I am a parcel of vain strivings tied (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Henry David Thoreau
- First Published: 1841
- Type of Work: Meditation
- Genres: Poetry, Meditation
The Poem
“I am a parcel of vain strivings tied” by Henry David Thoreau is a shaped-verse poem of forty-two lines consisting of seven six-line stanzas that meditate upon the brevity of life, the delicate and complex forces that bind experience together, and the sources of artistic inspiration or rebirth. The poem begins with a startling, almost paradoxical image that compares the poet to a package that cannot hold its dynamic, struggling contents. The second and third stanzas further develop this theme with the image of a bouquet of flowers held together by a mere “wisp...
[The entire page is 1264 words long]
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