Author Question: Consider any one of the thirteen parts. What patterns of sound and rhythmdo you find in it? What ... (Read 69 times)

cookcarl · **on:** Jul 20, 2018

Consider any one of the thirteen parts. What patterns of sound and rhythmdo you find in it? What kind of structure does it have?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Read the poem aloud. Try pausing for a fraction of a second at the end ofevery line. Is there a justification for each line break?

What will be an ideal response?

fwbard · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Any one of the sections would be suitable for such analysis, but we tend to feel that the (relatively) longer ones are potentially more fruitful bases for discussion; along these lines, we would particularly recommend sections V through VIII, along with X, XI, and XIII.

Answer to Question 2

The poem is written in unpunctuated free verse. The lines tend to end on natural speech pauses, but without conventional punctuation the reader cannot know if a phrase or sentence ends until he or she says the line aloud (or reads it carefully) and proceeds to the next line. The effect is one of discovering the full meaning of the lines only as they unfold. The phrase Tireless traveler, for example, is initially ambiguous in syntactical terms. Does it refer to the speaker or the silence of death? Only by going on to the next line (Like the beam of a lightless star) does the reader understand that the phrase stands in apposition to silence. Merwins lack of punctuation, therefore, both slows down ones reading of the poem and endows its language with an appropriate sense of mystery.