THERE’S A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT
An interesting wepage: http://bloggingdickinson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/theres-certain-slant-of-light.html
THEME: ENTRAPMENT, ISOLATION, PAIN, FEAR
An interesting wepage: http://bloggingdickinson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/theres-certain-slant-of-light.html
THEME: ENTRAPMENT, ISOLATION, PAIN, FEAR
SYMBOL
-
“slant of light”
o
about realising something, realising the problem® being alive is the
problem; she finds life impossible, once you see it, there is no way back,
cannot be unseen ®end
of the world
o
APOCALYPTIC
o
The slant of light acts as a focal point for the
speaker’s meditation
o
change as a fearful but illuminating process,
both painful and essential. Here this awe of change is embodied in the “certain
Slant of light” that becomes the place of departure for the transformation.
-
“winter afternoon”
o
declining hours of daylight suggest a movement
towards death or failure of vitality®pathetic
fallacy
-
the shining light is too glorious for her
desolate life ®
cannot accept its optimism®
the light hurts her
-
“weight of cathedral tunes”
o
emphasis on the sense of being weighed down as the usual pleasant associations of church
music are undermined
o
sense of sight and hearing give way to the sense
of touch in the powerful “Weight”, which embodies the great burden
o
sense of hearing: synaesthesia ® the “light”affects the
sound : utterly trapped, sight and sounds being affected® all her senses are stripped away
and destroyed
o with them comes a heaviness that the speaker
can't help but feel burdened by. They also inflict a kind of "Heavenly
Hurt" that reveals the speaker's "internal difference" or
conflict even more.
-
the light constitute to a feeling of “heavenly
hurt”
o
the purposive syntax give prominence to the
importance of the foregrounded phrase ®
the hurt is emotional, spiritual and mental so there is “no scar” to be
discovered
-
to define the feeling that the “light” gives
o
“seal despair” ®
enigmatic
o
this metaphor conjures the slant of
light as a wax imprint that closes down all alternative meanings of life.
o
syntax is elliptical ® not the seal of despair, but the
seal and despair seem to be one and the same ®
“seal”: powerful biblical overtones ®
mark and ratification or sign of agreement between God and men
-
the light causes “no scar” but “infernal
difference”
o
it directly causes her torment in soul ; burning
inside her soul ® her
inside/meaning is being changed®
she doubts her existence and her life
-
the light is “sealing” her to suffer on this
world, the oppression is ceaseless, and there’s no escapement, she is destined
to be trapped within this
STRUCTURE
-
Iambic tetrameter and trimetre
o
Hymn- like pattern resonates with the “cathedral
tunes” ®
things that are originally positive and glorious becomes corrupted
§
Awkward sense to the metre ® suffocated by the light
around her®
causes the stanza to be disjointed
§
Suppose to be place to be calm, joy and to
worship, but is now overwhelmed by sadness
§
Symbol of entrapment
-
Rhymes: "afternoon" and "tunes,"
"scar" and "are," and "despair" and
"air."
FEATURES
-
“us”…” we”…
o
suggestive of this feeling is a common or universal
human experience; not only confined to her, but to the whole human confition
-
then magnified to the “landscape”
o
it is now experienced by a personified nature ® becomes omnipresent
-
“shadow hold their breath”
o
projection of the feeling onto the landscape
broadens its scope
o
final simile is ominously enigmatic® could represent
indifference, an unwillingness to acknowledge the individual but it also
suggests that something is beyond reach,
a condition of hopelessness where the sufferer can see no end to the
suffering; passing of the feeling does not bring relief from it
-
use of pronoun- “it”
o
such fear towards the light that use the pronoun
“ it” to represent it ® as if mentioning the name
is forbidden and will bring affliction
o
incapable on confronting the light® dare not to mention it,
as if not addressing its name could deny its existence
-
“heavenly hurt”
o
alliteration, oxymoron ® she is scared of the entrapment
and pain that it causes, but ironically, she enjoys it at the same time® as if the pain that she feels
reminds that she is still living…?
o
the alliteration and
capitalisation demonstrate the personal suffering which, although ironically
leaving no visible scar, leads to a personal discovery of ‘Meanings’.
-
“shadows hold their breathe”
o
The immobilising personification of
shadows on one hand gives them life but on the other, ironically takes away the
means of sustaining it. The Slant of light stops movement.
CONCLUSION
The “slant of light” is never meant to “seal” the “despair”,
but a judicious symbol of the ominous “ death”.
MAIN QUOTATIONS
-
“tis the seal, despair”
-
“landscape listens, shadows hold their breath”
-
“weigh of cathedral tunes”
-
“heavenly hurt; internal difference”
RHYMES
-
“light”, “weight”
-
“scar”, “are”
-
“despair, air”
-
“breath, death”
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