Transcript two-campers-kira

In this country there is neither measure nor balance
To redress the dominance of rocks and woods,
The passage, say, of man-shaming clouds.
No gesture of yours or mine could catch their
attention,
No word make them carry water or fire the kindling
Like local trolls in the spell of a superior being.
Derogatory
SUBLIME
The human means of
imposing on nature
doesn’t exist here.
Nature cannot be
quantified or
controlled.
Nature is superior
to the man made
world. Nothing
created by man
could ever be more
significant than the
nature world.
Mockingly formal.
Wishes to distance
herself from society.
Well one wearies of the Public Gardens: one wants a vacation
Where trees and clouds and animals pay no notice;
Away from the labelled elms, the tame tea-roses.
Longs to be ignored and
escape the order of the
human world.
It took three days of driving north to find a cloud
The polite skies over Boston couldn’t possibly accommodate.
Here on the last frontier of the big, brash spirit
Nature is too pure to be
found somewhere like
the city.
Scale of the natural
world.
The horizons are too far off to be chummy as uncles;
The colours assert themselves with a sort of vengeance.
Each day concludes in a huge splurge of vermilions
Lack of control
And night arrives in one gigantic step.
It’s comfortable, for a change, to mean so little.
These rocks offer no purchase to herbage or people;
They are conceiving a dynasty of perfect cold.
In a month we’ll wonder what plates and forks are for.
I lean to you, numb as a fossil. Tell me I’m here.
The natural world will force
them to become accustomed
to their surroundings, they
have the power to mould
them in this way.
Attempts to turn herself into a part
of the earth/landscape as she sees
them as something admirable and
superior to humans.
Lack of
connection
with nature.
She is rejected
here.
Assonance echoes the
vastness and scale of
nature.
Consistently
untouched and
cold in their
isolation.
The Pilgrims and Indians might never have
happened.
Planets pulse in the lake like bright amoebas;
The pines blot our voices up in their latest sighs.
Around our tent old simplicities sough
Sleepily as Lethe, trying to get in.
We’ll wake blank-brained as water in the dawn.
Reborn into another life, purer than the last.
Personifies the
natural world,
portrays their
magical qualities
and the alliteration
mimics the sound of
a heartbeat.
The trees silence them.
Dissolution of
self – the idea
that the
natural world
leaves her
clear minded.
• ‘man-shaming clouds’ – Plath sees nature as something beautiful and far
superior to anything created by humans.
• ‘The big, brash spirit’- portrays the dominance of the natural world. The
alliteration of the ‘b’ has a sense of power and strength.
• Reference to the ‘Pilgrims and Indians’ portrays the idea that nature would
not have played a role in such a brutal time in history and showing its
purity compared to the harshness of humans.
• ‘tame tea-roses’
• ‘labeled elms’
• ‘polite skies’
The speaker sees the human world as artificial and
monotonous and seeks an escape from this sense of order.
• ‘last frontier’ – Humans have dominated the natural world, this is the
only place left untouched by humans.
• ‘the colours assert themselves with a sort of vengeance’ – Nature
fights back against the interference of humans as though it
understands the negative impact humans impose.
• ‘huge splurge of vermilions’ – ‘splurge’ has connotations of the
luxuriousness of nature and worth beyond anything of the human
world. It is as though this is nature’s last gasp.
• ‘These rocks offer no purchase to herbage or people’ – the landscape
no longer allows itself to be taken advantage of and fights to reclaim
the power that humans have destroyed.
• In comparison to Plath’s other poems, she seems to be seeking a
sense of refuge that comes with the isolation of nature.
• ‘No gesture of yours or mine could catch their attention’ and ‘It’s
comfortable for a change to mean so little’ show the pleasure she
takes in being so insignificant. She has left behind the responsibilities
of society behind.
• However, there is a change of tone in stanza 7 as she says, ‘Tell me I’m
here’ looking for reassurance and support. She no longer seems to be
content being just an unnoticed observer.
This is a beautiful poem, bringing to light the refreshing vitality
of the wilderness, showing the great relief which comes with
being unoticed, being an oberserver, being in the presence of
greatness far more grand then oneself. The poem briliantly
shows nature's power, far exceeding that of man.