Poetry & Analysis
Selected Poems
Inspirational PoemsGarden Abstract
And so she comes to dream herself the tree,
The wind possessing her, weaving her young veins,
Holding her to the sky and its quick blue,
Drowning the fever of her hands in sunlight.
She has no memory, nor fear, nor hope
Beyond the grass and shadows at her feet.
Overview Short Summary
This short poem turns hands into part of a sunlit, dreamlike transformation. It supports poems about hands and touch with a nature-focused angle.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Nature and body: The woman and tree seem to merge.
- Touch and sunlight: Hands are imagined through fever and light.
- Dreaming: The poem creates a suspended, unreal moment.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is lyrical and mysterious; the mood is still, bright, and dreamlike.
Craft Literary Devices
- Metaphor: The woman dreams herself into a tree.
- Sensory imagery: Sunlight seems to touch and drown the hands.
Laughers
Dream-singers,
Story-tellers,
Dancers,
Loud laughers in the hands of Fate—
My people.
Dish-washers,
Elevator-boys,
Ladies’ maids,
Crap-shooters,
Cooks,
Waiters,
Jazzers,
Nurses of babies,
Loaders of ships,
Rounders,
Number writers,
Comedians in vaudeville
And band-men in circuses—
Dream-singers all,—
My people.
Story-tellers all,—
My people.
Dancers—
God! What dancers!
Singers—
God! What singers!
Singers and dancers
Dancers and laughers.
Laughers?
Yes, laughers . . . laughers . . . laughers—
Loud-mouthed laughers in the hands
Of Fate.
Overview Short Summary
The poem uses the phrase hands of Fate to describe ordinary people facing life with creativity and laughter. It broadens the article beyond physical hands into symbolic hands.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Community: The poem celebrates workers, performers, and everyday people.
- Fate: Hands suggest the forces shaping human life.
- Joy: Laughter becomes resistance and vitality.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is celebratory and rhythmic; the mood is energetic and proud.
Craft Literary Devices
- Catalog: A list of people creates a broad communal portrait.
- Repetition: Repeated labels emphasize collective identity.
The Ringèd Moon Sits Eerily
Stars sweep down—or are they stars?—
Against the pines’ dark etchèd bars.
Along a brooding moon-wet hill
Dogwood shine so cool and still,
Like hands that, palm up, rigid lie
In invocation to the sky
As they spread there, frozen white,
Upon the velvet of the night.
Overview Short Summary
This short image poem compares dogwood blossoms to hands turned palm-up. It supports keywords about hands, palms, and visual hand imagery.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Nature imagery: Flowers are seen as hand-like shapes.
- Prayer or invocation: Palm-up hands suggest appeal or worship.
- Night: The scene is quiet, moonlit, and still.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is hushed and eerie; the mood is solemn and visual.
Craft Literary Devices
- Simile: Dogwood flowers are compared to hands.
- Visual imagery: White palms against night create a strong image.
A Dream
Just as the grey dawning ‘gan faintly to beam
One still summer’s morning I dreamt a fair dream.
I thought that my body was tenantless clay,
And friends were preparing to lay it away,
They stood at my bedside, one weeping aloud,
While two with deft fingers placed on me a shroud.
And one who had loved me and knew all my care
Placed flowers about me and braided my hair,
And murmured, “Poor creature, her troubles are o’er,
And they who have vexed her can vex her no more.”
Then tenderly crossing my hands on my breast
She kissed me and blessed me and left me to rest.
The kindest words only about me were said
And restfully thought I, “’Tis well to be dead.”
I sighed with contentment, so safe did I seem —
Alas, for the sigh! for it banished my dream.
Overview Short Summary
This dream-vision uses fingers and crossed hands to picture death, rest, and tenderness. It supports hands and memory, old hands, and grief-related searches.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Death and rest: The speaker imagines her own funeral preparation.
- Tender care: Hands arrange the body gently.
- Irony: The comfort of the dream disappears when the speaker wakes.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is melancholy and strangely peaceful; the mood is dreamlike and tender.
Craft Literary Devices
- Dream frame: The whole poem depends on a dream that vanishes.
- Imagery: Shroud, braided hair, flowers, and crossed hands create a funeral scene.
Thoreau's Flute
We, sighing, said, “Our Pan is dead;
His pipe hangs mute beside the river;—
Around it wistful sunbeams quiver,
But Music’s airy voice is fled.
Spring mourns as for untimely frost;
The bluebird chants a requiem;
The willow-blossom waits for him;—
The Genius of the wood is lost.”
Then from the flute, untouched by hands,
There came a low, harmonious breath:
“For such as he there is no death;—
His life the eternal life commands;
Above man’s aims his nature rose:
The wisdom of a just content
Made one small spot a continent,
And tuned to poetry life’s prose.
“Haunting the hills, the stream, the wild,
Swallow and aster, lake and pine,
To him grew human or divine,—
Fit mates for this large-hearted child
Such homage Nature ne’er forgets,
And yearly on the coverlid
‘Neath which her darling lieth hid
Will write his name in violets.
“To him no vain regrets belong,
Whose soul, that finer instrument,
Gave to the world no poor lament,
But wood-notes ever sweet and strong.
O lonely friend! he still will be
A potent presence, though unseen,—
Steadfast, sagacious, and serene:
Seek not for him,—he is with thee.”
Overview Short Summary
The phrase untouched by hands turns the flute into a symbol of lasting spirit and memory. It fits hands and memory searches through an image of music beyond touch.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Memory: The poem remembers Thoreau through nature and music.
- Spiritual presence: The untouched flute suggests life beyond physical handling.
- Nature: Birds, streams, flowers, and woods keep the subject alive.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is elegiac and reverent; the mood is serene and consoling.
Craft Literary Devices
- Personification: Nature mourns and remembers.
- Symbolism: The flute becomes a symbol of a voice that outlives the body.
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