User talk:Sonathuya

Design

Design, a sonnet by Robert Frost was published in 'A Further Range' in 1936. The sonnet is the expression of the poet's surprise over the mysterious existence of the world surrounded by omens and evil designs. It reflects on the argument that the complexity of the world proves that a supernatural creator (i.e., God) must have designed things. The speaker of stumbles across a strange sight one morning that, a white spider holding a dead white moth on top of a white flower. Finding this sight at once miraculous the speaker wonders what kind of higher power would "design" a world that contains such horror and suffering if such a power exists at all. Background "Design" is a fourteen-line sonnet which explores the notion that nature and the whole universe is designed by a malevolent intelligence. It is based on the everyday observation of a spider on a flower holding up a dead moth but essentially the poem is playing around with theological argument. From a simple first-person scenario the poem moves into a more complex narrative, using paradox and allusion and other devices, before ending up with a sestet of puzzling questions. In typical fashion Robert Frost crafts his poem with technical ingenuity and ambiguity, leaving the reader to work out the answers to a series of questions that defy concrete conclusions. The mere word 'design' by itself has no consequences and explains nothing. It is the barre nest of principles. The old question of whether there is design is idle. The real question is what is the world, whether or not it have a designer—and that can be revealed only by the study of all nature's particulars. So, it is possible to imagine Frost that, the poet is going out one day and observing the spider with the moth on the flower and being inspired to create his sonnet. "Design" is often seen as Frost's dark response to the classical argument from design, the argument for an intelligent benevolent God. This is why some teachers shy away from this powerful poem, believing it to be a construct against the existence of this good God. Setting "Design" takes place on a morning out in nature, perhaps in a forest or field of some sort ( to the "wayside" heal-all, at the side of a rural road). This isn't the green, luscious natural world that poetry often depicts, however; instead, it's a place seemingly drained of life and color, where a "fat" white spider sits atop an unnaturally white heal-all flower while holding onto a white moth. Spiders and heal-alls aren't typically white, so this sight, in one interpretation, might point to the existence of a divine creator: an intelligent designer who brought these three in white figures. In other words, if this scene points to there being a "design" to the world, it must be a "design of darkness" meant to disgust and disturb. The natural world thus becomes a reason to doubt the existence of a benevolent God, rather than proof of such a god. On the other hand, the speaker notes in the poem's final line, it might not be evidence of a grand "design" at all; perhaps the scene is just a coincidence. Theme :The Role and Existence of God Robert Frost's "Design" describes a white spider on a white flower holding a dead white moth (its next meal). Musing on who or what brought these three "characters" together, the speaker wonders whether life is brutally random or if there’s a higher power with an intelligent “design” for the universe pulling the strings. The poem ultimately implies that the existence of such a power (i.e., God) isn’t necessarily any more comforting than the idea that people are all alone; on the contrary, such a "designer" must have a twisted taste for darkness and evil. On the one hand, the sight of these three white figures might mean that the world is the product of intelligent design—that all of nature’s complex parts have been finely tuned by an outside force into one miraculous system. The speaker wonders if something or someone “steered” the moth to the flower at the exact moment the spider was on top of it and ready to pounce. Other elements of the scene also might suggest that it's more than mere coincidence: “heal-all” flowers are usually blue, for example, but this one is white, just like the spider and moth atop it. That the spider, moth, and flower are all white in color might also symbolically link these creatures with purity and divinity. Perhaps, then, the white scene is meant to be a sign of God's hand in guiding the world. But the scene is also brutal: a creature is being eaten, after all! To the speaker, there's suffering and destruction; it evokes not heavenly purity and divine love, but deathly pallor. These "characters," the speaker continues, are more like the "ingredients" in a creepy witches' potion than proof of God's love for creation. If a higher power did design this ugly scene, the speaker concludes, then this power might actually be pretty malevolent! The speaker calls this a "design of darkness" and suggests that this sight was placed before the speaker with the express purpose of making them feel "appall." The poem thus proposes that the designer of the universe is more like a malevolent trickster than a loving father. The idea of a higher power being in control is thus more unnerving than comforting, the speaker implies, because such a power must have intentionally designed suffering, cruelty, and