Desolate and lone
All night long on the lake
Where fog trails and mist creeps,
The whistle of a boat
Calls and cries unendingly,
Like some lost child
In tears and trouble
Hunting the harbor's breast
And the harbor's eyes.
I'm not quite sure what Carl Sandburg means by "the harbor's breast," but I like the metaphor he makes about the harbor's eyes, which can be compared to a lighthouse. Being "Desolate and lone/ All night long on the lake" gives the reader a lonely and desolate feeling.
ReplyDeleteI especially liked this poem and the metaphors the author is portraying. The author compares a boat at sea to a lost child. The blunt and simplistic tone depicts just how childlike the boat's thoughts are. The author then later portays the boat as missing the "harbor's breast," as if a boat could actually miss it's home.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is pretty cool, but is pretty said. It's tone portrays a sense of despair when it compares the whistle of a boat to a "lost child." The setting helps overall complete the tone by creating an alienated individual on a lake, and uses vivid imagery such as "fog trails" and "mist creeps."
ReplyDeleteThis poem is quite confusing. I feel like Sandburg is describing the term 'lost' in a few different ways. It describes children and boats being lost; or are they the same?
ReplyDeleteThis poem may be short, but it has a lot of meaning to it. I think the poem is somewhat expressing how everyone feels when they are lonely like "some lost child in tears and trouble," I think everyone experiences that feeling at some point in their life
ReplyDeleteThe ominous diction of this poem creates a feeling of desperation. The mist "creeps" up on the boat as it "calls and cries unendingly." It's almost as if there is no hope for the boat and that it will never be found.
ReplyDeleteI thought Carl Sandburg was using a metaphor to compare "Hunting the harbor's breast" to the port in the harbor where the boat belongs. That the place where the boat needs to be docked is the heart or home almost. The "harbor's eyes" is another way of describing the spot light or lighthouse that over looks the lake guiding people through the fog back home.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bologna. Im not sure what this poem means or the point it is trying to make. But i like how he starts the poem with "Desolate and lone." The lines "The whistle of a boat Calls and cries unendingly," make me think that Carl is asking for help from someone in the poem. I also like how he uses the harbors eyes to compare to the light house and the harbors breasts to compare to the shore.
ReplyDeleteThis is an eerie poem. When the author compares the "unending cries" of a boat to a "lost child" it makes me sad because when kids are lost and can't find their parents they feel alone and just start crying.
ReplyDeleteThe imagery in this poem creates such a vivid picture for me. It's very accurate, too. The creeping mist and the whistle of the boat I think makes the poem. The metaphor to a lost child is an interesting perspective as well.
ReplyDelete