In his poem ninety-nine of Cold Mountain, Han Shan illustrates that men only desire immediate satisfaction throughout their lives rather than looking beyond the short term and seeking satisfaction that is more long-standing. The author begins his poem with “these words”; he goes on to say that he predicts that his words will have no lasting impact on people, and they will choose to ignore them. The poet admits only to using words and not actions to show what he means like Gandhi. Some people fail to grasp the things that are truly important in life. The next two lines of the poem mainly focus on how men are selfish and only care about what is for the best momentarily. Han-Shan illustrates his point by using an analogy between honey and medicine in the third line. He starts out saying, “Honey is sweet; men love the taste” implying that honey is a temporary pleasure and though “Medicine is bitter and hard to swallow”, it will keep you healthy and more content in the future. All of this seems to suggest the fact that perhaps thinking more long term is the better alternative. This seems to be a common problem with people today; they focus too much on the temporary solutions to their problems, such as eating that they instead of fixing the problem, they’ve created a whole new problem to deal with. The poet shows that people not getting what they want by not fulfilling these temporary fixes, results in anger. Towards the end of the poem the author talks of worn out puppets that as a result of their lust for short term satisfactions, they are “Worn out by their moment of play on the stage!” People are worn out because all that controls them is their lust and greed for quick fixes and temporary solutions. The stage is the world that people have become tired of. People need to stop thinking in an egocentric way and think about the big picture. The author’s usage of the words “worn out” brings about a sense of sadness or remorse for those unfortunate souls. They have become a slave to their own needs and desires. We truly are wooden puppets relying on everything except our own mind; for to do that would mean to accept responsibility. We would rather become worn out than rather than question our own ways of decision making. The imagery that is produced through the language is puppets imagery because the poem shows how people like simple desires and that’s what restricts people from doing more with their life. The mood of the poem is realization that all is lost. His message is an important one and it, like most other things, will get lost and forgotten. This makes you pity society’s ignorance and lack of open mind ness. The tone of authority or observance comes from the author’s own voice at the start of the poem which brings on a feeling of warning or caution. This sets the final tone with a sad yet cautionary tale of what happens to those men who give in to instant satisfactions throughout life.

Jacob, I'm not sure what you want us to do with this.

Do you want a critique of your essay?

Do you want more ideas?

Do you want us to proofread it for errors?


Les

Just more ideas please thanks

Jacob, if the poem you are referring to is the 8-line one you posted on your other recent thread, you have read far more into it than I could have. Why such concern about not having enough ideas?