Analysis Of John Muir's Essay 'Calypso Borealis'

In the essay, The Calypso Borealis, John Muir uses very intense descriptions and changes the tone of his essay using words to show readers how nature gives him peace, but at the same time it gave him a hard time. “The flower was white and made the impression of the utmost simple purity like a snow flower.” In this paragraph, John uses the word “purity” which has a peaceful and spiritual connotation. It also shows how the feeling of the first encounter with flower will stay with him for a long time. Another example of his use descriptive words is “though very crooked course by compass, struggling through tangled drooping branches and over and under broad heaps of fallen trees.” In this paragraph Muir goes on to describe in great detail the scene as he continues to search for the flower. His words lets the reader visualize the swamp. Finally, Muir uses examples of dialect to further bring the reader into his experience with …show more content…
“I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils;” In the first stanza of the poem uses a simile to describe the loneliness William was feeling when he stumbled upon the daffodils. “Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze,” shows the reader, through uses of a metaphor to describe his view of the daffodils by comparing them to a crowd of people. This is also a good example of personification. In the last stanza Wordsworth says, “For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.” This stanza shows the reader that the daffodils affected Wordsworth and that to this day, whenever he is sad, he thinks about the daffodils and he is happy