For our A.P. workbook assignment #3, we will be analyzing Maxine Kumin's, "The Sound of Night," on page 115. After reading/annotating the poem, as you would on the day of the exam, read through the 8 questions posed under "Using Skills to Understand the Poem" on page 116. You are to respond to any 2 of the 8 questions. Unless you are the first to respond, refer to (quote) an observation or insight made by one of your classmates that strikes you as interesting or controversial. Your response is to be a minimum of 250 words in total. As always, this is a formal written assignment; apply the conventions of standard written English.
Blog is to be posted before class on Friday, 12/9/11.
2. The literary device of synesthesia works in line three for a few reasons. All of the noises that are displayed in the night uses auditory imagery which allows the character to hear the sounds but then uses visual imagery and describes the sounds as being a thick fog. Synesthesia is used correctly because the auditory sensory experience is being described by using a visual sensory experience. Furthermore, all of the sounds concocting together form this fog because of the density and thickness that all of these noises form. Fog is typically dense and thick and hard to see through. Likewise, the noises are very loud and hard to hear anything else except them.
ReplyDelete8. In line 23, the author describes the birds as “importantly” silent which can carry several meanings. The first meaning that I notice is that throughout the poem, the author describes the various noises and actions that occur at night; one that is blatantly missing is the chirping of birds. This is not mentioned in the poem because birds symbolize the start of a day and chirp and “talk” to each other only during the daytime. Therefore, the silence of the birds is important to keep the overall setting of the poem at night because once they chirp, all of these actions of numerous animals dissipates and dawn breaks. The other meaning that this word can encompass is that a few lines before this word appears it says “Now every voice of the hour-the known, the supposed, the strange, the mindless, the witted, the never seen” help to portray the necessity for there not to be a presence of the birds. Birds are constantly seen every day whereas these noises are those strictly of the night and of animals and creatures that are never seen in the day time.
2. Since synesthesia stimulates visualization, the poet uses a mix of different types of imagery to create this literary device. Kaelyn pointed out the types of imagery used, for example, auditory image such as "vesper cries" and "chitter noise" and then transitioning into visual imagery, describing all the animals in the forest. What I also noticed was the multiple uses of alliteration near the end of the first stanza. With this alliteration, the poet is trying to replicate the various types of sounds animals make in the forest. When all these sounds and images condense, they create a "thickness" in the air. Furthermore, I also felt that the poet made air “thick” to make the night sound more ominous since bizarre noises were used.
ReplyDelete8. There seems to be a double meaning behind the adverb "importantly". Birds tend to symbolize the beginning of a new day, since they chirp during dawn, or in other words, the transition from night to day. However, lines 23-24 state "for the birds, importantly silent, for the crease of first eye-licking light", which implies that the birds are singing during dusk rather than dawn. As a result of birds chirping during nighttime, the birds' noise contrasts the noises being expressed earlier in the poem. Kumine uses animals such as frogs, snakes, and bats, which are usually associated with the dark. Since humans are used to such animals making sounds in the dark, we usually depict nighttime as a more “silent” time. But we would consider it unusual if birds created multiple noises at this time, which would give the night a “sound, hence the title of this piece, “The Sound of Night”.
5.The diction displays this fear, for the words used to describe the sounds, "cries," "squeaks," "noises," are rather harsh and unpleasant sounding - they are most definitely not soothing, soft words that roll off one's tounge and put them to sleep. These instead suggest uneasiness, "...noisy as ducks, drunk / on the boozy black, gloating chink-chunk" These noises are sharp and alert, keeping the speaker and company awake, for they must must "defend" themselves during the night. This suggests there is danger lurking that may attack or try to harm them. When listing the sources of all of these sounds, not one of them is positive, and "the strange" even has a line of its own. Unknown, unexplained, scary, foreign creatures are "the strange" ones that are especially frightening. All these campers can look forward to is the "sweet" sun that is guaranteed to rise in the morning and will silence all of the unknowns of the dark.
