Essay Questions

What is the main theme in the poem ‘’April’’?

The main theme in the poem ‘’April’’ is love, conveyed with the aid of natural imagery. In the first stanza of the poem, the focus falls on the environment surrounding the narrator but this quickly changes when Emily enters the scene and gets into contact with the narrator. From that point on, the narrator’s perspective changes and the world around him changes as well, becoming more in tune with his feelings. This has the purpose of proving that while love can influence a person’s attitude, it can also have a direct impact on the way a person perceives the outside world.

How can the poem ‘’As the Clouds that are so light’’ be understood?

The poem can be read as a simple description pointing out the difference between the sky and the earth or it can also be read in a religious way, as an allegory for the difference between the two realms. The clouds are always bright, shining their light upon the earth no matter what happens. What is more, the sky is not influenced by the earth under it and continues to exist as it did before the earth came to be. this can be applied to religion as well because both in mythology and in the current religious beliefs, the core idea is that heaven and Gods existed long before human kind came into existence. Also, the Deities are always superior to the humans and are always influenced by them in some form or another. The sky has the power to cast darkness on the earth, or in other words to influence the earth. This is also applicable when it comes to the idea of supernatural beings because they have complete power of everyone and everything that is on earth and in the universe.

Why does the narrator compares himself to a river in the poem ‘’Beauty’’?

The purpose of the poem is to transmit the idea that the narrator does not feel moved by anything in his life. The narrator describes himself as being a person who does not find joy and beauty in his life and to transmit this idea he compares himself with a river. The argument of the narrator is that the river is not affected by the environmental changes that take place around it. Instead, a river will continue to flow undisturbed no matter what. In a similar way, the narrator argues he is not affected by what happens around him either and that he continues to live his life as if nothing happened.