Jisoo Kim IB2 English Literature SL Block G

A bit more organization here than in your reference sheet, which is helpful. But, again, how would you break this up into a manageable number of sections for a commentary? Grade: 6

To Earthward by Robert Frost

Eight quatrains (stanza with four lines) First person narrative Very figurative poem due to the excessive imagery Theme: to gain an understanding of life, one must come to the reality that pleasure and pain coexists Division into first four quatrains and last four quatrains Different type of imagery (sweet to salty, light-hearted to ominous) Past tense to present tense FIRST SECTION Overall, speaks of all things sweet Stanza 1 Begins with an alliteration of Ls: Love at the lips was touch A kiss Effect: the kiss becomes more romanticized, much like how the entire first section of the poem is. The speaker sees life through a romanticized glass and thinks everything is sweet. Young, nave: The kiss was as sweet as *he+ could bear and it seemed too much Instead, lives on air which in his glamorized view of life is sweet enough to sustain him Stanza 2: musk from hidden graveyard springs Confused of finer details, was it musk, downhill at dawn shows how much time must have passed between then and now Stanza 3 More sweet things: sprays of honeysuckle, dew But also hurt by the sweet things: swirl and ache young and nave even the slightest thing can harm him Stanza 4 From ache to sting (intensified diction) ache from honeysuckle, sting from rose petal strange, rose thorns sting, not petals effect: emphasizes vulnerability of speaker Overall, sensory imagery used (i.e. olfactory, touch) effect: full effect of the sweetness SECOND SECTION Stanza 5 Signal word, now Literally expresses realization that joy and pain coexists But not dejected by this reality but rather crave*s+ the stain

Jisoo Kim IB2 English Literature SL Block G Stanza 6 Brings up past of almost too much love Paradox of placing joy with pain by placing sweetness with bitter bark and burning clove Stanza 7 Alone, seems as though the speaker is tired of the pain takes away hand from where it hurts from leaning Alliteration of Ss: stiff and sore and scarred dramatizes the weariness and pain Stanza 8 Far from unhappy with reality Craves for more knowledge Sitting is not enough, longs to fell the earth as rough to all my length (to lie down) I long for weight and strength associates pain with strength of knowledge ABAB rhyme keeps poem uniform so that a sharper contrast can be made between the two sections Every stanza, first three lines follow iambic trimeter and last line follows iambic dimeter keeps the poem grounded despite the intense imagery used (grounded to earthward) Title: suggests the speakers desire to figuratively lay down on the earth and derive knowledge from the pain of the sand digging into him