A Tuft of Flowers

Essay Prompt

Read both the poem and song carefully. Then, compare and contrast how each uses literary devices such as imagery, structure, and diction to show how a connection with another person can erase loneliness.

A Tuft of Flowers

Example Thesis

Although both the poem and song use vivid imagery and a rhyming structure to show a connection and freedom from loneliness, Frost's "A Tuft of Flowers" focuses on an indirect unromantic kinship through predictable structure while "The Storm" focuses on a romantic relationship and utilizes a freer structure.

Multiple Choice Answer

1. In line 25 of "A Tuft of Flowers", who/what is "them" referring to?

D. The flowers

- "leaving them to flourish"refers to leaving the flowers to live and not cutting them

The workers have not been discussed in the preceding sentence, the speaker's family is not referred to at all here, and the butterflies were not the thing that was "left to flourish"

Robert Frost

Multiple Choice

3. What lines best mark a shift in the speaker's attitude within "A Tuft of Flowers"?

A. Lines 5-10

B. Lines 10-16

C. Lines 15-23

D. Lines 30-35

Multiple Choice Answer

3. What lines best mark a shift in the speaker's attitude within "A Tuft of Flowers"?

Answer: D

-The speaker's realizes that he shares a common bond with the other workers, and it is emphasized by his new found ability to hear the other worker (scythe) and the wonder of nature around him (birds chirping)

Lines 5-10 introduce the speaker's loneliness, lines 10-16 actually support the idea of loneliness and sadness because the butterfly has lost its flower friend to the grass-guillotine, and lines 17-23 mark the primary action of the poem, but mention nothing of a change in the speaker's attitude.

Multiple Choice

2. What is the overall tone of "The Storm"?

12. What is your historical and cultural distance from the poem?

A Tuft of Flowers

• The speaker and the mower he feels a connection with are doing tasks that have been replaced with modern methods

The Storm

A. Didactic

B. Sardonic

C. Bitter

D. Thankful

• Easy to relate to, the author is a contemporary musician from Los Angeles

9. Examine the use of language.

Multiple Choice Answer

2. What is the overall tone of "The Storm"?

D. Thankful

- The speaker is thankful that he found a significant other: "and the miles feel like inches when I think of you", "the worst is gone"

The song isn't commanding/didactic; At no point does it feel disdainful or mocking (sardonic), and it is not bitter but rather thankful.

A Tuft of Flowers

The Storm

• The positive, and somewhat archaic language such as "marked" contributes to the poem's positive and uplifting theme.
• In contrast, the sparing harsher words, such as "withering" hint at the debilitating effects of life and loneliness if not for love.

• The conversational, intimate style of the language emphasizes the song's importance on one person's ability dispel loneliness.

7. Are there key statements or conflicts in the poem that appear to be central to its meaning?

A Tuft of Flowers

The Storm

8. How does the sound of the poetry contribute to its meaning?

• "The truth is to me that I was caught in the storm, that I wasn't alone"
• Here, the speaker states that a single person can be a safe haven for someone else, and that true comfort can be found from a loved one.

• "'Men work together,' I told him from the heart, 'whether they work together or apart."
• This main message is that no one is ever truly alone, that all humans share a bond through nature and the beauty of life

The Storm

A Tuft of Flowers

11. What qualities does the poem evoke in the reader?

6. How does the poem use imagery?

The Storm

• Common vernacular contributes to the poem's warm upbeat message, and also supports the idea that the speaker is talking to someone he is close too.

A Tuft of Flowers

• Archaic words such as "a 'wildered" and "o'er" contribute to a timeless feeling
• Iambic pentameter adds suspense to the story/plot, and also contributes to that same fable-like tone. This makes the theme something all-encompassing, and indeed, timeless.

• Similes such as "eyes lit up like a river stone"
• "I watched the shadows in the hall/how they danced with the light and the white on the walls"

• Peacefulness

• Imagery is mainly used to describe the physical setting of the poem
• Personification of the scythe, butterfly, and of the flowers add to the archaic, fable-like tone of the poem

• Thoughtfulness

"The Storm"

• Happiness

• Realization of interwoven human connections

• Relief and well-being

4. What is the structure of the poem?

The Airborne Toxic Event

A Tuft of Flowers

The Storm

• Verses with a chorus

• Formal thematic structure using rhymed couplets, follows actions of the speaker

3. What is the argument, thesis, or subject of the poem?

• Rhyme scheme is free and changes throughout

10. Can you see any ways in which the poem refers to, uses or relies on previous writing?

A Tuft of Flowers

• Masculine rhyme scheme makes it more archaic

The Storm

5. How does the poem make use of setting?

A Tuft of Flowers

The Storm

• There is a shared beauty in nature.

The Storm

• There are no works alluded too in this song.

• The speaker is on tour but feels anchored by a romantic bond

A Tuft of Flowers

• Not really a specific setting

• Though the poem does not mention it, this poem is tied into the poem "Mowing" by Robert Frost, which appears a few poems ahead of "A Tuft of Flowers" in Robert Frost's early book, A Boy's Will

• Vague idea of "home" - "walked right through the doorway", "shadows in the hall"

• No man is truly alone, because we share common appreciation for beauty and life

• Having someone in our life can give us real happiness

• The mown grass and "destruction" of the morning beauty provides the necessary conflict for the poem, and the butterfly, farther out workers and the work itself are necessary to the speakers' revelations.

A. The other workers

B. The speaker's family

C. Butterflies

D. The flowers

1. In line 25 of "A Tuft of Flowers", who/what is "them" referring to?

Multiple Choice

2. Who is speaking in the poem?

Then you walk right through the doorway

You tell me your here to stay

The worst is gone and by God I love

If you'd been here this way

And you knew it all along

I wasn't happy all along

and your body all I wanted

let me to just come home

Then you walk right through the doorway

You tell me you're here to stay

The worst is gone and by God I love

If you'd been here this way

And I only just learned how to stand like a man

I've got 25 years of running instead

How could I see the ground at my feet

The truth is to me that I was caught in the storm

That I wasn't alone

A Tuft of Flowers

The Storm

• A worker "turning the grass" (used to be done after scythe mowing)

1. What is the genre, or form, of the poem?

• Small actions can make a large impact

• We are all human and experience similar emotions

A Tuft of Flowers

13. What is the world-view and the ideology of the poem?

• Finding a significant other in your life is very important to feel a sense of home and to ward off loneliness

The Storm

• A lover, speaking to his significant other. This is meant to be heard by someone else, as if the lyrics are a letter of one side of a phone conversation.

The Storm

A Tuft of Flowers

• Indie rock

• The speaker identifies himself as alone from the start, and while his revelations come from the physical world around him, the poem is introspective.

• Lyrical narrative

Before it took you away

I tried to think of something I could say

I watched the shadows in the hall

How they danced with the light and the white on the walls

Your face in these pictures looks like a poem

Your eyes lit up like a river stone

Your body so much like a blanket thrown

On a warm bed at night, like a house in a storm

Then you walk right through the doorway

You tell me you're here to stay

The worst is gone and by God I love

If you'd been here this way

I surprise myself sometimes

The way the days unfold and this road unwinds

You tell me you see it too

And the miles seem like inches when I think of you

Its been 25 day since I've been gone

25 weeks since I've seen my home

I spent 25 months chasing this song

and all of this time I've been alone

• Acoustic

• "Masculine" rhyme scheme (Rhyming of stressed ending syllables)

• Rhyming couplets, adds charm, and the tone a fable