Assignment

1. Written by : May Swenson
Analyzed by : Ayu Bulan Paramastri

2. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
• According to William Flint Thrall and Addison Hibbard
that had been revised and enlarge by C. Hugh Holman in
A Handbook To Literature(1960: 364), “Poetry: A term
applied to the many forms in which man has given a
rhytmic exppression to his most imaginative and intense
preseptions of his world, himself, and the
interrelationship of the two.”

3. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
• To appreciate the poem of May Swenson, All The Time.
• To analyze the Figurative Languages(Personification and
Allegory) in May Swenson, All The Time.
• To analyze the Imageries(Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic) in
May Swenson, All The Time.

4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
• The scope of this study is to analize the intrinsic
elements in May Swenson, All The Time, such as the
Figurative Language and Imageries. The kind of
Figurative Language that will be discussed in this study
are Personification and Alegory. While, kinds of
Imageries in this study will focuse on Visual, Auditory
and Kinesthetic.

5. ABSTRACT
• “All The Time” written by May Swenson contains a lot for
Figurative Language and also Imagery. There are
personifications and also symbols in figurative language.
In imagery, we can find visual imagery, auditory imagery
and also kinesthetic imagery inside it. By analyzing it, the
readers can read and understand the poem easily. We
can see from the paper that the author has her own style
in writing the poem.

6. THE POET
• May Swenson was born Anna Thilda May Swenson on
May 28, 1913, in Logan, Utah. Her parents were
Swedish immigrants, and her father was a professor of
mechanical engineering at Utah State University. English
was her second language, her family having spoken
mostly Swedish in their home. Influenced early on by
Edgar Allan Poe, she kept journals as a young girl, in
which she wrote in multiple genres.
Taken from:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/may-swenson

7. THE POEM
All That Time
I saw two trees embracing.
One leaned on the other
As if to throw her down.
But she was the upright one.
Since their twin youth, maybe she
Had been pulling him toward her
All that time,
And finally almost uprooted him.
He was the thin, dry, insecure one,
The most wind-warped, you could see.
And where their tops tangled
It looked like he was crying
On her shoulder.
On the other hand, maybe he
Had been trying to weaken her,
Break her, or at least
Make her bend
Over backwards for him
Just a little bit.
And all that time
She was standing up to him
The best she could.
She was the most stubborn,
The straightest one, that's a fact.
But he had been willing
To change himself--
Even if it was for the worse--
All that time.
At the top they looked like one
Tree, where they were embracing.
It was plain they'd be
Always together.
Too late now to part.
When the wind blew, you could hear
Them rubbing on each other.

8. THE TRANSLATION
Sepanjang Waktu Itu
Saya melihat dua pohon saling memeluk.
Satu bersandar di sisi lainnya
Seolah-olah menyandarkannya kebawah.
Tapi dialah satu-satunya yang berdiri tegak.
Sejak masa muda kembar mereka, mungkin dia
Telah menariknya ke arahnya
Sepanjang waktu itu,
Dan akhirnya hampir menumbangkannya.
Dia lah yang kurus, kering, dan tak kokoh,
Yang paling bengkok karena angin, bisa anda lihat.
Dan di mana puncak-puncaknya kusut
Yang tampak seperti sedang menangis
Di bahunya.
Di sisi lain, mungkin dia
Telah berusaha untuk melemahkan dia,
Merusaknya, atau setidaknya
Membengkokkannya
Ke belakang untuknya
Hanya sedikit saja.
Dan sepanjang waktu itu
Dia selalu berdiri tegak kepadanya
Hal terbaik yang dia bisa lakukan.
Dia adalah yang paling keras kepala,
Yang jujur, itu merupakan sebuah fakta.
Tapi dia telah bersedia
Untuk mengubah dirinya sendiri--
Bahkan jika itu untuk hal yang lebih buruk--
Sepanjang waktu itu.
Di bagian puncak mereka tampak seperti satu
Pohon, di mana mereka saling memeluk.
Itu biasa mereka akan
Selalu bersama.
Terlambat sekarang untuk berpisah.
Ketika angin bertiup, Anda bisa mendengar
Mereka menggosok satu sama lain.

