literary analysis of the author’s language

Student’s Name:
Instructor’s Name:
Course:
Date:
The Captured Goddess Literary Analysis
‘The Captured Goddess,’ by Amy Lowell was published in 1955 among other popular poems in an anthology named Complete Poems. The poem talks about a captivating goddess hovering over a town in a myriad of colors which brightens the town’s dull life. As the narrator follows the Goddess for her beauty, she finds her in the street captured and put up in the marketplace for sale. The poem’s central theme human greed as they are willing to sell a Goddess, a savior of the town, to the highest bidder. In the poem, Lowell uses Imagism as the language, follows the narrative style and the bulk of it has a hopeful tone which later becomes sad.
The Author uses imagery as the core language of the poem. Lowell uses strong words to create visual images of the Goddess as she hovers over the street. The words used to describe the Goddess, portray her as a bright and colorful being that comes from heaven to save the dull town. In describing the Goddess, Lowell uses the words ‘shiver of Amethyst, blue and cinnamon’ amongst other phases that show that she represents wealth and is set to put in order what has gone wrong in the town (Baym & Levine 193). When the men capture the Goddess, the author says that ‘Her fluted wings were fastened to her sides with cords,’ which brings images of her capture into the reader’s mind. Moreover, she writes of how men were bargaining to take the goddess home using their gold and silver.

The words used in describing the bidding of the Goddess at the marketplace paints an ideal picture of a market or an auction center as intended by the author. Thus, instead of explaining everything in detail, Lowell uses imagery to captivate the reader and communicate the intended message vividly.
The poem takes the form of a narrative. The author narrates the events from her observation of the Goddess, the power that she wields over the town, the hope she spreads and how all that hope wanes when men in the marketplace capture her and decide to sell her. The narrative is well-organized in such a way that the reader’s interest is at its peak throughout the poem. The carefully chosen words, which help drive the message home to the readers by creating vivid images of the events as the occur, accentuates the narrative (Solaka N.p). For instance, the author starts by describing the Goddess high up in the sky. Her bright colors spell hope for the dusty streets and dull town life. The narrator then follows the goddess, her feet stumbling on objects. She does not care where the Goddess leads her, ‘I cared not where she led me’ (Baym & Levine 193) However, all the hope that the Goddess brings ends when the author finds her in captured in the streets. The narration comes to a close as the author walks away sad at the human greed that has auctioned what spelled hope for the entire town just for silver and gold.
The author’s tone is hopeful for the first part of the poem where she gives a description of the Goddess and follows her. The ‘shiver of Amethyst,’ depicting the Goddess, highly contrasts the rotating chimneys and the dusty streets of the town. The myriad of colors donned by the Goddess shine upon the town as a promise of a better life. Her Palest green wings and rainbow feathers compensate for lack of color and hope in the city. With the goddess hovering over the city, there is hope for a better life. On realizing the hope that the Goddess brought to the town, the author follows her without caring where she led her. She is keen to see the town become as colorful as the Goddess, which leads her to follow the Goddess into the town’s streets (Solaka N.p). However, the tone of the poem changes unexpectedly when the narrator finds the Goddess captured in the marketplace “Bound and trembling’ (Baym & Levine 193). The men in the marketplace are bidding for the Goddess with silver, gold, wheat, and copper without knowing that she is their only hope. Their greed for material things is overwhelming in a way that they do not care about what happens in the city. The Goddess feels sad as the people she came to give hope are calling bids for her. She weeps. The narrator also knows that the town’s men have auctioned off their only hope and leaves the marketplace a sad person.
In conclusion, Lowell’s central theme in ‘The Captured Goddess’ is human Greed. The Goddess spells hope for the dull city. Her colors captivate and are meant to brighten the dusty streets in the town. However, the men’s greed in the market place take center-stage, and they capture and auction off the Goddess. The author uses imagery to paint a clear picture in the reader’s mind of the happenings in the poem. The poem is in the form of a narration and follows a vivid description of the events from when the narrator spots the Goddess over the town’s chimney to when she finds her captured and pending auctioneering in the city market. Lowell uses a hopeful tone in the poem up to the place where the Goddess is captured. From that point, the poem adopts a sad tone as the people bid for the town’s only hope at the marketplace.
Works cited
Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine, eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Eighth International Student Edition. WW Norton & Company, 2011.
Solaka, Kevin. “Americanpoetryprojectspring10 – Kevin Solaka.”Americanpoetryprojectspring10 – Home, 2010, americanpoetryprojectspring10.wikispaces.com/Kevin+Solaka.