Conflict and Ambiguity in Different Poetries

Student Last Name 1
Student Name
Professor Name
Class
Date
Conflict and Ambiguity in Four Groups of Poetry 1. Richard Crashaw: “Upon the Infant Martyrs”
In “Upon the Infant Martyrs” (“Upon the Infant Martyrs”), Crashaw laments loss of infants in a uniquely short eulogy. In contrast to poetic conventions, Crashaw’s short eulogy is striking, powerful and speculative at once. The poem also combines conflict and ambiguity is numerous eloquent ways to convey a sense of irrecoverable loss. Specifically, Crashaw introduces readers/listeners to a conflicting view of milk and blood “blended in one flood.” Typically, milk and blood do not share a mental association in day-to-day life. To see both blended” is, accordingly, unsettling at least. To drive such a powerful image home, Crashaw uses powerful imagery. Then again, Crashaw is initially ambiguous by arousing reader’s/listener’s interest as to what “both” might refer to. The reader/listener is not left, however, for long to guess but has his initial question answered in “mother’s milk” and “children’s blood.” This direct attribution of milk to mothers and blood to children perhaps alerts reader’s/listener’s senses to something extremely shocking. Once more, readers/listeners are not left long to guess. Expressing doubts about faith, Crashaw intensifies conflict rapidly rising among readers/listeners following fate of mothers and children so brutally separated. Predictably, or not, Crashaw perhaps confirm reader’s/listener’s worst fears by expressing his doubts about whether heaven (in small letters) would unite roses and lilies, a metaphor for infant martyrs and nursing mothers.
Student Last Name 2
2. Robert Frost: “Mending Wall”
In “Mending Wall,” (“Mending wall”) Frost expresses outrage at walls built between neighbors and his sustained rage at his neighbor’s persistence to mend a common wall when any gaps occur. The poem is intriguing and is full of mundane day-to-day yet powerful metaphors. The wall metaphor is, generally, evocative of separation, alienation and, sometimes, aggression. In “Mending Wall,” Frost develops a sense of conflict and ambiguity among readers/listeners. Initially, Frost meets reader’s/listeners expectations by confirming negativity of walls between people. Using negative associations such as “frozen-ground-swell,” and “hunters” and yelping dogs,” Frost is ambiguous as to what “a wall” mentioned in very first line is intended to mean. Moreover, gaps, continues Frost, are found in such wall during “spring mending-time” – a season usually associated with prosperity, sunlight and harmony. This ambiguity gives way, however, to a sense of conflict as Frost elaborates more. Specifically, Frost’s wall turns out to be a wall separating him and a neighbor. The wall’s meaning unfolds as Frost elaborates even more about why such wall exists. The unfolding story of such wall uncovers perhaps a universal conflict among fellow men supposedly as close to one another as neighbors and ...