The Explication of No One

The poem "The Monument," by Elizabeth Bishop can be thematically deconstructed in many ways. At first glance, the poem is about a tangible and solid object. The speaker describes this object, a monument, very thoroughly. After further examination and explication it is evident that the poem is not about one object, but about many intangible things such as creativity, art, and intuition. “The Bear” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn” “The Bear,” by William Faulkner …

…everything that one has yet to experience. In both works, an item has force the main characters to look inward for answers and in the process has become a heralded object no longer stuck in the frame of time. Both objects represent opposites in that they are permanent while the frame of human life is finite and transitory. Objects leading to enlightenment by provoking thought from within are a main characteristic of both these stories.