How Does The Speaker Use Imagery In The Rainy Day

In the poem “ A Bitterness”, Mary Oliver illustrates a case of crippling melancholy. Oliver depicts the speaker reflecting upon the troubled life and death of someone that they knew. The solemn tone of the speaker is maintained throughout the poem to verify their position on the matter upon which they are reflecting. By using consistent repetition and descriptive comparisons, Oliver conveys the general theme that the bitterness accompanying sadness and sorrow can envelop all aspects of life.

Daniel continuously uses gloomy and depressing tone to make the reader feel as if all light has been sucked from the universe. He thinks “The world has enough degradation, humiliation, and disappointment for everybody to try some” (Daniel). By describing a world in which not a single shred of happiness still exists, a parade begins to seem like a glimmering light at the end of a long tunnel. This world

Death is inescapable. In the same way, life is inescapable. The Appalachian short story, “Jake Pond”, portrays this inevitable cycle through the depiction of a young boy enjoying nature. Lou Crabtree writes of the many inner workings of life through symbolism. While some would say this story is a literal telling of a boy and his surroundings, it does, in fact, include a plethora of metaphors to display the complexities of life through figurative language (Crabtree). In Lou Crabtree’s “Jake Pond” symbols such as the young boy, black snakes, pond, hollytree, and other natural entities portray themes of life and death, while detailing multiple aspects of change.

The story starts off with an image of light to represent hope, which is quickly contrasted with gloom of darkness that seems to hang over the characters and threaten the narrator and his family throughout the story. Hope overwhelms the narrator, just as his lack of acceptance to the painful realities of his life does as well. The story starts off introducing the relationship of the brothers being that of an estranged one, not having contact over a year. The narrator reads a newspaper article about his brother being arrested in a recent drug raid and is finally hit with reality.

The Dalai Lama once said, “I hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest” (BrainyQuotes.com). Hope is a subject that is heavily present in “Accident” by Todd Davis. Typically, spring is a symbol for hope. It often brings people brighter thoughts after cold, dark winters. Support can also affect how optimistic a person is. The purpose of a person’s life is a large source of hope. In the poem, the narrator is thinking about a recent event in which a man killed himself. The son of the suicidal man and the child of the narrator were friends, and the narrator is contemplating why the man shot himself. The narrator does not understand why the man could not find hope. In “Accident”, Todd Davis proposes that through seasonal metaphors, family support, and a person’s purpose, hope can always be found.

In Adrienne Rich’s “Storm Warnings,” the progressive structure details the storm’s advancement, the imagery illustrates the surrounding environment, and the calm diction presents the speaker’s state of mind, depicting an actual storm as it nears and the metaphorical turmoil the speaker is experiencing. People hear storm warnings, however, as the storm unfolds, one can merely brace themselves since the storm is inevitable and light hope within them.

The speaker believes that living the moments of life out slowly is the best way to live life because the speaker is allowed to cherish every moment that life offers, and this is presented in “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” (1). This overall perspective of life keeps the speaker steady and happy as seen through “This shaking keeps me steady, I should know.” (16). Metaphorical images are also provided through “Light takes the Tree, but who can tell us how?” (10) and “The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair” (11).

The pattern of imagery and diction that is created in lines 7 -10, uses diction with negative and consequential words to create a negative image of a result of not making a thrust in life. If you are not doing anything interesting with life, you might be putting yourself in a position where you could be criticized and

Often times in life, people begin to appreciate relationships when reflecting on one’s previous actions and regretting what one has done. In “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden describes how a son remembers his father’s sufferings and sacrifices that he did not appreciate in the past. Hayden uses visual and auditory imagery, personification, alliteration, and drastic shifts in tone to show how the son recognizes his father’s physical and emotional pain, and regrets his former indifference.

“Stormy skies of death and blood and brooding and war” (5) show the reader that there was death and injury all around and that it was depressive.

Again, the author selects a new set of imagery, such as stars, moon, sun, ocean, and wood to remind of the heaven in which the speaker used to live, and then to sweep it off right away. The last statement “For nothing now can ever come to any good” (16) finally reinforces the speaker’s loss and unhappiness. In loneliness, the speaker’s love becomes fiercer and more truthful. It is the fierceness and truthfulness that lead the speaker to the last stair of hopelessness. The end of the poem is also the hopeless end of the speaker’s life because of “nothing …good.”

This can be seen in the poem “Brothers and Sisters” in which the literal and figurative levels of reality are joined. Wright does this through the use of pathetic fallacy, ensuring that she moves beyond simple description, to show that every aspect of the siblings’ lives is reflective of the environment that they live in. This is represented in the metaphor ‘the road turned out to be a cul-de sac, stopped like a lost intention”. Wright implies that the dead end of the street is reflective of the lack of fertility both in and outside the house, there is no movement forwards as the lives of those within it have ceased, the siblings are unmarried with no children, thus there is no new life being created. Wright has done this to ensure that that audience is aware of this process, rather than providing simple descriptions which can often be misleading. Neither the surrounding environment or the siblings are taking part in the evolutionary process of creating life, this sense of fruitless passing of time is furthered through the employment of the simile “years grew like grass and leaves” suggesting, although hindered there is an emotional connection present. By representing their lives as slow- growing and little- moving it continues to showcase the similarities between the landscape and its inhabitants, demonstrating that the environment grows old just as they do. Yet another representation of the landscape within the characters is seen in the inevitability of death, for the landscape and its inhabitants. This can be seen through the use of direct speech “There is nothing to be afraid of. Nothing at all”. This repetitive reassurance demonstrates their fear of death and the destructive nature of it, as witnessed in the landscape. The irony here is that with each

In the beginning of the short story, as Brother reflects on Doodle’s life, the author uses personification and foreshadowing to create a mood of remorse. As he gazes out of the window into his backyard, Brother states that “the graveyard flowers were blooming. ...speaking softly the names of our dead” (Hurst 1). The flowers provide flashbacks of the past, and foreshadow a loss of life. The loneliness felt by Brother causes readers to consider how they would feel if their loved one was gone. As Brother observes the seasons, it is noted that “summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born” (Hurst 1). The personifications of the seasons as stages in the cycle of life and death creates an unsure and uncertain mood. The shift between seasons creates an idea of change and uncertainty of events to come. Hurst creates a mood of remorse through

Longfellow includes, “Has lifted up for all, that he shall go / To his long resting-place without a tear” (lines 37-38). This quote signifies leaving earth in peace. Throughout the poem Longfellow describes autumn as a beautiful thing, yet people may see it as cold and sometimes gloomy. Life is also seen as sometimes gloomy, but when one appreciates things and seizes the moments, it is beautiful. From this the reader can view life differently and see the positive side of things. The issue that shape this work is that Longfellow was an independent person; he rarely expressed his feelings to others. Connecting himself to nature possibly made it easier to share emotion and relate to

In the poem “The Day is Done” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the narrator describes his current state of melancholy as he watches the rain outside his window. Desperate to improve his dreariness, he requests that someone read him a poem. He refers to poets such as Homer or Vigril, as “grand old masters” and explains that their poems will not fulfill his desire to rest. Instead, he asks to hear from a “humbler poet” because he knows that their poems have the capability to bring him peace and serve as lovely music.