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Back to Subjects - Poetry

comparecontrast

comparecontrast Robert Frost's "Take Something Like a Star" and Richard Wilbur's "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World" are two poems which both invoke the audience to become involved in life while taking inspiration and guidance from spiritual forces manifested in the visible world. Frost's poem uses Keat's "Bright Star" as a launching point for discussion while Wilbur recalls in his title a phrase from St. Augistine's Commentary on the Psalms; yet both authors present complete discussions without requiring from the reader a foreknowledge of the earlier works. For Frost the central image is a star, any star, whose illumination can invoke man to lift his thoughts from the commonplace and mundane; and for Wilbur the central image is a simple clothesline hung with laundry, an image which invokes visions of the spiritual soul floating in the breeze yet at the same time connected to the common world of laborers, thieves, and lovers. Both poems, therefore, see the need for man to be aware of both his earthly and spiritual worlds and to achieve a balance between the two that elevates and defines him as a creature of God. Robert Frost and Wilbur Richard rely on good word choice to exemplify their common theme. Frost's "Take Something Like a Star" sticks with the word star to represent God. All of the adjectives that Frost uses to describe the star also go hand in hand with God. In the Poem "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World", Wilbur uses laundry on a clothesline to characterize the human spirit. Wilbur uses more nouns to describe the spiritual soul than Frost's usage of adjectives. Both Frost and Wilbur stress, Bledsoe 2 however, theses everyday objects pronounce the power of God. "Some are in bed-sheets, some are in blouses, Some are in smocks: but truly there they [angels] are." -Willburr "O Star (fairest one in sight), We grant your loftiness the right to some obscurity of cloud-" - Frost The tone in which both authors choose to write about how a spiritual presence are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Frost writes in a facetious tone when describing God through the star that is seen. "It will not do to say of night, Since dark is what brings out your light", this quote describes how the star only shines when the sky is dark, meaning that God seems to only come when something bad arrives. The sincerity that is shown in Wilbur's poem is quite evident leaving no room for misinterpretation. He doesn't mock the glory of a spiritual presence, but writes wholeheartedly . At the end of each poem both authors agree on the same tone. Frost switches to a more earnest tone writing about when God does not seem to be there, he will always show up when called on. "We may take something like a star To stay our minds on and be staid". Both poems are wrote in a style that the speakers are looking at objects that cause them to think about how a spiritual force is amongst them. "'Oh, let there be nothing on earth but laundry, Nothing but rosy hands in the rising steam and clear dances done in the sight of heaven'". Wilbur concentrates on the laundry and sees the hands of God wash us from our transgressions and as the clothesline laundry dances in the wind our souls dance "'in the sight of heaven'". Standing under a moon lit sky someone spots "the fairest [star] in sight", Frost's poem depicts. Why God doesn't seem clear at times is the question Bledsoe 3 provoked by the star. "Say something! And it says, 'I burn.' But say with what degree of heat. Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade. Use language we can comprehend". Frost's speaker is more weary in his faith than the confident speaker Wilbur portrays. Diction is very important in both of the poems. The choice of words convey the way in which the poem is to be read. The poems emulate how spiritual forces can be manifested in our every day world, but how they are manifested is where diction comes in. "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World" illustrates God in a genuine fashion using diction. "Impersonal breathing", shows how the soul is not separate from us but one with us. The play on words Frost uses is a great example of diction. "Wholly taciturn" when read aloud could be taken as holy silence, but when read you can see he means total silence illustrating gods void. Frost also uses the word stooping instead moving when describing God. "Not even stooping from its sphere..". This one word shows the power of diction to show his negative view on the theme. Wilbur also does the same word game, but he uses it to show his positive view of God being shown through the visible world. "Yet, as the sun acknowledges With a warm look…", the main word in the quote is sun, because it could be taken as the son of God when read aloud. Robert Frost's "Take Something Like a Star" and Richard Wilbur's "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World" are alike and dislike in many ways through the use of word choice, tone, speakers, and diction. The poems strongly show that by observing ordinary everyday objects you can evidently find the spiritual forces amongst them. "It asks a little of us here" but "keeping their difficult balance". Bibliography:

Word Count: 911