Blog 3: Tone and Symbols in Window of Time by Patricia Walter

The Poem I chose for my assignment is called "Window of Time" by Patricia Walter. Patricia Walter is a poet and artist who loves animals which have been a major influence in her artwork. I decided to choose this poem because I love animals too, especially cats. I really like the way she described the cat and how she made them seem almost clarvoyent. I have also found myself asking this same question she is asking in the poem. I also really liked Patricia Walters writing style. Tone and symbolism are both important elements in poetry and I think that she used both of these elements in her poem very well.

The tone in literature is usually described as the writers attitude towards the material they are writing or the readers. It is not talking about a charecter in the writing but the whole story in general. Tone is very significant writing element and is very often used in poems. Some examples of tone are seriousness, happiness, loving, humorous and sadness. Tone is usually found through the writers choice of words and sometimes also smaller details in the writing. The tone that I believe is being used in "Window of Time" by Patricia Walter is curiosity and a little bit of mystery. The reason why I believe that the poem has a curious and mysterious tone is because she asks so many questions about what the cat can really see. For example, she has lines in her poem such as, "What does she really see?" and "what stories unfold out of sight?" The poem also uses words such as intense, window of time, and mesmerized to make the tone seem very curious and mysterious.

The other significant literary element mentioned was symbolism. Symbolism is defined as something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign. Very often, poems are not written out in plain English for someone to understand. Instead, the writer uses symbolism in their poems to have the reader think into what they're trying to say. The writer could also use symbolism to have the reader use their mind to be able to imagine and visualize what they are reading. One line in the poem that I believe is using symbolism is, "or shadows from wind blown trees." In this line the writer is talking about what the cat might be seeing through the window. The shadows from the windblown trees could just merely be the shadows of the trees from the sunlight, but it could also be shadows as in spirits or a type of ghost which is lingering near the trees. Another part of the poem that symbolism is being used is when the poem mentions the "window of time." The writer is speaking of how the cat sits by what seems to be just a window all the time. But she mentions the cat is "frozen in time" and wonders what the cat is really seeing. Is the cat just really sitting by some window, or does she see through time and see things that people cannot see?

Not only does Patricia Walter use tone and symbolism in her poems, but many writers of poetry and other kinds of literature use them to improve and enhance their writing. I believe that Patricia Walter used tone and symbolism very well in her poem "Window of Time." I think what this poem says to us is that there may be more out there than meets the eye-- or human eye at least. Is it possible that cats or even another kind of animal can see something that humans cannot?

Definition of Symbolism-http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/symbol.

Definition of Tone-http://www.orangeusd.k12.ca.us/yorba/literary_elements.htm.