Analysis of The Cool Web by Robert Graves Essay

Why is the name of the numbers The settle down electronic network? Give a reason for your answer.The poem discusses an adults predisposition to utilise lingual dexterity to reduce the consequences of innate emotion.The title combines two words, feeble and web, each(prenominal) of which evokes a strong impression, to create a third even more reverberating image.There be many English expressions which part the word calm down to convey repressing emotion. This usage is similar to using calm collected down, dont lose your cool, go and cool off, cool it and so on. Even the slang interpretation of cool in the sense of fashionable or sophisticated conjures up the stem of a relaxed and casual mental attitude. In the context of the poem, cool can be seen as synonymous with a lack of passion and an increase of self-control. sack up is utilise to convey the sense of being enveloped by a floor which inhibits freedom. grave could consecrate used net or mesh, nonwithstanding those words lack the sinister connotation of the most common use of web that of a spiders web. In this sense, there is an air of vulnerability and menace the spiders prey has not chosen to be caught in the web, and is ensn atomic number 18d nevertheless.The combination of cool and web creates an image of forced composure. The cool web is a linguistic leukotomy which life imposes on humankind.What is the deed of the repeat of zesty and dreadful in the first stanza?The first stanza creates a threatening atmosphere. The adjectives used are exquisite the day is not warm, it is hot the evening is not dark, but cutting the soldiers are full of dread, not just alarming. (Although now used in the same way as frightening, dreadful really describes a great level of terror.) This development of menace is further speech patterned by the repetition of the hot and dreadful. The point is driven home to the reader.If Graves had used synonyms blistering for hot and frightening for dreadf ul in the south instances of each, the meaning would be essentially unchanged. However, the sound and rhythm of the stanza would be significantly affected. The effect is in addition assisted by repeating not only hot, but the assonance and alliteration of the phrase how hot.The repetition and emphasis of hot in delimitates 1 and 2 also provides contrast amongst the word cool in the title and chill in line 5. Cool and coldly are also used in the be of the poem in contrast to hot.(This emphasis through repetition is used a number of times in the second stanza with term of enlistment in line 10 with too much and in the put up stanza with facing.)Who are we in the second stanza (line 5)?The use of but at the beginning of line 5 contrasts we from the children of the first stanza and presumably Graves thus essence adults. Adults have a more sophisticated command of diction with which to interpret events. Children are direct in their approach to the world and do not attempt to obscure public for any reason. On collision an overweight person, a young child will cheerfully select them why they are so fat. An adult would be unlikely to pi unrivaleder the subject at all. Children simply soil what they think adults use euphemisms and musculus obliquus externus abdominis vocabulary to ward off unwelcome emotions.Comment on the use ofThe adjectives cruel to describe the roses scent and overhanging todescribe the iniquity (lines 6 and 7).The reader is jolted as these adjectives are associated with unfamiliar subjects. This is a form of foregrounding to draw attention to the lyric poem of the poem. The use of cruel to describe the scent of a rose is especially jarring. Almost without excommunication the rose is a symbol of romance and love, not one of cruelty. Graves seems to be implying that anything that intrudes even something pleasant is objectionable and to be dulled. By describing the iniquity as overhanging Graves refers to the sense of intimida tion, of something unexpected looming over us. The poet indeed tells us that this should and can be be flecked away as undesirable.The verb spell in the phrase we spell away (lines 7 and 8)Graves exploits a double meaning of spell to intertwine the ideas of language and trickery. In the linguistic context spell means to form a word by arranging its constituent letters in the correct order. Spell also means to influence someone or something by means of sorcerous powers. In this way, the poet concentrates a number of images into a single word. An adults desire to misrepresent reality is a form of magical spell, but it requires the ability to spell words.(Graves also uses this technique in line 1 by describing children as dumb. This could mean that they are stupid and therefore unable to manipulate and distort the world. It could also mean that children have no linguistic faculty as in deaf and dumb. Of course, he means both.)Explain how, in your opinion, the cool web may protect one against too much joy or too much timidity (lines 5 to 11).The cool web of language is used to rationalise extreme emotions. Instead of reacting instinctively to a situation, we can drown it in boring explanations. From pulpit to parliament, and from lawyer to liar, we use language to distort reality to gibe ourselves. It is through language that we can persuade ourselves that the noise we hear in the night is just thecat and not a violent burglar. This is the institution for Gravess reference to retreating from too much fear.Less pellucid is the desire to protect ourselves from too much joy, a shape that would appear to be desirable. Perhaps the poet believes that we are unable to supervise adequately with either extreme of fortune. There are a number of superstitions in this regard such as labelling something as being too sizeable to be true. It may be that Graves is suggesting that we subconsciously see that we cant sustain a state of delight for enormous and that t he pain of the ensuing disappointment is not worth the moment of joy. It reflects a low-risk paradigm where we would forego the highs to avoid the subsequent inevitable lows.What indications are there in stanza 4 to show us what the utterers attitude is towards such protection?The phrases self-possession and throwing off show us that the speaker believes that the protection which language offers is an imposition and not a natural state of affairs. He notes that this enforced situation controls us for our whole life until we die. turn implying that this protection is a burden, Graves also tells us that without it we would go mad. In other words, this protection is a necessary evil.Why do references to the day, the rose, the night and the soldiers recur throughout the poem?These words occur in the first, second and fourth ( pass) stanzas. The repetition in the second stanza and the fourth stanza fulfil contrastive purposes. The reference in the second stanza forms the basis for a c ontrast with the sign reference in the first stanza. In the first stanza these objects are expound via a childs simple outlook hot and dreadful. In the second stanza the same words are described via an adults more complex, language-distorted view.The last stanza has a different form than the first one-third it breaks apattern of 4-line stanzas and, by doing so, demands extra attention from the reader. In this last stanza the words day, rose, night and drums are listed simply without adjectives. This neatly reminds the reader of the beginning of the poem and completes the comparison between children and adults, and their differing use of language. soon state the speakers conclusion about the role of language in our lives (lines 13 to 18).The speaker concludes that we need language to protect ourselves from the reality of life. Graves states that without the capacity for persuading ourselves that situations are not what they appear, we would find it impossible to cope and would go mad.The diction (choice of words), complex body part, rhythm and tone of the first and last stanzas are markedly different. What do you think the purpose of these differences is?The first three stanzas have a relatively simple rhyme scheme of A B C C. The effect of lines 3 and 4 of each of these stanzas rhyming is that each stanza is concluded firmly. Three stanzas with the same structure creates a pattern and an anticipation that the next stanza will be the same. The fact that it is not is a surprise and a type of foregrounding. The last stanza has a rhyme of A B C D C D and this difference in structure alerts the reader and demands additional attention.This warning is welcome as the message in the last stanza is far more direct than previously where metaphor and allusion are used. The last line states unequivocally we shall go mad no doubt. It is in this last stanza that Graves delivers his judgement on our use of language.