Essay 3

DELIGHT IN NATURE

                                                            An Anonymous Inuit Poet.

Thesis: Through the poem “Delight in Nature”, Lowenstein’s involves imagery; alliteration and repetition of sounds, helping the reader interpret the true meaning of nature.

            In the poem “Delight in Nature” translated by Tom Lowenstein, the imagery displayed of nature through water is expressed by an Inuit poet. The poem connects to the reader’s mind, by bringing out the poet’s history. In the Inuit culture, it involves distinct lifestyle traditions such as adapting to extreme climatic conditions and acquiring skills for survival such as hunting and trapping. Exhibiting the relations and experiences that the poet may had encounter between himself and the actual nature, the poem brings out the true significance of water and its symbolism on the actual nature. He accomplishes his message of portraying this imagery by standing out the importance and radiance of the different feelings about nature which are displayed on three stanzas. The delightfulness of water is incredibly touched by the reader’s imagination; and gives it the sense of self-presence. Through the poem, the poet involves imagery, metonymy and repetition of sounds, helping the reader interpret the true meaning of nature.

 On the first stanza the poet interprets the imagery of water flowing though the rivers in the gorge. This idea connects to a sense of self-presence for the reader, when the poet opens up the question “in the streams?”(Lowenstein, 5). He interprets the excitement of the society approaching to nature slowly throughout the days. The relation that he expresses between himself and the presence of nature describes the feeling of people being inside nature and appreciating the diverse delights that it carries along. The Inuit culture has various connections to the poem, which also brings another perspective to the reader’s mind. “When you slowly approach it/ and trout hand behind stones in the stream?” (Lowenstein 3-4).  Considering the poets history, this could also refer to him, picturing himself as a great hunter waiting behind the stones in the stream ready to catch its prey. The author gives this sense of interloped images for people to understand not only the importance of nature but its hidden message that can also be found behind nature’s beautiful delights.

           The narrative way that the author illustrates nature on the second stanza, interprets the sense of his own emotional feelings. By encountering the idea of nature as a landscape, the author illuminates the connection of his desire to go back into that beautiful fantasy. As he recites it in this quote “Isn’t it delightful/ That grassy river bank?/ Yet Willow Twig/ Whom I so long to see again/ Is lost to me/ So be it.” (Lowenstein 6-12). Its emotional desire of imagining the feeling on the smooth “grassy river bank” and the sense of nature touching his skin, rely on the idea of the author’s background once more. By reciting his tranquil memories, the author ally’s the excitement of his dream as a gentle beautiful desire connecting it to nature. The verse interprets a literary device of metonymy smoothly by displaying the author’s memories. The concepts of speech interpreting nature overlap his mind and clearly generate an enormous sense of peace and self-presence through the readers mind.

            The repetition of sounds encounters the poem’s delight of nature. The author uses this tool to give the reader a sense of his cultural background history; he also brings out the image of his native culture by standing out some relative words at the end of each stanza. Involving the different meanings of nature in the Inuit culture, the poet displays this action though this quote “Jajai-ija./ Isn’t it delightful /that bluish island of rocks out there/as you slowly approach it?/So what does it matter/That the blowing spirit of the air/Wanders over the rocks: /The island is so beautiful,/When, driving steadily,/ You gain on it./ (Lowenstein 14-23). He illuminates the delightfulness of nature through repetition in the poem, to give the imagery of perfectness and at the same time calmness, smoothly encountering the reader’s attention. His initial idea is to accomplish a personal picture by imagining the poem though out his culture and personal traditions. Religion’s presence though the poem exhibits the connections that nature has within itself and develops a bigger idea of the delightful meanings in the culture to the people.

            In the poets mind the delightfulness of nature is magnificently displayed though out the poem. There are different meanings that are interpreted though the three stanzas on the poet’s lines, which encounter with his cultural background giving the reader time to reflect on what the poet actually meant. The Inuit culture not only helps the reader to understand the poem in a better form, but it also fulfills it with an enormous way of substantial material which engages distinctive historical information. His incredible way of arrangement of the poem, firmly describe its personal feelings and experiences about nature, connecting them to a personal cultural background by involving imagery, metonymy and repetition of sounds; he finally guides the reader to interpret the true meaning of the delightfulness in nature.

Work Cited

"INUIT." Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures. London: Cassell, 2005. Credo Reference. Web. 13 November 2013.

Lowenstein, Tom. “Delight In Nature.” Schubnell, Stampfl, Pryer, Perez, Clark and Swoffrd. 640-641.

Lowenstein, Tom. “Delight In Nature.” The Water and Culture Reader Second Edition. Eds. Matthias Schubnell, Tanja Stampfl, David Pryer, Hector Perez, Emily Clark and Beth Swoffrd. Southlake, Fountainhead Press. 2013 640–641 Print.

DELIGHT IN NATURE

Written by: an anonymous Inuit poet
Translated by: Tom Lowenstein.

Isn’t it delightful,

Little river cutting though the gorge,

When you slowly approach it,

In the stream?

          Jajai-ija.

Isn’t it delightful,

That grassy river bank?

Yet Willow Twig,

Whom I so long to see again,

Is lost to me.

So be it.

The winding of the river

Through the gorge is lovely enough.

            Jajai-ija,

Isn’t it delightful

that bluish island of rocks out there

as you slowly approach it?

So what does it matter

That the blowing spirit of the air

Wanders over the rocks:

The island is so beautiful,

When, driving steadily,

You gain on it.