The Door essay

Submitted By daney26
Words: 549
Pages: 3

‘The Door’ by Miroslav Holub
‘The Door’ by Miroslav Holub is a poem, which was first published at Mlada Fronta in 1962 in German as ‘Jdi a otveri dvere’. The purpose of this poem is to open the eyes of the audience to the options they have before them. ‘The Door’ is about the different paths that could be taken throughout a journey. The ‘door’ symbolically represents much more than itself; it represents opportunity, new prospects, open mindedness, optimism and the future.
Many techniques are used in ‘The Door’ to show the concept of discovery, including, repetition, imagery and the use of a coda. The use of repeating “Go and open the door” at the beginning of each stanza is a command to ‘go and open’ that opportunity that lies before you, it also tells you to initiate the departure stage of the journey. Imagery is also used throughout the text e.g. ‘magic town’, ‘picture of a picture’, ‘singing darkness’; this is used to stimulate the imagination of the reader. Holub effectively uses these techniques to convey his message that every ‘door’ or opportunity no matter if it is a ‘magic town’ or if there’s ‘absolutely nothing’, there is still a positive in every opportunity; and as Holub says in the coda ‘at least there would be a draught’.
In the novel ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ by Bill Bryson, Bryson portrays the discoveries of many people who were significant figures in their field of study. All of these discoveries were provoked by curiosity; this relates to ‘The Door’ by Miroslav Holub as it is the curiosity that gives you the courage to open the ‘door’. Each discovery in this world is related, they could be completely different paths taken but still each discovery is so similar as it is provoked by curiosity and wonder, it opens a door into a new world where you see things for the first time.
Holub uses these techniques to represent discovery in a way that is relatable to a wide range of people,