“August Houseplant”: A Commentary Essay

‘August Houseplant’ details the encounter of a beautiful and wild philodendron by the leading part in his yard. Astounded by the plant’s splendor and backwoods, the leading part establishes an emotional reference to the plant and contemplates bringing it in to his home to protect this from the fall months cold. The narrative perspective and concrete language of the August Houseplant serves to present his designs as experience associated with society, resulting in extremely original and symbolic human body of work incurred with semantic associations that must be intuitively comprehended by the visitor.

The first aspect a reader updates about “August Houseplant” is its irregular structure. August Houseplant is known as a ‘concrete poem’, in which it is poetic structure is used to represent the structural pattern of your philodendron flower. To achieve this unusual structure Levertov generously uses enjambment and caesuras. The objective of a dispersed structure may be argued as a rebellion resistant to the neat composition of a standard poem, hence making anomaly an equivalent to the plant’s wilds.

Through the poet’s diction, usage of stylistic gadgets such as personification, enjambment, composition, and the utilization of vivid physical imagery, the poet beautifully depicts the wilderness in the philodendron herb and suggests that the objective of vigorously domesticating the wild could only end up being na�ve and futile, (even if the intention were good), as it is unpleasant to displace the untamed of its natural environment. Were first exposed to the plant’s beauty and wilderness inside the opening stanza in which the publisher anxiously inquiries what might be lurking in the backyard, “Is there someone, an intruder, in my backyard? ” We all later realize that the intruder is a crazy philodendron grow, and this instant image delivers an atmosphere of “wilderness”; of a thing that is “untamed”, uncultivated, undisciplined and uncontrollable: it summers on the deck, touches the ground, feels the chair and explores fresh ground, like it were a wild animal wanting for more space to reside in.

The wilds of the plant is a sharpened contrast to the impression with the protagonist’s back garden in which the herb enters. The protagonist’s yard is a non-public and domesticated sanctuary, complete with a “deck, a floor, a chair”-all elements aiming to cultivation and civilization, and immediately we impression that the plant has been displaced out of its normal habitat. We could also drawn by the large size of the plant; as the first part of the plant in the world by the leading part is the leaves, (“Ah! It’s you, dear leaves”).

With this kind of, Levertov has now established the key features of the rose, that it is crazy, displaced and enormous, which leads us to accord with that when the protagonist contemplates delivering it in for the winter-The fact that the narrator would like to believe that the mouse features actually turn into his family pet, and really wants to imagine that this no longer anxieties him, says more about the narrator than the mouse button. He would like the mouse button to trust him, and also to feel like he is a care-taking figure to it, when perhaps he realizes which it can not understand him as such.

The narrator states: “And when you’re maneuvered in, how little the room can be; how can I established you in which your green questions won’t lean above human shoulders…to enquire, mutely patient, regarding the walls? ” In other words, “Is my plant more comfortable beside me now than previously? ” Below Levertov suggests that the plant may possibly accept captivity, but it is usually not particular. When the mouse button disappears, the narrator is definitely troubled as they feels safety of the mouse, worries for its protection from hawks, owls, dogs and cats. He recognizes these hazards as adverse influences, which demonstrates his naivet� and simplicity, pertaining to the fear of them teaches the mouse how to survive.

The “hawks” are an essential component to life; also humans cannot live with no existence of threats. Through the poem the protagonist provides a tone of awe and anxiety. He could be fascinated whenever he the beautiful grow: (“Ah!

It’s you, dear leaves, ” / “As if you realized fall is coming, you seem to desire everything that encompases you, most of air, all of light, every one of shade. “) and his thought of bringing the herb in as well suggests to the fact that he is captivated by its splendor. This captivation for the plant establishes a great emotional connection of the protagonist for the rose; he starts to worry what will become with the plant because it gets cold. “How am i not going to bring you in, when it gets cold? ” This develop of anxiety is definitely parallel to the tone a protective father or mother would feel for his child, which usually ironically, we all reject completely: Levertov has generated that the plant is outrageous, large and already out of place out of its residence when in the protagonist’s yard, yet in the event the protagonist provides the plant in his residence, it is probably more likely to become because of his fascination for doing it, instead of his wanting to guard it; domesticating something that is born wild will do even more harm than good to it.

Moreover, we understand that the protagonist is aware that the plant is wild and would not adapt to his small home, this individual states, “It’s those lengthy, ever-longer, reaching arms that don’t suit through the door” This safety is both equally forceful and naive-the flower is wild and won’t “fit throughout the door”, therefore the protagonist’s intention of domesticating the plant is a naive The plant is personified; The rose is personified, By enabling the philodendron to grow to have this kind of This personification not only determines a feeling a wilderness from the plant but also determines the persona’s emotional connection to the plant. Finding the flower so gorgeous, the leading part deliberates how he can take the plant indoors, fearing it can easily be cool once fall arrives (-cold: “How am I going to take you in, when it gets cold? “). September 19, 2008 Angelica Tong, 12BJ “August Houseplant” (Levertov) via A Door in the Beehive (1989) The english language A1 HL (CYeo)