Assignment: Timed Writings

"Fishing on the Susquehanna in July": Similarities Between Two Professions

In the poem "Fishing on the Susquehanna in July," the author, Billy Collins, dictates through a nonchallant tone the thoughts of a would-be fisher. The personification of the river suggests a larger meaning of the speaker's analyzation of the "painting." As a reader, the poem can be related to the "road not taken" in one of Robert Frost's poems. One never knows what could be behind a "bend." Yet, in Collins' poem, the speaker relates his own proffession as to that of a fisherman.

First of all, the nonchallant tone creates a feeling of ease, relaxation and of slight boredom. The familiar phrases such as "to be...honest" and "the pleasure" create a calm and positive feeling, similar to what a fisherman feels.

Secondly, the personification of the river "curled around a bend" depicts a curiosity as to what is behind the turn. Yet, the speaker does not know, nor doe he seem to care. Simply enough, he appears only interested in the "fellow" sitting in his fishingboat. The description of this fisherman's poise and patience comes parallel to the speaker's similar sitting "in a quite room." The obvious juxtaposition seems to draw the attention to the unanimous calm and lull of their occupation.

In the final stanza, the poem takes a slight turn. The brown hare's "springing" relates back to the fisher-man. Likewise do fish jump out of nets. Fishermen catch them hurriedly, before they can escape back to the lake.

Now, as readers, we can distinguish the importance of the fisherman. Both the speaker and the fisherman experience a some what meditative time period, before a substance jumps a them which they then must hurriedly catch. For the fisherman, the fish are that substance; whereas for the speaker, that substance is a hidden meaning or idea of the essence of a painting.

Figurative Language in the "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost

When two people do not get along well together, or are of different mindsets, one says there is a "wall" between them. This keeps them from sharing information so as not to offend. Likewise, in Robert Frost's poem, "Mending Wall," the construction of a "wall" between two "neighbors" keeps the neighbors' "apple trees" and "pine" separate. The tone is slightly disdainful, yet didactic, in order to portray the essence and result of the wall. It "wear[s] their fingers rough with handling" it, and the speaker wonders if it would not be better to have no wall at all.

First of all, the speaker begins with the "something" that "doesn't love a wall." He depicts a cold, and freindless creation, which results from teh erection of such a barrier. He knows not how they were "made," since "no one has seen them...or heard them." The figurative use of an actual wall allows a clear understanding of what the speaker discusses: barriers, which do not allow you to enjoy hte company of someone else. The "wall" which peopel "keep" "between them as " they "go." The "spell" which the speaker refers to is that untouchable substance which keeps the "wall" in palce. The psychological way the two bodies interact, or refrain from interacting.

Likewise, "apple trees" and "pine" trees cannot interact. "Apple trees" cannot "eat the cones under his pines," but they are still kept separate. The use of these two trees are significant, becasue "apple trees" and "pines," although both similar, are very different. One produces fruit, while the other merely does not turn brown in winter. Therefore, although they can be categorized similarly, their essence nad nature are very different. Pointedly, the speaker refers to them in order to show that even though they are different from each other, they won't harm one another, because they are somewhat similar. However, the speaker's "neighbor" insists that "good fences make good neighbors."

Continuously, the speaker tries toe express that "something there is that doesn't love a wall." Yet the phrase is not accepted by his unwilling neighbor. He "will not go behind his father's saying," meaning that because his father said that "walls" were important, he won't try to discover it is false.

The figurative way in which Frost uses the image of a "wall" adds to the overall affect of the poem by making the barrier between the two people more dramatic. It can be concluded that Frost does not believe that such barriers should be in place, and that it is the fault of the stubborn people who stay with the tradition of not mixing with people formerly not associated with. It seems sad that just because of a few differences, two people cannot tear down the "wall." It has not been accepted, then, that "something there is that doesn't love a wall."