression of oneself, for more various relations between

the poet and society. An element of subversion is probably presented in all great

poets. But in the early nineteenth-century, after the American and French

Revolutions, individuality rather than obedience to authority came to be seen as

positive, rather than antisocial or eccentric, and the guerrilla poets-outcast, victim,

misfit, radical, solitary, became a literary and popular model.

Additionally, Modernist poetry disavowed the traditional aesthetic claims of

Romantic poetry's later phase and no longer sought "beauty" as the highest

achievement of poetry. With this abandonment of the sublime came a turn away from

pastoral poetry and an attempt to focus poetry on urban, mechanical, and industrial

settings. The new heroes would not be swains laboring in the fields, but office

workers struggling across London Bridge, and the new settings would not be

20 See: Richards Elmann and Robert O'Clair, op.cir., p. 491." Ibid., p. 486.

15

"Romantic chasms deep and wide", but vacant lots, smoked over cities, and

subways.22

Modernism is a movement in the literary world and art that attempt to find out

the relationship of past time and looking for new f61111S in expression. Modern poetry

represents a great change of our mentality and a quick and 'vast extension of our

imaginative experience. "Nature" now lives for the poet as an independent presence,

a greater or equal power places side by side with nature or embracing and dominating

"nature" existence. Even, the objective vision and interpretation of "nature" has

develops, where it continues at all the older poetic method, strong and simply

beautifi.I1 or telling effects that satisfied an earlier imagination.

Modernism evolved by various routes. From Symboli:,m, it took allusiveness

in style and an interest in rarefied mental states. From Realism, it borrowed an. urban

setting, alld a willingness to break taboos. And from Romanticism came an artist-

centered view, and retreat into irrationalism and hallucinations?3

C. Imagery

Imagery maybe defined as the representation through language of sense

experience. Poetry appeals directly to our sense, of course through its music and

rhythms, which we actually hear when it is read aloud. But indirectly it appeals to our

sense through imagery, the representation to the imagination ofsense expel'ience.

" Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/modernist poetry in english html,accessed on January 21,2006.23 Retrieved from http://www.textete.comiaspects/a-modernism.html.accessed on January 21,2006.

16

An image is a language used in such a way as to help us to see, hear, feel,

think about or generally understand more clearly or vividly what is being said or the

impression that the writer wishes to convey24 The word Image perhaps most often

suggests a mental picture, something sense in the mind's eye. Therefore, visual

imagery is the kind of imagery that occurs most frequently in poetry. But an image

may also represent a sound (auditory imagery); a smell (olfactory imagery); a taste

(gustatory imagery); touch, such as hardness, softness, wetness, or heat and cold

(tactile imagery); an internal sensation, such as ,hunger, thirst, fatigue, or nausea

(organic imagery); or movement or tension in the muscles. or joints (kinesthetic

imagery).25

Imagery usually calls a mental picture in a poem, where the readers can

expcrience what the poem says. Essentially the true "meaning" of a poem lies in the

total effect that it has upon the readers. Very often that effect stimulate a response

which is not just a reaction to what the poet has to say, but which draws on the

readers' own intellectual and emotional experience. Imagery can be of central

importance in creating this response within thc readers.26

D. Figurative Language

Figurative Language or Figure of Speech is a word or group of words used to

give particular emphasis to an idea or sentiment. The special emphasis is typically

24 Steven Croft and Hellen Cross, Literature, Criticism, and Style. OXford: Oxford University Press,2000. p. 56." Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P.,op.cit., p. 49.26 Steven Croft and Hellen Cross, op. cit., p. 56.

17

accomplished by the user's conscious deviation from the strict literal sense of a word,

or from the more commonly used form of word order or Sentence construction.

"Figure of speech is any way of saying something other than the ordinary way", 27

and we can say more by these figurative statement rather than by literal statement.

Figure of speech offers another way of adding extra dimension to language. A

number of the more widely used figure of speech, such as:

1. Simile

Simile is specific comparison by means of the words "like" or "as" between

two kinds of ideas or objects. Like a metaphor, simile also compares two different

things, but it uses a connective word. Simile is a figure of speech in which an explicit

comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. The comparison is made

explicit by the uses of some words or phrases as "like, as, than, similar to, resembles,

or seems.,,28 There are some examples of simile:

"How like a marriage is the season ofclouds". (James Merrill)

"Seems he a dove? His feathers are but borrowed". (Shakespeare)29

In the line above, Merrill compares explicitly "the season of e1oud" to "a marriage",

while Shakespeare compares someone ("he") to "a dove". Merrill makes a similarity

between the seasons of clouds Witll a marriage, by comparing them. A marriage can

27 Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P., op.cit., p. 61.28 Ibid29 Barnet ct.a!., An Introductivn to Literature. United States of America: Little Brown and CompanyInc., 1961. p. 66.

be happy, sad, even an anger, as same as the clouds of the season, it can be bright,

dark and cold, depend on the seasons.

2. Metaphor

Metaphor is the use of a word or phrase denoting one kind of idea or object in

place of another word or phrase for the purpose of suggesting a likeness between the

two. According to Barnet, a metaphor asserts the identity, without a connective such

as "like" or a verb such as "appears", of terms that are literally incompatible.3D While

according to Perrine, metaphor is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made

between two things essentially unalike.31 In someway metaphor is like a simile in that

it to create a comparison. "Often the metaphor actually describes the subject being the

thing to which it is compared.,,32 These definitions explain that metaphor is figure of

speech comparing two different things directly without using a connective word such

as "like, as, as if, similar to", for example: "'A dirty dog stole my money", the word

dirty dog means someone who stole the money, not really a dog.

3. Personification

Personification is a representation of inanimate objects or abstract ideas as

living beings. Personification is a type of metaphor in which distinct human qualities,

e,g., honesty, emotion, volition, etc., are attributed to animal, object 01' idea.33 This

definition is similar to Perrine explanation that personification consists in giving tlle

30 Ibid" p. 63.31 Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P., op.cit., p, til.32 Steven Croft and Hellen Cross, op.cil., p. 56.33 Anonymous, The Poetic ofRobert Frost. Retrieved from:httD://WWW.frostfriends.orgifigurative.hlml, p. 2. accessed on January 21, 2006,

19

attribute of human being to an animal, an object or a concept. It is really a subtype of

metaphor, an implied comparison in which the figurative term of the comparison is

always a human being.34 Personification occurs when a poet attributes an inanimate

object or abstract idea with human qualities or actions. For example, in "Stopping By

Woods On A Snowy Evening", Robert Frost personifies the horse: "my little horse

must think it queer".35 Personifications differ in the degree to which they ask the

readers actually to visualize the literal term in human form. 36

4. Symbol

Symbol is thing that could be an object, person, situation or action, which

stands for something else more abstract. For exanlple, our flag is the symbol of our

country. According to Laurence Perrine in a literature, a symbol may be defined as

something that means more than what it is.37 "The Road Not Taken" by Robert frost,

for instance, it symbolizes the choice in human life, such the choice of carrier and

profession.

5. Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech that uses a concept closely related to the thing

actually meant. As writer said before, the substitution makes the analogy more vivid

and meaningful. Many metonymies and synecdoche, of course, like many metaphor,

so much of the language that they no longer strikes us as figurative, this is the case

34 Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P., op.cit., p. 64.35 Anonymous, The Poetic ofRobert Frost. op.cit.36 Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P., op.cit.37 Ibid, p. 80.

20

with: "redhead" for red headed person, "hands" for manual workers, "highbrow" for a

sophisticate, "tongues" for language, and "a boiling kettle" for the water in the

kettle.3s

6. Allegory

Allegory is a narration or description that has a second meaning beneath the

surface. Although the surface story or description may have its own interest, the

poet's major interest is in the ulterior meaning. Allegory defined sometimes as an

extended metaphor and as a series of related symbols. In allegory there is usually a

one-to-one conespondence between the details and one single set of ulterior

meamngs.

The exanlples of allegorical is when pharaoh in the bible, for instance, has a

dream in which seven fat kine are devoured by seven lean kine, story does not really

become significant until Joseph interprets its allegorical meaning: that Egypt is to

enjoy seven years off fruitfulness and prosperity followed by seven years offamine.39

7. Paradox

Paradox is a statement or sentiment that appears contradictory to common

sense yet is true in fact. Examples of paradox are "mobilization for peace" and "a

well-known secret agent". According to PelTine, a paradox is an apparent

contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true. It may be either a situation or a

statement from the speaker. The value of paradox is its shock value, for example:

"Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P., op.cit., p. 100.39 Ibid, p. 88.

