Ode to the West Wind free essay sample

?Ode to the West Wind is a poem addressed to the west wind. It is personified both as a Destroyer and a Preserver. It is seen as a great power of nature that destroys in order to create, that kills the unhealthy and the decaying to make way for the new and the fresh. The personification of the west wind as an enchanter, as a wild spirit is characteristic of Shelleys poetry. Shelleys personification of the west wind can be called myth poesies, another kind of metaphor. The poem is divided into five stanzas or parts. Each part consists of 14 lines. The rhyming scheme is aba, bcb, cdc, ded; and a rhyming concept at the end. Sub Topics 1. Stanza 1 2. Stanza 2 3. Stanza 3 4. Stanza 4 5. Stanza 5 Stanza 1 Back to Top The poet addresses the west wind as Wild and the Breath of Autumns Being. It is a powerful force which drives the dead leaves which are yellow, black, pale and hectic red, to distant places like ghosts from an enchanter. The west wind carries winged seeds to their dark wintery beds underground which remain there till the west winds sister in the spring season blows and these seeds then blossom into sweet, scented flowers. The earth then will be alive with these living lives or colours and scents or fragrances. In this way the west wind acts both as a Destroyer and Preserver. Stanza 2 Back to Top The Shelley describes the powerful effect of the west wind in the sky. The west wind brakes away the Clouds like earths decaying leaves from the boughs of Heaven. After being plucked, these assume the fierce posture of black rain and hail. These rain clouds are compared to the outspread hair covering the sky from its horizon to its zenith. The wildness and confusion in the sky is compared to some fierce Maenad, the worshipper of Bacchus, the Greek God of wine. Maenad worships god in a frenzied fashion, uplifting her hair like tangled clouds. These indicate the approaching storm. The West Wind becomes a dirge (funeral song) which is being sung for the dying year. The night becomes a vast tomb where vapours have been built like arches and will soon come down as rain and hail. Stanza 3 Back to Top The west wind blows over the blue Mediterranean sea which has been described as a vast sleepy snake, which dreams of old civilization (palaces and towers) rich in flowers and vegetation. The sea sees old palaces and towers in sleep, which quiver when the west wind blows. Both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic seas are affected by the West Wind. The Atlantics surface gets cut into chasms to make way for the West Wind and the vegetation below the surface trembles in fear at the force of the west wind. Stanza 4 Back to Top The West Wind now becomes a personal force. The poet says that if he were a dead leaf, a swift cloud, a wave, he could experience the West Winds power and its strength. In his childhood, the poet had the power and strength and could probably out speed the west wind, but now he (the poet) no longer has the strength as he has been weakened by the problem, and burdens of life and he is no longer tame less,, swift and proud as he used to be in his childhood. He is blushing as he has fallen on the thorns of life meaning he is facing many problems/crisis in his life which has drawn away all his strength and power; and he is now looking up to the west wind, requesting him for his help. Stanza 5 Back to Top Despair and trauma which the poet is experiencing now gives way to a new hope. Shelly offers himself to the west wind in the same way as the sky, the ocean and the forests do. He asks the west wind to be the musician who can take out a deep autumnal tone from him and maker harmoniums music from him in the forest. The poet offers himself to the west wind to be used as a lyre for this purpose. The music thus produced may be sad but sweet. The poet then goes on to compare himself to an unextinguished fireplace with ashes and sparks meaning that the poet still has some unburnt power in him. He requests the west wind to spread this power like it spreads ashes and sparks among mankind. The poet ends with the hope that the west wind will carry the poets words over the entire universe and be the trumpet of his prophecy. Winter is symbolic of despair, coldness and death; but spring gives hope to new life, birth beauty and colour. If there is despair now, hope is very close by so the poet says if winter comes, can spring be far behind. If there is despair and hopelessness now, there is hope and optimism close at hand. Summary In the first stanza, the speaker stands before an ancient Grecian urn and addresses it. He is preoccupied with its depiction of pictures frozen in time. It is the â€Å"still unravish’d bride of quietness,† the â€Å"foster-child of silence and slow time. † He also describes the urn as a â€Å"historian† that can tell a story. He wonders about the figures on the side of the urn and asks what legend they depict and from where they come. He looks at a picture that seems to depict a group of men pursuing a group of women and wonders what their story could be: â€Å"What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? / What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? † In the second stanza, the speaker looks at another picture on the urn, this time of a young man playing a pipe, lying with his lover beneath a glade of trees. The speaker says that the piper’s â€Å"unheard† melodies