Words: 921
By giving time a capital T Aden shows us how precious it is in an era of uncertainty. Deadens “If I could tell you I would” shows the poet doesn’t have complete power. He may reference the fact that if he does indeed die he’d tell you about the afterlife if he could. The language here shows how Aden is infant contemplating the meaning of life and religious beliefs. He may be unsure what to believe as death is a possibility and wishes he could tell others, the anxiety is evident from the speaker in the poem. IMAGERY
Aden almost paint live like pictures in our mind through his use of brilliant imagery, “if we should weep when clowns put on their show”, shows strong images of darkness. We see darkness and depressions inside the poets life. The poet cannot feel happy even at a comedy show like the circus. Possible the poet fears for the children during the war hence mentioning clowns who perform for children usually. The autumn imagery of seasons changing and leaves “decay” gives a sense of the end of love. The poet feels love is no longer and option with his life possible looming.
The imagery of season changing leaves decaying in autumn and winter beginning shows a change. The change is natural as it happens in life regularly just like regularly love fails for people and like the changing of seasons sometimes love failing cannot be stopped its just a natural course of events in life. However the poet does show some positive imagery. Again he uses nature. “Perhaps the roses really want to grow’, tells the audience that if the poet survives love may happen. Hess not only hopeful he will live and be unharmed physically or emotionally e is optimistic that love can happen for him.
The poet shows hope at a very bleak time showing his desire for happiness. The image of the roses wanting to grow pottery a powerful for compassion of color , nature and peace. Another nature image appears in stanza 4. “The winds must come from somewhere where they blow”, this shows us the natural world the poet is observing. He feels there is a reason for this wind , they come from somewhere but where ? The poet is unsure and questions everything In life as he wants answers but only time will tell something with which the poet accepts but struggles to accept.
In the final stanza a circus image this time of lions instead of clowns is shown. “Suppose the lions get up and go”, could be the bravery of the poet disappearing,. A fearsome lion walking away could represent the poet having enough of this battle and giving up. Form The poem uses an iambic pentameter. This gives feet of UN stress and stress. The poem mirrors the style of the 9th century Belleville form. This form for poems is tightly structured with a Belleville poem. The poem is 19 lines In Engel, with five stanzas.
The form provides repetition to emphasis the message the speaker is trying to deliver. The poet is the speaker in the poem. His rhyming style also contributes to a kind of music like way like that of a Belleville. Theme strongly believe the main theme is time in this poem. The poet has a personification of time. The poet doesn’t know “what will happen in the future? “, only time can tell. The repetition of time shows how focused on time the poet is. The poet uses a capital letter on t in time to make it stand out ore. The poet doesn’t know whether he’ll die or live only time will tell.
We don’t know when. All we know is time will tell , this creates anxiety for the poetry being unsure of everything. “no fortunes can be told” and the poet has simply no power only time does. Time decides the poet future, ‘ ‘Time only knows the price we have to pay”. The poet dreams of love growing like that of roses. Roses take time to grow like love, but time is not controlled by the poet. The poet is simply unsure of everything and cannot wait for time to tell IM the answers, although his predictions could be right and ‘time might say nothing but I told you so”.
Time is the central theme of this poem controlling all aspects of the poet thinking. Anxiety and fear are very evident as we worry about the poet safety in times of war. Sadness is evident when we see “decay’ of love, the poet inability to be laugh at clowns and his awkward unconfined manner stumbling instead of dancing “when musicians play’. The poet is reflecting on the negatives in life as he pictures his life ending something I find uncomfortable and saddening. The poem ends with even more uncertainty.
The poet asks the question will time say nothing but told you so? Instead of repeating it without the question implied. This caps of the poets uncertainty, leaving many unanswered questions. Maybe time will tell but when is that time? W. H Aden provides us with a true Belleville. Through his insightful imagery, the Belleville form, descriptive language and his various themes he makes it a pleasure to read. I found this poem very anxious and upsetting but felt it was a fantastic display of poetry.