Q. Comparing the verse forms ‘Report to Wordsworth ‘ by Boey Kim Cheng, and ‘Flower Fed Buffaloes ‘ by Vachel Lindsay.
“Report to Wordsworth” by Boey Kim Cheng and “Flower Fed Buffaloes” by Vachel Lindsay are poems that portion a common subject of devastation of nature. The lone difference in the two verse forms is that Cheng illustrates the devastation of nature that has taken topographic point after the phase of industrialisation, while Lindsey negotiations about the devastation of nature in the procedure of industrialisation in North America.
In add-on “Report to Wordsworth“ by Boey Kim Cheng besides explores the ideas of William Wordsworth ‘s sonnets and refers to lines from them. The usage of “Report” in the rubric suggests that the verse form is a factual statement about a specific subject ( nature ) . The word “Report” besides suggests that Cheng is describing to Wordsworth a celebrated nature poet about how nature is “in need” of him. Cheng does repeat fragments from Wordsworth ‘s sonnets doing his sonnets come back to life.
The verse form begins with Cheng turn toing Wordsworth about how he “should be here, nature has need of” him. The gap line tells us about how nature needs Wordsworth to remind world about the beauty of nature that we should esteem and raising. In the 2nd line of the verse form, we are told “she has been laid waste” , which is a definite factual statement. The words “laid waste” stress the devastation of nature which is one of the chief subjects in the verse form. Cheng besides personifies nature as a adult female who needs the aid of a poet like Wordsworth to protect her from irresponsible human activities.
In the phrase, “smothered by the smog” the poet uses an initial rhyme to foreground how human existences contribute to environmental pollution. “SMOG” is the combination of fume, which is semisynthetic and FOG, which is natural phenomena. Suffocated by “Smog” the flowers have become “mute.” The line personifies flowers and shows how flowers are incapacitated and are unable to contend for their rights as their power of address has been snatched off from them. The poet tells us “the birds are few, ” proposing that they have become endangered species that are being driven to extinction because of the selfishness with world. The pollution caused because of adult male is doing the sky slice like a “dying clock” . This shows that nature is coming to a halt like a clock that has run out of power.
Cheng besides refers to Greek sea Gods that are being affected by human behaviour. Proteus the sea God can non “rise from the sea” and assist all other marine life as he, himself is trapped by all the waste and pollution caused by human existences. The sea God Triton, boy of Poseidon stilled the moving ridges by blowing into his shell. His “notes struggle to be free” as he is choked by the pollution. Neptune, the Roman sea God is “helpless as a beached whale” while adult male “moves in for the kill.”
“Poetry and Piety” have no hope as adult male is distracted by making a better hereafter for him and non caring about nature and her wellness that is being affected by his determinations. Cheng besides pleads to Wordsworth that “natures heart” has become really weak and about stopped crushing. He besides tells Wordsworth that nature has started to take retaliation on adult male for what he has done. “The lesion broadening in the sky, ” We have caused this ‘wound ‘ , which is easy hurting us. We are doing God, the individual who created the universe to “utter his last cry.”
On the other manus, we have “Flower-Fed Buffaloes” by Vachel Lindsay, which is about the American bisons from “long ago” being driven out of their land and driven into extinction by human existences. The rubric is of relevancy to the verse form and tells us about how American bisons are “flower-fed” ( herbivorous ) . Since they are herbivorous they do non harm worlds unless they are provoked or in a place where they feel threatened. Lindsay explores many subjects in the verse form including industrialisation, extinction and ruining nature.
The verse form is in the signifier of a sonnet and is divided harmonizing to topics. Every topic has its ain rime strategy, which makes the verse form more interesting. The first eight lines are written in past tense while the last six lines are written in present tense.
The first few lines ( four ) in the verse form refer to where the American American bisons were found. They lived in the huge country covering about all of North-Western America from “where the engines sing and the prairie flowers lie low.” In these few lines Lindsay is able to convey how the American bisons were driven off from their place because of human life distributing from the E to West of North America at the clip of Industrialization.
The following four lines concentrate on what the colonists did to the prairie grasslands. The “tossing, blooming, perfumed grass” has been cut down for farming areas ( “swept off by the wheat” ) Lindsay besides makes the reader imagine the engines traveling across the huge grasslands ( “wheels spin by” ) . He uses repeat of ‘wheels ‘ to conceive of the figure of engines that go by while “the spring that still is sweet.”
The last six lines are about the present. It is about how the American bisons “left us long ago, ” how colonists drove them off from their places. The American bisons are about brought to extinction because of fun athleticss like hiting created by the colonists. Lindsay helps the reader imagine the American bisons by utilizing the words “gore” , “bellow” and “trundle.” Now in North America these American bisons are seldom seen ( “no more” ) because of worlds. This has even affected the North American folk. Both the Blackfeet and Pawnees are made to “lie low” because their chief beginning of nutrient were the “flower-fed buffaloes” of “long ago.”
“Report to Wordsworth” by Boey Kim Cheng and “Flower-Fed Buffaloes” by Vachel Lindsay are powerful verse forms about the devastation of nature because of world. I feel that both verse forms were effectual in assisting me recognize what is go oning to nature because of determinations we make in mundane life. Both verse forms were successful in conveying a message about how adult male is the cause of the devastation of nature. I felt that the attitude of the verse forms were negative as both were about how Mother Nature is enduring. Both the verse forms were successful in catching my attending because of the subject and besides because of the literary devices used. All in all, I favor “Report to Wordsworth” as it is good illustrated and personifies many things about nature like the flowers that become “mute” . It besides shows sea Gods ( Mythological ) and how they suffer from pollution. He besides makes Wordsworth ‘s sonnet come back to life by reiterating fractions from it.
