Saint Francis and the Sow Summary & Study Guide

This Study Guide consists of approximately 35 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Saint Francis and the Sow.

Saint Francis and the Sow Summary & Study Guide

This Study Guide consists of approximately 35 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Saint Francis and the Sow.
This section contains 1,111 words
(approx. 3 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Saint Francis and the Sow Study Guide

Lines: 1-2

"The bud / stands for all things," are the first two lines of this poem, and in a few, simple words, makes a profound claim. It declares that this single phenomenon of nature, the bud, has an elemental, omnipresent power, and that "All things" incorporate something of its essence. Yet, powerful as "the bud" is in the universe of this poem, it stands small and vulnerable on a line by itself. There is an infant tenderness to the two-syllable line that is itself quite bud-like. Flower images are common to poetry, so it is not the presence of a "bud" that is surprising. Rather it is the unfolding juxtaposition of bud with sow, and it is on this pairing that the metaphorical power of the poem rests.

Lines: 3-4

The next lines explore the meaning of "all things," and help explain the symbolic power of the bud...

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This section contains 1,111 words
(approx. 3 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Saint Francis and the Sow Study Guide
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Saint Francis and the Sow from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.