“Look, stranger, at this island now” by W.H. Auden Essay

This poem us a musical exercise in which the poet reveals his technical foul skill by using break down techniques and figurative language to reinforce his description of a scene. It is adept of Audens few poems of natural description, perchance of the coast in the West Country of England.The maiden stanza requires the unknown quantity someone unfamiliar with the island of kingdom of Britain but perhaps acquainted with the stereotype of it as a muffle and gloomy place to look at, and re-examine his prejudice about, Britain, as it is revealed (discovered) for his enjoyment by the sun leaping and flickering on the waves of the ocean. The alliteration and consonance of -l- sounds (leaping, light, delight) and of the dental -t- and -d- sounds (light, delight, discovers) in the second line, and the variation of big vowel sounds in leaping and light, together with the repetition of light, creates a quick dancing effect which mimics the reflection of sunlight off waves.In two more commands the narrator requires the stranger to get up and remain quiet so that he can hear the sound of the sea, varying in volume, perhaps according to the fixity required, while the pattern of stresses on wander and river, in the penultimate line, and on swaying sound of the sea, in the blend line, combined with the sibilance, conveys an idea of the changing volume of sound coming from the sea, and the go along whispering sound that it makes.The second stanza invites the stranger to wait at the point where a small airfield ends in a chalk cliff, which drops to a shingle beach below. The waves surge up the beach until they argon halted by the cliff. The assonance of the long -au- vowel sound in small and pause in the first line, which concludes with the command to pause, gives the impression of something long ending suddenly, which creates a feeling of suspense and uncertainty as to what comes succeeding(prenominal) and suggests the ending of the land and the beginning of th e air. The equivalent assonance in chalk, walls, falls and tall creates the same sense of extension but its quick repetition in chalk wall fallsconveys the archetype of a rapid or sheer drop, the alliteration of -f- conveying the notion of air bubbling up in foam.The onomatopoeic pluck and knock vividly conveys the dragging and pounding effect of the waves on the shingle and the cliff, the sturdy defiance of the last-named being suggested in the metaphor oppose. The metaphor and onomatopoeia in scrambles, with its clutter of consonants, once more vividly conveys the quick sliding descent of the shingle down the beach, the sibilance re-creating the sound it makes, while the metaphor in sucking, together with the break in the word, gives some idea of the powerful pulling action of the reflux waves. Again, the description of the gull and the placing of lodges at the end of the line creates a sense of suspension which emphasizes the difficulty of maintaining a perch on the wave and h ints at the brevity of the stay.The third stanza takes us further out to sea and describes the ships which leave the port (diverge), and which count, because of their diminutive size, as small as seeds. The simile like be adrift seeds suggests they are bearing new life. They are so far away that they do not seem to be controlled by men (voluntary) though they are on errands (which diminishes the importance of their journeys) which are urgent (these words imply that those who direct these vessels have an exaggerated idea of the importance or value of these journeys). The rime of diverge and urgent creates a sense of the ploughing movement of the ship as it passes through the water.The last four lines of this stanza return to the start of the poem and suggest that the whole scene may continue to choke in the memory of the observer, passing as silently and casually and beautifully as the clouds reflected in the water of the harbour pass, like people strolling at leisure. Here, the alliteration and consonance of the soft -m- sounds in memory, mirror and summer, and the half-rhymes of mirror summer and saunter all convey a sense of gentle and relaxed ease, detach for scenes which are recalled in moments of leisure.The poem, then, invites the stranger to see for himself the beauty of thisisland at this special moment in time. Although it suggests a need to re-examine old prejudices about the island kingdom, it also functions as a celebration of the senses of sight and hear which are used in observing the scene and in re-living the experience.It is written in three stanzas of sevener lines. The rhyme scheme of the first stanza is abcdcbd. The line lengths are varied effectively, to suggest changes in the movement of waves or in the duration of a sound or a feeling. Run-on or end-stopped likes are used effectively to convey similar ideas or impressions.