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

This poem us a tuneful exercise in which the poet reveals his technical skill by using great(p) techniques and figurative language to reinforce his description of a scene. It is one of Audens few poems of natural description, maybe of the coast in the West orbit of England.The start-off stanza requires the stranger someone unfamiliar with the island of kingdom of Britain but perhaps acquainted with the stereotype of it as a dull and gloomy drive to look at, and re-examine his prejudice about, Britain, as it is revealed (discovered) for his enjoyment by the sunlight move and flickering on the waves of the sea. The alliteration and consonance of -l- straitss (dancing, light, delight) and of the alveolar -t- and -d- sounds (light, delight, discovers) in the second derivation, and the variation of considerable 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 stand and remain quiet so that he can hear the sound of the sea, varying in volume, perhaps correspond to the fixity required, while the pattern of stresses on wander and river, in the penultima line, and on swaying sound of the sea, in the last line, combined with the sibilance, conveys an intellection of the changing volume of sound coming from the sea, and the continued whispering sound that it makes.The second stanza invites the stranger to wait at the point where a subtile field terminates in a chalk cliff, which drops to a shingle edge below. The waves surge up the beach until they be 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 doubt and uncertainty as to what comes next and suggests the ending of the land and the beginning of the air. The ve ry(prenominal) assonance in chalk, skirts, falls and tall creates the same smell out of extension but its quick repetition in chalk wall fallsconveys the nonion of a rapid or sheer drop, the alliteration of -f- conveying the notion of air bubbling up in foam.The echoic 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 agree. The metaphor and onomatopoeia in scrambles, with its clutter of consonants, again vividly conveys the quick slue 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 decently pulling action of the ebbing 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 stay on the wave and hints at the bre vity of the stay.The third stanza takes us merely out to sea and describes the stations which leave the port (diverge), and which seem, because of their diminutive size, as small as seeds. The simile like floating seeds suggests they are mien 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 send off these vessels have an exaggerated idea of the importance or value of these journeys). The rhymed 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 live 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 a nd 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 easy and relaxed ease, appropriate 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 anile prejudices about the island kingdom, it also functions as a celebration of the senses of sight and hearing which are used in observing the scene and in re-living the experience.It is write in three stanzas of seven 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.