MS. AMBER HUNTINGTON ADAPTED FROM INTRODUCTION TO THE POEM THEME

THE SUBJECT OF A POEM IS NOT THE SAME THINGS AS ITS THEME A poem’s subject matter is whatever the poem talks about Example: “The Gray Squirrel” by Humbert Wolfe Like a small greyThe keeper on the coffee-pot,other hand, sits the squirrel.who shot him, is He is nota Christian, and all he should be,loves his enemies, kills by dozenswhich shows trees, and eatsthe squirrel was not his red-brown cousins.one of those. This poem’s subject include the habits of the grey squirrel, the act of the keeper in shooting it, and so on The theme of a poem, on the other hand, is its “idea,” its generalized content, which it is possible to state with various degrees of generality One could say that the theme of this poem is that animals follow the law of the jungle and destroy—but that man is worse because he destroys while pretending to follow a higher law Or one could say, much more generally, that the theme is the hypocrisy of man

THE SUBJECT OF A POEM IS NOT THE SAME THINGS AS ITS THEME In the following poem, much of the subject matter is declared in the title Two neighboring New England farmers are out walking along their stone boundary-wall in the spring, each on his own side, and as they go they replace the stones that the “frozen-ground-swell” of winter has dislodged One of them ventures to suggest the wall is hardly necessary The other replies that good fences make good neighbors This, in brief, is the subject matter of the poem What is its theme?

“MENDING WALL” BY ROBERT FROST Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: “Stay where you are until our backs are turned!” We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of outdoor game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: “Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down.” I could say “Elves” to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father's saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”

WHAT IS THE THEME? What is the theme of the “Mending Wall”? The following questions may help guide you in your answer What is the subject matter of the poem? How many things or persons are mentioned in the poem that apparently do not love a wall? What would you say the “something” is that is referred to in lines 1 and 35? What is implied about the nature of this “something” by lines ? What do lines tell us about the theme? What is the “darkness” referred to in line 42? Is it a darkness that we are all likely to be surrounded by, sometime?

“CLIFF KLINGENHAGEN” BY EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON Cliff Klingenhagen had me in to dine With him one day; and after soup and meat, And all the other things there were to eat, Cliff took two glasses and filled one with wine And one with wormwood*. Then, without a sign * wormwood = a bitter extract from the plant For me to choose at all, he took the draught Of bitterness himself, and lightly quaffed* *quaffed = drank It off, and said the other one was mine. And when I asked him what the deuce* he meant * what the deuce = what on earth By doing that, he only looked at me And smiled, and said it was a way of his. And though I know the fellow, I have spent Long time a-wondering when I shall be As happy as Cliff Klingenhagen is.

WHAT IS THE THEME? What is the theme of the “Cliff Klingenhagen”? The following questions may help guide you in your answer In what ways are wine and wormwood different? What would you say each represents (symbolizes) in the poem? How does Cliff’s behavior warrant the use of the word “happy” in the last line of the poem? What does he do that should make him happy? What is the subject matter of the poem?

THEME AS ONLY A PART OF THE WHOLE The theme of a poem is part of its meaning, just as is its subject matter But neither subject matter nor theme nor both together make the whole meaning The whole meaning of the poem is the whole poem as it stands For Example: It is convenient to talk about a man or woman’s “character,” “temperament,” “intelligence,” etc. But just as none of these abstract words can substitute for the whole person, who is always flesh, blood, and bone—a person with eyes and hair of certain color, a brown mole behind the right ear, and a passion for cooking—so no theme or subject can substitute for the whole poem Themes are important but are not the end all

NOW YOU TRY You may work with one other person Get a Theme assignment Read the poems Answer the questions Decide what the theme is