In Robert Frost’s poem, the imagery brings about a sad and depressing mood. In the line, “I have looked down the saddest city lane.” You can observe that the character is taking in his surroundings, which prove to be gloomy and depressing. It almost shows that he has a very negative outlook on life, like he’s stuck in a state of depression. On the other hand, in Dickinson’s poem the imagery brings about a state of confusion almost as if the narrator is lost in the darkness. This can be seen in “The Bravest – grope a little – And sometimes hit a Tree Directly in the Forehead – But as they learn to see –” This line shows that the narrator is lost in the night and doesn’t know where to go, due to the inability to see anything in the dark.
The bird’s darkness matches the morbid and depressing tone of the poem and represents lost love and death and symbolizes "Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. The beginning of this poem largely highlights the elements of darkness and death as Poe describes the atmosphere by employing techniques such as metaphors, alliteration and the use of ironic words to create symbolism. The phrase ‘Midnight dreary’ suggests that it is a dark, cold and wet night and midnight is also related to evil so this indicates that there is evil activity that is about to happen. ‘Bleak December’ symbolizes the lifeless month due to the season of winter which represents death. The metaphor ‘each separate dying ember, wrought its ghost upon the floor’ is used contribute to the mood.
Suspense plays a very pivotal role in the story, and as such, we find that the installation, exploitation and conclusion to be revealed only at the very end, where readers find out they have been in fact following a trial of red herring. As mentioned earlier, setting and atmosphere are tools played around with by the author to place us in a position where readers understand only one point of the story, from the unstable viewpoint of the paranoid passenger. The veil of darkness hiding the face of the driver hangs around like a fog throughout the story, a prevalence of vagueness in the description of the settings. We do not know where the man was, we do not know what the taxi was like, nor do we know what the driver was reaching for, almost as if we were under the same haze of paranoia the man was
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher”, are both excellent examples of Gothic literature and the elements which set this genre apart from others. Each author employs such Gothic elements as metonymy, mystery and suspense, and overwrought emotion to create pieces of writing that have affected the way we tell stories even to the present day. Metonymy is an element that affects the way the reader interprets the scene without knowing it. In Gothic literature, metonymy usually makes for much “doom and gloom.” Blowing winds, howls, moans, sighs, and eerie sounds are all entwined within Frankenstein, illustrating Shelley’s use of metonymy. All of these are used to subtly reference the overall air of darkness and horror apparent in the novel.
The Road How does McCarthy create a sense of place in the opening of The Road? (p1-35) Cormac McCarthy‘s tale of a post-apocalyptic America The Road tells the story of a father and his son making their way south through a landscape where the land is burnt black, forests defoliated and the sky perpetually grey. The opening of The Road immediately captures the dark mood of the novel. “Nights dark beyond darkness and days more gray each one than what had gone before.” This sentence suggests the desolation of the world the father and his son reside. Additionally, intense descriptions of the landscape further reinforce the precarious image of the environment.
Both successfully utilise setting to create the mysterious atmosphere in the gothic genre. In the novel The Strange Case the gothic theme of mystery is explored through the use of setting. Stevenson uses dark and descriptive settings to create the mysterious mood of the story. In chapter 1, as Mr. Enfield recounts a story, he uses vivid imagery as depicted in the phrase “black winter morning…street after street… as empty as a church”. The atmosphere of the scene is revealed as
Isaac Lee Period 2 A Deadly Song As Odysseus was approaching the dreaded island of the sirens he is keen on protecting his men from the voices of the terrible beasts. The sirens were monsters that could lull any soul into coming upon their island by their beautiful song but only to devour that unfortunate person which is slightly ironic because signs of death were all around the sirens yet their song is too powerful. In the Homer’s epic poem the “Odyssey” and Margaret Atwood’s poem the “Siren Song” the sirens are described similarly and differently using tone, point of view and various poetic devices. The tone of the “Odyssey” is rather ominous and also a little sad while in “Siren Song”. The tone is melancholy and is rings of sadness and boredom.
“Auto Wreck” by Karl Shapiro is a plain example of someone’s journey through an accident. The hurried shock, the worry and the acceptance are all parts of this tragic experience. Shapiro uses figurative language throughout his poem, which is split into three different sections that follow the guide of three different tones. Stanza one, lines 1-14, is all about the ambulance and the “right after period” of the accident giving the poem an initial hurried tone. This section of the poem comprises of diction, repetition and imagery, all of which contribute to the tone.
Reading the poems of both Wordsworth and Coleridge, one immediately notes a difference in the common surroundings presented by Wordsworth and the bizarre creations of Coleridge. Thus they develop their individual attitudes towards life. I will look at differences and similarities concerning people's relationship to nature in poems by Coleridge and Wordsworth such as: "The Ancient Mariner", "Kubla Khan", "The Nightingale," "Lucy", "Tintern Abbey," "There was a boy", " Old Beggar", "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" and "Frost at Midnight". In "The Ancient Mariner," Coleridge demonstrates how violating nature and her subjects brings doom to the infracted. In this poem, the poet emphasises the vengeful, dark side of the land and the sea.
Winter Road is a passage that expresses depressing, and lonely emotions that the author was trying to show through the use of symbolism and detailed description of the area. Edith Wharton’s Winter Road really puts the word “depressing” in a deeper level. In this excerpt she describes a school house with a “road forked” and a snow mill that is now “exanimate” and an “Idle water mill looming above the black stream dashed with a yellow white spume.” (Lines 4-5) The author uses that quote to emphasize the disgusting and depressing mood, it also broadens the reader’s perception in detail of the surrounding settings. `”One of those lonely new England farmhouses that make the landscape lonelier” (Line 11-12) this quote expresses the lonely feeling in this town. The Author selects good use of words to express total