Irving Layton’s “Berry Picking,” and Robert Lowell’s “Water,” are two poems that discuss the flawed nature of human relations by comparing them to the natural world. Imagery of nature and the natural world are used extensively in both poems to show comparisons between nature and relationships, as well as using nature as a contrast to human relationships. The natural world is portrayed as soft, simple and innocent in one poem, however it is viewed a hard and complex in the other. The two poems use different perceptions of nature to describe the same thought on human relationships: that they are imperfect. Both poems use the colours of nature as a comparison to relationships, using the common connotations that certain colours give to the reader.
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This poem rather than using positive imagery to show a contrast between human relationships and nature, shows nature in a colder light to show the coldness of human relationships. This poem has a repeated imagery of rock, using the word a total of five times through the eight stanzas. A rock is typically a symbol of strength and a symbol of something that is unchanging and solid. This concept of the rock is changed in this context as it is being something that gets eroded. The human relationship being compared to a rock signifies that the relationship was meant to be solid and everlasting, but the images of erosion make the rock powerless. The rock also is important to signify the coldness and harshness of the relationship. This becomes apparent in the final line where Lowell states “the water was too cold for us” (32). Rocks are considered to be cold objects, and since the relationship was compared to this cold rock, it is significant that the demise of the relationship was due to the cold. The poem also uses the imagery of death in nature to symbolize the death of the relationship. The line “it seems the colour / of iris, rotting and turning purpler,” (15-16), builds up a beautiful image of beauty from the word iris, to only be crushed by the word rotting. This contrast demonstrates how human relationships may seem to be perfect and beautiful but they metaphorically …show more content…
Lowell also used repeated words to emphasize the symbolism he created through his imagery of nature. This poem uses imagery of objects in nature that are strong but also cold and eventually weaken to compare to the similarly complex and flawed nature of human relationships. Both “Berry Picking,” by Irving Layton, and “Water,” by Robert Lowell, use images of nature as metaphors for imperfect human relationships. The first poem uses nature as a contrast to the failed marriage of the speaker, whereas the second poem uses harsh imaery of rocks to compare to the harshness of the speaker’s failed relationship. These poems both send the same message: that human relationships are difficult, complicated and flawed. They squash the ideology that human relationships are always perfect, and do this by showing something that is perfect, or imperfect in nature to show the respective contrast or
This poem rather than using positive imagery to show a contrast between human relationships and nature, shows nature in a colder light to show the coldness of human relationships. This poem has a repeated imagery of rock, using the word a total of five times through the eight stanzas. A rock is typically a symbol of strength and a symbol of something that is unchanging and solid. This concept of the rock is changed in this context as it is being something that gets eroded. The human relationship being compared to a rock signifies that the relationship was meant to be solid and everlasting, but the images of erosion make the rock powerless. The rock also is important to signify the coldness and harshness of the relationship. This becomes apparent in the final line where Lowell states “the water was too cold for us” (32). Rocks are considered to be cold objects, and since the relationship was compared to this cold rock, it is significant that the demise of the relationship was due to the cold. The poem also uses the imagery of death in nature to symbolize the death of the relationship. The line “it seems the colour / of iris, rotting and turning purpler,” (15-16), builds up a beautiful image of beauty from the word iris, to only be crushed by the word rotting. This contrast demonstrates how human relationships may seem to be perfect and beautiful but they metaphorically …show more content…
Lowell also used repeated words to emphasize the symbolism he created through his imagery of nature. This poem uses imagery of objects in nature that are strong but also cold and eventually weaken to compare to the similarly complex and flawed nature of human relationships. Both “Berry Picking,” by Irving Layton, and “Water,” by Robert Lowell, use images of nature as metaphors for imperfect human relationships. The first poem uses nature as a contrast to the failed marriage of the speaker, whereas the second poem uses harsh imaery of rocks to compare to the harshness of the speaker’s failed relationship. These poems both send the same message: that human relationships are difficult, complicated and flawed. They squash the ideology that human relationships are always perfect, and do this by showing something that is perfect, or imperfect in nature to show the respective contrast or