21

when Alexander Pope wrote that a literary critic of his time would "damn with faint

praise," he was using a verbal paradox, for "how can a man damn by praising?,,4o

E. Thcmc

Theme is the critical idea of literary work41. According to Pickering, theme is

also used sometimes to refer to the basic issue, problem, or subject with which the

work is concerncd.42 In literary tenn, theme is the central idea or insight that unifies

the total work, it is also the main point an author wishes to make about his subject.

The readers also will be understand the main point of the poem if he or she known the

theme of the poem. Theme is what is made of the topic. It is the comment on the topic

that is implied in the process of the story43.

To get the theme of the poem, explication and some analysis of some

fundan1ental elements of poetry are very valuable. The ideas, issues, and elements of

poetry find theme. To find the theme of the poem we cannot avoid the elements

above.

40 Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P.. ibid4\ Ibid., p. 23.42 James H. Pickering and Jeffrey D. Hoeper. Concise Companion/o Literature. New York: MacmillanPublishing, 1981. p. 61.43 Cleanth Brooks and Rohert Penn Warren, Vilderstanding Fiction. New York, 1943. p. 412.

CHAPTER III

THE ANALYSIS OF POEMS

To make a better literary competence in this research, the writer chooses the

descriptive objective approach, which describes and analyzes about the intrinsic

elements that used by a poet to make an easier interpretation and have good

understanding about the meaning of the poem. This research focused on the analysis

of the intrinsic elements of poetry. The writer also limited the research by analyzing

the imagery, figurative language, and the theme of each poem. These analyses help

the writer to understand the complicated language that used ineachp()em.

A. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree"

Written by: William Butler Yeats (1893)

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,And a small cabin build there, ofclay and 'wattles made:Nine bean-rows willI have there, a hive for the honeybee,And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there. for peace comes dropping slow, 5Droppingji-om the veils ofthe morning to where the cricket sings.There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,And evening/illl ofthe linnel's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and dayI hear lake waleI' lapping with low sounds by the shore, 10While I stand on the rvadway, vrvn the pavements grey,I hear it in the deep hearl's core.

23

"The Lake Isle of Irmisfree" is an interesting poem illat written by William

Butler Yeats in 1893. Yeats is one of the most influential poets of the twentieth

century among T.S. Elliot, Ezra Pounds, and the other poets. His well-known poem:

"The Lake Isle ofInnisfree", is related to a person who lives in the city, but longing

for living in the village, and be close to nature.

1. Analysis of Imagery

The images such visual or auditory imagery, are a mixture of poetic

descriptions of a realistic things such a beautiful plaee or tmth to live the images and

gives effect to the readers, whether a visual or auditory. As in the first stanza, the

speaker wants to go to a peaceful place, the speaker imagines building a small cabin

of "clay" and "wattles made" on the little island of lImisfree. Then, the speaker

dreanls about "living on beans and honey". There he will have "nine bean-rows" and

"a bee-hive", and "live alone" in the glade loud with the sOlmd of bees as the bee-

loud glade. Speaker seems wants to get away from his people or his society. He tells

those imageries to the readers as in the first stanza:

1 will arise and go now, and go to lnnisji'ee,And a small cabin build there, ofclay and wattles made:Nine bean-rows will! have there, a hive for the honeybee,And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

In the second stanza, the speaker imagines finding harmony on the island. He

has "peace" there and lives alone, and he describes that "peace" is "dropping" from

the veils of morning to where the cricket sings. The speaker describes the atmosphere

24

well, by imagining peace dropping from the moming sky. The readers know it when

speaker says:

And Jshall have some peace there. fiJr peace comes dropping slow, 5

Dropping/i'om the veils I!fthe morning to where the cricket sings.

In the.third stanza, the speaker's thoughts and action in tins poem through

visual imagery develop more. First, the speaker brings out the visual imagery of the

colorful and beautiful sky at different parts of the day to the readers imagination, as

he says in 7 - 8th line:

There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,And eveningfull ofthe linnet's wings.

Then, in the last stanza, he states his decision to leave the "pavements grey" in

the city. The simple imagery of the quiet life of the speaker viewed in the early

stanza, as he describes each of its qualities. He tries to bring the readers into his ideal

fantasy, until the last line shocks the readers, when the speaker back into the reality of

his uninteresting urban lives, as in line II:

While J stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey

From here, readers can presume why the speaker chooses the word "grey". The

speaker used "the grey pavement" to symbolize the emptiness and unpleasant

situation which he feels in the city, as same as the "grey" color itself which is

unattractive. The image of the grey pavements of the city streets is more real than

many of the other images. First, because the speaker uses the future tense such as

"will" IUld "shall" in early stanza in this poem, then suddenly changes in the last part

25

of the stanza when speaker uses word "While I stand" whieh is present tense one.

Second, the speaker also uses contrast especially between the colorful images of the

island and the dull image of the city. For these reasons, speaker obsesses with the

sound oflake water and thoughts that he has to leave the city.

Moreover, when speaker uses words "Bee-loud", "cricket sings", "Linnet's

wings", and "water lapping", he tries to bring the auditory imagination to the nature.

So that, the readers can imagine and hears the sound of bee:, and seeing them buzz

around a field. The speaker also uses "I hear" twice. This word-choice emphasizes

that the auditory imagery as a main image in this poem. When the speaker says: "I

hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore" (line: 10), he makes Innisfree

scems more peaceful and calm. The sound of water flowing usually perceived as

peaceful also brings the readers imagination to the peaceful beauty of water flowing

over rocks.

In the last stanza, readers know that the speaker is in the city. He admits that

he has a deep need to live in a beautiful place whieh encircled by the sound of water.

The speaker then hears his heart yearning for an idea to go there, which he hears

within himself. As in the last lines:

1 hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; 10While 1 stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,1hear it in the deep heart's core.From overall imageries found in this poem, they are essentially based on two

contrasting images that are the different atmosphere between the city and the

Innisfree. For example, the colors "purple" and "grey" show this contrasting point.

26

The village (Innisfree) is bright and musical while the city is dreary and gloomy. The

readers can see this difference if they contrast "lake water lapping" on the island

(line: I), to the "roadway" in the city where there is no peace (line: II).

2. Analysis of Figurative Language

The speaker's words are simple. However, their meanings are more complex.

He uses figurative language, such as:

a. Metaphor

Metaphor is kind of figure of speech in which a comparison is made between

two things essentially unlike. Metaphor is use of a word or phrase denoting one kind

of idea or object in place ofanother word or phrase, for suggesting a likeness between

the two. According to Barnet, a metaphor asserts the identity, without a connective

such as "like" or a verb such as "appears", of terms which are literally incompatible.44

In this poem, the speaker uses metaphor in comparing and contrasting. For

example, "the morning" does not literally or really have "veil". This word suggests

"mists" in the sky. Then, word "peace" and "drop" also do not have a physical sense.

The word "dropping" therefore, is also a metaphor when it uses with word "peace".

Then, when the speaker in the poem says: "And evening full of the linnet's

wings" (line 8), this means that the sky is not literally means full of linnet's wings.

By reading more into it, readers can understand that the speaker's meaning is the

"birds' wings".

44 Barnet. et.al., 1961. op.cit., p. 63.

27

Moreover, in the last stanza, when speaker says, "I hear it in the deep heart's

core", this is also a metaphor because the ear does not really connect to the heart. It is

a way to emphasize the deep and the spiritual feelings of the speaker himself.

b. Symbol

Symbol is a figure of speech, which has meaning more than what it is.

Symbols appear in the poem when the speaker uses the color representation to build

the peaceful atmosphere of Innisfree, then it compares with the grey atmosphere in

the city: "There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow" (line: 7), and

"While 1 sland on Ihe roadway, or on the pavements grey" (line: II). The word

"purple" and "grey" which used by the speaker, show the contrasting-element. The

speaker uses "purple:' as a symbol of the softness and the musical atmosphere in

Innisfree. While "grey" symbolizes the dreary and the tmattractive atmosphere of the

city.

d. Personification

Personification occurs when the speaker attributes an inanimate object,

concept, or an abstract idea with human qualities or with hum:m action. In this poem,

the speaker used personification by attributes:

1 hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore (line: 10)

In the line above, the speaker tries to personify the sOlmd of wave in the lake by using

word "lapping" which means to hit, and obviously, this is one: of the human actions.