are sweeter than mortal melodies because they are unaffected by time. He tells the youth that, though he can never kiss his lover because he is frozen in time, he should not grieve, because her beauty will never fade. In the third stanza, he looks at the trees surrounding the lovers and feels happy that they will never shed their leaves. He is happy for the piper because his songs will be â€Å"for ever new,† and happy that the love of the boy and the girl will last forever, unlike mortal love, which lapses into â€Å"breathing human passion† and eventually vanishes, leaving behind only a â€Å"burning forehead, and a parching tongue. † In the fourth stanza, the speaker examines another picture on the urn, this one of a group of villagers leading a heifer to be sacrificed. He wonders where they are going (â€Å"To what green altar, O mysterious priest †) and from where they have come. He imagines their little town, empty of all its citizens, and tells it that its streets will â€Å"for evermore† be silent, for those who have left it, frozen on the urn, will never return. In the final stanza, the speaker again addresses the urn itself, saying that it, like Eternity, â€Å"doth tease us out of thought. † He thinks that when his generation is long dead, the urn will remain, telling future generations its enigmatic lesson: â€Å"Beauty is truth, truth beauty. † The speaker says that that is the only thing the urn knows and the only thing it needs to know. Form â€Å"Ode on a Grecian Urn† follows the same ode-stanza structure as the â€Å"Ode on Melancholy,† though it varies more the rhyme scheme of the last three lines of each stanza. Each of the five stanzas in â€Å"Grecian Urn† is ten lines long, metered in a relatively precise iambic pentameter, and divided into a two part rhyme scheme, the last three lines of which are variable. The first seven lines of each stanza follow an ABABCDE rhyme scheme, but the second occurrences of the CDE sounds do not follow the same order. In stanza one, lines seven through ten are rhymed DCE; in stanza two, CED; in stanzas three and four, CDE; and in stanza five, DCE, just as in stanza one. As in other odes (especially â€Å"Autumn† and â€Å"Melancholy†), the two-part rhyme scheme (the first part made of AB rhymes, the second of CDE rhymes) creates the sense of a two-part thematic structure as well. The first four lines of each stanza roughly define the subject of the stanza, and the last six roughly explicate or develop it. (As in other odes, this is only a general rule, true of some stanzas more than others; stanzas such as the fifth do not connect rhyme scheme and thematic structure closely at all. ) Themes If the â€Å"Ode to a Nightingale† portrays Keats’s speaker’s engagement with the fluid expressiveness of music, the â€Å"Ode on a Grecian Urn† portrays his attempt to engage with the static immobility of sculpture. The Grecian urn, passed down through countless centuries to the time of the speaker’s viewing, exists outside of time in the human sense—it does not age, it does not die, and indeed it is alien to all such concepts. In the speaker’s meditation, this creates an intriguing paradox for the human figures carved into the side of the urn: They are free from time, but they are simultaneously frozen in time. They do not have to confront aging and death (their love is â€Å"for ever young†), but neither can they have experience (the youth can never kiss the maiden; the figures in the procession can never return to their homes). The speaker attempts three times to engage with scenes carved into the urn; each time he asks different questions of it. In the first stanza, he examines the picture of the â€Å"mad pursuit† and wonders what actual story lies behind the picture: â€Å"What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? † Of course, the urn can never tell him the whos, whats, whens, and wheres of the stories it depicts, and the speaker is forced to abandon this line of questioning. In the second and third stanzas, he examines the picture of the piper playing to his lover beneath the trees. Here, the speaker tries to imagine what the experience of the figures on the urn must be like; he tries to identify with them. He is tempted by their escape from temporality and attracted to the eternal newness of the piper’s unheard song and the eternally unchanging beauty of his lover. He thinks that their love is â€Å"far above† all transient human passion, which, in its sexual expression, inevitably leads to an abatement of intensity—when passion is satisfied, all that remains is a wearied physicality: a sorrowful heart, a â€Å"burning forehead,† and a â€Å"parching tongue. † His recollection of these conditions seems to remind the speaker that he is inescapably subject to them, and he abandons his attempt to identify with the figures on the urn. In the fourth stanza, the speaker attempts to think about the figures on the urn as though they were experiencing human time, imagining that their procession has an origin (the â€Å"little town†) and a destination (the â€Å"green altar†). But all he can think is that the town will forever be deserted: If these people have left their origin, they will never return to it. In this sense he confronts head-on the limits of static art; if it is impossible to learn from the urn the whos and wheres of the â€Å"real story† in the first stanza, it is impossible ever to know the origin and the destination of