Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Explication of Peace by George Herbert

     Immediately, I noticed that the main point this poem is attempting to bring across is how allusive and hard to achieve the concept of peace truly is. Around the world, diplomats, politicians, and scholars have been tentatively working on a plan for peace, yet it is seemingly impossible. Many people often find it hard to connect with their personal inner peace as well. The author of this poem uses a set of seven different journeys or mini-anecdotes to emphasize how hard peace is to come across.
     The more I read this poem, I believe the author is talking about their efforts to achieve inner peace. The author utilizes the literary technique of enjambment in the first three stanzas to make us think she possibly might come across the peace she is looking for but repeatedly, the answer is no. In the last four stanzas, the author of the poem tells the tale that she was told when she met a reverend while on her personal path to peace. The reverend tells the story of a prince who lived a sweet, wholesome life and after he died, there were twelve stalks of wheat that grew out of his grave. This was a strange occurrence but this wheat spread throughout the earth and was a source of nutrients and peace for the people. In chapter six, a symbol was explained as a very well-known technique in figurative language and in this poem, I believe the wheat was meant to represent peace.
     Earlier, the author referred to a time they were searching for peace in the Crown Imperial, a beautiful, bright flower. A flower that is almost completely opposite of a crop like wheat. The moral that is trying to be brought across is that peace is not going to be found in the most glamorous routes or "the most traveled down paths". Peace is going to be found where it is least expected, in a solution that not many people would choose.

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