“The House” is a free verse poem with three stanzas and an irregular number of lines for every stanza. The author’s focus is to pass a certain message to the reader and therefore rhyming patterns may not seem as important. In the poem, the author focuses on an issue that is part of every household around the world which is food and hunger. In the first stanza, the aim seems to be on a child who needs to understand how important having a meal and in plenty means life for the child and the family. The author indicates how the child’s house and table is full of food, the house encompasses the great aroma of bread baking and the poet and the audience break the bread as they prepare to share a meal. At the end, the author indicates how a hard it is to understand the evolution of wheat into bread.
The second stanza still acts as a form of enlightenment for the child. The author shows that it is a privilege for them to have bread on the table at that moment because not every household can afford such a privilege. The author further shows how shameful it would be for the child to enjoy bread when other children do not have especially in the presence of those who lack. The third stanza describes how hunger is often hovering around looking for a place to attack. Here one can see the author’s reference of how hunger can affect one individual today and moves to those who previously had plenty in the blink of an eye. The author takes the time to emphasize the importance of saving a little bread for tomorrow so that when hunger comes around, it does not find the opportunity to settle in their house.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
One can identify the significant use of symbolism through various phrases throughout the poem. For instance, in the last line of the first stanza, the author shows how wheat, a dark earth flower, becomes bread which is white thus the phrase “how dark earth flowers white”. Other uses of symbolism include “wheat belongs to the air”. Here the author needs to show the reader that wheat is available everywhere across the world and is not limited to a certain group of people. The author further says “but bread, God’s face they call it” a statement that implies how special bread and food is at it represents the source of survival for everyone just like the face of God would represent life. There is also the use of personification especially in the third stanza.
In stanza three, the author assigns life-like features to hunger which is an inanimate concept. For instance, the author says “so if Hunger comes he’ll see it”. Not only is hunger given animate characteristics through the pronoun ‘he’ but also through the capitalization of the letter ‘H’ which is characteristic of writing human names. Another example is when the author states “we’ll watch Hunger eat”. Here, the use of animate traits such as eating is recognized and one can also identify the continued capitalization of the first letter in the word ‘hunger’ despite its use in the middle of the line.
The overall structure and figurative language used in the poem looks to enhance the theme of hunger. The author uses a free verse strategy to ensure that its message is not limited through rhyming schemes but that the lines can pass the appropriate message. The use of symbolism and personification further highlight having food in plenty and hunger. The author needs to emphasize how special it is for people to have food thus the use of phrases like “God’s face” and how hunger is often waiting at the door for those who are not careful to save for tomorrow.
