" The Self and the Mulberry"

         The speaker, whom i believe is Marvin Bell, compares himself to the characteristic of the Mulberry Tree: calm and serene. This poem’s connotation appears to be neutral due to the fact that the diction displays positive and negative words :” sturdy”, “productive”, “ weep”, “ill”. More than likely this indifference shown in the word choice symbolizes man’s indifference towards nature; however, Bell is quite fond of nature, and he goes as far as to compare is personal traits to nature. The poet's attitude in this poem is inspiring and watchful as if he is searching for something that may have been initially overlooked. He aspires to find these things through his use of similes to compare himself to the Mulberry Tree (lines 10-13). Based upon my reading, I was not able to see any significant shifts in the poem. It appears as though Bell goes throughout the entire poem comparing himself to nature as well as identifying society's potential neutrality towards nature. Nevertheless, I believe that the theme of this poem is to let nature take its course, and one's  life will turn out okay in the end.

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