the figures on the urn in the fourth. It is true that the speaker shows a certain kind of progress in his successive attempts to engage with the urn. His idle curiosity in the first attempt gives way to a more deeply felt identification in the second, and in the third, the speaker leaves his own concerns behind and thinks of the processional purely on its own terms, thinking of the â€Å"little town† with a real and generous feeling. But each attempt ultimately ends in failure. The third attempt fails simply because there is nothing more to say—once the speaker confronts the silence and eternal emptiness of the little town, he has reached the limit of static art; on this subject, at least, there is nothing more the urn can tell him. In the final stanza, the speaker presents the conclusions drawn from his three attempts to engage with the urn. He is overwhelmed by its existence outside of temporal change, with its ability to â€Å"tease† him â€Å"out of thought / As doth eternity. † If human life is a succession of â€Å"hungry generations,† as the speaker suggests in â€Å"Nightingale,† the urn is a separate and self-contained world. It can be a â€Å"friend to man,† as the speaker says, but it cannot be mortal; the kind of aesthetic connection the speaker experiences with the urn is ultimately insufficient to human life. The final two lines, in which the speaker imagines the urn speaking its message to mankind—†Beauty is truth, truth beauty,† have proved among the most difficult to interpret in the Keats canon. After the urn utters the enigmatic phrase â€Å"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,† no one can say for sure who â€Å"speaks† the conclusion, â€Å"that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. † It could be the speaker addressing the urn, and it could be the urn addressing mankind. If it is the speaker addressing the urn, then it would seem to indicate his awareness of its limitations: The urn may not need to know anything beyond the equation of beauty and truth, but the complications of human life make it impossible for such a simple and self-contained phrase to express sufficiently anything about necessary human knowledge. If it is the urn addressing mankind, then the phrase has rather the weight of an important lesson, as though beyond all the complications of human life, all human beings need to know on earth is that beauty and truth are one and the same. It is largely a matter of personal interpretation which reading to accept. MORE HELP The Raven Summary: The unnamed narrator is wearily perusing an old book one bleak December night when he hears a tapping at the door to his room. He tells himself that it is merely a visitor, and he awaits tomorrow because he cannot find release in his sorrow over the death ofLenore. The rustling curtains frighten him, but he decides that it must be some late visitor and, going to the door, he asks for forgiveness from the visitor because he had been napping. However, when he opens the door, he sees and hears nothing except the word Lenore, an echo of his own words. Returning to his room, he again hears a tapping and reasons that it was probably the wind outside his window. When he opens the window, however, a raven enters and promptly perches upon a bust of Pallas above his door. Its grave appearance amuses the narrator, who asks it for its names. The raven responds, Nevermore. He does not understand the reply, but the raven says nothing else until the narrator predicts aloud that it will leave him tomorrow like the rest of his friends. Then the bird again says, Nevermore. Startled, the narrator says that the raven must have learned this word from some unfortunate owner whose ill luck caused him to repeat the word frequently. Smiling, the narrator sits in front of the ominous raven to ponder about the meaning of its word. The raven continues to stare at him, as the narrator sits in the chair that Lenore will never again occupy. He then feels that angels have approached, and angrily calls the raven an evil prophet. He asks if there is respite in Gilead and if he will again see Lenore in Heaven, but the raven only responds, Nevermore. In a fury, the narrator demands that the raven go back into the night and leave him alone again, but the raven says, Nevermore, and it does not leave the bust of Pallas. The narrator feels that his soul will nevermore leave the ravens shadow. Analysis: The Raven is the most famous of Poes poems, notable for its melodic and dramatic qualities. The meter of the poem is mostly trochaic octameter, with eight stressed-unstressed two-syllable feet per lines. Combined with the predominating ABCBBB end rhyme scheme and the frequent use of internal rhyme, the trochaic octameter and the refrain of nothing more and nevermore give the poem a musical lilt when read aloud. Poe also emphasizes the O sound in words such as Lenore and nevermore in order to underline the melancholy and lonely sound of the poem and to establish the overall atmosphere. Finally, the repetition of nevermore gives a circular sense to the poem and contributes to what Poe termed the unity of effect, where each word and line adds to the larger meaning of the poem. The unnamed narrator appears in a typically Gothic setting with a lonely apartment, a dying fire, and a bleak December night while wearily studying his books in an attempt to distract himself from his troubles. He thinks occasionally of