In addition, word "lapping" also gives an auditory effect, because the readers can

easily imagine the sound of water in lake

28

From all of figurative language that found in this poem, "The Lake Isle of

Innisfree" contains various figurative language such metaphor, symbol, synecdoche,

and personification, in which each of those figurative language represents both sides

of the village and the city. The speaker try to make the readers believe and sure about

the beauty of natural world around the Innisfree, by making some companson,

analogies, symbols, and personification of every things or parts of it.

3. Analysis of Theme

It is important for the readers to get theme as the central idea of poem, before

understanding the message from speaker through his poem, To get the ideas that

supported the theme of this poem, the writer tries to make some description.

As it has discussed in previous discussion, the persona (the speaker) in "The

Lake Isle ofInnisfree" wants to get out of the city and go to some peaceful place. The

speaker loves Innisfree because he can get away from his city and return to natural

world. the speaker also found this runaway as a new alternative way to unfold his

boring life. For him, the perfect place to be free and have peaee must be Innisfree. In

addition, this takes the readers' imagination to an island in the middle of a lake, away

from the rush of everyday life in the city. The speaker's voice in this poem suggests

his visions ofnature.

The Romantic ideas about nature and beauty imagination use by the speaker

to portrait and support his thoughts about the ideal existence of human being. In "The

Lake Isle of Innisfree", the natural world described almost as like as a paradise,

29

without any interference of hwnan to disturb things. The human appearance whom

represented by the speaker is view to a minimum than the natural world itself. Almost

every line of the poem serves to enrich this idea of an id,~al life. This gives the

speaker a desire to go to Innisfree for its beauty, and be closer to nature. As in lines 2

- 4 of the poem:

And a small cabin build there, a/clay and wattles made;Nine bean-rows will J have there, a hive jiJr the honey bee,

And live alone in the bee-loudglade.

By referring to the discussion above, the writer finally concludes that the

theme of "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is about "escaping from the rush of modem

living in the city, and longing for living in the village that closes to nature". For

those who read "The Lake Isle ofInnisfree", do not have to go to Innisfree physically,

but just ean go there in their own mind. Readers just can imagine being there, and it

helps to relax and escape from the rush ofmodem living, at least for a while.

B. "Fern Hill"

Written by: Dylan Thomas (1946)

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughsAbout the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,The night above the dingle stony,Time let me hail and climbGolden in the heydays o./his eyes,And honoured among wagons I was prince o./the apple townsAnd once below a time I lordly had the trees and leavesTrail with daisies and barleyDown the rivers ofthe windjcllllight.

And as I was green and car~fi'ee, famous among the barnsAbout the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,In the sun that is young once only,Time let me play and beGolden in the mercy (!/his means,And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calvesSang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,And the Sabbath rang slowlyIn the pebbles ofthe holy streams.

All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hayFields high as the house, the tunes from thd chimneys, it was oil'Andplaying, lovely and watelYAndfire green as grass.And nightly under the simple starsAs I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm mva'y~

All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjarsFlying with the ricks, and the horsesFlashing into the dark.

And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white'With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was allShining, it was Adam and maiden,The sky gathered againAnd the sun grew round that velY day.So it must have been qfler the birth ofthe simple lightIn the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warmOut ofthe whinnying green stableOn to the fields ofpraise.

30

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

And honoured amongfoxes andpheasants by the gay houseUnder the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,In the sun born over and over,1ran my heedless ways,My wishes raced through the house high hayAnd nothing 1 cared, at my sky blue trades, that time ai/owsIn all his tunq(iJ! turning so ,{ell' and such morning songsBqjiJre the children green and goldenFollow him out ofgrace,

Nothing 1 cared, in the lamb white days, Ihattime would take meUp to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow ofmy hand,In the moon that is always rising,Nor that riding to sleep1should hear himjly with the highfieldsAnd wake to thefarmforever jledji-om the childless land,Oh as 1 was young and easy in the mercy ofhis means,Time held me green and dying ,Though 1sang in my chains like the sea.

31

40

45

50

"Fern Hill" is one of Dylan Thomas' best-known poems, a nostalgic and

melancholic poem in which he looks back at the time that passed him by, This poem

published in 1946, and as the last poem to be included in Thomas' book ofanthology:

"Deaths and Entrances", "Fern Hill" is about childhood, being "yoting and easy" and

represents the definite-movement of hwnan life from childhood to adulthood until the

realization ofhis mortality, which represented by the symbols {)fnature,

32

1. Analysis ofImagery

In this poem, the speaker deals with the old-age dilemma of growing-up. His

"carefree" outlook expressed through the description of the farm where he spent his

childhood. Both of visual and auditory images in tlus poem contributed to a picture of

one man's outlook on life and death. Visual imagery is used in the beginning of the

poem when speaker tries to give the readers some images and situation in the farm

when he was child. As in line I - 4 of the poem:

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughsAbout the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,The night above the dingle starry,Time let me hail and climb

By using those visual images, speaker tries to bring the reader:; into the atmosphere of

his farm when he was child. The speaker uses simple and realistic objects that usually

easy to identify and has known by human such as: "the gras!:", "the trees", "green",

and "stars". So that, the readers can easily see those objects and imagine being there.

Speaker thcn describes visual image in this poem by make some images about

the time of his lives from period to period when he being a young man. As in third

stanza:

And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barnsAbout the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,In/he sun/hat is young once only,Time let me play and beGolden in the mercy ofhis means,And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calvesSang /0 my horn, the foxes on/he hills barked clear and cold...

10

15

33

In the next stanzas, speaker tells the readers that he become confused and

desperate. In this problematic period is when he being older, speaker wishes that, he

could be a child again:

In the sun born over and over,I ran my heedless ways,My wishes raced through the house high hayAnd nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allowsIn all his tunefiil turning so few and such morning songsB~/bre the children green and goldenFollow him out ofgrace,

40

45

The last stanza, speaker concerns with his own regression, he finally realizes

that he does not young forever, which is not his willingness, and God controls his

life:

Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that lime would take meUp to the swallow thronged lofi by the shadow ofmy hand,In the moon that is always rising,Nor that riding to sleepI should hear him fly with the high fieldsAnd wake 10 the farm foreverfledfi'om the childless land.Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy ofhis means,Time held me green and dyingThough I sang in my chains like the sea.

50

The speaker uses the color representation to strength imaginary effects to the

readers, and brings the atmosphere of each situation in his age. Begin in his

childhood: "As I was green and carefi'ee" (line: I0), then in Iris youth age: "Fire as

green as grass" (line: 27), and in the last stanza when the speaker old and wish to

young and easy again: "Before the children green and golden" (line: 44), "Time let

me green and dying" (line: 53).

34

The speaker also uses some words-choice that has an auditory effect to the

readers. The readers can hear and imagine through speaker's words when he wishes

that he could have cherished time as a child as he now cherishes and values it (line 41

- 44). "The children" are spoken of "before...golden". This is because as an adult, the

speaker is no longer as powerful as he was as a child. "Golden" time has forever

taken him far away from his "childless land" (line 51), and he can only remember it.

All imageries that found in this poem are created by the speakers to show the

change of his life to the readers by making the atmospheres in each age, and its

situational circumstances. The readers reminded about the passage of time, which

holds the speaker being "green" and "dying". The speaker moves to a wisdom about

himself and the natural world around him by making some de:scription of time in his

life as a child, young, and finally old, and by using nature, color, and time

representation.


a. Allegory

Allegory is a narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the

surface. Allegory has been defined sometimes as an extended metaphor and as a

series of related symbols. In allegory, there is usually a one-to-one correspondence

between the details and one single set of ulterior meanings.45

45 Laurence Perrine and Thomas R.A.R.P.• op.cil., p. 88.

35

In complex allegories such in "Fern Hill", the details may have more than one

meaning, but these meaning tend to be definite. Meanings do not ray out from

allegory as they do from a symbol. Though less rich than a symbol, allegory is an

effective way of making the abstract concrete and has occasionally been used

effectively. TIn'Ough this poem, speaker tells the readers about the journey of his life

from one period to the other period when he was a child, then a young man, and until

he being an old man. Beginning with cherish time in childhood of the speaker, as in

line I -- 4 of the poem:

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs;About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green;The night above the dingle stan)';Time let me hail and climb.

