Under the Harvest Moon

The poem, Under the Harvest Moon, by Carl Sandburg includes many elements of poetry. This poem includes a lot of imagery. I first see a full moon shining over a garden, then I see red roses in the summer. The  way Sandburg describes the moon, "When the soft silver Drips shimmering Over the garden nights," is very poetic and much more interesting than just saying the moon is silver. In the line, "Death, the gray mocker, Comes and whispers to you As a beautiful friend Who remembers," I think this was meant to be a metaphor. It is literally saying that those who have passed away may not be physically there, but haven't forgotten about the memories shared. Sandburg uses personification by making death come and whisper. I think that the line, "Love, with little hands, Comes and touches you With a thousand memories, And asks you Beautiful, unanswerable questions," is also a metaphor. Love doesn't actually have hands, but comes unexpectedly and brings memories that make someone think hard about life. This line is also personifying love. In the line, "Drips shimmering," I found assonance and there is alteration in the line, "Love, with little hands." There isn't any rhyme in this poem, so I think it was meant to be free verse. This poem was split up into two stanzas and it is almost like they are different poems, but they go together. They both start with , "Under the..." and each one represented a season, the first one fall, and then summer. I think Carl Sandburg wrote this poem to try to describe these two beautiful seasons. He used things that we would see in the fall such as "harvest moon" and garden nights." In the second stanza, he used words that bring summer to my mind like "summer roses." This poem was narrated in third person and doesn't tell a story, but describes objects. I think this poem has a satisfying ending because it ends with, "...With a thousand memories, And asks you Beautiful, unanswerable questions." This is satisfying because it leaves me thinking about and questioning my memories.