Lenore but is generally able to control his emotions, although the effort required to do so tires him and makes his words equally slow and outwardly pacified. However, over the course of the narrative, the protagonist becomes more and more agitated both in mind and in action, a progression that he demonstrates through his rationalizations and eventually through his increasingly exclamation-ridden monologue. In every stanza near the end, however, his exclamations are punctuated by the calm desolation of the sentence Quoth the Raven, Nevermore,' reflecting the despair of his soul. Like a number of Poes poems such as Ulalume and Annabel Lee, The Raven refers to an agonized protagonists memories of a deceased woman. Through poetry, Lenores premature death is implicitly made aesthetic, and the narrator is unable to free himself of his reliance upon her memory. He asks the raven if there is balm in Gilead and therefore spiritual salvation, or if Lenore truly exists in the afterlife, but the raven confirms his worst suspicions by rejecting his supplications. The fear of death or of oblivion informs much of Poes writing, and The Raven is one of his bleakest publications because it provides such a definitively negative answer. By contrast, when Poe uses the name Lenore in a similar situation in the poem Lenore, the protagonistGuy de Vere concludes that he need not cry in his mourning because he is confident that he will meet Lenore in heaven. Poes choice of a raven as the bearer of ill news is appropriate for a number of reasons. Originally, Poe sought only a dumb beast that was capable of producing human-like sounds without understanding the words meaning, and he claimed that earlier conceptions of The Raven included the use of a parrot. In this sense, the raven is important because it allows the narrator to be both the deliverer and interpreter of the sinister message, without the existence of a blatantly supernatural intervention. At the same time, the ravens black feather have traditionally been considered a magical sign of ill omen, and Poe may also be referring to Norse mythology, where the god Odin had two ravens named Hugin and Munin, which respectively meant thought and memory. The narrator is a student and thus follows Hugin, but Munin continually interrupts his thoughts and in this case takes a physical form by landing on the bust of Pallas, which alludes to Athena, the Greek goddess of learning. Due to the late hour of the poems setting and to the narrators mental turmoil, the poem calls the narrators reliability into question. At first the narrator attempts to give his experiences a rational explanation, but by the end of the poem, he has ceased to give the raven any interpretation beyond that which he invents in his own head. The raven thus serves as a fragment of his soul and as the animal equivalent of Psyche in the poem Ulalume. Each figure represents its respective characters subconscious that instinctively understands his need to obsess and to mourn. As in Ulalume, the protagonist is unable to avoid the recollection of his beloved, but whereas Psyche of Ulalume sought to prevent the unearthing of painful memories, the raven actively stimulates his thoughts of Lenore, and he effectively causes his own fate through the medium of a non-sentient animal. r. Heideggers Experiment by Nathaniel Hawthorne 68 Members Following Summary Themes Analysis More Summary (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition) Print PDF Cite Dr. Heidegger invites to his study four elderly friends to engage in an experiment. Three are men: Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne; the fourth is a woman, the Widow Clara Wycherly. The study is a dusty, old-fashioned room replete with a skeleton in the closet, a bust of Hippocrates, books and bookcases, and a portrait of Sylvia Ward, who died fifty-five years before the night of the experiment on the eve of marriage to the doctor after swallowing one of his prescriptions. The doctor shows his guests a faded rose that she gave him those many years before, and places it in a vase containing liquid from the waters of the region in Florida where the Fountain of Youth is located, sent to him by a friend. The rose revives and the doctor pours some of the liquid from the vase into four champagne glasses for his friends. They drink and shed their years, showing signs of intoxication. Dr. Heidegger suggests to them that they allow their experience in life to guide them in virtue and wisdom when they gain a second chance at youth. As they drink, their inhibitions vanish. Colonel Killigrew takes interest in the widow’s charms and flatters her; Mr. Gascoigne waxes eloquent in periods of a sort dear to politicians; Mr. Medbourne projects a plan to supply the East Indies with ice by means of whales harnessed to icebergs. Dr. Heidegger does not take part in the rejuvenating experiment; he witnesses their antics with gravity. Young again, they laugh at their quaint clothes, showing contempt for the traits of old age that they have shed. Finally, the widow asks the doctor to dance with her, but he pleads old age and rheumatism. The three other guests seek to join her in dance, and in the ensuing riot, the table with the vase of the Water of Youth and rose overturns. The liquid reaches a dying butterfly, reviving it so that it flies to rest on Dr. Heidegger’s white hair. The rose fades; the guests show their age again. The doctor states that he is glad not to have partaken of the liquid; he has learned that this unnatural return to youth was no occasion for satisfaction. His guests, however, undaunted, determine to sally forth in search of the Fountain of Youth in order to drink from it three times a day. Dr. Heideggers E Analysis of I Sit and Look Out by Walt Whitman I sit and look out† by Walt Whitman echoes all miseries and atrocities of life that rose to the surface in the wake of capitalism. 