What Does Winter Symbolize in Literature: Critical Essay

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Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the stylistic characteristics of Robert Frost’s poem ‘The Onset’. The beginning has many superimposed meanings, which can be analyzed in different ways. The poem is interpreted by diction, images, and sound devices to clarify the themes. The analysis helps to understand the fundamental themes of the conflict between good and evil, pessimism and optimism, and life and death.

Introduction

The style is the Latin word ‘stylus’, which means ‘write anything’. Style is the way a writer uses language, selects words, arranges and forms sentences, and presents his thoughts to the reader using poetic devices. The writer’s style influences how it is interpreted. The style also expresses the individuality of the artist. Robert Frost’s distinctive style is found in his writings when he uses plain narrative language, but he builds a deep philosophy through a variety of natural objects.

Style

Thomas S. Kane in Writing Prose describes a pattern of linguistic features that distinguishes one work from another. Style includes how the writer thinks about his subject, and how he has presented it for a particular audience and purpose. Style is the full analysis because it is the voice or tone of the writer. It is not just the discovery for the writer, but also for the reader. The style is the man, as Buffon puts it.

Stylistics

The study of how language changes and develops is called stylistics. It is an analytical science that covers all expressive aspects of language, such as phonology, prosody, and morphology. Syntax and Lexicology are the studies of words, to make them sound more poetic. A stylistic violation from set patterns of language is actually a violation. Laech explains stylistic as a linguistic approach to literature and clarifies the relationship between language and artistic function. K.T.KHADER describes the study of text to produce a particular effect through particular choices of words. The aim of stylistics is not only to describe the formal elements of texts but to show the functional importance of the text interpretation; or to show the relation of the literary text to linguistic effects where these are considered relevant.

Introduction of the poem ‘The Oneset’

This poem is taken from the fourth volume ‘New Hampshire’ published in 1923. This volume won an award, the first time that Robert Frost received the Pulitzer Prize. This volume consists of famous poems such as ‘The Road Has Not Taken’, ‘Snowy Night Forest Stop’, and ‘Ice and Fire’.

New Hampshire manifests peculiar qualities of Robert Frost as self-consciousness, talking about himself, and aphorisms. The subject matter of the poems in this collection shows depth and subtlety. This work depicts the growing up of a man. Frost, who is usually unexpressive and calm, betrays his emotions enough, despite his attempts to suppress them, to make them personal. He doesn’t allow himself to feel. A critic of Frost says, ‘It would be an exaggeration to see in him a religious poet, but his work tends toward the whole, that is, Catholicism at heart’. The poem ‘The Onset’ is one of the lyric poems of Frost. The poem is believed to be the remainder of ‘The Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening,’ depicting the conflict between the obligation of life and the peacefulness of death so much so that one cannot decide whether to leave to keep his promises or to stay in the woods and the result is uncertainty and melancholy, on the other hand, the poem ‘The Onset’ presents the poet’s approval of the realities of life and death. Here, the poet is optimistic about life, even though it has miseries and adversities. The idea of the season is implicit, as it is in nature’s cycle. The poet narrates his feelings about winter and the changing feelings he has about spring as winter causes destruction and spring comes for reconstruction and spring, after all, leads back to winter. The poem has a theme, but there are multiple interpretations.

Methodology

This poem has several different artistic devices and vocabulary items used to help understand the themes. The study will examine how the poet has presented deep philosophy by giving an example of simple narrative language.

The theme of the Poem

The poem is about death and life, good and evil, and human limitations. There is no way out. Man’s power is limited; he cannot understand the mysterious nature. The poem is about life and death as opposites and contrasts. The poem is about the beauty and horror in life and how they can be either substantial or temporary.

Poetic devices

Symbolism

Symbolism represents ideas indirectly, with the thought or meaning not conveyed directly. In the poem, night symbolizes sadness due to fated doom. Dark woods represent evil and the mystery of life, which is something that one cannot comprehend. The symbolic interpretation of winter and snow stands for destruction and eventually causes death. The awareness of death and evil must persist in ‘The Onset’. The most striking of these symbols is that of the rills of melted snow and a disappearing snake. The transformation of snow into a serpentine stream suggests that evil, although it disappears from view for a while, does not really leave the world. The symbol of the church represents the hope and faith that go into this imperfect world. The world is imperfect because it does not persist indefinitely. The cycle of winter and spring is symbolized. Life and death symbolize spring and winter respectively.

Imagery

The image is the representation of sensory experience through language. It appeals to the human senses to create a specific description. The snow reflects the darkness of the woods, and the winter landscape is filled with houses and churches. The words ‘hissing’ and ‘song’ signify auditory imagery. Kinesthetic imagery is linked to imagery of movement that is shown, for example, ‘the snow all go down hill’, ‘disappearing snake’.

Simile

It is the comparison of two different things having one feature in common, but using some words and phrases such as like, and as. The sound of melting snow is like a disappearing snake.

Metaphor

It is the comparison of two different things. She is a ferocious creature. The hissing of snow and the sound of the serpent in lines 4 and 5 is compared to that of the evil. This is the hiss of Satan, which was mentioned in Paradise Lost by Milton. Frost uses it in the same way.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration of detail is used to convey the truth. An example of hyperbole can be seen in lines 14 and 15 by saying that the snow may heap in long storms and undrafted four feet deep. The snow’s falling onto the frozen ground and making a crunching sound.

Sound Devices

The following sound devices are used in the poem ‘The Onset’, Alliteration. The repetition of the initial sounds of consonants is called alliteration. In this poem alliterations ‘the forest and with’ (line 3), ‘four feet’ (line 15), ‘see the snow’ (line 18), and ‘started’ (line 11). Consonance when the final consonant plays the same sound, it is consonance. The owl cannot make all the ground it once covered, the peeper cannot make a sound, the water is not deep enough to cover the dead weeds, and it is spring.

Assonance

This is the repetition of similar vowel sounds in words or syllables. ‘The Onset’ is ‘always the same’ (1st line), ‘finally gathered’ (2nd line), ‘foot depth’ (15th line), and ‘against maple’ (16th line). Shows an impressive repetition of vowels, as in. All the snow disappears ‘(line 18).

Rhyme Scheme

The poem consists of twenty-three lines and it is divided into two stanzas. The rhyme scheme in the first stanza is AABBCCDDEEF. The second syllable has an AABBCCDDEEFF rhyme scheme.

Conclusion

When the poem is analyzed stylistically, it reveals deep meanings like death and life. The poem uses the symbols of winter and spring. The theme of the poem is made prominent through diction, symbols, imagery, and metaphors. Frost has shown the seasonal cycle of nature with his paintings. In this process, the destructive side is transformed into a creative form. It is the power of nature that controls both forms.

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