Then when the speaker young:

And as I was green and carejree, famous among the barns; 10About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home;In the sun that is young once only;Time let me play and be;Golden in the mercy ojhis means;And green and golden.

Finally when the speaker being an old man, he wishes that he could have cherished

time as a child as he now cherishes and values it:

My wishes raced through the house high hay;And nothing I cared. at my sky blue trades, thatlime allows;In all his tunejill turning so few and such morning songs;Before the children green and golden;Follow him out ofgrace. 45

Wake to thefarmforever fledjrom the childless land;Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy ofhis means;

36

Time held me green and dying;Though 1sang in my chains like the sea.

b. Simile

Simile is a specific comparison by means of the words "like" or "as" between

two kinds of ideas or objects. In "Fem Hill", the speaker try to describes his life when

he was child as same as the color of "green", which are happy, fresh and natural. This

comparative-similarity appears in some of lines of the poem Huch "And happy as the

grass was green" (line: 2), and "Singing as the farm was home" (line: 11).

Speaker then desctibes some problematic times that he was going through in

his young age by making another simile, "And to awake, and the farm, like a

wanderer while" (line: 28), "Andfire green as grass" (line: 22). The speaker uses the

images of "fire" and "green", to describe that something destructive has occulTed in

his young life that has changed or altered the course of his natural growth.

Moreover, in the last stanza when speaker being old, he realized that the

immortality he felt as a child was merely a stage in the definite-movement of life

toward death: "Though 1 sang in my chains like the sea" (line: 54).

c. Symbol

In "Fem Hill", there are many symbols used by the speaker to increase the

depth of his message to the readers, such as: "prince", "green", white", "gold", "fire",

and "time". Symbol in the poem begins when speaker symboli.zed his young age as a

"ptince". As we know that princes are those who have a lot of political and social

power. What separates them from kings is that princes are generally young, at least

37

younger than their fathers. This symbol appears as in line 6: "And honoured among

wagons 1was prince ofthe apple towns ".

The symbol of young age of the speaker also uses the colors representation.

The speaker symbolizes his happiness as a child as being as Happy as the grass is

green (line: 2), which means that the speaker feels alive and healthy. Speaker then

directly refers himself to being Green and careji·ee (line: 10). As a young boy he was

bright and full oflife, like Green as grass (line: 22). This means that there is a natural

course that life has to follow, which is birth to death.

"White" symbolizes the purity and innocence. The speaker describes himself

as a "wanderer white" (line: 28), "wanderer" means: delirious or roaming46 and these

symbols are paired together and give the impression that the speaker was confused

about his growing up and his maturity, because now he is no longer being a child

anymore. Speaker then looks back at his "Iamb white days" (line: 46). These terms is

used in the Christian holly-book. "White lamb" was an animal of purity used for

sacrifices to God. The speaker was merely an innocent "white lanlb" graciously

following his shepherd (God) to his own sacrifice (death).

"Gold" usually used witl1 youthful objects, tI1us, gold represents "brightness"

in which is usually associated with the youtl1 age. This symbol appears in these

following lines: "Golden in the heydays ofhis eyes" (line: 5), "Golden in the mercy

ofhis means" (line: 14),"And green and golden 1was huntsman and herdsman" (line:

15), and "B~ji)J·e {he children green and golden" (line: 44).

46 Pocket Oxford Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

38

In line 22 when the speaker says, "And.fire as green as grass", he wants to

symbolize that something "destmctive" has occurred in his youth which has changed

his "natural growth". The speaker uses word "Fire" or "bummg" to symbolize those

changes, and then pair it with word "grass"

"Time" symbolizes an authority figure that has strict control of his life, and

with descriptions of holly book figures, the readers can presume that speaker is a

religious person who believes that God is in control of his de:;tiny. Time is only seen

as golden and valuable thing, but is also looked upon as a concrete figure. The

speaker characterizes time as a father figure that "allows" him to play and be young.

He associates "time" with an adult who is supervising him and who has strict control

of his life.

d. Metaphor

There are some metaphors in this poem concerning the opposite of youth and

old age, which are located in the entirety of the last part of the stanzas. Line 48 below

reveals that the speaker has experience that seems like countless days and nights: "In

the moon that is always rising". Then, "The childless land" (line 51), means that

where the speaker was before, everyone has grown up by now.

In line 54: "Though I sang in my chains like the sea", explains that the

"chains" of old age are slowing the speaker down. He becomes older and slower like

the sea. TIllS last part of the poem is a kind of "eoming back to reality" for the

speaker. The realization that his youthful days are over, but those have fond

memories of when he was young.

39

c. Pcrsonification

The speaker in this poem uses a personification to describe the house as "the

lilting house" (Line: 2). This line describes the cherish time when the speaker's

childhood, as the boy that playful through the yard, "the house" seems like

"springing" and "moving" for a child like him. This introduces the boy's acceptance

of his own interpretation of life, and his mind which Imtainted by the outside world.

Personification also appears when the speaker attributes human actions with

"time", which has controlled his lives. This can be seen in these lines: "Time let me

hail and climb" (line: 4), "Time let me play and be" (line: 13), "That times allows"

(line: 42), "Follow him out of grace" (line: 45), "1 should hear him fly with the high

field" (line: 50), and "Time held me green and dying" (line: 53).

From the figurative language that found in this poem, the speaker seems try to

make a descnption of the changes of his lives, and natural world around him. He

makes some symbols of nature, through the colors representation, which all of them

purposed to remind the readers that every thing could be happen in this life, but time

is the certainty thing in this live. Man cannot be free from it circle and circUll1stances,

and nature have a significant role in human live, because a man in this world still

depend on the natural world forever.

40


In this poem, the speaker uses mne six-line stanzas to illustrate his

experiences when he was a boy. The speaker, is a grown man, he can tell readers in

retrospection about his youthful ignorance regarding the process of time. In the tirst

stanza, the readers introduced to life through the youth of the speaker's eyes. He goes

on to use assonance to ask time to let him "hail and climb" (line: 4). He wishes time

to let him stay the way he is. The speaker uses the words "honored", "prince" and

"lordly" to describe his feeling of faith and hope in his own potential. Speaker also

uses words and phrases which recreate a child's interpretation of the world, by

describing how he "rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away". Then he

recreates a typical childish fantasy that the world disappears when it is no longer

visible. The form of the poem reinforces the sense of youthful freedom, with regular

and simple verses that free flowing and umestrained. by a restrictive rhynle scheme,

such as "Now as I was young and easy " (line: I and 52), "And as I w3sgreen and

carefree" (line: 10), "And nothing I cared " (line: 42 and 46).

The use of Allusion from the Bible also appears when the speaker encounters

his turning point of view about the life. For the first four stanzas, nothing of bad

images is put into the speaker's youthful paradise. Even "Eve" is indirectly refers as a

maiden in her "pre-fall" il1l1ocent state. However, in the fmal stanzas the mood

changes and the readers reminded about the passage of time, which holds him "green

and dying". Speaker then re-introduces fanliliar themes of mortality, religion and the

41

endless progression of time. "Green" and "golden" suggests freshness and innocence

of a child and young, but it can also refcr to being gullible or immature.

Referring to the discussion above, the writer concludes that the theme of

"Fern Hill" represents "the definite-movement of human life from childhood to

adulthood until the realization of his mortality, which represented by the symbols of

nature", The speaker in this poem moves to a greater wisdom about himself and the

natural world around him by making some description of time in his life as a child,

young, and finally old,and by using nature, color, and time representation. Through

the religious language, readers more understand the speaker's emotions, believe, and

passage through life. But the significant point above those all is: the speaker's

realization that the immortality he felt as a child is merely a stage in the definite-

movement oflife toward death. As the speaker says in the last lines:

017 as I was young and easy in the mercy ofhis means;Time held me green and dying;

Though 1sang in my chains like the sea.