9. LITERARY REVIEW
Personification
• “A figure of speech which endows animals, ideas, abstractions, and inanimate objects with
human form,character, or sensibilities; the representing of imaginary creatures or things as
having human personalities, inteligence, and emotions: an impersonation in DRAMA of one
character or person, whether real or fictitious, by another person.” (C. Hugh Holman, A
handbook To Literature, 1960: 349).
• Example :
• The dish ran away with the spoon.
• In the Mother Goose’s The Cat and the Fiddle.
• “Ah, William, we're weary of weather”, said the sunflowers,shining with dew.
• "Our traveling habits have tired us”.
• Can you give us a room with a view?
• In the Nancy Willard’s "Two Sunflowers Move into the Yellow Room“
Taken from:
http://www.brighthubeducation.com/homework-help-literature/46485-examples-of-
personification-in-poetry-analysis/

10. LITERARY REVIEW
Symbol and Allegory
• According to Cleanth Brooks in Understanding Poetry(1983: 556), “Symbols are
‘signs’ pointing to meaning. Certain symbols are conventional, that is, arbiter,
and we agree upon what tehy to signify. Symbolism, in turn, is seen as the main
way that man conceives of the abstract and general, in literature as in other
fields.”
• Allegory
• According to Michael Meyer in The Bedford Introduction to Literature(1990: 583)
“Unlike symbols, allegory is a narration or description usually restricted to a
single meaning because its events, actions, characters, settings, and objects
represent specific abstractions or ideas.”
• But in this poetry, it contains much deeper meanings in each word and represent
a single meaning. Therefore it classify as Allegory and not as Symbol.

11. LITERARY REVIEW
Visual Imagery
• Visual imagery is the imagery that can be gained from the
experience of the senses of sight (eyes) or represent a sight.
• Example :
• A host of golden daffodils;
• Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
• Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
• In the William Wordsworth's poem I Wandered Lonely as a
Cloud.
Taken from:
www.brighthubeducation.com/homework-help-literature/

12. LITERARY REVIEW
Auditory Imagery
• Auditory is an image that appears from the sense of hearing
from the sense of hearing.
• For example:
• River—smell, and hear the breeze
• Sobbing in the title trees.
• This auditory imagery in The Old Vicarage, Grantchester by
Rupert Brooke offers the reader the sound of the breeze or
wind. In these lines, the wind is not sound as usual. The wind
is not blowing, but it is sobbing. The sobbing breeze can be
heard through the little trees.(adapted from Burton, 1977: 99)

13. LITERARY REVIEW
Kinesthetic Imagery
• Kinesthetic imagery is the imagery produced from an
experience that form of movement or represent movement.
• Example :
• I can feel the tug of the rope on the adultress's neck.
• In the Seamus Heaney’s poem Punishment.
Taken from:
www.brighthubeducation.com/homework-help-literature/

14. DISCUSSION
Personification
• All the movements and the behaviors that being shown
inside of this poem are about personification. The
characters(the trees: he and she) are not humans but
they are described as humans. We can see it from the
words “embracing”, “leaned”, “throw” and “pulling” in the
first stanza, “crying” in the second stanza, and also
“embracing” in the fifth stanza.

15. DISCUSSION
Allegory
• First Stanza:
• “I saw two trees embracing.
One leaned on the other
As if to throw her down.
But she was the upright one.
Since their twin youth, maybe she
Had been pulling him toward her
All that time,”
• Line 1 : There is a couple who is love each other.
• Line 2-3 : The male weaker than the female.
• Line 4-7 : The female is dominating from the beginning.

16. DISCUSSION
Allegory
• Second Stanza:
• “And finally almost uprooted him.
He was the thin, dry, insecure one,
The most wind-warped, you could see.
And where their tops tangled
It looked like he was crying
On her shoulder.
On the other hand, maybe he”
• Line 1-3 : Her dominating toward the male makes him feels
broken.
• Line 4 : This is where the climax happen, some problem
occure.
• Line 5-6 : The male feel down and could not do anything.

17. DISCUSSION
Allegory
• Third Stanza:
• “Had been trying to weaken her,
Break her, or at least
Make her bend
Over backwards for him
Just a little bit.
And all that time
She was standing up to him”
• Line 1-4 : The male tries to switch the present state, but it
is useless.
• Line 6-7 : The female still dominating the male.

18. DISCUSSION
Allegory
• Fourth stanza:
• “The best she could.
She was the most stubborn,
The straightest one, that's a fact.
But he had been willing
To change himself--
Even if it was for the worse--
All that time.”
• Line 1-3 : The female has the most power in this
relationship.
• Line 4-7 : Instead, the male feels determined by the female
and choose to change himself for the worse.

19. DISCUSSION
Allegory
• Fifth Stanza:
• “At the top they looked like one
Tree, where they were embracing.
It was plain they'd be
Always together.”
• Line 1-2 : In the outside, people will think that they have such a harmonis
relationship without a problem at all, different from the reality.
• Line 3-4 : They have been together since the beginning of their relationship.
• Sixth Stanza:
• “Too late now to part.
When the wind blew, you could hear
Them rubbing on each other.”
• Line 1-3 : It is useless for them to end their relationship already, because
everytime a problem occures betwen them, they will actually forgive each other.

