Chapter 1(First flight)

A Letter to God Introduction

The story, “A Letter to God” by G.L Fuentes revolves around the idea of having unquestionable belief in
something. The story is set in a Latin American country. Lencho, the farmer, who is the protagonist of
the story, writes a letter to God seeking help from the almighty after discovering his entire crop yield
destroyed by a devastating hailstorm. Although, his wishes get fulfilled partially, if not completely, he is
ungrateful in the end and questions the honesty and modesty of the post-masters who actually helped
him with money (anonymously) in the name of god.

A Letter to God Summary

The story, “A Letter to God” by G.L. Fuentes depicts unwavering faith of a farmer in God. It begins with a
farmer, named Lencho expecting for a rain shower to nourish his field of corn. He is confident that his
harvest is going to yield him huge profits just like it does every year. To his utmost excitement, rainfall
did happen but sooner, it turned into a hailstorm destroying his entire crop field. The damage posed a
threat to the family’s survival as their entire livelihood was dependent on the year’s produce. Although
disheartened, the family had robust belief in the almighty. Lencho, despite having worked day and night
at the field, knew how to write and thus, decided to write a letter to God explaining his situation and
asking for help. He went to town to post his letter addressed “To God”. The letter on being noticed by
the postmaster, at first amused him, but then motivated him want to do something for the farmer so as
to keep his immense belief intact. He contributes from his salary and collects money from his colleagues
and friends who willingly contributed for an act of charity. To his dismay, he could only collect 70 pesos
which he wrapped in an envelope to make it seem like a reply from the deity. On having found the
letter, the writer (Lencho) is not at all shocked, but instead, he gets angry on finding that the amount is
less than what he had expected. He again writes a letter to God conveying his disappointment and
distrust in the employees of the post office who he thought had stolen the remaining amount.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Dust of Snow Summary

‘Dust of Snow’ is a beautiful short poem written by Robert Frost. This poem tells that even a simple
moment has a large significance. The poet has mentioned crow and hemlock tree in this poem. Crow
signifies his depressive and sorrowful mood and hemlock tree is a poisonous tree. Both these signify that
the poet was not in a good mood and so he describes the dark, depressive and bitter side of nature to
present his similar mood.
The poet says that once he was in a sad, depressive mood and was sitting under a hemlock tree. A crow,
sitting on the same tree, shook off the dust of snow i.e., small particles of snow that remain on the
surface after the snowfall, on the poet. This simple action changed the poet’s mood. He realized that he
had just wasted a part of his day repenting and being lost in sorrow. But the change in his mood made
him realize that he should utilize the rest of the day in some useful activity. His sorrow was washed away
by the light shower of snow dust. His spirit was revived and he got ready to utilize the rest of the day.

Dust of Snow Literary Devices

*Rhyme Scheme- abab cdcd

*Alliteration- the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely
connected words. The instances of alliteration are as follows- Has given my heart And saved some part

*inversion - when the structure of a sentence is changed by the poet to create rhyme, this poetic license
is called inversion. In stanza 1, inversion can be seen.

*assonance - the prominence of a vowel sound throughout a line is called assonance. In stanza 1, line 2 -
“Shook down on me” - ‘o’ sound is prominent.

*enjambment - when the same sentence continues to the next line without the use of any punctuation
marks, it is called enjambment. It has been used thorughout the poem.

Fire and Ice Poem Introduction

Robert Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice” expresses the profound idea that the world would end in either of
two ways, either by ice or fire. Both the components are compared with self-destructing human
emotions: hatred and desire. The poem, very artistically, underpins the philosophy that we let our
emotions rule us and if don’t control them they will surely destroy everything around us. Similarly, he
thinks fire and ice, both are just as competent in bringing the world to a catastrophic end.

Summary

The poem expresses the profound idea that the world would end in either of two ways, either by ice or
fire. One group is of the opinion that someday the Earth’s core will get so heated up that it would lead
to fire destroying the earth’s surface. On the other hand, the second group says that if the temperature
goes down to an extent that makes life on Earth impossible, it would have the same catastrophic effect.
The poet then compares fire and ice with the destructive features of human emotions; desire and
hatred. He says that from what he is aware about “fiery desires”, he would favour the ones who say that
it would be fire. By saying so, he brings about the idea that human beings let their emotions rule them
and the consequence of unmonitored longing is chaos.
Then by not waving off the first option of fire, he considers if the world has to expire twice, ice would be
equally competent in ending it. He brings about a contrast between “ice” and “hatred”. The human
capability of insensitivity and hatred has the potential for inner destruction. Though slow and steady, it
has the same effect that desire has on us. So if given an option between fire and ice, ice would be just as
good as fire to destroy the world.

Fire and Ice Literary devices

1. Rhyming scheme- abaabcbcb

2. Assonance- it is repetition of vowel sounds in same line. The repetition is at different places in
different words.

Example- The long sound of “o” in “I hold with those who favour fire”

3. Alliteration- alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound at the start of two or more closely
placed words.

Example- The sound of “f” in “favour fire”, “w” in “world will”

4. Imagery- Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. Example-
“Some say the world will end in fire”

“To say that for destruction ice Is also great”

5. Anaphora- the repetition of a word or expression at the start of two or more consecutive lines.

Example – “Some say” is repeated at the start of lines 1 and 2.

6. Personification- Personification is to give human qualities to inanimate objects. In this poem,

“fire” and “ice” are capable of destruction. Thus, the poet personifies fire and ice by giving them
mind and power to destroy anything.
 7. Enjambment- it is defined as the thought or clause that does not come to an end at a line break,
rather it moves over to the next line.

Example- “From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire”

______________________________________________________________________________