Poetry Precis #10: "Tour"

In the poem “Tour” by Carol Snow, an antithesis and an inverted sentence is used in conjunction with a curious and pondering tone to establish the message that everything in life can be viewed from different perspectives. In this short and sweet poem, the speaker contrasts the actions that went into the creation of the beautiful scene in front of them; did the man sweep the path and then place the flowers, or simply sweep between the flowers? Thinking deeper, one could ask if the man was cleaning up in order to place objects of beauty there to enhance it, or was he clearing up the dirt around it to reveal the beauty that was already there and let it shine? This antithesis causes the reader to ponder and realize that any situation could be thought about from two sides, and there are possible explanations to any given scenario. The use of the inverted sentence, “near a shrine in Japan, he’d swept the path,” in comparison with the last sentence, “he’d swept the path between the fallen camellias,” emphasizes the opposing sides of the perspective, thereby strengthening the message. These opposing views show that although one side is not correct over the other, we must recognize that both perspectives are valid and equal.

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