Winter Syntax Essay

366 Words2 Pages
The poem is portrayed through the eyes of the persona as to how he faces a huge difficulty in writing and the lack of ability of expressing himself on paper. Accompanied by this is through the allegory of a traveller in a harsh winter landscape. The persona also expresses his aesthetic views through a series of art. Collin's poems concludes on a positive note as there is a sense of completing and the persona achieves success in communicating his ideas. These are demonstrated in the poem to highlight the intensity of writing as there is a form of self-reflection done by the persona and he overcomes this to find the right expression. Challenges are faced by the persona as he is unable to articulate the essence of the story. The poem starts off with a main subject of a sentence personified as a "lone traveller". This sentence is then seen as a solitary figure as it is not accompanied by other lines for which the persona has no idea how the story should unfold. The struggles of having a writers block can be suggested through the assaulting weather as the subject heads into a "blizzard at midnight". The darkness expresses how the persona has no clue of what is going on and what he should write next. The persona not only faces trouble with his writing but also lacks confidence. As the persona struggles at night through the "deepening snow", it mimics the journey to be more challenging as it leaves a "faint alphabet of footprints" which suggests that the persona critiques his own writing and performs endless editing, leaving an unsatisfactory and incomplete work. The persona goes on to mock himself for not being good enough as he describes his writing to be a "message for field mice and passing crows. There fore, the struggles that he constantly have to tackle pulls him back, not allowing to express himself perfectly which results in a deep sense of diffidence and
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