ReplyDelete8.In line 23, The poet, Maxine Kumin, says that the birds in the poem are “importantly silent. One out of the two definitions of the word can be determined by the birds cries, as she uses in line 3, the “vesper,” however when your are camping outside in the creepy night, and then you hear a “vesper” you will be alarmed, even though it might be a bird, you might think it can be something far worse than a hopeless bird since you can see it. This kind of “vesper” sound is not expected in this time of day. Another possible meaning of this word, Importantly, is that it symbolizes the break between night time and morning. Like what roosters do when morning comes, they make that “cockadoodledoo” noise, waking everyone up for the morning. So therefore, the birds can symbolize a barrier between night time and morning.
1. The denotation of the word chitter means to make a twittering or chattering sound. In the context of the poem, it’s used to describe the setting. The chitter noise could have been in reference to two things. The first is by the animals, such as the birds that crowd the trees and conversate about the darkness that is spreading. The chitter could have also been describing the darkness itself. The darkness was personified with the use of this word and in turn, makes the darkness appear as if it’s alive. The birds become fearful of the darkness and “huggermugger” the trees. The denotation of the word huggermugger means disorderly. The birds were so fearful of the darkness and their lives that they take shelter in the trees disorderly. In line 3, the word vesper continues the mood of fear with respect to these daytime animals. Vesper means something pertaining to the evening. So the air becomes “thick with their vesper cries” (line 3).
ReplyDelete6. In lines 5-6, my initial reaction to the string of verbs was that Maxine Kumin wanted to give an impression that the action of these animals during the night was continuous. The bats especially seemed to be free at night and were able to “skitter across the lake” and do various things that they aren’t able to in the day like for example, their availability feed on the cows in the farm, if the farm had any. The use of onomatopoeia in line 9 provides the poem not only with visual imagery but with auditory imagery. It supports the idea that the animals of the night do enjoy the darkness. The darkness is so amazing that it becomes intoxicating to the frogs: “the fat frogs wake and prink wide-lipped, noisy as ducks, drunk on the boozy black, gloating chink-chunk” (line 7-9). The animals of the night appear to come out and the day animals like the birds seem to go into hiding when this darkness emerges. The birds crowd the trees and they “cry” because its their time to hide.
6. In lines 5-6, Maxine Kumin uses a string of verbs that describe the actions of the bats during the night time. By the use of the verbs “swing”, “squeak”, “chirp: ,”dip”, and “skim”, I automatically thought that all these words gave the bats an almost playful look. Since bats are nocturnal, they feel cheerful and have the most energy at night time. It seems like the bats are trying to wake up the other animals because for them, night is their day. Like Brandon said, the verbs “in these lines give off a sense of freedom being portrayed by the bats.” In this poem, we get to see how each animal has a different view about night, and the bats are in the group that see night as something beautiful and lively.
ReplyDelete7. In Lines 14-16, we can appreciate the use of two metaphors that contrast each other although they are referring to similar things. The sentence is, “Crickets chorus hallelujahs; paws, quiet and quick as raindrops, play on the stones expertly soft, run past and are gone.” We are first told that the crickets are a choir group who sing happily through the night. However, we are also told that their paws are silent and soft as raindrops as they quickly pass through and are gone. This is significant because we are able to see the contrast between the noises the crickets are voluntarily making. It is almost as if the crickets were singing to demonstrate their contentment, but they were also trying to be quiet so they wouldn’t disturb. Whether the noise is loud as a hallelujah, or whether it is soft as a raindrop, they are both sounds of the night.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete7. In lines 14- 16 the metaphors give off a stronger sense of auditory imagery. When the crickets are compared to chorus hallelujahs is gives off a sense of peacefulness because the usually at night if it is quite the only thing you can hear are the little insects and at that time you are calm and relax, sort of escaping from everyone. When you hear crickets it is almost like they are talking to each other because they harmonize, just like the church choir. Paws refer to an animal so maybe a dog or a cat. The metaphor here is just helping the reader embrace the beauty of nature.
