Spoon River The Village Atheist
Poetry Analysis - - The Village Atheist"The world and it's desires pass away; but, the man who does the will of God will live Forever." Using literary and poetic devises to stress the importance of hope, intuition, and desire over worldly objects, The Village Atheist warns that one must strive mightily toward immortality by taking a chance on something unseen and intangible. Edgar Lee Masters, author of Spoon River Anthology uses free verse, sarcasm and allusions to make the message a personal one that is easy to relate to. In addition, Masters utilizes isolation, metaphors, and a balanced antithesis to emphasize the importance of religion in daily live, and the futility of living in this world only. The poem entitled "The Village Atheist" is about man who refused to believe in God until eh was undertaken with sickness, and began a slow painful death. It was then that he began to read "the Upanishads and the poetry of Jesus." In his epitaph he urges the living to do the same because he is now enlightened of the truth: God exists and in order to achieve immortality one must take drastic steps of faith. Masters uses no regular meter or rhyming scheme in this poem. This free verse poetry sounds like a per
In line 7, he isolates "coughing myself to death" in order to accentuate the vivid imagery of a decrepit man on his death bed, coughing up blood and dying a slow death. Masters uses this metaphor in order to create visions of a battle between good and evil, and the predominance of the "light" over the "darkness. Lines 13 and 14, "Listen to me, ye who live in the senses and think through the senses only", is also an allusion to the bible. " Using allusions to the Bible, Masters introduces the light because the "torch of hope and intuition" (line 9) is symbolic of God, "a light shining in a dark place" (2 Peter 1:17). Believing that a human who lives in the senses cannot understand the supernatural world, he is mocking toward the "young debaters over. A person must take a chance on something intangible, and commit wholeheartedly do it, there is no other way to immortality. Masters isolates key phrases several times in this poem. " Figuratively, the entire poem is a balanced antithesis between importance of religion and the futility of atheism. Masters uses these allusions to the Bible because The Village Atheist found religion and peace in the "poetry of Jesus" (line 8). Masters does this in order to personalize the poem because it is meant to be striking and profound, changing the ways of one who hears it. " It was then that I learned the lesson that Masters teaches in this poem.
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