Buy an essay: The poem Surprise by Jane Kenyon

The poem Surprise by Jane Kenyon is written in such a manner that each reader can understand it in his individual way and associate with his own experience, as there are now certain coordinates or details about the characters, there are just generalized ‘he’ and ‘she’; pancakes as an example of something simple and every-day; mayflowers as a symbol of something lyrical and romantic; and budding leaves help to make the context fresh and aspiring. As for the structure, it is also simple and made up of 11 lines only, with no excessive decorations or digressions; by style the poem is short and concise.
The tone of the poem, however, doesn’t sound very exalted or optimistic. Instead of that it is just narrative and looks like a sketch from someone’s normal, average and not outstanding life but with some piece of outstanding event in this flat life. It may even seem that the girl for whom the surprise was prepared is not satisfied with it and blames the man for cheating. But, probably, the statement “The gathering / Itself is not what astounds her, but the casual / Accomplishment with which he had lied” has some other, shadow meaning: it ironically concerns her astonishment by the way the man was capable to hide the surprise from her and keep it everything in a secret.
The poem doesn’t have some special rhythm, but the lines are gently rhymed, and some words are united into integral images supporting the impression with sound effects, for instance: “budding leaves / Push last year’s spectral leaves from the tips / Of the twigs of the ash trees”. Five words are rhymed simultaneously and make the diction more dynamic.
All in all, the poem makes a light, warm impression.