death. In the end, however, the poem questions whether God exists at all: the speaker wonders if there really is any sort of design to a "thing so small" as this creepy little interaction between a spider, moth, and flower. In other words, the speaker wonders if life itself is too "small" and unimportant to warrant the hand of a designer in the first place. Summary The poet has drawn the picture of a fat and white dimpled spider which had caught hold of a moth like the white piece of the cloth on a flower called white heal-all. This simile has been used to indicate the white color of the moth. All these three things – spider, heal-all flower, and the moth are shown to be white. All these three white creatures and flower are brought together for some terrible reason. The terrible reason is a dark design of death or we can say the food chain in a positive term. By bringing all these white things together, the speaker is trying to highlight the food chain lying in the nature. The moth has gone there in search of the juice of heal-all flower and spider has gone there in search of the moth. One day, even the spider will become the food for the flower. All these things of the universe are interconnected. The nature has designed us to be interdependent. Even living thing and being survives upon each other. Nature has already designed this interconnection. The "heal-all" is a common country plant supposed to have healing properties: it is almost always blue in color. The poet has found a strange white variety and stranger still, attained to it a white spinner, "a snow-drop spider", holding a white moth, completing a pattern of whiteness. Here, in the world of chaos and darkness, there is purpose and design, "if (the poet speculates whimsically) design govern in a thing so small." The white color is generally a symbol of purity and innocence, but in this poem this color has been contrasted with its meaning. The white color of the wicked flower heal-all (an ironic name) and the white natural born killer spider bring forth the image of an actual horror scene and the innocence ness of the white color does not matter here. So, in this respect, white color in this poem has been used as a symbol of decay, death and destruction. It is the design of the god to bring them together and it is also the dark design of nature to turn blue color heal-all flower into white, black color spider into white and the moth into white. These three characters of death and disease are at the same place like the ingredients of witch’s broth. This image does not bring the idea of life enhancing, but the image of destruction, cruelty and dependency. By showing everything white so cruel and horrific, Frost infers that darkness is everywhere, even under the hide of so called innocent people. Humanity is vulnerable as the moth in the poem.   Poetic Devices (tools) & Figurative Language "Design" is a Petrarchan sonnet with a changed sestet. It has fourteen lines (8+6) but the rhyme scheme is abbaabba acaacc with all of them full: white/blight/right/kite/white/height/night and moth/cloth/broth/cloth and heal-all/appall/small. The octet is in fact one long sentence broken up into various clauses by astute use of punctuation - dashes and commas—and enjambment—when a line carries on to the next without losing meaning. Simile In the third line, the moth is likened to a piece of cloth and also in the eighth line, a paper kite. Spider, moth and flower are seen as the three ingredients of a witches' broth. Symbols  : 'Whiteness' "Design" takes some familiar symbolism and flips it on its head. The color white typically represents purity, innocence, and truth. It's a color often linked with goodness and with God, while its opposite—darkness—is linked with evil. Yet when the speaker finds a white spider on top of a white flower, holding a dead white moth, this sight offers none of the warm, fuzzy feelings associated with the symbolism mentioned above. In this scene, whiteness seems more linked with the pallor of death than it does with any sort of heavenly truth and light. To the speaker, there's nothing innocent about what's going on; on the contrary, it's a "design of darkness"—something evil. This whiteness thus feels like the kind of cosmic joke: if God designed the world—and, it follows, designed the scene before the speaker—then that means God took a color people link with goodness and used it "to appall," or disgust. Whiteness, here, suggests God's cruelty, not God's love. Form : "Design" is a sonnet. Its 14 lines can be broken down into an opening eight-line stanza called an octave and a six-line stanza called a sestet. There are a few different kinds of sonnets. The first half of "Design" sticks to the Petrarchan variety, meaning its octave can be broken into two quatrains (four-line stanzas), each of which follows an ABBA ABBA rhyme scheme. In a Petrarchan sonnet, the sestet also serves as a kind of answer to a question or issue presented in the octave, almost like a joke with its set-up and punchline. The sonnet is one of the most famous poetic forms in English (and other) languages. Particularly in its early days, the sonnet was often a kind of arena in which poets could prove their poetic skill. There's thus a strong association between the form in general and the intelligent designer behind it (the poet). Sonathuya (talk) 07:57, 12 January 2024 (UTC)