Syntax And Diction In Once More To The Lake By Billy Collins

Once More to the Lake by E.B. White, is a story that details the journey of the author and his son traveling to the lake that White traveled to as a kid. Throughout the trip he has flashbacks to when he was his son's age. The poem “Forgetfulness” is penned by Billy Collins and details how as humans grow older or learn new things the memories they possess slip away. The syntax and diction used by both authors helps to develop their similar themes. Both of these stories share the theme of how memories affect us as time goes on. The descriptive syntax used by the authors helps them develop their themes. Both of these authors have their own special form of syntax. Billy Collins, uses a poetic syntax, as his words are penned so that they flow easier. One example of this can be found in stanza 7, “No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.” When reading this the words seem to flow, the words aren’t just read they are felt. The syntax shows that the author has mastered the art of sentence making, …show more content…
Luckily, both E.B. White author of Once More to the Lake and poet Billy Collins of “Forgetfulness” are able to do such. The diction Mr. Collins used set a sorrowful theme of how as time moves on our memories move on and disappear from our minds. The syntax he used made it feel as though the words flowed through the reader which allows them to understand his poem better. E.B. White’s diction set a tone of serenity and majesty which helped him to show the readers how memories from long ago can be brought back up with simple triggers. Such triggers as a smell or sound like smelling the pine from his cabin on the lake allowed him to remember doing so as a child. Both writers explore a similar theme of what happens to memories as time moves on but their opinions differ on what that