Friend through the Window Essay

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Friend Through the Window

Eng125: Introduction to Literature

Instructor Wilson

Courtney Pfadt

October 21, 2013

Friend Through the Window

Poetry is a response to ordinary life experiences (Clugston, 2010). In
Richard Wilburs’ poem, Boy at the Window, the memories of his son staring out of the window, gazing at the lonely snowman, is an experience that Wilbur, as a father will never forget. The compassion of the poem that is expressed, shows the fear coming from his son as the snowman stands alone in the cold, and also the anxiety he gets with of the moaning wind outside. “It allows thoughts and feelings about everyday human experiences to escape the unconscious workings of the mind. (Hunter, 2002) With the use elements like figurative language and personification, and a strong theme, Wilbur is able to create an imaginative, emotional, and meaningful poem. In the poem, Boy at the Window, Wilbur uses figurative language, which means expressing ideas indirectly, such as similes or metaphors and personification, which is a figure of speech formed when qualities normally associated with a person are attributed to abstract things or inanimate objects. “Poetry often uses figurative language to convey ideas and to create a mood.“ (Vleet, 2013). For example, when he says “the pale-faced figure with bitumen eyes”, he meant the snowman with eyes made out of coal. I think the use of figurative language is used in many poems, which in terms makes poems unique and keeps the reader interested and challenges them to figure out what the writer is actually saying. If poems did not incorporate metaphors or similes, etc. poems would not be as exciting to read and be boring for many. I think the theme of this poem is a little boy who becomes sad as he watches his snowman friend stand alone outside in the cold. He uses this to draw strong emotion to the story and express the fear that the boy could lose his friend to the cold weather. Because Wilbur expressed these emotions so