Linda's Literary Home

Tag: moon

  • Robert Frost’s “The Freedom of the Moon”

    Image: Robert Frost – Lotte Jacobi – NPG Smithsonian

    Robert Frost’s “The Freedom of the Moon“

    Robert Frost’s “The Freedom of the Moon” muses on the nature of the free will possessed by humankind, as the moon’s freedom foreshadows the greater freedom of humankind.

    Introduction and Text of “The Freedom of the Moon”

    Robert Frost’s versanelle*, “The Freedom of the Moon,” consists of two sestets, each with the rime scheme, ABABCC. The poem dramatizes the phases of the moon and makes a statement about human freedom.

    The speaker in Frost poem demonstrates the complete freedom of humanity by dramatizing the ability of the human mind to use its physical body paradoxically to relocate the moon’s positions. The freedom of the moon heralds the greater freedom of humankind.

    *A versanelle isa short lyric, usually 20 lines or fewer, that comments on human nature or behavior, and may employ any of the usual poetic devices (I coined this term specifically for use in my poetry commentaries.

    The Freedom of the Moon

    I’ve tried the new moon tilted in the air
    Above a hazy tree-and-farmhouse cluster
    As you might try a jewel in your hair.
    I’ve tried it fine with little breadth of luster,
    Alone, or in one ornament combining
    With one first-water start almost shining.

    I put it shining anywhere I please.
    By walking slowly on some evening later,
    I’ve pulled it from a crate of crooked trees,
    And brought it over glossy water, greater,
    And dropped it in, and seen the image wallow,
    The color run, all sorts of wonder follow.

    Commentary on “The Freedom of the Moon”

    The important possession of free will extends to metaphor making by poets.

    First Sestet, First Tercet:  Ways of Contemplating the Moon

    I’ve tried the new moon tilted in the air
    Above a hazy tree-and-farmhouse cluster
    As you might try a jewel in your hair.

    Beginning his list of ways he has contemplated the moon, the speaker first asserts that he has “tried the new moon tilted in the air.” At that phase, the orb was hanging over a little clump of trees alongside a farmhouse. He compares his consideration of the moon at that point to his lady companion’s trying a “jewel in [her] hair.” 

    The oddity about the speaker’s claim is that he says he considered the “new moon” which is barely visible. And the moon was tilted in the air. It seems more likely that a crescent phase of the moon would lend itself more accurately to being “tilted.” 

    An explanation for this claim is simply that the particular phase was new to the  speaker; he had been ignoring the moon and when finally he was motivated to observe it, the newness of it prompts him to call it “the new moon.” 

    First Sestet, Second Tercet:  Probing the Nature of the Moon’s Freedom 

    I’ve tried it fine with little breadth of luster,
    Alone, or in one ornament combining
    With one first-water start almost shining.

    The speaker has furthermore probed the nature of the moon’s freedom when it was even in a thinner crescent phase; it was “fine with little breadth of luster.” He has mused on that phase when he saw it without stars and also when he has seen it with one star, a configuration from which the Islamic religion takes its icon.

    The moon at that phase looked like the first burst of water when one turns on a spigot. It was not exactly shining but only “almost shining.” The speaker seems to marvel at the unheavenly ways in which the moon at times may assert its freedom. 

    Second Sestet, First Tercet:  Freeing a Captured Orb

    I put it shining anywhere I please.
    By walking slowly on some evening later,
    I’ve pulled it from a crate of crooked trees,

    The speaker then proclaims that he has placed the moon “anywhere” he pleased, but that placement always occurred while it was bright, allowing him the vitality to work with it. 

    He then cleverly asserts his true theme that he is focusing on human freedom, not moon freedom, when he avers that he was able to place the moon anywhere he wanted because he was able to ambulate.  His ability to walk allowed him the freedom to wander “slowly on some evening later.” He was thus able to “pull[ ] [the moon] from a crate of crooked trees.”

    The trees seemed to be containing the moon as a wooden box would hold onions or melons. But the speaker was able to walk from the tree-contained moon thus metaphorically freeing the captured orb from the tree box. 

    Second Sestet, Second Tercet:   Carrying the Orb to a Lake

    And brought it over glossy water, greater,
    And dropped it in, and seen the image wallow,
    The color run, all sorts of wonder follow.

