So easy, so hard by Thwaite&The work of our hands by Elliot

“So much is so easy,” Thwaite’s poem begins. The poet immediately establishes an omniscient narrative voice that stands outside the poem. Rather than using a first person narration, o

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In using the metaphor of a river as a symbol of one’s life, Thwaite is able to conjure two opposing images: that of a calm breezy current, and that of a torrential and violent one. The “smooth bed,” as well as “reeds that bend” and the river that descends into the “easy beckoning sea,” are all peaceful visual and tactile imagery, which allows the audience to relax. He employs the occasional rhyme: “combined” and “mind” in the second stanza of the poem, “heart” and “art” in the third, “crap” and “nap” in the fifth, and of course the “Shakespeare-esque” rhyming couplet at the end of the poem. This metaphor, however, is merely a part of the poem, where as in Thwaite’s work, the metaphor is the poem.

It is through the utilization of these various literary devices that these poets—and poets in general—are able to formulate a symbolic world in which they can make gigantic statements about life and the human condition, in the very small space of a poem. The work of their hands—that is, their art, gets better with the passage of time, just as their love does.

Where Thwaite relies on metaphor and symbolism to create a general philosophical message; however, Elliot relies on the intimate details of human experience. By using the repetition of consonants here, rather than vowels, the poet literally makes the words harder to say, and thus the second stanza becomes quite literally harder than the first. Because he sets up an intimate relationship between the narrator and the audience—that is, a husband and wife, he is able to draw upon intimate details in order to create a more personal poem. ” The effect of this repetition is essentially the sound of wind. Interestingly, however, Elliot is also to achieve a general philosophy through his relation of intimate detail, where Thwaite’s poem relies on a beautifully crafted extended metaphor to achieve the same end. He argues that the narrator’s poetry, like his wife’s needlework, will only get better with age. During the first stanza, he uses peaceful visual, and tactile imagery, and positive word connotation to describe the “easiness” of life. By using images such as “clutter”, “banks that jut”, “congested”, and “stuffed gut,” Thwaite effectively destroys that peaceful feeling that he gave the audience in the first stanza, by exposing us to the more torrential façade of the river, and thus, the more torrential side of life.

Common topics in this essay:
Elliots' Hands, Thwaite Elliot, Alistair Elliot, Hard Thwaite, Interestingly Elliot, , Hard Hands, extended metaphor, thwaite able, intimate details, peaceful visual tactile, visual tactile imagery, tactile imagery, easy hard, visual tactile, peaceful visual, human condition, using person, Easy Hard, word connotation,

Approximate Word count = 924
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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