Morals and values learnt in " Under a ramshackle rainbow".

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Morals and values learnt in “ Under a Ramshackle Rainbow”

“ Under a Ramshackle Rainbow”, is a very deep poem in which the poet uses dark

and morbid images and symbols to get across morals and values to the reader.

The underlining theme of the poem is how one should treat their surroundings and

what the consequences to their actions will be.

         From the immediate start of the poem, a creepy and eery atmosphere is created by casting a dark image in the reader’s mind.

        ‘ A dead tree.

          On a rotten branch sit two wingless birds.’

The words ‘dead’ and ‘rotten’ show the sincerity of the issue. The mentioning of two wingless birds is very significant as they portray the poet’s first message to the reader. The wingless

birds basically defy their objective in life. Birds need wings to fly and without wings not only do they not have their freedom, but they have no means of survival; they cannot avoid predators or catch prey. Therefore death is inevitable. After only reading the first two lines the reader may feel confused

to why the birds are wingless and why their habit is in such an unusual state. The ending to the

first stanza clarify the confusion.

        ‘                                                         Among leaves

         on the ground a man is searching for his hands.

         It is fall.

By this, the poet is explaining the cause of the dead tree and the wingless birds. When saying that the man is ‘ searching for his hands’, it is made clear that the search is a pointless exercise as the reader is told that it is fall and therefore the pile of leaves would be extremely deep. Although the man still

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has his site, he does not have his hands which are essentially needed to search

through the leaves. The poet uses this description as it is symbolizes man searching for something that cannot be found. It is therefore implied that the man could be searching for his morals and has played some part in causing the tree to be in the state that it is in. The man’s actions have not only effected

the tree but also its inhabitants, the birds.

        The poem continues by showing the reader another situation of man’s reckless

behaviour.

        ‘ A stagnant marsh.

          On ...

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