C. "The Horses"

Written by: Edwin Muir (1956)

Barely a twelvemonth aJierThe seven days war that put the world to sleep,Late in the evening the strange horses came.By then we had made our covenant with silence,But inthefirst/ew d(~JlS it wasso stillWe listened to our breathing and were afi'aid.On the second dayThe radios/ailed: we turned the knobs, no answer.On the third day a warship passed us, headed north,Dead bodies piled on the deck. On the sixth dayA plane plunged over us into the sea. ThereaflerNothing. The radios dumb;And still they stand in corners 0/our kitchens,And stand, perhaps, turned on, in a million roomsAll over the world. But now if they should speak,J.fon a sudden they should speak again,J.fon the stroke a/noon a voice should i>peak,We would not listen, we would not let it bringThat old bad world that swallowed its children quickAt one great gulp. We would not have it again.Sometimes we think 0/the nations lying asleep,Curled blindly in impenetrable sorrow,And then the thought confounds us with its strangeness.The tractors lie about ourfields; at eveningThey look like dank sea-monsters crouched and waiting.We leave them where they are and let them rust:"They'll molder away and be like other loam. "We make our oxen drag our rusty plows,Long laid aside. We have gone backFar past our/athers' land.

And then, that evening

Late in the summer the strange horses came.We heard a distant tapping on the road,A deepening drumming; it stopped, went on againAnd at the corner changed to hollow thunder.We saw the headsLike a wild wave charging and were afi'aid.

5

10

IS

20

25

30

35

42

43

We had sold our horses in ourfathers' timeTo blly nell' tractors. Noll' they were strange to usAsfhbulous steeds set on an ancient shieldOr ililistrations in a book (if knights. 40

We did not dare go near them. Yet they waited,Stubbol'/1 and shy, as ifthey had been sentBy an old command to find our whereaboutsAnd that long-lost archaic companionship.In the first moment we had never a thought 45

That they were creatures to be O'tl'ned and used.Among them were some halfa dozen coltsDropped in some wilderness ofthe broken world,Yet nell' as ifthey had come from their own Eden.Since then they have pulled our plows and borne our loads, 50But thatfi'ee servitude still can pierce our hearts,Our life is changed; their coming our beginning,

Edwin Muir (1887-1959), is a mysteriously gorgeous and emotionally

penetrating poet From all of the many "pieces of writing" that stimulatcd by World

War I - II, and by the threat of nuclear-apocalypse, his poem "The Horses" may be

the most effective one, because it is so calm and, gentle but also a dark poem, The

plainness of the writing, the persuasive speech-rhythms are culminating ina last line

of "The Horses". In this poem, the speaker imagines one wodd has en.ded and a new

one has begun. Previous world represents the machinery, and new world represents

the nature.

1. Analysis oflmagery

The speaker in this poem refers to "a seven day war" :md to "the arrival of the

magical horses". In the first stanza, speaker tells the readers that people's community

had decided to remain silent about the past and move on. He describes the first few

44

days of the war, when they lived in shock and fear and afraid of the sound of their

own breathing. In line I - 6, the speaker tries to bring the atmosphere and images of

fear to the readers. As same as when he uses word "silence" in the opening of the

poem, and the sudden eoming of the horses ereates a mysterious atmosphere:

Barely a twelvemonth ({(terThe seven days war that put the world to sleep,Late in the evening the strange horses came.By then we had made our covenant with silence,But in thefirst few days it was so stillWe listened to our breathing and were ({(raid

5

The speaker also uses dark image of war, such "dead bodies piled on deck"

(line: 10). Then, he gives some details of war such; on the sixth day an airplane fell

into the sea, and after the war, radios evelywhere remained silent. Soon it became

clear people never again wanted to hear the radios. If the radios ever star! to broadcast

again, people will ignore them because they represent the bad old days of war that

killed children instantly. This visual imagery showed as in line 9 - 20 of this poem:

On the third day a warship passed us, headed northDead bodies piled on the deck. On the sixth dayA plane plunged over us into the sea. ThereajierNothing. The radios dumb;And still they stand in corners ofour lritchens,And stand, perhaps, turned on, in a million roomsAll over the world But now ifthey should speak,Ifon a sudden they should speak again,Ifon the stroke ofnoon a voice should speak,We would not listen, we would not let it bringThat old bad world that swallowed its children quickAt one great gulp. We would not have it again.

10

15

20

The people whom survived from that war do not want to go back to a world

where entire nations were wiped out in one stroke. The memory of that sadness fact

45

shocks them. They ignore the radios and do not use "the tractors" anymore. Then in

line 25, the speaker says: "The tractors lie about ourfields; at evening; They look like

dank sea-monsters crouched and waiting". In the light of dusk, the speaker imagines

that "the tractors" look like "damp sea-monsters". The speaker sees tractors as

"monsters" from the sea because "The tractor" is a symbol of industry and

technology, which destroyed the previous world, and a symbol of degeneration of

nature. The world has turned from nature to machinery.

The indirect way of the speaker to describe death on a large scale as "sleep" as

in line 21 - 23 creates a sorrow and dark atmosphere, such as the image of whole

nations as "lying dead":

Sometimes we think ofthe nations lying asleep,Curled blindly in impenetrable sorrow,And then the thought confounds us with its strangeness..

In the next stanza, the speaker describes the magical and mysterious arrival of

the horses in one evening by making some auditOlY images to the readers. He uses a

series of words to show the "noise" that made from the approaching of those horses,

such as: "tapping", "drumming" and "thunder'. The speaker tries to create a

mysterious atmosphere to the readers, notice how the speaker builds-up the words to

a climax in lines:

. Late in the summer the strange horses came.We heard a distant tapping on the road,A deepening drumming; it stopped, went on againAnd at the corner changed to hollow thunder. (line: 31 - 34)

46

The speaker then remembers the dramatic moment he saw the heads of the

approaching horses. He reminds the readers how they had got "rid of horses" and

replaced them with "tractors" in the old world. The arrival of the horses was like the

arrival of magical steeds from a story about the knights:

We saw the headsLike a wild wave charging and were afraid.We had sold our horses in ourfathers' time'To buy new tractors. Now they were strange to usAs fabulous steeds set on an ancient shieldOr illustrations in a book ofknights

35

40

Then, the speaker tells the readers that at first time, the people were afraid of

the horses, but the horses waited, detemlined and' shy. People began to realize the

horses had been sent to them. The horses had been sent by God's command to find

them, It appears the horses had a mission to restore the relationship of man and horse

from ancient times. At first the people had no thought of using the horses for their

work. The group of horses contained six young horses that looked as if they had come

from the Garden of Eden. They were mysteriously dropped into the broken world to

help the survivors rebuild the new world. Since that moment, the horses have helped

the community of survivors with the heavy farm work:

We did not dare go near them, Yet they waited,Stubborn and shy, as ifthey had been sentBy an old command to find our whereaboutsAnd that long-lost archaic companionship.In the first moment we had never a thoughtThat they were creatures to be owned and used.Among them were some haifa dozen coltsDropped in some wilderness ofthe broken world,Yet new as ifthey had comefrom their own EdenSince then they have pulled our plows and borne our loads,

47

BUI IhalFee servilude slill can pierce our hearls.Our life is changed; Iheir coming our beginning.

The speaker in the lines above tries to say that the people touched by the free choice

of the horses to serve them at work. He uses primitive visual imagery, such as "oxen

pulling ploughs". This means that immediately after the war, the communities began

to faIm using oxen or cattle to pull the ploughs.

From all of those imageries, the poem seems like a narrative poem that uses

an imaginary story of the future to teach a moral lesson about the corruption of the

world. The speaker contrasts the age of machines with the simple way of life that is

close to nature. He contrasts the future with the present.


a. Symbol

As explained in the previous chapter, symbol is a figurative laIlguage which

has meaning more than what it is. In this poem writer found some symbols that each

of them represent speeific thing, which have a significant and contribution points for

the poem.

"The horses" symbolizes the nature" and a simple farming life ()fthe past time

where nature, human and animals lived together peaeefully. Then the arrival ofhorses

is a symbol of the return ofa simple and ililloeent way of human life. This way of life

will be like how it used to be in the heaven. There will be no industry or technology,

and human will once again be close to nature. As in line 49 - 52:

48

In theftrst moment we had never a thoughtThat they were creatures to be owned and used.Among them were some halfa dozen coltsDropped in some wilderness ofthe broken world,Yet new as ifthey had come ji'om their own Eden.Since then they have pulled our plows and borne our loads,But that ji'ee servitude still can pierce our hearts.Our life is changed; their coming our beginning.

