Skip to main content

What are the abstract and philosophical elements of the poem "Birches"?

As an adult, the speaker longs to swing on birches again. He notes how swinging on the birches is a temporary escape from the earth.



I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over. 



When he was young, swinging on the trees was simply a matter of play. As an older man, and more reflective, he sees the practice of swinging in more philosophical terms. He wants to "get away" from the earth for a while, but then he wants to come back and repeat the process. This idea of getting away could be something as simple (and abstract) as daydreaming or living in one's imagination.


He may imply that he wants to be young again, or, at least, he wants to feel young again. Combined with these notions of dreaming and feeling young again is the more spiritual metaphor of moving between heaven and earth. As he swings up, he moves toward heaven and then he comes back down to earth. He does not want to escape from the earth completely and this indicates that he is happy in life and does not want to die. He only wants to briefly touch and/or dream of heaven.



May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth’s the right place for love:
I don’t know where it’s likely to go better. 



While leaving earth and coming back could imply living multiple lives, the abstract escape the speaker is dreaming of here might be as simple as a temporary escape from his daily routine.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more