258 - There's a certain Slant of Light
_There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons – That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral Tunes – Heavenly Hurt, it gives us – We can find no scar, But internal difference, Where the Meanings, are – None may teach it – Any – 'Tis the Seal Despair – An imperial affliction Sent us of the air – When it comes, the Landscape listens – Shadows – hold their breath – When it goes, 'tis like the Distance On the look of Death – |
AnalysisFirst stanza
●She explores here the contrast between weight and light. ●Throughout the poem the light is seen to be something that releases her from something. ●It cannot be quite understood of whether she finds it as an annoyance due to the way she refers to it as something that oppresses her and is a weight upon her. Second stanza ●She used an oxymoron here to suggest that although something is hurting you it is heavenly so in the end it will be worth while or good. ●This stanza alters the theme of the poem for me personally by introducing a loss of something. It talks about no physical pain only internal pain- which is were the pain actually is important because it cant be physically fixed ●This suggests something happened to her to make her emotionally scared Third Stanza ●She suggests that no one can fix internal problems she has ●'Seal of despair'- it cannot be removed The idea of capitalisation of the words suggests their importance ●'Imperial'- meaning it has more authority or status then something else which would suggest that the thing that has scared her affects her mentally more than others can understand. Fourth stanza ●Nature captures her in her indulgence of things she was not allowed. ●'‘It’ referring to light being the part of nature that exposes her desires and allows her to have hoe for life and the society around her. ●'Shadows' - resemble the darkness, no hope or light ●'hold their breath’ does not force her to do anything unlike the pressures from her family(contextual) ●The shadows are waiting for the light to pass. ●‘Like the distance’ in between distance is the time counting towards her death which highlights how much the light was hope to her. ●Capitalisation again here also suggests a harsh cadence by the letters ‘d’ sounding strong and forceful. |