"The tractor" is a symbol of industry and technology, which destroys the

previous world, and a symbol of degeneration of nature. The world has changed from

nature to machinery: "We had sold our horses in our fathers' time; To buy new

tractors" (line 37 - 38). The speaker also sees tractors as "monsters" from the sea.

This showed in line 21: "The tractors lie about our fields; at evening", "They look

like dank sea-monsters crouched and waiting".

The speaker uses "Radio" as a symbol of mass media, which control the

people, and the world where we live in. "radio" described as an evil that waits to

resume control over people's lives. The people are finally disappointed with the radio

because they can only speak, but does not answer nor hear the people's voices. As in

line8-l4:

I77e radios failed; we turned the knobs, no answer.On the third day a warship passed us, headed north,Dead bodies piled on the deck. On the sixth dayA plane plunged over us into the sea. TherecrfterNothing. The radios dumb;And still they stand in corners ofour kitchens,And stand, perhaps, turned 011, in a million rooms.

b. Metaphor

Metaphor is the use of a word or phrase denoting one kind of idea or object in

place of another word or phrase for suggesting a likeness between the two. According

49

to Barnet, a metaphor asserts the identity, without a connective such as "like" or a

verb such as "appears", of terms that are literally incompatible.47 In someway

metaphor is like a simile in that it to create a comparison. "Often the metaphor

actually describes the subject being the thing to wh~ch it is compared.',48

In this poem, metaphor found when the speaker compared the "old world" to a

"monster". As the speaker says in line 19 - 20 of this poem:

That old bad world that swallowed its children quickAt one great gulp. We would not hm'e it again.

In the lines above the speaker imagines that the real world is so evil that it will

destroy itself, and the world has turned from nature to machinery. The speaker sees

"the old world" as "monsters", because he imagines a world war that will sweep the

human life. Such a war will wipe out entire nations.

c. Personification

Personification is a representation of inanimate objeC:ts or abstract ideas as

living beings. Personification is a type of metaphor in which distinct huil1an qualities,

e.g., honesty, emotion, volition, etc., attributed to animal, object or idea.49

Personification occurs when the poet or speaker attributes an inani11late object or an

abstract idea with human qualities or with human action. By using the word "dmnb",

the speaker personifies "the radios". He also personifies them by saying that they are

41 Barnet et.al.. 1961. op.cit., p. 63.48 Steven Croft and Hellen Cross, op. cit., p. 56.49 Anonymous. The Poetic ofRobert FI'ost, op.cit., p. 2.

50

"stand". This portrays the radios as evil beings waiting to resume control over

people's lives, and obviously this is onc of the human actions:

The radios dumb;And still they stand in corners afoul' kitchells.

And stand, perhaps, turned on, in a million roomsAll over the world. But now if they should speak,

Ifon a sudden they should speak again,Ifonthe stroke ofnoon a voice should speak,

We would not listen ... (line: 12 - 18)

d. Simile

Simile is a specific comparison by means of the words "like" or "as" between

two kinds of ideas or objects. In this poem, the speaker compares "the disused

tractors" to "dank sea-monsters". As in line 24 - 25:

The tractors lie about our fields; at evening;They look like dank sea-monsters crouched and waiting.

In the light of dusk, the speaker imagines that "the tractors" look like "damp sea-

monsters". The speaker sees tractors as "monsters" from the sea because "The

tractor" is a symbol of industry and technology, which destroyed the previous world,

and a symbol of degeneration of nature. The world has turned from nature to

machinery.

The speaker also compares "the horses" to the mythical horses of knight's

tales: "fabulous steeds set on an ancient shield", as in line 39 - 40:

Asfabulous steeds set on an ancient shieldOr illustrations in a book ofknights.

51

The speaker illustrated the horses as mythical h6rses of knight's tales because he

suggests that survivors and human to return to nature and innocence way of live, as

same as like the ancient time.

In the 35 - 36, the speaker says that "the arrival of the horses" as to be like "a

wild wave":

We saw the headsLike a wild wave charging and were a,li·aid.

The arrival of the horses is a new beginning that will establish a new world like it

used to be, and the return of a simple and innocent way of human life. This way of

life will be like how it used to be in the heaven. There will be no industry or

technology, and human will once again be close to nature.

e. Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech that uses a concept closely related to the thing

actually meant. The substitution makes the analogy more vivid and meaningful.

Metonymy found in this poem when the speaker uses the word "voice" to

represent the person or a dictator who controls that use the radio to control countries

or the world. As line 12 - 18 below:

The radios dumb;And still they stand in corners ofour kitchens,And stand, perhaps, turned on, in a million roomsAll over the world. But now ifthey should ;peak,Ifon a sudden they should speak again,Ifon the stroke ofnoon a voice should speak,We would not listen, we would not let it bring

52

f. Paradox

A paradox is a statement. which seems absurd but turns out to have rational

meaning after all, usually in some tmexpected sense, situation and statement. Paradox

is kind of figurative language that has an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless

somehow true. The value of paradox is its shocking-value.

First, in this poem speaker says:

Since then they have pulled our plows and borne our loads 50

And turns out it means as in the next line:

But that free servitude still can pierce our hearts.

A Paradox in this poem appears when the speaker uses words: "Free

servitude" as in line above, and this statement clearly showed a contradiction if we

comparing with the lines before.

From the analysis above, the writer conclude that the speaker in this poem

creates some figurative language such symbols to represent each character in this

poem. The world, according to the speaker is so evil and cruel. "Radio" represented

mass media, which has control the world where we live in. Our 'Ivorld has changed

from nature to machinery, thus the "Tractors" represent this destructive-change. At

the end, when the horses come, there will be no industry or technology, and human

will once again be close to nature and animals.

53


In this poem, the speaker seems to think the good people are those who live

close to the earth. He creates a speaker or narrator from the future who describes

recent history. In this poem, the speaker is like a "survivor" who describes news,

recovered earth after a Third World War. Then he imagines that the real world is so

evil that it will destroy itself. Mass media control the world we live in. "Radio"

represents this fact. Our world has changed irom nature to machinery, thus the

"Tractors" represent this. The speaker sees "tractors" as "monsters fTom the sea". He

imagines a world war that will get rid of this way of life. Such a war will wipe out

entire nations. Then the speaker dreams about the survivors returning to nature and

innocence: "We have gone back Jar past our fathers' land" (line: 28 - 29). He

suggests the survivors would never again allow inventions to take over their lives.

Horses will take over from tractors. He suggests humans have an ancient natural bond

with horses: "that long-lost archaic companionship". A new beginning will establish a

world like it used to be in the bible. The horses are said to be straight out of their own

Eden. A happy rural society will form. It will be dedicated to work. He doesn't speak

of pleasure but of simple farm work. He suggests that humans will be happy only

when working close to the earth.

"The Horses" describes a future way of life that will be like the simple

farming life of the past. This way of life will be like how it used to be in Heaven.

There will be no industry or technology, and human will once again be close to nature

and animals.

54

By referring to the explanation above, the writer finally concludes that the

theme of "Tht' Horses" is "return to nature and to a simple and innocent way of

human life". The speaker was reflecting the idea of the Romantics when he showed

his clear preference for the fonner statements of "innocence" and "imagination"

through clear stylistic techniques, such a structure and word choice to deepen the

readers' appreciation.

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

In this section, the writer concludes that both of imagery and figurative

language are used in this poem to give good effect in building the atmosphere, and

also emphasize and reinforce the meaning of the theme. There are seven kinds of

figurative language that used in all poems. They are simile, metaphor, personification,

symbol, metonymy, allegory, and paradox. For example, symbol is important part to

convey something that means more than what it is. In "The Horses", the speaker

symbolizes "the tractors" with "a monster". The speaker sees tractors as "monsters"

because "The tractor" is a symbol of industry and teclmology, which destroy the

previous world, and as a symbol of degeneration of nature. The world has turned

from nature to machinery. And simile, which a specific comparison by means of the

words "like" or "as". In "Fern Hill", the speaker compares his lives when he was

young as "happy as the grass was green", to describes that h{~ was happy, fresh and

natural. Another example is personification that attributes human actions or qualities

to an inanimate object. In "The Lake Isle of Innisfiee", the speaker personify the

sound of water in the lake by using word "lapping" which means to hit or to beat.

Obviously, this is one of human action.

56

Imagery in those poems also has a significant contribution to build the

atmosphere, whether it happiness or sadness, and to the situation in each poem. These

contributions support the theme of the poems, which covering the individual

imagination, as the main aspect to create an idea of the poet. The relation of tllose

elements produces the theme of the poem.

