Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn
Indicative that suns go down;
The notice to the startled grass
That darkness is about to pass.
Presentiment is an instinctive feeling of something to come, a premonition (“indicative”). Atwood uses the metaphor of a shadow to show a presentiment of something to come. The shadow isn’t just any shadow, is a long one, which appears before the person/thing that is approaching. It show the intuitive feeling of something, maybe negative (“darkness”) , that is about to come. As with a shadow there is nothing to be done about this, you just have to let it pass. The same happens with premonitions, you get this feeling of something to come but while you may have this insight, there is little to be done to prevent it from happening. The use of “suns go down” shows the end of the day now to be followed by darkness, which could symbolize death. Atwood also uses present tense to capture the nearing evil. Using past tense would show the survival of such darkness, whereas present would indicate the danger hasn’t safely passed. Also, the visual appearance of the poem shows the first line as a long shadow that is cast upon the following 3 lines. Even the consistent use of the s sound create a feeling of silence and whispering almost like the words itself are hiding from this evil.
I think Deicy did an excellent job at analyzing this poem, i would’nt have noticed the consistent S words in the poem, nor the significance of Atwooods’ use of past tense verbs in the poem. I also got the same understanding of the poem when i read it. The author essentially uses the word shadow to embody darkness and takes that even further in her symbolism of the startled grass. i can actually picture the image she was trying to portray through her poem.
the shadow, as Deicy mentioned, is relative to the poems title, presentiment is usually a ill vibe or feeling about something. because shadows typically represent darkness and the sun represents light, Atwood used this feeling and gave it a whole twist about how evil lies ahead and how it is inevitable to escape darkness but you know when it is coming on, it is almost an instinctive feeling.
I believe the “startled” grass represents people, because people stand upright, they tower over other things and animals. It is a natural instinct for something to stand up or prepare to rise when it is startled, which explains why she chose startled to begin with, it is the effect of fear on people. The darkness or negativity that we know can or will happen to us, causes people to fear the future.
I agree with dxicefire and deicy in their interpretation of the poem and as dxicefire mention it maybe a representation of humans. I got this feeling as I read the first line. The long dark shadow on the lawn is something you would look out the window and see.
The suns go down is plural and this gives the feeling or indicate that this has happened more than once.
The poet use of the word startled gives the feeling of whatever the darkness is to the grass or human, it will pass soon, since a startled feeling does not linger long after the negative feelings happens. And in line 4 the author states that “the darkness is about to pass.”
The poem is about the feeling of approaching evil that is short lived.
i agree somewhat with the other comments. I believe the poem is about the future to come, and it maybe a depressing and confusing future. “Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn” line 1, speaks about something dark to come. I agree with deicy that the poem gives a negative feeling. The sun represent light and good which are all positive things. For the sun to go down represent the end of that light and then darkness that follows starting. I must say the last sentence says it all, that the darkness is about to approach after sun goes down and that the “grass” is aware this.
I agree with the other comments and deicy did really good on breaking down the poem in his/her words. On the first line it says, “Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn,” I automatically assumed that it was something big that was there. When I read the second line, the sun was plural and we know there’s only one sun so whatever is about to come seems intense. So the sun is going down and the line says, “the notice to the startled grass” made me agree with bxicefire about the grass symbolising people not knowing what to think but they feel something coming. Last but not least the last line says the darkness is about to pass can mean the sun is just going down and it gets a little chilly outside that may be why the grass is startled but my interpretation would be that people are startled because they know something is coming.
pre·sen·ti·ment/priˈzentəmənt/
Noun:
An intuitive feeling about the future, esp. one of foreboding
I feel that Deicy captured the feel of this poem perfectly, What I would like to add is that the writer more then likely tried to symbolise the inevitable passage of time. No matter what happens in life the sun will still come up and set. He uses a lot of hidden symbolism and through his use of certain words like darkness and startled brings on a feeling of dread and the inevitable idea that we one day shall pass away and life will continue.