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What is the central idea and message of Douglas Livingston's "Lake Morning in Autumn"?
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The central idea of Douglas Livingston's "Lake Morning in Autumn" is the resilience and determination of the stork during migration, reflecting a broader message of perseverance. The poem draws parallels with Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," highlighting themes of solitude and internal motivation. The stork, depicted with human-like qualities, embodies magnificence and strength, pressing on despite exhaustion, symbolizing the drive to achieve goals beyond immediate comfort.
It would be hard for a student of poetry to not find a similarity of mood and message between "Lake Morning in Autumn" and Robert Frost's beloved poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Although Livingston's poem is overtly a nature poem about a stork, he didn't name the poem for the stork. His title, "Lake Morning in Autumn," draws a parallel, by contrast, with Frost's poem. Frost's poem happens in the evening; this poem occurs at sunrise. Frost's poem takes place in a woods overlooking a frozen lake; this poem takes place on a lake. Frost's poem is set in winter, with "easy wind and downy flake" in the air; this poem is set in autumn, with "pencil-slanted rain."
Despite these contrasts, the isolation, exhaustion, and determination of the protagonists--man and stork--unite the two works. The stork is on a lonesome journey, separated from his fellows, and stops...
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to rest, "ponderously alone and some weeks early." He is utterly exhausted, so much so that he doesn't care about his own appearance, "too tired to arrange his wind-buffeted plumage." Despite his loneliness, despite his tiredness, he sighs and mounts slowly to the sky to resume his journey toward his distant destination, just as the man in Frost's poem continues on with "miles to go before I sleep."
As in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," the overriding message one gets from this poem is of the internal motivation that drives one onward, despite one's personal discomfort. People, like birds, have the ability to press on toward a goal that is greater than their momentary desires. Whether that goal involves "promises to keep" or represents some other internal compunction, it allows people to push through loneliness and fatigue to achieve success. In this poem, the subtle message transcends the surface meaning. It calls us to heed the inner drive that compels us toward our ultimate destination, even when we are alone and exhausted.
I would like to be a bit more specific in regards to the central idea than the above answer. The central idea of "Lake Morning in Autumn" by Livingston is the magnificence of the stork in mid-migration.
I find it interesting that the title of the poem doesn't necessarily reflect its main idea. The speaker of the poem observes the stork in the fall of the year, definitely in the middle of the stork's migration. We know this because of how "so very tired" the stork is. Let's look as some specifics that show the magnificence of the stork in autumn. The stork is described as follows:
Ruminative / Beak on chest, contemplative eye / filmy with star vistas and hollow / black migratory league, strangely, / ponderously alone and some weeks /early.
The magnificence of the stork is revealed here by use of some personification: giving the stork human qualities. The stork is able to think, to ruminate. The stork is able to be contemplative. It is also magnificently resilient in that it is not dependent on a flock, but majestically alone in the fall arriving at this mid-destination earlier than the others.
It is the beauty of the "blood and gold" dawn that stirs the stork to continue his migration. He beats his wings and ascends in to the sky as the speaker watches his feet trail for "a long, long time."