Finally, from the analyses of imagery, figurative language, and theme of those

poems, the writer concludes tilat each poem has the Romantic theme. It has been

understand that each of those modern poems contains the Romantic ideas and

characteristics, such as imagination, emotion, idealization of nature, freedom of

thought, and subjectivity of approach, and expression. The theme of "The Lake Isle

of Innisfree" is about "escaping from the rush of modern living in the city and

longing for living in the village that closes to nature". The theme of "Fem Hill"

represents "the definite-movement of hUlllan life from childhood to adultilood until

the realization of his mortality, which represented by the symbols of nature". And the

theme of "The Horses" is "return to nature and to a simple and innocent way of

human life".

B. Suggestion

The writer hopes that this research can help the readers to have a better

understanding about tile meaning of tile poem. To get good understanding about

poem, the readers have to read the text repeatedly, becaUSe poetry is a kind of

multidimensional language. Poetry, which is language used to cOlI1l1lunicate

experience, has at least four dimensions. If it is to communicate experience, it must

57

involve not only to our intelligence but also to our senses, emotions, and of course

our imaginations. To get intellectual dimension, poetry adds a sensuous dimension,

an emotional dimension and imaginative dimension. In addition, to understand poem

more clearly, the readers have to do analysis of supporting elements in the poem

itself: Because by analyzing them, the readers can get the idea and the beautiful

meaning of the poem.

Moreover, the writer hopes this study will be useful for future improvement of

studying poetry in English Department, especially in the Faculty of Adab and

Humanities, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Published Books:

Abrams, M. H., et.al., The Norton Anthology of En·glish Literature ThirdEdition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 1974.

Barnet, Sylvana, et aI., Literature .for Composition: Essays, Fiction, Poetly andDrama. London: Scott Foresman and Company, 1987.

-----------, All Introductiollto Literature. United States of America: Little Brownand Company Inc" 1961.

Brooks, C1eanth and Robert Penn Warren, Understanding Fictioll. New York:1943.

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Jabrohim, Metodologi Pene/itian Sastra. Yogyakafta: PT. HaninditaGraha.Widya dan Masyarakat Poetika Indonesia, 2002.

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Softwal'e:

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APPENDIX

As addition to support the analyses in this research, the writer also includesthe tables. The table is containing details of both imagery and figurative languageusage within each poem. At first, the writer attributes table of imagery that found inpoems, then followed by tables of figurative language. Last, the writer makes a tableof the Romantic themes that appeared in these poems.

A. Table of Imagery

TABLE IImagery Found iu "The Lake Isle ofInuisfree"

No. Kiud ofImllgery Quotatiou from Poem Line Effects to ReadersI. Visual And a small cabin build 2-3 The speaker gives

there, details ofthe physicalojclay and wallles made images in Innisfree, byNine bean-rows willI have describing histhere, a hive jar the imagination to readers.honeybee... jar peace COmes 5-6 Speaker gives readersdropping slow, an image by usesDroppingjrom the veils oj similar comparisonthe morning ... between "peace" and

Hdew", which"dropping slow" in themorning.

There midnight's all a 7 The'color representsglimmer, and noon a purple the atmosphere andf!low situation in each place.While I stand on the II So that, the readers canroadway, or on the feels and imagine itsvavements f!rev atmosphere.

2. Auditory ... in the bee-loud glade 4&-6 By using the sense of... to where the cricket sings hearing, readers can

imagine and hears thesound of bees andbirds, then seeing thembuzz and singingaround a field.

1 hear lake water lapping 10 & 12 Admitted the readerswith low sounds by the that speaker has a deepshore; need to live in a1 hear it in the deep heart '0' beautiful placecore. encircled by the sound

of water and by soundwithin his heart.

3. Internal Sensation 1 will arise and go now ... 1&9 Speaker just going inhis mind

And 1 have some peace 5 Speaker imaginesthere ... finding the harmony on

the island

TABLE IIImagery Found In "Fern Hill"

No. Kind oflmagery . Quotation from Poem Line Effects to ReadersI. Visual And happy as the grass is 2 By using word "green",

ween poet expects theAs 1 was green and 10 readers can imagine thecarefree similarity betwcenAlld fire as Kl"eell as ),Yross 22 "green" color and theOut ofthe whinnying green 35 age of "child" andstable "innocence".Before the children green 44and f!oldenTime let me f!reen ... 53Under the apple boughs; 1 - 9 Speaker describes hisThe night above the dingle· childhood and bringsstarry; the atmosphere in hisJ lordly had the trees and farm to the readers.leaves;Trail with daisies andbarley;Down the rivers ofthewindfalllif!ht ...And nightly under he 23 - 27simple starsFlying with the ricks, andthe horses.

Flashinf!. into the darkThe cock on his shoulder; 29 - 30 By using terms fromShining. il waS Adam and Bible, readers canmaiden presume that speaker's... the spellbound horses 34 - 37 is a religious person

walking warm; who believes in God.On to the fields ...Under the new made clouds...... in the lamb white days. 46 - 47thaI time would take me ...thronged loft by the shadowarmy handIn the moon that is rising. 48 - 51 These lines representedNor that riding to sleep the dilemma whichAnd wake 10 the ftll'Jn speaker's felt at thatforever time. He insists thefledfrom the childless land readers could feel it... too.

2. Auditory About the lilting house ... 2& 11 Speaker uses wordAnd singing as the farm "lilting" and "singing",was home to describe the cheerful

feelings of the child.

.. the calves sang 10 my 15 - 17 These lines describehorn. the faxes on the hills the dilemma of thebarked clear... speaker when he beingAnd the Sabbath rang adult and olderslowlyAll the moon lonf': 1 heard 25 -1 should heard himfly with 50the hif':h fieldsThough 1sang in my chains 54like the sea

3. Tactile ... the faxes on the hills 16 Word "cold" bring thebarked clear and cold "sorrow" atmosphere

to the readers.... it was air 20-21Andplaying. lovely andwately Speaker brings the

4. Intemal Sensation And haooy as the l!1'ass ... 2 happiness images in his... Green and carefree 10 youth-age to the._. honoredamongfoxes 37 readers.and oheasants by ...... the spellbound horses 34walkinz warm... and nothing 1 cared 41 - 46

TABLE IIIImagery Found in "The Horses"

No. Kind oflmarrery Quotation from Poem Line Effects to ReadersI. Visual Lme in the evening the 3 The speaker tries to

strange horse came bring the atmosphere offear and mystery.

On the third day a warship 9 - 11 Then, the speaker givespassed us, headed north an image ofwar and itsDead bodies piled on the atmosphere.deck ...A plane plunged over usinlo the seaAnd stillihey stand in 13 - 14 Speaker means is thecorners ofour kitchen, radio. The people in theAnd stand, perhaps, turned poem ignored the radioon a million rooms all over and don't hear itthe world anymore.That old bad world thai 19 - 21 This is an image of theswallowed its children war in past time thatquick at one great gulp. describes by theSometimes we think ofIhe speaker.nations Ivin.r!: asleepThe lractors lie about our 24-27 "The tractor' is an

fields; at evening image of machineryThey look like dank sea- and industry in the 'Oldmonsters crouched and world. The people dowaitli/g. not use it anymore.We leave them where theyare and lellhem rusl:"They'/l molder away andbe like other loam"We make our oxen drag our 28 The people back to therusty plows, traditional way to farm.Lale in Ihe summer Ihe 31 The speaker thenstrm/Re horses came. describes the secondWe saw Ihe heads 35 - 36 coming of the horsesLike a wild wave charging by uses a mysteriousand were afraid. atmosphere.We did nol dare go near 41 - 42them. Yetlhey wailed,Stubborn and shvWe had sold our horses in 37 -38 Here, the people seemourfather's time regret f'Of their guilty inTo buy new troctors. Now the past. They werethey were slrmlRe to us abandoned nature and

....a.nj!llal. - ---"'- -- ----_.... they were creatures to 46-47 The people finally backbe owned and used to the nature and useAmong them were some the horses to puH theirhalfa dozen colts plows.Since then they hm'e pulled 50ourplows and bome ourloads

2. Auditory We listened to our 6 The speaker tries tobl'eathinf!: and were afraid bring the atmosphere ofWe heard a distant tapping 32-34 fear and mystery to theon the road, readers by uses thisA deepening dl'Umming; it auditory imagery.stopped, went On againAnd at the camel' changedto hollow thunder.The radios failed; we tum 8 rhe atmosphere whenthe knobs, no answer. the people ignored the... but now ifthey should 15 - 18 radios.speakIfon the sudden theyshould speak again,We would not listen ...

