Introduction
The poem “The Thread of Sunlight” written by Timothy Young is included in the anthology “Reading and Writing from Literature”, the 3d edition, by John Schwiebert where he raised the most important problems of humanity. The basic theme of the poem is the consequences of the war period and the pain of those people who suffered at that time. The poem under analysis highlights the peculiarities of national conflicts and underlines the idea of showing prints left by the years of war. “The Thread of Sunlight” is a symbolic name for the poem disclosing the power of the sun which has the magic to show all the details of war consequences.
Main text
Timothy Young managed to illustrate and transfer the pain of that period to a reader with the help of literary techniques used in the work. The poem abounds in epithets, such as:
“…arachnid size”, “…outboard motors”.
The usage of cognitive metaphors makes the theme of the poem more alive and involving:
“…my heart condensed to arachnid size”, “wounds of war opened before me”.
The author wanted to illustrate the pain of the narrator’s parents and show that they managed to overcome the period of war though it was very painful for them and brought many losses.
“When I asked my mother about war, she told me, “you are thinking too much…”
The illustration of hyperbole “thinking too much” underlines the fact that the mother did not want to transfer her pain of war to her child and wished to say nothing about the national conflicts. Besides, the words of the father inserted immediately show that he wanted to change the topic in order not to come back to that time: “before her sentence ended my father rushed in…”
The poem under consideration is not selected by John Schwiebert by chance. This poem would always be important and of great value for every generation as the problem of war left an unforgettable print in heart of every person. The consequences of war are underlined by the author in the usage of the following elements:
“The window trim should be painted”, “the outboard motors could be tuned”. The significance of the war prints is especially underlined with the literary techniques used in the poem. The author managed to illustrate the significant power of the sun and that is why he draws special attention to it.
“Where the thread of sunlight crossed the top bunk…”
“The sunlight reflected off the Falt Lake…”
In this case, the writer used personification of the sun in order to make the object more powerful, alive, and humanlike.
The analysis carried out proves that the usage of literary techniques such as metaphors, epithets, hyperbole, etc. makes the poem more expressive and involving; with the help of stylistic devices, the author managed to illustrate the peculiarities of the war period and transfer the sufferings of the whole nation describing one family. Young wanted to underline the fact that this small episode of their life and some objects of war transferred them to another epoch of national conflicts and involved the time of war actions forgetting about all their daily routine and usual running problems.
“…I stood between my mother and father thinking.”
According to Mary Swift who devoted her article to the theme of war, the poem “The Thread of Sunlight” is quite realistic and reflects all the detail of the human soul during the period of war. She considers that even spiders in the poem are symbolic as they might underline the terrible mood of the conflicts between the nation and with those spiders in the poem the narrator saw the wounds of war.
“I touched the rough-cut rafter,
and watched two spiders approach…”
“One spider limped on with the otter’s head in its mouth.”
The poem used by John Schwiebert is considered to be one of the most important for students as it is really unique and differs from all others. This poem is very emotional and it can not but influences every reader of the anthology. The theme of war is effectively reflected by the author and the usage of literary techniques provided in it involves the reader into the content.
Conclusion
“The Thread of Sunlight” is full of literary techniques and stylistic devices which make the work cover the main aspects of war and human sufferings. The author underlined the idea of showing all the peculiarities of that time and reflect the feelings and emotions of the whole nation. With the help of simple objects, the author managed to underline the disastrous character of war and terrible consequences which cannot be “repaired” or improved by people; they were inevitable and brought great losses to plenty of families. The poem disclosed the idea of the modern generation’s interest and worries about that time; the writer wanted to underline the fact that modern youth is not indifferent to the previous epoch and sufferings of our grandfathers. This poem abounds in different literary techniques and is quite involving and emotional.
References
Swift, Mary. The Losses of War. “The Day” NY, 2005.
Schwiebert, John. Reading and Writing from Literature, 3d edition. Weber State University, 2004.