19th century witnessed a sea change in the lives of people as rat race for materialistic possession became more prominent and principles were relegated, concerns and emotions were sidelined from inside of human beings. The poet pen pictures such a sad tale of human life by attempting to pose as onlooker who watches everything but does nothing to alter situations. In this analysis of â€Å"I Sit and look out â€Å"by Walt Whitman, the capitalization of the verb â€Å"sit†denotes the action of an onlooker. It is also symbolic of the speaker who sits idle and shows no sign to do anything. His constant position is also indicative of his complacent confinement which is miles away from suffering multitudes. On the other hand, the idea of â€Å"I Sit and look out† is expressed through the term look out that speaks of his own position which is safe and secure, away from the sufferings of the mundane world. In ‘I sit and look out† by Walt Whitman, the usage of free verses is abundant which serves to denote a never changing situation. All throughout the poem, the poet keeps an undermined toned of pessimism and paints an apocalyptic imagery that hits the readers as they progress in the poem. â€Å"I Sit and look out â€Å"by Walt Whitman is also a fine instance of the author’s disillusionment with the world that is evident through the first two lines of the poem and it continues to the point where he exclaims; â€Å"I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame; I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done; I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate; I see the wife misused by her husband-I see the treacherous seducer of young women; The poem is more of a study of this dystopian world where oppression and shame rule the roost of the society. The theme of â€Å"I Sit and look out â€Å"draws upon an image of seclusion as the poet feels that he is located and placed at an altitude that is way higher and away from the episodes of sufferings and misery. The paroxysmal sobs of youth stifled in World War, having an albatr oss around their neck is an imagery that speaks of their remorseful actions. Walt Whitman talks about children who have taken advantage of their own mothers and now she lies all alone distressed, her solitude beckons her children every moment. The poet speaks of a distressed time where wives are put to misuse by their husbands, cheated, abused and tortured. The husbands are pen pictured as â€Å"callous lovers’ who picks up young women and deceives them without a shade of remorse or guilt. The theme of â€Å"I sit and look out†points at the jealousy of the human race among themselves, unrequited love that is seemingly impossible to hide. The angst and the anxiety of the poet, the fear and the tension that rumbles up the poet’s mind while he sits comfortably in his place is an awakening call for the readers to rise up and take a step in altering the situation. Walt Whitman’s agony and meanness are justly defined in the lines; â€Å"I observe a famine at sea, I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be killd to preserve the lives of the rest, I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon Negroes, and the likes; All theseall the meanness and agony without end I sitting look out upon,See, hear, and am silent. â€Å" The poet seeks to demarcate emotions in his poemby introducing camouflage to pertain jealousy and unrequited love behind the mask of smiles and affability. The ego is hosted and the sufferings are subdued and the speaker is never at rest although he doesn’t move from his position. Perhaps, the process of being an onlooker is more painful than being the victim. In other words, the poet calls one and all to rise and do what is right to free themselves from the shackles of pain and liberation and pacify their ego. It is the onlooker who sits silent through the dangerous aftermaths of war, the deaths of millions and autocracy that causes dents within the state. He has to bear the pain as he beholds the sight of prisoners-tortured and tormented-the most terrible byproduct of wars and battles fought. The pen picturisation is horrific, where sailors are thrown into the sea to fight the waves and survive to the shores. The poor workers, the Negros are subjected to slavery in the hands of the capitalist world where nothing prevails but oppression and penury. â€Å"I Sit and look out ‘transforms itself to be a worthy satire of troubled times where agony and not beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. It’s good to know: Walt Whitman has been claimed as Americas first poet of democracy, a title meant to reflect his ability to write in a singularly American character Whitmans poetry has been set to music by a large number of composers; indeed it has been suggested his poetry has been set to music more than any other American poet except for Emily Dickinson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The story