The Song My Paddle Sings

"The"- used before noun, usually with a title, before noun to show best- known

"Song"- a short metrical composition intended or adapted for singing, especially one in rhymed stanzas; a lyric; a ballad.

"My"- used to denote the narrator of a literary work written in the first person singular.

"Paddle"- a short, flat bladed oar for propelling and steering a canoe or small boat, usually held by both hands and moved more or less through a vertical arc.

"Sings"- to utter words or sounds in succession with musical modulations of the voice; vocalize melodically.

Paraphrase:

Wind blowing from the west, blowing from the prairie nest and blowing from the mountains. O! wind of the west, we are waiting for you.
Blow, blow!
I have loved you so,
But never a favor you present.
You move between the mountains,
But refuse to notice my white sail.

I put the sail in the proper place, remove the mast:
I loved you long but my love has past;
My paddle will soothe you into resting.
O! Sleepy wind of the sleepy west,
Sleep, sleep,
By your mountain steep,
Or down where the prairie grasses!
Now fold in sleepiness your slow wings,
For soft is the song my paddle sings.

August is laughing across the sky,
Laughing while paddle, canoe and I,
Drift, drift,
Where the hills uplift
On either side of the current swift.

The river rolls in its rocky bed; 
My paddle slowly makes its way ahead;
Dip, dip,
While the waters flip
In foam we move forward against the water.

And oh, the river runs swifter now; 
The water circles about my bow. 
Swirl, swirl! 
How the ripples curl
In many dangerous whirlpools!

And rapids roar, 
consuming their border forever. 
Dash, dash, 
With a mighty crash, they fill with unexpected anger and splash.

Be strong, O paddle! Be brave, canoe! 
The reckless waves you must dive into. 
Reel, reel. 
On your trembling keel, 
But never a fear my craft will feel.

We've raced the rapid, we're far ahead! 
The river slips through its silent bed. 
Sway, sway, and 
As the bubbles spray
And fall in tinkling tunes away.

And up on the hills against the sky, 
A evergreen tree slowly moves side to side to the gentle song, 
Swings, swings, 
Its green leaves, 
gradually increasing the movement that my paddle repeats.

Diction:

"Lullaby": a quiet, gentle song sung to send a child to sleep. ( Line 23)

"Emerald": a bright green precious stone consisting of a chromium-rich variety of beryl. (Line 24)

"Seethe": be filled with intense but unexpressed anger (Line 18)

"Mighty": possessing great and impressive power or strength (Line 17)

"Laggard": slower than desired or expected (Line 9)

Eddies: a circular movement of water, counter to a main current, causing a small whirlpool. (Line 15)

Tinkling: make or cause to make a light, clear ringing sound (Line 21)

Alliteration: "the river rolls in its rocky bed"

The -r is a sound of friction it's rough like the rocks

It's combined with continuous sounds -l, -s and -o that make the sound flow

Words of choice: she shows us the speed and aggressive movements of the rapids and how the lower river is much more relaxed and leisurely.

Symbolism

Personification

"August is laughing across the sky"

- Laughing is the spontaneous sounds and movements of the face and body that are