beauty instead of warning the reader against it in
the manner of Alfred Tennyson. Rather than
paint a pleasing still life, Toomer conjures up an
almost cinematic narrative, and like Blake he
makes fearsomeness seem attractive.
Conflicts in Nature
Poets have written about conflicts in nature before.
Alfred Tennyson, in ‘‘In Memoriam,’’ suggests
that nature is a battlefield of wild animals. And
other poets have written about the fearfulness of
storms.Again,however,Toomerapproachesthis
subject unconventionally. For Robert Frost in
‘‘Storm Fear,’’ the storm is a danger to be sur-
vived; the conflict is between human beings and
the nature that threatens them. Conventionally,
when a storm passes it is a relief to see the sun. In
‘‘Storm Ending,’’ however, it is the storm that
seems positive, even beautiful, and the sun is the
destructive power. Moreover, the conflict is not
between human beings and nature but between
two natural phenomena: the sun and the thunder.
It is as if Toomer wants to shake his readers out
of their conventional modes of thought so that
they can appreciate nature from an unusual point
of view. This only works, however, if the reader
is willing to let go of conventional approaches;
otherwise the result may be bafflement.Escapism
‘‘Beehive,’’ the poem that immediately precedes
‘‘Storm Ending’’ inCane, ends with a bee wish-
ing he were somewhere else, away from his hive,
curled up in a distant flower. Similarly, ‘‘Storm
Ending’’ ends with the earth itself seeking to
escape, in this case from the storm that has just
been described and is now ending. It is a motif
that may have come to Toomer’s mind because
in his own life he seemed to spend a fair amount
of time moving on, trying out one college or
job after another, moving from city to city and
from career to career. In this poem, as well as
in ‘‘Beehive,’’ the suggestion may be that thereStormy sky(Image copyright Mona Makela, 2009. Used under license from Shutterstock.com)
Storm Ending