Brainstorm By Howard Nemerov - Essay Example

Although the span of time in which the events of this poem happened is short, it is very detailed, and the details are very clear. It shows how much can happen in a very short time. If I were to liken this poem to a thing, then it would be to a photograph that captures the details of a beautiful moment. This poem describes a moment of reflection for the speaker, where he faces a storm while in the house, and where his mind takes him to an imagined circumstance of becoming the house, of feeling the crows on his head while he is the house, of being torn down by nature, and of being reborn again into something new.

Reading the poem, I noticed a rhyme scheme on alternate lines. In some cases, the author used internal rhyme to satisfy the rhyme scheme. The poem has two stanzas, with the first stanza consisting of the bulk of the poem and the second stanza consisting of only one line, which somehow serves as a punch line. Simile can be observed in line 6, where the silence of the wind is likened to a blind man walking through the house. Personification can be observed in lines 7 to 8, where the timber and sap of the house are said to ‘revolt’ from the hold of the washer, bank, and spike.

By line 16, I noticed the author used ‘blind’ thrice already, but in different contexts. The first instance refers to the ‘window blinds’, the next is the blind man, and lastly, when the window vanes blur or ‘began to blind’ with rain. At first, it disturbed me, but then maybe the author meant it this way because it probably symbolized something. The house and crows are personified as they talked to each other. The speaker is then worried that ‘the secret’ might be out as the crows and the house talk.

The secret is that “houses are only trees stretched on the rack.” If nature knew this secret, then it would claim what is rightfully hers; rain will put rust in the nails, shingles will be warped with