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A Light in the Dark

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Submitted By tydus
Words 488
Pages 2
Cesar Heyaime
EGL-102
09/15/14
Prof. M. Prinz

A Light in the dark

The poem "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota," by the author James Wright, expresses the value of a person's life. The author shows us the importance of life by using metaphors. The rich descriptions given by the character makes the metaphors relate between them, and express how he feels about how he has been living his life.
At the beginning of the poem the reader is placed into the character’s mind. He appears to be enjoying everything that is around him. The way he describes it is what’s interesting. Everything seems to have a sense of darkness. “I see the bronze butterfly, asleep on the black trunk, blowing like a leaf in green shadow”. Everything there has a darker meaning, it feels like the character is trying to find beauty in something that has already lost it but also in these same lines he is showing the passing of time.
"To my right, In a field of sunlight between two pines, The droppings of last year's horses, Blaze up into golden stones." These lines are very meaningful to the poem. The character is giving the reader more of these metaphors that relates with something that is missing, something that once was but is now lost. When the author refers to the droppings of last year’s horses blazing up into golden stones he is giving a ray of light into all this darkness. The droppings weren’t there but the character let’s the reader know that it was something worthy to relive in his mind. A thought, important enough to be compared to golden stones.
"I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on. A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home. I have wasted my life." Darkness is there and it is taking away that day’s life. When the chicken hawk floats by, the character is leaning back. He is appreciating how everything is coming to an end, how everything is returning to their rightful place, everything but him. He realizes that he is much alike that chicken hawk. He is feeling his life have been meaningless, that he have been floating without a place to land. In the last line, the character acknowledged that he had wasted his life. This same realization makes him understand how important life is and that if he could change his life, he would do so.
The Author since the beginning of the poem is showing how memories or ideas can change a person’s point of view. The fact that the character was present for these events and the fact that he was imagining or remembering others, made him understand that life wasn’t what it once was and that it never will be. The character also realizes that the time have spent wasn’t as good as it could have been.

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