Ashley Bidgoli

Period 6 English

2/22/17

Poetry Analysis Essay

The poem, Where I Lived, and What I Lived for by Henry David Thoreau presents a

main conflict. The main conflict throughout the poem, is that many people are living live full of

regret and living it the way others tell them to. When he says I went to the woods to live

deliberately(1), he means he wants to live life simply, down to the bare necessities, so he can

actually live. When the poet dies, he will discover that he didn't live the life he wished to live.

He refers to sucking all the marrow out of life(11) to draining the life that was given to

him.The poems topic is simply about seeing everyday as an adventure and not being told how

you should live life on this earth.It reveals struggles people are dealing with on an everyday

basis.

In the poem, there are many things to analyze, including the mood, tone, and lyrical

ballad. Throughout the poem the mood is concerning, yet hopeful at time the tone is happy and

frustrating. The poem is a lyrical ballad and the intended audience is supposed to be for the

author, himself or for simplistic people. The author is trying to convince readers how the ideal

life should be. He believes that existence should be simple in order to enjoy life. When he says

reduce it to its lowest terms (15) he means that you dont need materialistic things to love

your being. Henry David Thoreau also states that he was constantly receiving comments about

how he should live rather than living it his own way. He was convinced to believe that expensive
items were a necessity in one's life. He finally decided to take the path not known,and to go

under the given surface.

Along with the mood, tone, and ballad there are many other things to consider when

analyzing the poem.The poem does not express a rhyme scheme, rhythm, meter, or structure.

There are rarely any enjambments or end stops but semicolons and commas are present.In

diction and syntax, there are a lot of passionate words and dragging phrases which show the

author means what he says and is very emotional about it. The arrangement of the verse and

stanzas barely cuts off and only separates to begin a new thought. This poem is unique because

many of the traditional rules dont apply for it.

There are many sound devices that are conveyed throughout Where I lived, and What I

lived for. There is consonance in line 1 when the author says I went to the woods because I

wished to live to many example deliberately. The reason its a consonance is because there is a

repetition of sounds in that line. A line of alliteration is I did not wish to live what was not life.

(7) A form of assonance is when a vowel sound has repetition. An example of it is And to be

able to give a true account of it in my net excursion. (22) The next sound device is

onomatopoeia, the formation of a word from a sound. When the author says sucking out all the

marrow out of life (11), that is an example of onomatopoeia. Along with that, there is a simile

in stanza 12 when he says I live sturdily and Spartan- like as. A metaphor is a figure of speech

so driving life into a corner (14) is a good example of it. That line is also a form of imagery.

All of these sound devices bring many hidden meanings to the poem. They let the readers know

what emotions the author is trying to express in a creative way. Where I lived, and What I lived
for by Henry David Thoreau expresses how civilization changed throughout the year and how it

affects people on an everyday basis.