20. DISCUSSION
Imagery
• Stanza 1 Line 1
• I saw two trees embracing.
• This line has a visual imagery. In this line the readers can imagine two trees embracing each other
Besides that, this line also contains kinesthetic imagery it can be seen from word “embracing” that make
the readers imagine the motion from both of the trees when they are embracing each other.
• Stanza 1 Line 2
• One leaned on the other
• This line contains a kinesthetic imagery. Here, the readers are able to know from word “leaned” that there
is a motion when one of the tree leaned on the other.
• Stanza 1 Line 3
• As if to throw her down.
• This line consists of two imageries. First, this line has a visual imagery that encourage the readers to
imagine the movement when he throw her down. Beside that, there is a visual imagery that can be seen
in phrase “throw her down”. This phrase makes the readers imagine that the tree throw the other tree
down.
• Stanza 1 Line 4
• But she was the upright one
• The line has visual imagery. The readers can imagine where the position of the the tree is, the upright
one.

21. DISCUSSION
Imagery
• Stanza 1 Line 6
• Had been pulling him toward her
• This line has a kinesthetic imagery. In this line, the readers can feel the movement when one tree pulling
over the other tree.
• Stanza 2 Line 1
• And finally almost uprooted him.
• This line contains kinesthetic imagery that can be known from word “uprooted”, it means that the other
tree is almost being uprooted by the other one.
• Stanza 2 Line 2, 3 and 4
• He was the thin, dry, insecure one,
• The most wind-warped, you could see.
• And where their tops tangled
• This line exposed visual imagery. Because there are a word “thin” and “dry” in the second line, “see” in
third line and “tangled” in the fourth line that make the readers imagine certain shape and constant
positions of the tree at the time.
• Stanza 2 Line 5
• It looked like he was crying
• This line has two imageries. First is visual imagery. In this line the readers can imagine that the tree
looked like he was crying. Besides that, this line also contains kinesthetic imagery thet can be seen from
word “crying” that make the readers imagine the motion from how the tree express his sadness.

22. DISCUSSION
Imagery
• Stanza 3 Line 2 and 3
• Break her, or at least
• Make her bend
• This line contains a kinesthetic imagery. Here, the readers are able to know from word
“break” in the second line and “bend” in the third line that there are some motions when one
of the tree was being broken and bent by the other.
• Stanza 5 Line 1 and 2
• At the top they looked like one
• This line consists of visual and kinesthetic. It can be seen from how the way the looked like
one tree at the top when they were embracing each other.
• Stanza 6 Line 1, 2 and 3
• Too late now to part
• When the wind blew, you could hear
• Them rubbing on each other.
• There is a kinesthetic imagery from first(“part”) and third(“rubbing”) line and also a auditory
imagery in the second(“hear”) line.

23. CONCLUSION
• "All That Time" is the poem written by May Swenson
incorporates a couple literary devices in order to provide
rhythm and smooth transitions within the work. For example,
every time when the stanza changes, the persona addresses
each person. Also, the use of short, declarative statements
adds to the tone of Swenson's work, causing the poem to
sound desperate and express the love and hurt portrayed in
"All That Time."
• Inside of this poem, the readers can deeply imagine how the
pain that being felt by the characters and also the love that
being shown when both of the characters being talked about
from the use of Figurative Languages and Imageries.

24. BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Brooks, Cleanth. 1983. Understanding Poetry. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wiston Inc.
• Burton, S.H. 1974. The Critism of Poetry. London: Longman Group Limited.
• Meyer, Michael. 1990. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s
Press.
• Perrine, Laurence. 1969. Sound And Sense, An Introduction to Poetry, Third Edition.USA: Harcourt,
Brace and World, Inc.
• Thrall, William Flint, and Addison Hibbard. 1960. A Handbook To Literature,
• Third Edition. Ed. C. Hugh Holman. New York: The Odyssey Press.
• Robinson, Edwin Arlington. 1960. A Handbook To Literature.
• www.brighthubeducation.com/homework-help-literature/
• Friday, November 06th, 2015 – 21:43 WIB
• http://www.brighthubeducation.com/homework-help-literature/46485-examples-of-personification-in-
poetry-analysis/
• Friday, November 06th, 2015 – 21:52 WIB
• http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/articles/articles/62/1/Figurative-Language-Examined-Metaphors-
Symbols-and-Related-Concepts/Page1.html
• Friday, November 06th, 2015 – 21:58 WIB
• https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/may-swenson
• Monday, December 28th, 2015 – 06.56 WIB