ReplyDelete5. In lines 7-9 that author uses words like fat, noisy, drunk, and gloating and it sets the mood as being uncomfortable and everything but relaxing. Those sounds are the ones that sometimes annoy us because they are so loud and obnoxious and not like the crickets which harmonize. Frogs make a sound here and there and it is so out of order. The poem expresses the fear and comfort provided by night. At night you have to be aware of your surroundings because if anything happened to you who will not be around to help you? Hence “defend ourselves from dark.” So though it makes you think about protecting yourself it also leads you into thinking about the natural beauty from it. What I mean by that is the poem starts off talking about the negative things that occur at night and the annoyingness from the little creatures; but then it gets into how it can be soothing and relaxing. The poem makes it seem as though at night is when the little creatures they feel the safest because there isn’t really anyone there to harm them.
6. Lines five and six in the poem string together several verbs, like “...squeak, chirp, dip...” These verbs associate very well with the images of birds and bats soaring through the air. The verbs are all short, and given the section a very quick tempo, much like a bat would, hunting for food. Much like Brandon said, it makes the bats sound very fast, and gives a sense of freedom in flight. I have to disagree with what he said about the bats “appearing to float” because they were flying. My reaction also contrasted with Rayando's, whereas he felt the movement of the bats was continuous, I thought it was actually the opposite. The authors use of commas implied to me that the bats were swooping around, and the commas represented the short period at the bottom or top of any such swoop, where the bat has almost zero velocity. Most importantly however, the verbs do denote the sound the bats are making, and the images of movement are only imagined. These sounds are the focus of the poem, the bats almost like violins to the bass of the frogs, and chorus of the crickets.
ReplyDelete8. The author calling the birds “importantly” silent to me showed how birds tend to steal the show in a way. When you say, “The sounds of nature.” Most people will think of waves, rain, or birds. Now lakes don't have waves, and rain is too temperamental to really apply. So birds are one off the only images traditionally conjured up. Yet in this poem they are not singing as they so famously do. This gives other animals a chance to shine, and the author seems to feel that they perform beautifully. Rather than one class of animal dominating the soundwaves, the animals of the night work together. I also agreed with SammyWammy's opinion that the birds remained importantly silent may relate to their sudden cawing startling someone. Many birds can be quite loud, and like switching off music suddenly, the break in melody can be unpleasant, and the birds refrained from doing so.
1. According to the dictionary, chitter is a verb, meaning to make a chattering or twittering sound. However, in line 1 of the poem, it is being used as an adjective to describe the noise at night. When I first read the poem, this seemed to me to be describing the noises made by animals and bugs in nature at night, which can sound like chattering noises. However, Rayando stated that “the chitter could have also been describing the darkness itself. The darkness was personified with the use of this word and in turn, makes the darkness appear as if it’s alive.” I thought this was an interesting interpretation, and could be what the author intended, since the poem overall gives the impression that the entire scene is alive through the descriptions of all the animals and noises. I found two definitions for huggermugger online; the word can mean either disorderly or reticence. Given the “air thick with their vesper cries,” the author probably meant “disorderly,” since birds squawking is certainly chaotic. Vesper can refer to a bell rung at evening, which would fit the chaotic mood created by the previous imagery of noise, since vesper is being used to describe noises made by the birds.
ReplyDelete4. Bats are compared in a metaphor to kites, since with their thin wings spread to make the bones visible, they somewhat resemble kites. In line 4, the bats are compared to “seven-pointed kites,” which makes some sense, given the way both kites and bat wings are a thin membranous layer spread over a framework, either bone in the case of a bat, or wood or plastic in the case of a kite. The points refer to the points that are visible along the edges of bat wings, where the bones reach the edges of the wing. These parallels allow a reader to more easily picture bats flying.
2.) The author uses the word thick, like a personification. When you add a human quality to an object or item that naturally can’t do the person like action. When you say the air is thick is a scene of personification like a commonly used phrase, “The air is so thick you can cut it with a knife”. Thought you can’t cut the air with a knife, it still better describes the mood or tone of the poem. The Word thick is also used to describe an amount, this giving the impression that it’s inescapable and pronounced. I’m not quiet sure that personification is the right literary device to describe this quote. This is also might be a metaphor, Seeing as you thick isn’t really a human like quality.
ReplyDelete7.) In the line 14-16 the poet Kumin wrote,” The crickets Chorus hallelujah; Paws, as quiet and as quick as raindrops.”.. The mood of the poem is emphasis by this quote. The mood of the story seems very refreshing and adds imagery of rejoicing. Usually when I think of the word hallelujah, I think about religion and being so happy words can’t express your feelings. So by a group of people parsing, the “best” feeling in the world shows a holistic and natural tone to the poem.
