How Does Michael S. Harper Use A Metaphor

The nature of discovery is highly impactful when one is confronted with multiple worlds; enabling a physical and spiritual connection to places, ideals and society, transforming one’s perception over-time. Australian poet Robert Gray‘s ‘The Meatworks’, confronts an individual’s beliefs to influence their standpoint on a desensitized society. ‘Journey, North Coast’ introduces the idea that re-awakened realities emancipate one’s connection of the natural world. and Director Daniel Sousa’s ‘Feral’ explores into how being taken into an unfamiliar reality leads to discovering one’s natural world. It is within these poems that uncover the highly impactful nature of discovery.

Budge Wilson’s, The Metaphor, is a bildungsroman that blueprints Charlotte’s transition from a young, moldable girl into an independent woman through juxtaposition, allegory, and symbolism. Charlotte is an awkward seventh grader, who transforms into a well-round tenth grader before the eyes of the reader due to the influence of her teacher, Miss. Hancock. Her mother, calculated and emotionless, is the foil to Miss. Hancock’s wild, unorganized spirit. Charlotte finds herself drawn to Miss. Hancock, who her mother despises, which causes Charlotte internal strife. She pushes down her feelings, but through a traumatic experience, she discovers Miss. Hancock’s lessons are the ones her heart wants to live by, not her mother’s. Miss. Hancock and

The process of discovery refers to the perception created upon experiencing the unfamiliar and redefining what is familiar. Discovery can be achieved through unexpected means or deliberate expeditionary, whether it be tangible or a fragment of our thoughts/imagination/emotions. Poems ‘The Tiger’ and ‘Young Girl At A Window’ by Rosemary Dobson and poem ‘Invictus’ by William Ernest Henley thoroughly explore this concept via their ideology of human nature and its effect on discovery.

“And yet she had loved him – sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!”

“Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space” (Oscar Scott Card). The puritan poets Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor write of their lives and of God and where these two things intertwine. God, however, is an enticing mystery that these poets attempt to understand, and in their exploration, they use the metaphorical reasoning to explain what they’ve discovered. Bradstreet and Edward Taylor implement metaphors to create the greatest understanding in the smallest space by using common complexities to describe uncommon intricacies.

When the narrator first encounters the girl, his friend's older sister, he can only see her silhouette in the “light from the half-opened door”. This is the beginning of his infatuation with the girl. After his discovery, he is plagued by thoughts of the girl which make his daily obligations seem like “ugly, monotonous, child's play”. He has become blinded by the light. The narrator not only fails to learn the name of his “girl”, he does not realize that his infatuation with a woman considerably older than himself is not appropriate. He relishes in his infatuation, feeling “thankful [he] could see so little” while he thinks of the distant “lamp or lighted window” that represents his girl. The narrator is engulfed by the false light that is his futile love.

In life and in literary text hidden meanings are quite common. There is basic level of understanding by the majority and a concealed meaning that requires a deeper level of critical thinking and analysis. Terrance Hayes provides a “poetic style that resist style” which proves hard to interpret, but I conclude he provides a common theme many might mistake for just an element of poetry (Fabu 1). A common theme present within two of his poems “Lighthead’s Guide to Galaxy” and “Antebellum House Party” as well as ”Mausoleum” from his signature book Wind in a Box is the idea of symbolism and underlying meanings within itself and how individuals tend to look for something more in things even in life instead of being as it is.

The men noticed her firm buttocks like she had grape fruits in her hip pockets; the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume; then her pugnacious breasts trying to bore holes in her shirt. They, the men, were saving with the mind what they lost with the eye. (2)

In another poem “Six Years Later,” Wilbur also uses imagery to show how he viewed the lady that he had fallen in love with. The phrase “her lips, fluttering from my shoulder, sought/To join my own,” shows a partly cute and partly awkward way in which they fell in love (Wilbur 17-18). In a way, this poem describes how the seemingly vulnerable woman with fluttering lips evolved to the woman strutting down the walkway, which only help to visualize the grace that she has developed. He uses both of these visuals to paint the image that he has a never ending love for his

I find myself using the metaphor “don’t judge a book by its covers” very often. The nature of my job requires me to interact with new people every day. Working in luxury retail, although, I treat every customer equally, I must evaluate which customer is worth my time consulting with in order to meet my commission. It is easy to gravitate towards customers dressed in designer but I must remind myself to never reach a conclusion by how the customer is dressed. The metaphor helps me reevaluate which customer I should approach.

As the story goes on his obsession becomes immense “I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood”(3). This can also prove that she is his only happiness in his dark musty life. Another example of when the boy’s image of her sparks is when he thinks “Her Image accompanied me even in places most hostile to romance”(3). This false image of her corrupts his mind and leaves him short of reality.

"He grabbed my head and pulled it into his collarbone, and he said, 'I'm sorry, Gus died ... But it was sure a privilege to love him, huh?" I nodded into his shirt. "Gives you an idea how I feel about you '’

The man, too, exhibits naïveté when he mentions, “Her beauty made me glad.” His observation of the girl is very innocent in that he brings attention to things as he notices them, much like a child. “Her hair was thick with many a curl/ That clustered round her head./ She had a rustic, woodland air,/ And she was wildly clad:/ Her eyes were fair, and very fair;” he says. With the repeating of, “Very fair,” it is as if he took sudden a closer look

In Lakeoff and Johnson’s book Metaphors We Live By, they claim that, “if we are right in suggesting that our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, then the way we think, what we experience, and what we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor” (3). They mean that much of what we do in everyday life we compare using metaphors, and sometimes it is done without us even noticing. It is so true. When doing a free write to talk about a reading experience, metaphors were being used without the writer trying to use them. We subconsciously put them in our papers to try and describe things better. Metaphors play a huge part in our lives, and we use them without realizing it when we try to explain something to someone. I am sure there are even metaphors in this paper I have used without trying to. We were assigned to come up with two metaphors, one for academic reading and one for nonacademic reading, and then explain how they are linked.

In the sixth epigram, the speaker witnesses a beautiful lady. We notice that the last epigram takes place within nature as the other two did. The speaker states, “At last so faire a Ladie did I spie, / That in thinking on hir I burne and quake” (Spenser 1-2). As we are coming towards the last of epigrams to be analyzed in a Theatre for Worldlings, we come to recognize that the speaker has been heartbroken twice in the previous epigrams. However, once he or she sees a “Ladie” we understand that the speaker is possibly male and that witnessing the woman’s beauty makes him “burne and quake” as he takes notice of her beauty. The speaker’s obvious feelings regarding the woman leave him to take notice of her alluring looks which highlights the speaker interest in vanity. Even though the speaker has already been heartbroken, he cannot look past her charm and elegance as she walks, “On herbes and floures she walked pensiuely” (Spenser 3). By stating that the lady is walking pensively, the language can suggest that she is looking inward instead of looking towards external forces such as religion that can save her. The speaker states, “White seemed her robes, yet woven so they were” which indicates that at first glance the lady seems pure. However, we notice that the lady’s rope only “seemed” white which further indicates towards the reader that something bad is likely to occur in this idealized reality that the speaker is portraying. In the next few lines, we take notice of the