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The Visitor by Gibbons Ruark

            The poem "The Visitor," by Gibbons Ruark has a direct title which immediately introduces the concept of an outsider "The Visitor" who comes to the household for a specific time to undertake a specific duty. Though there is no specific rhyme scheme visible, the poem is written in such a manner that it has a rhythmic flow. The poet deftly analyses the themes of music and individual reaction to music in the poem. The poem is set in the narrator's house during the afternoon of the first few days of the month of October, when a blind piano tuner comes to fix the piano and after an afternoon filled with music the setting reaches the night time when everything is still and silent and the narrators cat quietly walks up to the piano and strikes one note which lingers on in the narrator's mind in the form of a dream. One surprising thing that can be noted in the poem is that even though it is a first person account from the eyes of the narrator we hardly get to know about the narrator the poem focuses more on the effect of the music on various things observable by the narrator. .
             The visitor who is also the piano tuner is significant in repairing the musical atmosphere in the household such that even the cat evokes a musical response. The poet makes beautiful use of audio-visual imagery to convey a sensation of music and melody which is felt throughout the poem "he finds the keyboard" "slow keys" "ringing changes". Symbolism is also an important aspect of the poem wherein the songs are the symbols "My wife plays Stardust. The blind man stands and smiles in her Direction, then disappears into the blaze of new October." The song is "American popular music" as described in the footnote of the poem. Popular music is full of joy and movement, the blind man's face expression reflects this because he is smiling. Analysing the various characters in the poem we see that the poet has given a lot of attention to detail in describing the actions of "the Visitor" i.


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