revolves around the life of Sophie, a teenager, who, like others of her age, is filled with fantasies and desires. She comes from a poor financial background, but hopes to be sophisticated in the future. Sophie dreams of owning a boutique one day ot being an actress or fashion designer, but her friend Jansie believes that both of them are earmarked for the biscuit factory. Jansie, who is more realistic, tries to pull Sophie to reality, but in vain. Sophie lives in a small house with her parents and brothers, Geoff and little Derek. Though she voices her feelings and desires, her parents belittle her, because they, unlike her, are more mature and has known the harsh realities of life. Sophie finds a sort of fascination for her elder brother Geoff, who, in her opinion, is tall, strong and handsome but reserved. She envies his silence and often wonders about his thoughts and areas of his life that she doesnt know about. The centre of this story is that Sophie fantasises about Danny Casey, an Irish football player, whom she had seen playing in innumerable matches. She makes up a story about how she met him in the streets and tells this to Geoff. Geoff, who is more sensible than Sophie, does not really believe her, even if she wants to. It seems an unlikely incident for Sophie to meet the prodigy in their street, but where Sophie describes the meeting inall her details, he begins to hope that it could be true. She tells him that Danny has promised to meet her somewhere again. Sophie gets so pulled into the story she made that she herself begins to believe that its true. She waits for the Irish player, but obviously, he never arrives. Then, she makes her way home, wondering how her brother would be disappointed on knowing that Danny Casey never showed up. However, Sophie still fantasises about her hero, unperturbed. The whole story is about unrealistic dreams and how we love to indulge in them knowing all the while that they have little possibility of coming true. But some, like Sophie, gets too involved in them and actually act on them. This is when disappointment makes its entrance into life. The story seem to hint at you that it is okay to dream, but dream with limits. This is actual reality and do not believe too much in movies and novels where the characters miraculously over come their challenges. This is a pessimistic way of looking at things, but sadly it is the true reality. Unless you are impossibly ambitious, hardworking, and have loads of patience and perseverance, such dreams are best to be kept under lock and key unless you like the taste of bitter disappointment A kind and humble shoemaker called Simon goes out one day to purchase sheep-skins in order to sew a winter coat for his wife and himself to share. Usually the little money, which Simon earned would be spent to feed his wife and children. Simon decided that in order to afford the skins he must go on a collection to receive the five roubles and twenty kopeks owed to him by his customers. As he heads out to collect the money he also borrows a three-rouble note from his wifes money box. While going on his collection he only manages to receive twenty kopeks rather than the full amount. Feeling disheartened by this Simon rashly spends the twenty kopeks on vodka and starts to head back home. On his way home he rants to himself about the little he can do with twenty kopeks besides spend it on alcohol and that the winter cold is bearable without a sheep-skin coat. While approaching a holy shrine, Simon stops and notices something pale looking leaning against it. He peers harder and distinguishes that it is a naked man who appears poor of health. At first he is suspicious and fears that the man has no good intentions if he is left in such a state. He proceeds to pass the man until he feels that for a second the man lifted his head and looked toward him. Simon debates what to do in his mind and feels shameful for his disregard and heads back to help the man. Simon gives the articles of clothing he can and wraps around the stranger. He aids him as they both walk toward Simons home. Though they walk together side by side, the stranger barely speaks and when Simon asks how he was left in that situation the only answers the man would give was: I may not tell and God has punished me. Meanwhile Simons wife Matrena debates whether or not to bake more bread for the nights meal so that there is enough for the following mornings breakfast. She decides that the loaf of bread that they have left would be ample enough to last till the following morning. As she sees Simon approaching the door she is angered to see him with a strange man who is wrapped in Simons clothing. Matrena immediately expresses her displeasure with Simon, accusing him and his strange companions to be drunkards and harassing Simon for not returning with the sheep-skin needed to make a new coat. Once the tension settles down she bids that the stranger sits down and has dinner with them. After seeing the stranger take bites at the bread she placed for him on his plate, she began to felt pity and showed so in her face. When the stranger noticed this his grim expression lit up immediately and he smiled for one brief moment. After hearing the story from the stranger how Simon had kindly robed the stranger after seeing him in his naked state Matrena grabbed more of their old clothing and gave it to Simon. The following morning Simon addresses the