Death of Man; Life of Nature; Free of Fences

The poem "Dawn," by Alan Sondheim, utilizes structure to loop the reader in a never ending rustic world while depicting such images along with the words of the poem to draw the reader into a solitary place to better focus on the speaker's words. Sondheim further makes the reader feel as if in such an environment by the crackling of a fire and the sound of wind blowing through the wilderness as the reader explores the poem. The appearance of the words in the poem play a significant role as well in that they seem to appear out of a heavy mist.

"to see this or this or this, i must record everything before my father is gone, before i am gone"

This sentence exemplifies the manner in which the text continuously presents itself throughout the video. The poem never stops once the reader begins watching the clip. There is no actual stop button, only two small twin lines that are capable of pausing the flowing images. These facts contribute greatly to the structure by revealing to the reader the idea that just as the pictures forever turn into each other, the phrases pertaining to life, death, and nature will eternally come to pass.

It is the pictures of different wildernesses in the poem's background that place the reader at tranquil places where they can reflect upon the poem's words. "...i will learn to listen to the beginnings and endings of the world..." Sondheim's structure virtually plops the reader down in a setting where they seem to stand alone, listening to the speaker's voice.

In order to help facilitate the idea of being isolated in a pastoral setting, Sondheim makes use of the sound of fire. It crackles throughout the length of the poem. The reader can visualize themselves sitting down by a warm fire in one of the multitude of settings on screen with a friend who is telling them this poem. There is also the sound of the wind winding its way past obstacles and over fields. Having the semi-regular sound of the wind represents the flow of the speaker's words or thoughts contained by the poem.

The way in which reader's first perceive the words of a work of literature contribute greatly to how the reader receives work. The words always appear as if arriving out of a heavy mist. They come in muted colors that quite often relate to the color of the background from whence they came. Even after they have appeared, they are often shadowed or seen just as the scenery changes. These facts force the reader to adopt a faster reading pace; a pace that may lead them to overlook nuances or yet miss the entirety of a sentence. There is perhaps no better way to hook the reader into reading more and more of the poem.

In keeping with the close, fire side companion tone of the poem, Sondheim never uses uppercase letters within this work.

By not using uppercase letters, not even when the speaker directly refers to themselves gives the reader the impression that the speaker's thoughts are simply pouring out of them in a child-like way. The speaker is not emphatically stating something, merely saying that which the speaker believes to be true to a friend over a campfire. The fact that the words appear as if shrouded in mist give the impression that the thoughts are rambling and independent of each other. The speaker says that which flows across his or her mind as each thought surfaces, but they will return time and time again as the speaker goes on.

Sondheim would also have the reader believe that the speaker is a philosopher or great thinker, despite the fact that the speaker never uses uppercase letters. "...my philosophy will teach me the unbearable..." Though the speaker's thoughts may seem young and unguided, they hold a profound view about the world of nature around the speaker. Life, death, and beauty will be ever present in the world, one must simply know when and how to look. "...cursed be the god that brings so much death and beauty..." The speaker may detest death and the great loss that it brings with loved ones, but the power that created death also created loveliness. Everything travels in an unending circle, just as the clip never definitively ends and it may only be paused in a delicate manner.