Monday 2 June 2014

Mrs A. Varind:

Lake morning in autumn  by Douglas Livingstone 



Before sunrise the stork was there

resting the pillow of his body

on stick legs growing from the water.



A flickering gust of pencil-slanted rain

swept over the chill autumn morning;

and he, too tired tired to arrange



his wind-buffeted plumage,

perched swaying a little,

neck flattened, ruminative,



beak on chest, contemplative eye

filmy with star vistas and hollow

black migratory league, strangely,



ponderously alone and some weeks

early. The dawn struck and everything

sky, water, bird, reeds



was blood and gold. He sighed.

Stretching his wings he clubbed

the air; slowly, regally, so very tired,



aiming his beak he carefully climbed

inclining to his invisible tunnel of sky,

his feet trailing a long, long time.







 Glossary:



Ruminative – thinking deeply about something.

Contemplative – meditative or thoughtful.

Vista – distant view seen through a long, narrow opening.

League – measure of distance similar to approximately 5 kilometres.

 – alliance; compact between persons to further common interest; a group of people

 or organisations linked by a common aim.

Ponderously – That which is very heavy, laborious or clumsy; boringly solemn or long-

 winded.

Anthropomorphism – attribution of human form and characteristics to that which is not

 human.

Enjambment – the unbroken continuation of a sentence from the end of one line to the

 beginning of another.



Summary:



The poem is a personal and impressionistic response to a stork. The details of the seen and

the bird are vividly captured which contributes to a central theme of marvel. The speaker

attributes many human qualities to the stork allowing us a greater degree of empathy and

hence enhancing our appreciation of the poem. The season and the bird’s weariness

suggests that his presence at the lake is a break in his migratory journey.



Enjambment:

. Suggests movement – the stork’s migration.

. Forms a link between impressions.



Grammar:

The scarcity of full stops suggests that there are very few stops on the bird’s migratory

journey.



Interpretation:



Key:

Green – important connotation

Yellow – anthropomorphism Line:

1. A sense of mystery is present in the stork’s introduction. It is as if it has made a

sudden appearance and the question arises as to the place it has come from.

2. A pillow is effectively used to describe the stork’s body. Besides its association with

rest or sleep the pillow is also soft. It is also ironic that the pillow need rest on

something when things normally rest on pillows.

3. Sticks are normally considered spindly and pointy. These would provide

uncomfortable things to rest on. The contrast with pillow also emphasises the

impression of discomfort that the speaker has of the stork. That the stork’s legs grow

from the water suggests a harmony with nature.



4. An inconsistent wind causes the rain to fall at an angle. The description of the rain as

‘pencil- slanted’ suggests it to be dark grey in colour and piercing, due to the sharp

tip of a pencil.

5. The rain sweeps over the morning. This suggests the strength of nature and further

points to the poor conditions that the stork must endure.

6. ‘Tired’ is repeated for emphasis.



7. That the stork struggles to arrange its feathers shows us that it is far too exhausted

even to perform the most basic of tasks. ‘Buffeted’ implies a heavy and repeated

force. This again suggests nature’s strength.

8. The stork’s swaying again points to its exhaustion as it is too tired to resist the

buffeting of the wind.

9. The stork is resting its head on its body. The speaker has the impression that the

stork is deep in thought.



10. The stork is again portrayed as resting. ‘Contemplative’ suggests that the stork is

reflecting on the subject of the next line, that being its migratory journey.

11. ‘Star vistas’ suggests to us that the stork has travelled many nights as well as days.

‘Star’ also suggests the wonder of all the things it may have seen on its way whilst

‘vistas’ suggests the stork’s focus on his journey thus suggesting that it has had no

time to enjoy these wonders. ‘Hollow’ may suggests that the stork has, in its fatigue,

forgotten the reason for which it undertook the journey- it has become empty or

meaningless to the stork.

12. ‘Black’ again suggests the night time flight of the stork as well as that the migration is

never ending. Hence the use of league as a measurement of distance. The second

use may refer to the other migrating storks which, as explained in the next line, are

strangely absent .

 13. The stork is alone which is strange for a bird that usually migrate in small groups.

That it is ‘some weeks early’ serves as both an explanation of its solitude and to add

further questions, hence increasing the sense of mystery. ‘Ponderously’ refers to the

migration of the stork.

14. The sun rises. ‘Struck’ suggests the force of nature once again and the sun can either

be interpreted as violent or as an absolute power. ‘Everything’ supports both

interpretations as the sun has either the power to effect everything or is violent

enough so as to inflict violence upon everything.

15. The list of things the sun effects further serves to emphasise its power or reign of

violence/ force.



16. ‘Blood’ may refer to the sun as a necessity to life or it may again point to the violent

nature of nature. ‘Gold’ refers to the wealth of nature and/or the wealth that the

sun gives to everything in the world. The stork sighing once again reminds us of its

fatigue.

17. Stretching is an act of preparation for a physical activity. This suggests that the sun

has aroused the stork from its rest and perhaps even giving it the energy to continue

its journey. That the stork clubs the air again suggests violence and thus can be

interpreted as the stork fighting back against nature with great effort , but it may

also be interpreted as a sign of renewed determination.

18. The stork takes to the sky. ‘Regally’ implies that the stork still retains a dignified

appearance despite its fatigue.



19. The stork is precise in his navigation ability and rises higher into the air with care.

20. The stork picks his direction instinctively as suggested by its ‘invisible tunnel’ which

also links back to ‘vistas’ (line 11).

21. The feet of the stork trail behind, reminding us of its fatigue.













Compiled by B. S. Seegers