    After removing the moon from the tree-crate by simply continuing his evening walk, the speaker metaphorically carried the orb to a lake, in which he metaphorically “dropped it in.”  He then watched awestruck by the “wallow[ing]” image; he observed that like a piece of cloth losing its dye in water, the colors of the moon ran leaching out into the lake water. 

    The speaker then commits what is usually a grave poetic error; he makes an open ended statement without a hint of support, “all sorts of wonder follow.” But this speaker can get by with the ordinarily unforgivable poetic sin because of the great and wide implications that all of his lines heretofore have gathered. 

    The speaker, because he has given the moon freedom and has also shown that humankind is blessed with an even more profound freedom, has thus declared that all those “sorts of wonder” that “follow” from the possession of that free will and freedom of expression are indeed blessed with a golden freedom.    He has revealed the unmistakeable and eternal free will of humankind.

  • Walter de la Mare’s “Silver”

    Image: Walter de la Mare  

    Walter de la Mare’s “Silver”

    The speaker in Walter de la Mare’s “Silver” personifies the moon as a lady out walking at night in silver slippers, showering the landscape and everything in it with the color of silver. The silvering of the night moon reveals a special style of beauty; while sunlight is gold, moonlight is silver.

    Introduction and Text of “Silver”

    Walter de la Mare’s classic poem, “Silver,” plays out in the form of an innovative sonnet [my coined term American-Innovative Sonnet], composed of seven riming couplets, in which the moon is personified as a lady out walking in silver slippers that shine upon the landscape causing everything visible to don a silver glow.

    The speaker is taking a walk at nighttime, and the moon shines gloriously upon the landscape. The speaker is emotionally enthralled by the transition from daylight appearance to nightlight appearance.

    The sun manifests for humanity one style of scenario, while the moon reveals quite another. The sense of sight is predominant during this rendering; one barely hears anything save perhaps the “scampering” of a “harvest mouse.”   The quiet beauty seems to swell the heart of the observer with tranquil appreciation.

    Silver 

    Slowly, silently, now the moon
    Walks the night in her silver shoon;
    This way, and that, she peers, and sees
    Silver fruit upon silver trees;
    One by one the casements catch
    Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
    Couched in his kennel, like a log,
    With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
    From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
    Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;
    A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
    With silver claws, and silver eye;
    And moveless fish in the water gleam,
    By silver reeds in a silver stream.

    Reading of Walter de la Mare’s “Silver” 

    Commentary on “Silver”

    During daylight hours, sunlight reveals the creatures and things of the earth in its golden light, displaying many varied colors, while during the nighttime hours, moonlight offers a very different experience of seeing everything through the lens of silver.

    First Couplet:  The Moon Informs the Night

    Slowly, silently, now the moon
    Walks the night in her silver shoon;

    The speaker begins by setting the scene of the moon slowly moving in silence upon the landscape.  That moon is transforming the land in ways that one might not expect.  

    In sunlight, the creatures of earth have come to expect the ability to see all things in a certain way, but in moonlight all is changed——all is so very delightfully different. Instead of merely revealing the consciousness of daylight experience of earthly creatures, the moon reveals a whole different scenario.  

    The speaker portrays that difference by alerting the poem’s audience that the moon is “walk[ing] the night,” wearing “silver shoon.” The British dialect that uses “shoon” for “shoes” effects a useful rime with “moon.” 

    Personified as a lady, the silver slippered moon is walking the landscape “slowly” but also “silently.” Nighttime is a time for reflection, contemplation, and meditation. 

    And those who have observed the stillness of nighttime with the moon shining searchingly will attest to the serenity garnered from that quiet time of day:  a time for still reflection and musing on all that is beautiful, yet mysterious.

    Second Couplet:  The Moon Walking and Observing

    This way, and that, she peers, and sees
    Silver fruit upon silver trees;

    The moonlight permeates the landscape during her walk.  This metaphoric moon lady “peers and sees.” Anyone walking the silver-sprayed landscape at night might encounter certain objects being bathed and transformed by moonlight.  

    This moon sees trees with fruit.  The metaphor of the moon as a person walking the landscape enlarges the vision for the reader/listener who, no doubt, has encountered such an experience.  

    Who has not walked at night and observed the beauty of the transformed landscape from sunlight to moonlight?  Colors are gone, fine definitions are gone, but what is left is a new experience of beauty that entices the observer with new, fascinating perceptions.

