Elect of Elohim by Orson F. Whitney
This poem is specific to an audience familiar with Mormon theology and scripture. The poem imagines the dialogue that happened during the "war in heaven." The use of dialogue really characterizes God, Lucifer, and Christ in ways that are familiar to LDS theology: Christ is humble in his approach, whereas Lucifer is boastful and arrogant with sharper phrases. The poem outlines much of what Christ will do from the perspective of Christ not even being born yet. It is written with rhythm similar to an epic poem, which is a format that tells Christ's heroic tale in an interesting way.
My First View of a Western Prairie by Eliza R. Snow
I really love Eliza Snow so I was excited to analyze this poem. She has lots of imagery that connotes male or femaleness, sometimes all at once, for example, "within my breast a princely feeling" is an interesting way to combine a feminine and masculine image. She has lots of different juxtapositions of youth and elderly, light and darkness, slow and fast, that shows the full range of her emotions as she experiences the prairie she is looking at. I liked a phrase near the end that says "And my imagination too, for once acknowledged its own imbecility." This whole time she is experiencing and imagining nature and its connection to her own spirituality, but here she acknowledges that nature and God and life are even more complex and profound than she can experience.
This poem is specific to an audience familiar with Mormon theology and scripture. The poem imagines the dialogue that happened during the "war in heaven." The use of dialogue really characterizes God, Lucifer, and Christ in ways that are familiar to LDS theology: Christ is humble in his approach, whereas Lucifer is boastful and arrogant with sharper phrases. The poem outlines much of what Christ will do from the perspective of Christ not even being born yet. It is written with rhythm similar to an epic poem, which is a format that tells Christ's heroic tale in an interesting way.
My First View of a Western Prairie by Eliza R. Snow
I really love Eliza Snow so I was excited to analyze this poem. She has lots of imagery that connotes male or femaleness, sometimes all at once, for example, "within my breast a princely feeling" is an interesting way to combine a feminine and masculine image. She has lots of different juxtapositions of youth and elderly, light and darkness, slow and fast, that shows the full range of her emotions as she experiences the prairie she is looking at. I liked a phrase near the end that says "And my imagination too, for once acknowledged its own imbecility." This whole time she is experiencing and imagining nature and its connection to her own spirituality, but here she acknowledges that nature and God and life are even more complex and profound than she can experience.
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