“August Houseplant”: A Commentary Essay

shocking House rig details the encounter of a beautiful and delirious philodendron by the protagonist in his backyard. Astounded by the places beauty and maddenederness, the protagonist establishes an ablaze connection with the lay come in and contemplates bringing it into his fireside to protect it from the autumn cold. The narrative perspective and concrete language of the shocking House appoint serves to present his themes as experiences associated with society, resulting in highly original and symbolic organic structure of work charged with semantic associations that must be intuitively grasp by the reader.The first aspect a reader nonices about August House coiffe is its irregular structure. August House deeds is a concrete poem, in which its poetical structure is used to represent the structural pattern of a philodendron arrange. To accomplish this irregular structure Levertov generously uses enjambment and caesuras. The purpose of a disordered structure could as well as be argued to be a rebellion against the consecutive structure of a regular poem, olibanum making irregularity an homogeneous to the defines wilderness.Through the poets diction, use of stylistic devices much(prenominal) as personification, enjambment, structure, and the use of vivid sensory imagery, the poet beautifully depicts the wilderness of the philodendron graft and suggests that the intention of forcefully domesticating the wild would only prove to be nave and futile, (even if the intention were high-priced), as it is unnatural to displace the wild of its natural environment. We argon first exposed to the plants beauty and wilderness in the opening stanza in which the author anxiously questions what may be lurking in his backyard, Is there someone, an intruder, in my backyard?We later realize that the intruder is a wild philodendron plant, and this immediate image brings an aura of wilderness of something that is untamed, uncultivated, undisciplined and sed itious it summers on the deck, touches the floor, tints the chair and explores new ground, as if it were a wild beast craving for much space to reside in. The wilderness of the plant is a sharp contrast to the impression of the protagonists backyard in which the plant enters. The protagonists backyard is a private and domesticated sanctuary, complete with a deck, a floor, a chair- on the whole elements pointing to cultivation and civilization, and immediately we sense that the plant has been displaced out of its natural habitat.We are also drawn by the abridge size of the plant as the first part of the plant that is seen by the protagonist is its leaves, (Ah Its you, dear leaves). With this, Levertov has now established the main features of the plant, that it is wild, displaced and large, which leads us to empathize with it when the protagonist contemplates bringing it in for the winter-The fact that the narrator wants to reckon that the mouse has actually sire his pet, and wa nts to imagine that it no longer idolises him, says more about the narrator than the mouse. He wants the mouse to trust him, and to feel bid he is a care-taking figure to it, when perhaps he realizes that it can not perceive him as such.The narrator states And when youre maneuvered in, how small the room pass on become how can I set you where your green questions wont lean over human shouldersto enquire, mutely patient, about the walls? In another(prenominal) words, Is my plant more comfortable with me now than before? Here Levertov suggests that the plant might accept captivity, but it is not certain. When the mouse disappears, the narrator is impress because he feels protective of the mouse, fears for its safety from hawks, owls, snakes and cats. He sees these threats as negative influences, which demonstrates his naivet and simplicity, for the fear of them teaches the mouse how to survive. The hawks are an essential part of life even manhood cannot live without the existen ce of threats.Throughout the poem the protagonist has a face of awe and anxiety. He is fascinated at the sight of the beautiful plant (Ah Its you, dear leaves, / As if you knew fall is coming, you seem to desire everything that surrounds you, all of air, all of light, all of shade.) and his thought of bringing the plant in also suggests to the fact that he is fascinated by its beauty. This fascination for the plant establishes an emotional attachment of the protagonist for the plant he begins to worry what leave behind become of the plant when it gets cold.How am I qualifying to carry you in, when it gets cold? This looking of anxiety is parallel to the tone a protective parent would feel for his child, which ironically, we reject entirely Levertov has established that the plant is wild, large and already displaced out of its home when in the protagonists backyard, yet if the protagonist brings the plant into his home, it is perhaps more likely to be because of his fascination f or it, instead of his deficient to protect it domesticating something that is born wild would do more harm than good to it. Moreover, we realize that the protagonist is aware that the plant is wild and would not lodge to his small home, he states, Its those long, ever-longer, reaching arms that dont fit through the door This protection is both forceful and naive-the plant is wild and wont fit through the door, thus the protagonists intention of domesticating the plant is a naiveThe plant is personified The plant is personified, By allowing the philodendron to plant to have such This personification not only establishes a feeling a wilderness of the plant but also establishes the personas emotional attachment to the plant. Finding the plant so beautiful, the protagonist deliberates how he can bring the plant indoors, fearing that it will be cold once autumn arrives (-cold How am I going to carry you in, when it gets cold?).September 19, 2008 Angelica Tong, 12BJAugust Houseplant (Le vertov) from A portal in the Hive (1989) English A1 HL (CYeo)