Nature is all around us in many shapes and sizes. It is in the beauty of a sunset or in the fresh smell after rain. This beauty is rejuvenated each day. Everyday is a new cycle of old life leaving to make way for the new life entering. In passages I and II, the authors use of literary elements provides the reader with a mental painting of this beautiful cycle in which everything is born again from nothing. It is also reveled to the reader that because this cycle is so exquisite and precious; it should be appreciated for all its hard work.
Passage I tells the tale of a young boy Colm, on an adventurous search for his cow while exploring and admiring the nature around him. Suddenly on his path Colm notices a beautiful "wild duck" which is described by the author as "brown speckled back with a crows patch on it, and her little yellow legs" with the help of sensory details.
Colm is so amazed by this bird that she forgets about his cow and follows the bird while it is in flight. He follows her to an inset where he discovers her single egg is also described with sensory details as well as similes to provide a mental picture of the beauty of this newly created egg, "smooth and green as the sky, with a faint tinge of yellow like the reflected light from a buttercup." The eggs beauty mesmerizes him so much that he has the fait notion of taking it and claiming it as his own. But thankfully his conscious kicks in and he puts the egg back in its rightful place. Even though he has returned the egg, Colm is racked with immense guilt for he knows that his scent is still on the egg and for this reason the bird might "forsake the egg." As he heads home he hopes that the continuing cycle of life and death does not continue itself so abruptly on the unfortunate egg, but it is hapless to hope for this because the cycle must continue as it is meant to. That is another theme brought up by the author in this story. If the cycle intended this egg to never come into existence, then it wont no matter if the boy puts it back in its rightful place or not. The next day Colm is boasting to his classmate Pedar about the egg, in a way trying to make himself feel better for his actions the previous day. He assures him that the bird will forsake the egg because of him. This makes Pedar of no help to him. Infact Pedar's words serve as a foreshadow, to show that what must happen will happen not matter how altered the circumstances are. After school runs back to the inset to see if the bird had forsaken the egg. To his delight the beautiful bird lays perfectly still with her egg by her side. Colm decides to return home, happy about the way things turned out. But if the cycle intended something then it fulfils it. The minute Colm moves to leave, a branch disturbs the mother which in turned make the egg fall out of the nest and into the water. Thus the cycle has complete its mission. Life began but ended very quickly.
In passage II the author conveys the theme of rebirth. With the new rain and new season a new world is beginning to fall. "The earth puts forth new life." Rebirth is expressed with the coming of the new season. Everything is growing once more and people are coming together in joy. This symbolizes the creation of more life and beauty. Rebirth is apart of natures intended cycle to bring forth life. " When spring and life are new." The poem itself speaks of a miraculous rain that brings with it the changes of spring. With this silver rain comes all of natures wonders " In time of silver rain....in joy beneath the sky." Although the theme of natures course is relevant in both passages, passage II differs from passage I in the way that the author does not convey the sad part of the cycle. The part in which everything must die in order to give life to the new, so that the new can blossom and be appreciated.
It is evident that nature is a cycle that is apart of everything in this world. It effects everything and in turn is affected by it. The passages show in different forms that the cycle goes on its own path never changing its direction. Weather it includes life and death of simply the rebirth of the old into the new, it still follows its own cycle making the world a more beautiful place to admire and be in.