Word Choice In Milton's And Heaney's Poems

How My Light Is Spent By John Milton

Diction is known as an author´s choice of words in their speech and writings in their works. When an author or poet uses diction, it plays a very important role and it also allows us to establish his or her style and tone of work. Theses word choice must be used appropriately to pass the author´s or poet's message clearly to their readers. There are different types of diction depending on the context and settings of your writings.

The summary of the poem here is now that he can't see anymore the speaker, poet, is worried that he will not be able to serve his God. His main worry is if he is worthy of serving God in his current state of blindness. As the poem continues, a figure called Patience gave him an answer. He was told that it does not matter what he is lacking, as long as he does God, will accept it. He just had to believe in himself and in God.

The figure Patience is a very important concept in the Bible and it helps believers to continue having hope in their faith. When reading the poem, you can sense the tone of regret. It feels like the speaker did not live his life to the fullest. Like he has regrets because he left somethings out of his life; Carpe Diem. As you read the poem, you can see that the poet uses both literary devices and the figures of speech.

First off, personification is used in this line, “But Patience, to prevent that murmur, soon replies, ”. Patiences in this line is given a human characteristic in a way that it is said that patience replies to the speaker. Maybe this is his conscience talking to him. Hyperbole and Imagery were both detected in lines 12 and 13, “thousands at His bidding speed and post o'er land and ocean without rest; the exaggeration, “thousands” of the number of people doing what God wants. “Speed and post o'er land and ocean without rest” creates an image in your head and because of the visual description of what is going on. Imagery is used to show that it may not be necessary for all the hustle and bustle because you can be in your house or even your room and pray to God and your prayers will be heard.

There was also the rhyme and redeem scheme, the poets pattern of writing, in the poem. In the endings of lines 2 and 5, 3 and 4, 10 and 13, etc. , you can see the rhymes that the poet creates at the end of the lines and this catches the reader's attention.

Digging by Seamus Heaney

The poem starts off with the speaker holding a pen and he gets distracted by the noise that is going on outside of where he is sitting ready to write. Turns out it was his father digging out potatoes. He then gets a flashback of when he was a young boy and how his father was always digging potatoes on the fields. His memories go deeper when he also recalls his grandfather doing the same thing on the potato fields, working until their whole body will be dripping wet with sweat. But as soon as they come, they are gone as the speaker is brought back to his senses and he goes back to his writing. What this shows is that no matter our roots, we can be who we want to be. Maybe working on the potato fields has been done by the men of his family for generations, considering he remembers his father and grandfather doing so, but that does not mean that he can't do what he wants to do. No matter our traditions, roots, beliefs, etc. we can still do what we want or what we belief is right and be our own people, different from the generations that came before us.

In “Digging”, the poet uses imagery, symbolism, etc. to go catch the reader's attention. Imagery is used throughout the poem in a way that he was talking about the soil but he indirectly talks about it. He explains how the soil smells, the sound it makes when the shovel dives into it and how it looks in order words texture. This shows the roots of the speaker and his special tie with the soil since the generations before him all went through the potato fields.

Conclusion

In both both poems, the similarities are about dreams. In When I consider how my light is spent, the speakers dreams will no longer be able to come through and he looks back at it with regrets. His tone is regretful. While in “Digging”, the speaker doesn't want to disappoint his family but he still has hopes that his dreams will come through. In this poem the tone is hopeful because he believes that his dreams can come through without disappointing his family.