Sincerely,
Da Boss
I agree with the Kay on the number 7 and Everyone on Number 2.
ReplyDeleteSincerly,
Da Boss
5. What was unusual about the comparison of the frogs in 7-9 is that the frogs are compared to ducks as well as given human characteristics of being drunk. The similar sounding words right after each other such as ducks, drunk and boozy, black add emphasize to each other. These words also help create imagery to the point where you can almost picture the wide lipped frogs that are as noisy as the ducks. I agree with Kay in that this section talks more about the more negative and annoying parts of the night.
ReplyDelete6. The verbs in lines 5-6 give the overall impression of action and movement. They are there to describe the elegant movement of the bats over the lake. The verbs also have some alliteration and consonance that further helps to emphasize them. I agree with Brandon in that the verbs make it seem as if the bats have a great amount of freedom as they can move about and do as they please. The bats also seem to be enjoying the night as they are the most active at this time. The use of these verbs shows their activity and happiness of the time being night. I however, disagree with Rayando as the bats movements seem more erratic and spontaneous as opposed to continuous.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete2. In this poem, “air thick with their vesper cries” really helps the reader visualize the abundance of noise in the setting. It is meant to be used as a literary device to help the reader envision his self or herself being there. As Christina said, the alliteration used at the end of the stanzas helped create a thickness in the air that was mentioned in the quote used before.
ReplyDelete4. The comparison of bats and kites represents a sort of peaceful, yet eerie image. Kites usually float around, much like a bat would, flying through the air. These comparisons are being used simply in order to help the reader visualize the bat flying more easily, as Lauren said. The kite represents a sort of eeriness because of how it floats through the air. It floats around going where the wind takes it, silently. Almost like a stealth bomber, like Franz in the senior class's blog said.
2. While air cannot literally be thick, there is intense imagery used that creates a great mental image. Phrases with rhythm such as, “squeak, chirp, dip, and skim on skates” create a strong image and the rhythm. This phrase “the air is thick with their vesper cries” shows that there is so much noise that erupts at night that it fills the air, almost literally. I also noticed that there was a lot of alliteration at the end of the stanza, such as “boozy black” and “chink-chunk,” similar to Christina and Ahmed. This furthers the imagery used in this line and furthers the poem.
ReplyDelete6. The verbs used in lines 5 and 6 include “skitter,” “swing,” “squeak,” “chirp,” “dip,” and “skim,” all of which have a positive connotation. The verbs “swing” “skitter” “dip” and “skim” also create an image of dancing, while “squeak” “chirp” and again “swing” could be viewed as musical. Like James noted, these verbs are all short and give the section a very quick tempo. This could then create the image of dancing bats and the music of night, which shows the love the author has for the night. This imagery is continued throughout the poem; however these two lines seem to emulate the basis of the poem.
3. Alliteration, assonance, and consonance all contribute to the overall mood of "The Sound of Night". I felt that the mood was haunting, since the poem was sort of a battle between day and night. In the poem, every time it spoke about night I felt like it talked about it in a negative way and that they were frightened. The author uses consonance throughout the poem to add to the mood. I feel as if every time he spoke about the animals during night, he uses consonance to emphasize how the animals appear to the campers, and to create a better image in our head. For example, when he describes the frogs he says "noisy as ducks, drunk on the boozy black, gloating chink-chunk." This indicates to us the authors fear of night because of the frogs.
ReplyDelete8. In line 23, the poet says that the birds are "importantly silent". The word importantly has two different meanings. First of all, the words chirping can be important because it signifies the transition from night in to day. Usually, the birds chirp as the sun rises, so the narrator sees the birds chirping as his signal that he survived throughout the night. Like Kaelyn said, once the birds chirp all of the other actions of the animals during the night stop. On the contrary, the second meaning of the word "important" could be the literal definition of the word important because the birds are the first thing mentioned in the poem and they are also the last thing mentioned in the poem. The birds could be the most important animals in the poem, since it talks about their chirping first. The birds chirping first can symbollize the transition into night and also the transition out of night.