Under the Harvest Moon

     UNDER the harvest moon,
When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over the garden nights,
Death, the gray mocker,
Comes and whispers to you
As a beautiful friend
Who remembers.

     Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusk
Of the wild red leaves,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.

By Carl Sandburg

Explication

In this well-known pastoral poem, Carl Sandburg does an incredible job of outlining changes from one thing to another. For example, he brilliantly describes the change from summer to fall, from life to death, and even from night to day. These opposing ideals are included as contrasts between the first and second stanzas. I chose this poem for my theme of colour because of the little descriptive words the author employs in order to emphasize the contrasts. The lines that I felt were the most important were "When the soft silver drips shimmering" and "When the flagrant crimson lurks in the dusk". These lines are vital to the poem because, unlike lines 5 and 12, they describe a colour as the subject of the sentence rather than using it as an adjective. This lines are more effective because they are used purely for imagery as it is challenging for the reader to comprehend exactly how a colour can "drip" or "lurk". As for poetic devices, there is a hyperbole in line 15 (a thousand memories), as well as a paradox in the last line (unanswerable questions).