3. Internal Sensation ... and were afraid 6&36 This is a fear and

... in impenetrable sorrow, 22&23 mysterious atmosphere

And then the thought on the second coming

confounds us with its of the horses.

stranf!enessNow they were stmw:e to us 38

jBut that free servitude still 51can pierce our hearts.

B. Table of Figurative Language

TABLE IVFigurative Lauguage Fouud in "The Lake isle of Innisfree"

No. Fiflurative Lanfluafle Quotation from Poem Line Explanation1. Metaphor Droppingfr01111he veils 6 The mornil1g does not

oflhe morning ... liteTlllly OT Teally have"veils". This wordsuggests the "mists" inthe sky.

'" for peace comes 5 Therefore, the worddropping slow "dropping" is also

metaphor when itpaired with word"peace".

And eveningfilll oflhe 8 The sk-y is not literallylinnel's wings full of it, speaker's

meaning is the birdswings.

I hear il in Ihe deep 12 It is a way ofhearl's core emphasizing the deep,

spiritual feeling of thepoet.

2. Symbols ... and noon a pwple 7 "Purple glow",glow symbolized as the

beauty and soft-atmosphere in Innisfree

... onlhe pavemenls II "Grey" symbolizes thegrey emptiness and dulls of

the citv3. Personification ... lake water lapping 10 The speaker in this

by Ihe shore poem tries to personifythe sound ofwave inthe lake.

TABLE VFigurative Language Found Iu "Fern Hill"

No. Figurative Language Quotation from Poem Line Explanation1. Allegory Now as I was yOWlg t - 2 Speaker narrated to the

and easy under Ihe readers about his theapple boughs journey of his life,About the lilting house from period to period.and happy as the wass There is a one-to-one

W9"S f!re..?!!!. _ . - ~.

correspondence

Golden in the heydays 5-6 between lines In one

ofhis eyes, And stanza to the others.

honoured amongwagons] was prince ofthe apple towns --And as I was green and 10 - 14carefree About thehappy yard and singingas the fm'm was home,In the sun that is youngonce only, Time let meplay and be golden inthe mercy oiMs means,All the sun long it was 19- 23running, it was lovely,the hayFields high as thehouse, the tunes fromthe chimneys, it was airAndplaying, lovely andwatery Andjire greenas grass. And nightlyunder the simple starsFlashing into the dark. 27 - 28And then to awake, andthe farm, lik2 awanderer whiteNothing J cared, in the 46-47lamb white days, thattime would take meUp to the swat/owthronged loji by theshadow ofmy hand,I should hear himfly 50 -54with the highjieldsAnd wake to the farmjoreverjledji'onlthechildless land.Oh as I was young andeasy in the mercy ofhismeans,Time held me greenand dyingThough I sang in mychains like the sea.

~ Simile And as I was green and 10 - 11 Speaker try to describe~.

careji'ee; his feelings in his

Singing as the farm was youth to the readers, by

home makes some sentence

Fields as the house; 20 - 22 similarity comparison

And fire ereen as erass of those things. So that,

As I rode to sleep; 24&28 the readers could feel

And to mvake, like a what the speaker's

wanderer while feels.

Now as I was young 53 - 54and easy;Though I sang in mychains like the sea

0 Symbols I was prince ofthe 6 Princes are those whoo.apple towns have a lot of political

and social power, andprinces are generallyVOUllll'.

And happy as the grass 2 & 10 "Green" is a symbol of

was green nature, fresh, child, andAnd as I was green and the age of innocence.

carefree;Andfire green as 22 "Fire'" or '"burning"»grass; paired with "grass" are

symbolized thatsomething"destructive" hasoccurred in thespeaker's young lifethat has changed oraltered the course ofhis "natural growth"

And then to mvake, and 28 "White" is a symbol of

the farm, like a purity, and thewanderer white holiness.Golden in the heydays 5 & 14 "Golden" is a symbol

ofhis eyes of glory and young ageGolden in the mercy ofhis memlSTime let me hail and 4 Thomas uses "time" as

climb; an authority figureTime let me pay and be; 13 maybe as "God", whoFollow him Ollt of 45 has strict control of his

grace; life.I sholiid hear himfly 50

Iwith the hieh fields;

Tillie held lIle green 53and dvini!And the Sabbath rang 17 These Holy-book

slowly figures are used by the

Nothing I cared, in the 46 poet to convince the

lamb white days readers that he is a

Shining, it was Adam 30 person who believes in

and maiden God

Though I sang il1 Illy 54 "Chains" is a reflection

chains like the sea of the situation thatlimits the speaker'sactivity or his snace

4. Metaphor In the moon that is 48 Describe to the readers

always rising about speaker'sexperiences, whatseems like countlessdavs and ni!!hts.

The childless land 51 Describe to the readerswhere tl,e speaker wasbefore.

Though I sang in Illy 54 The chains of old age

chains like the sea are slowing the speakerdown; he is becomingolder and slower likethe sea.

5. Personification About the lilting house 2 It seems to the speakerthat the house isspringing and moving.

Time letllle hail and 4 Speaker tries to

climb; personifY "timeH whichTime lei me P{~V and be; 13 has controlled his lives.

That times allows; 43Follow him out of 45grace;I should hear hilll fly 50with the highfields;Time held me green 53and dvinf!In the sun that is young 12 Speaker tries to

once only describe his feelings in .

And the Sabbath rang 17 his youth to the

slowly readers, and makes

All the sun long ilwas 19 personification \V'hich

running, altfiblited human liCtiOn

ilwas lovely to any things.

It was air and olavinf!, 20

lovely anc{wCitelY.The SAll zatherec{ azain 31And the sun grew round 32that velY dayAfier the birth ojthe 33simple lizhtOut oJthe whinnying 35green stablePheasants by the g«y 37houseand happy as the heart 38was lonzIn the sun born over 39

Jand overIn the moon that is 48 -49alw«ys raising;Nor that riding to sleep

TABLE VIFigurative Langnage Found in "TIle HOTSIeS"

No. Figurative Language Quotatiou from Poem Line Explauation1. Symbol Late in the evening the 3 & 31 "HoTses" symbolized

strange horses came: the nature and a simplefanning life ofthe past

Late in the summer the time where nature,strange horses came human and animals life

together peacefullyThe radiosJailed; we 8& 12 "The radio" is aturned the knobs, no symbol of mass mediaanswer. which controlled theNothing. The radios people and the worlddumb; where we live inThe tractors lie about 24&38 "Tractor" is a symbolourfields; at evening; of industry and... to buy new tractors. technology, whichNow they were strange destroyed the previousto us world.

2. Metaphor ... that swallowed its 19 - 20 The old world ischildren quick at one compared to a monster.great gulp"

3. Personification ... The radios dumb; 10 The speaker personifiesthe radios. He alsopersonifies them bysaving that thev stand.

This portrays the radiosas evil beings waitingto resume control overpeople's lives.

4. Simile. They look like dank 25 Tbe speaker comparessea-monster.s' crouched the disused tractors toand wailing 'dank sea-monsters'.

He compares the horsesto the mythical horsesof knight's tales:'fabulous steeds set onan ancient shield'.

We saw the heads 35 - 36 The arriving horses areLike a wild wave said to be like a "wildcharging and were wave"afi"aid ...

5. Metonymy Ifon the stroke ofnoon 17 The speaker uses thea voice should speak ... word "voice" to

represent person whoused radio to controlcountries or the world.

6. Paradox Since then they have 50 This speaker'spulled our plows and statement seems absurdborne our loads to the readers, but turns

out to have rationalBut that free servitude 51 meaning after all.still can pierce ourhearts.

C. Table of Theme

TABLE VIIThe Romantic Themcs on Poems

No. Romantics Ideas and Characteristics Appearances in PoemsYes No

I ImiUt1niitiOl1 y' -2 Emotion v· -3 Idealization of nature v· -4 Freedom of thought v· -5 Subjectivity of approach, and expression v· -

theanalyses ofimagery, figurative language, and...

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