The Ash (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: William Heyen
- First Published: 1977
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Nature, Friendship, Doctors, Death or dying, Drugs, Medicine, Trees, Hospitals, Insects, Bees
The Poem
“The Ash” is a lyric poem in eleven stanzas of four lines each. It is written in controlled free verse, with two to four stresses per line. The title refers to a tree—the mountain ash—which becomes a central symbol in the poem (and in the sequence with which it was published). As well as designating flowering nature, however, the name of the tree inevitably carries with it connotations of decay and death.
The poem opens with direct quotation—the complaining voice of the poet’s sick friend, whom he is visiting in the hospital. The poem is composed of...
[The entire page is 1506 words long]
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