All semester long we have read and studied poems in which the speakers invoke nature as a source of consolation for loss–either directly expressed in the text or left unspoken but implied. Some recent examples include Brontë’s “Shall Earth No More Inspire Thee” (292-293), Dickinson’s “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” (322), Hopkins’s “God’s Grandeur” (348), and “Pied Beauty (349),” Lawrence’s “Bavarian Gentians” (440-441), Roethke’s “Elegy for Jane” (566), Angelou’s “Caged Bird” (738), Tate’s “Flight” (handout), and Wright’s “A Blessing” (handout).
Write a complete essay (thesis statement, body, conclusion) in which you discuss the role of nature as represented by the “Indian ponies” in James Wright’s “A Blessing.” What do the ponies symbolize in the poem? What is so special about the world of nature that the speaker and their companion enter when they step over the barbed wire and enter the pasture where the ponies are grazing? Why do you think the speaker’s encounter with the ponies is so intensely meaningful to them? What might this encounter be compensating for? (Speculate.)
As always, your essay should be entirely your own work. You should paste the complete text of your essay in the box provided (no links). Please proofread and correct all typos. It will be due on Sunday, Dec. 12th at 9:00 a.m. No extensions, no late submissions will be offered or permitted. This is the final assignment in the course, so here’s your chance to show me your best work!
James Wright, “A Blessing”
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.
