Question

10.

Craft and Structure: How does the word "whitely" in line 2 add to the description of the mushrooms' growing?

Answer 1

The word "whitely" in "Design" enhances the visual imagery and underscores the irony of predetermined roles of flora and fauna in nature, resonating with themes of life, death, and ecological cycles.

Step-by-step explanation:

The word "whitely" in the poem "Design" by Robert Frost adds a significant layer of meaning to the description of the mushrooms' growing. The term suggests a pale, ghostly, or even pure appearance that enhances the visual imagery in the reader's mind. By using this adverb, Frost adds to the eerie, almost unnaturally pure atmosphere of the scene, magnifying the starkness of the white spider against the white flower and the juxtaposition of life and death themes. The color white, often associated with innocence or purity, ironically underlines the predatory nature of the spider and the demise of the moth, highlighting the poem's meditation on design and intent in nature. This resonates with the broader theme of fungi and their role in the ecosystem, as some fungi, like the white-rot fungi, are involved in decomposition, breaking down dead organic matter and cycling nutrients back into the environment.

Answer 2

It adds a sense of purity almost. In Sylvia Plath's poem Mushrooms, we can see the description of mushrooms growing overnight. They do so gingerly, carefully, quietly, so that no one can see them develop. They do so whitely, which gives us the impression that these mushrooms are beautiful, almost heavenly.

When something is white, it is pure, neat, beautiful, angelic almost. So that's the impression we get from this particular word in the poem.