Read the following paragraph from John Muir's "The Calypso Borealis" and pay close attention to the words in bold. In one paragr
aph of three to five sentences, explain Muir's use of diction and the mood his choice of words creates. Use proper spelling and grammar in your response. But when the sun was getting low and everything seemed most bewildering and discouraging, I found beautiful Calypso on the mossy bank of a stream, growing not in the ground but on a bed of yellow mosses in which its small white bulb had found a soft nest and from which its one leaf and one flower sprung. The flower was white and made the impression of the utmost simple purity like a snowflower. No other bloom was near it, for the bog a short distance below the surface was still frozen, and the water was ice cold. It seemed the most spiritual of all the flower people I had ever met. I sat down beside it and fairly cried for joy.
This is an excerpt from “The Calypso Borealis” by John Muir where he uses a poetic diction and his words create a mood of joyfulness.
Explanation:
In this excerpt, Muir writes about someone searching the flower Calypso. The way the author describes the place where the flower was, indicates its poetic diction. When the author writes: <em>“I sat down beside it and fairly cried for joy” </em>proves that the person is immensely happy for finding the flower. This mood illustrates the feelings of finding something that was thought to be impossible.
The mood portrayed in John Muir's "The Calypso Borealis" can be described as first very gloomy and disparate and then to joyous and relief. At first, the narrator is very discouraged because he cannot find the Calypso flower that he wants. But when he finds it, he seems very joyous and as the passage says, he "cries for joy". This means that he had been waiting and searching for a long time. Muir also uses dramatic terms like choosing to place the Calypso as a lonely flower in the middle of a bog.