    By personifying the moon as one who walks the landscape at night, the speaker/poet has given humanity back its experience of having seen that landscape and enjoyed it——perhaps without even realizing it, but still capturing it for future perusal in memory. 

    Because the poet has seen fit to capture that experience, his fellow earth inhabitants are now capable of experiencing it also.  In the speaker’s crystalline snapshot of his night walk in the silvery moonlight, he is creating a scene of beauty and stillness that complements the sun’s golden featuring of day.

    Third Couplet:  All Bathed in Silver

    One by one the casements catch
    Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;

    The speaker then observes that the whole vantage point of his capability is bathed in silver.  The windows of every cottage he has the privilege to view are also bathed in that marvelous silver.  The thatched roofs are flowing with silver.  Everything is swimming in this mercurial silver.

    But far from poisoning anything as the actual metal will do, this silver enlivens and enhances the beauty of the nighttime landscape.  It merely proclaims that everything God has created is beautiful, if one can only open one’s eyes to see that beauty.  

    Most human eyes have become habituated to the fact that sunlight on a flower creates a wondrous spectacle of beauty.  Quite likely, far fewer have realized that the moonlight turning that same flower into a spectacle in silver could also offer an example of beauty.  This speaker’s unveiling his experience allows readers to engage their own hidden memories.

    Fourth Couplet:  Happy, Silvered Dogs

    Couched in his kennel, like a log,
    With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

    Human beings love their dogs——man’s best friend!  So much so that most Americans will not likely identify with “couched in a kennel,” because it is more likely that their dogs will be couched in their indoor beds not far from the beds of their human companions. 

    Yet, earlier history had people keeping their dogs outside in the dog houses or “kennels.”  Therefore, the speaker has observed that in their doghouses, these dogs are all silvered as they sleep “like a log.” Happy silvered dogs, sleep peacefully outside in full view of any observer who might be taking a walk in the moonlight.

    Fifth Couplet:  Silvery Sleep

    From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
    Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;

    Nature offers many scenes for observation.  The speaker then notes that even the doves can be seen in the silver of the moonlight.  The breasts of the doves are peeping out from their shadowy cote.   And like all the creatures of nature heretofore portrayed, the doves send forth the majestic beauty of the moon’s silver.

    Sixth Couplet:  Equal Opportunity in Silver

    A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
    With silver claws, and silver eye;

    The speaker does not fail to note that even rodents are captured by the silvering of the moon. The speaker then describes a harvest mouse.  The mouse goes “scampering by.”  And of course, this harvest mouse, this rodent, possesses “silver claws, and silver eye.”

    The silvering of the moon offers equal opportunity:  no one is left out, no one escapes it.  Silver becomes the only descriptor of things as they parade through the moonlight.  

    Thus, rinsed by silver moonlight, even the tiny harvest mouse becomes an important player in the scenario of the silver moonlight play.  Those silver “shoon” splash far and wide.

    Seventh Couplet:  The Silvering of Fish in a Silver Stream

    And moveless fish in the water gleam,
    By silver reeds in a silver stream.

    Having lived with fish in bodies of water in rivers, creeks, and lakes, I can attest to the silvering of fish in streams in moonlight.  They do, in fact, “gleam” with the silver of the moonlight.  

    Those fish do, in fact, take their existence among the “reeds,” as they swish through the waters, with the goal of continued existence, their way of glorifying their Creator in any way they can, at their evolutionary stage of existence. 

    This speaker has marvelously captured the wonderful silvering of things as they appear in the nighttime blessed with moonlight upon them.  

    As the moon has walked the night, she has invited those who have also observed such a scene to remember not the absence of golden light, but the intense presence of silver.   Night with a big moon paints beauty as it silvers each object and enhances its stillness in loveliness.

    Acknowledgment:  Hooked on Poetry

    Walter de la Mare’s “Silver” is the poem that is responsible for getting me hooked on poetry in high school in the early 1960s.  It was in Mrs. Edna Pickett’s sophomore English class that we read and studied this poem.  

    Mrs. Pickett was a devout Shakespeare scholar, and she had a soft spot in her heart for all poetry.  As she explained the nature of poetry, she defined that form as a “crystallization” of thought.  The devotion that she felt for that form was clear and moving.  

    From that point on, I have felt that I too possessed a motivating kinship with the form, and that relationship has grown deeper and broader over the years, since 1961, when I first studied literature in Mrs. Pickett’s class.