Written Commentary- the Wasps' Nest

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Written Commentary- The Wasps’ Nest (Written by MusloDePollo) ‘The Wasps’ Nest’ is a very fluid and symbolic poem written by James L Rosenberg. As the title implies, one of the main themes throughout the poem is the idea of a home or a nest in which anyone or anything can feel safe, as well as and the contradicting and opposing theme of the insignificance of life and said nest. Through the use of syntax, diction and literary devices, the author creates a world in which the balance between being safe and being at home, and the feeling of homelessness and being all alone, and to show how thin the line between the two actually is. ‘The Wasps’ Nest’ is a free verse, with no strict rhyming or structural pattern. It consists of 31 verses, all roughly divided in eight stanzas. There are consonant rhyming couplets throughout the poem, although they never fall in any sort of pattern. The author uses plenty of literary devices, such as oxymoron, metaphors and symbols to represent the themes of human nature, wilderness and the meaninglessness of life in itself. Rosenberg starts the poem by giving an almost aristocratic seeming description of the main focus of attention: the wasps. He describes them as “two aerial tigers, stripped in ebony and gold” (lines 1-2). This metaphor makes the wasps a part of an animal hierarchy by stating how they are tigers, which by a double meaning, are both ferocious and deadly predators, and yet often associated with royalty and nobility. This opening line creates a base for the whole poem for which an animal’s actual attributes are changed or passed over to another one, to rid of the distinctions between them and focus on the idea of animal or creature alone and in itself. The author wants the reader to see the wasps as if they weren’t just tiny, flying pests, and sets them above all the previous assumptions the reader might have had about
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