Jake Burmeister
11 Lit of the Northwest
Mr. Tourais
2/24/2015
The True Meaning of Being a Person Understanding the nature in “Being a Person” In “Being a Person” by William Stafford, the usage of repetition and tone brings the reader into the reality that is being a person. To “invoke winter, then spring” is to suggest that we, as people, are meant to be silent (Stafford). The repetition of the word invoke emphasizes this reality. The tone in the first stanza is set by these words, it is a mellow tone, almost as if it was meant to be read in a whisper. Talking quietly allows the reader, the person, to absorb the infinite calls that nature provides them. Once “that sound goes away, wait”, wait for a new sound to come to renew the reader as a person (Stafford). Stafford’s usage of ton in this first stanza does not only deepen the understanding of the poem, it deepens the readers understanding of themselves. How they are absent in their normal lives and must return to nature to be renewed. When “A slow bubble rises through the earth”, it begins as hollow as the person (Stafford). But just as the person, the hollow bubble “begins to include sky, stars, and space, even the outracing, expanding thought” that in needed to find ones true meaning of being a person (Stafford). But the person is not done, they must be sent back to “hear the little sound again”, to see the weathering of the logs, the rocks, the trees (Stafford). All nature, all surround the river