November Metaphors

Spring is the season of growth, revival and beginnings. In the poems “Spring and All” by William Carlos Williams and “For Jane Meyers” by Louise Gluck, the poets talk about this very season. In fact, the two poems are contradictory, in that, Williams writes about the bleakness of winter and the awakening of spring. On the other hand, Gluck’s romantic poetry associates the natural renewal of spring with bereavement and death. Both poets use abundant imagery, symbolism, metaphors, different tones, and similes, to affirm their contending attitudes towards the season. Consequently, although the poems are about the same subject, the demeanor of the poets are varied.

The strongest usage of metaphor in this poem is in the first stanza in the line “write their knees with necessary scratches”. While scratches cannot be written, words can, so this insinuates that children learn with nature, and that despite its fading presence in today’s urban structures, it is a necessary learning tool for children. The poet has used this metaphor to remind the reader of their childhood, and how important it is to not just learn from the confines of a classroom, but in the world outside. This leads to create a sense of guilt in the reader for allowing such significant part of a child’s growing up to disintegrate into its concrete surroundings. Although a positive statement within itself, this metaphor brings upon a negative

The tone of the poem changes as the poem progresses. The poem begins with energetic language like “full of heroic tales” and “by a mere swing to his shoulder”. The composer also uses hyperboles like “My father began as a god” and “lifted me to heaven”. The use of this positive language indicates to the responder that the composer is longing for those days – he is nostalgic. It also highlights the perspective of a typical child. The language used in the middle of the poem is highly critical of his father: “A foolish small old man”. This highlights the perspective of a typical teenager and signifies that they have generally conflicting views. The language used in the last section of the poem is more loving and emotional than the rest: “...revealing virtues such as honesty, generosity, integrity”. This draws attention to a mature adult’s perspective.

Nature is first described in a peaceful and confident mood as something majestic, with the sun as the powerful being which controls this nature. However, by the end of the first stanza, “The hawk comes”. This phrase is said as if the narrator is afraid of the hawk and its presence is going to change the mood of the rest of the poem. The next stanza suddenly uses sharp diction, such as “scythes”, “honed”, and “steel-edge”, to illustrate the hawk’s stunning motions and the powerful aura of the hawk that is felt just from its existence, causing the mood of the poem to slowly transition to fearful, yet respectable. The narrator adores this change the hawk is causing on nature, and describes the scene with the hawk in awe, showing how the poet finds the changing of nature attractive.

In this poem, symbolism is used to help reader’s find deeper meaning in the little things included and show that everything comes back to the father’s fear of the child he adores growing older and more independent. “In a room full of books in a world of stories, he can recall not one, and soon he thinks the boy will give up on his father.” This sentence makes a reader assume that the story the five year old so

The poet uses many metaphors, repetition and morbid diction to illicit the response I had to this poem. Firstly, Butson compared the emotions and internal struggles of a

The use of symbolism and imagery is beautifully orchestrated in a magnificent dance of emotion that is resonated throughout the poem. The two main ideas that are keen to resurface are that of personal growth and freedom. Furthermore, at first glimpse this can be seen as a simple poem about a women’s struggle with her counterpart. However, this meaning can be interpreted more profoundly than just the causality of a bad relationship.

Eliot uses metaphors in “Preludes” and “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” to show that thoughts

“Ink smeared like bird prints in snow” is the first simile that appears in the poem and serves multiple purposes. The most obvious one is the creation of imagery, where it compares the black words the persona writes on paper to the bird’s foot prints that are left behind when a bird walks on snow. The imagery alludes that the persona will leave a “footprint” in the form of a note that people can use to trace her path but she will never be there anymore. From line thirty-six to forty, the poet creates another imagery of a sparrow (a tiny and a delicate bird) flying in windy snowing weather. The sparrow is dizzied and sullied by the violent wind; it encounters a lot of difficulties and fear. In this imagery, the persona compares herself with the delicate bird. She compares the challenges that the sparrow goes through to the suffering she encounters relating to her parents.

“Storm Warnings,” true to its literal subject matter, possesses flowy sweeping syntax created by the strategic use of commas and phrasing to draw parallels between the physical oncoming winds and the gales of life. The author crafts a long run-on sentence that spans the first stanza and carries on into the latter portion of the second to mirror the continuous flowing of windy weather and the forward motion of life. Once the speaker notices the brewing storm, they “walk from window to closed window, watching boughs strain against the sky.” In this portion of the affromented run-on sentence, alliteration, rhythm, and the repetition of words all contribute to the impression of movement. The various “w” sounds at the beginnings of words and the repetition of the word “window” create a sensation of continuously flowing forward, especially when read aloud; the comma adds a small swirling pause to the rhythm, which is then soon after resumed with the word “watching.” Just as the poem rhythmically moves forward with its long phrases connected with frequent commas, so must life carry on with each additional experience, whether it be misfortunes or joys. The elongated syntax allows all these elements to work together within sentences to highlight the similarities between physical storms and emotional struggle and to stress the inevitability of predicaments in life.

“Poems are written with the feelings and emotions, with the intuition and the instincts, that make each of us who we are” (Charters 669). Dana Gioia, the author of “Summer Storm 2000” expresses an emotional works to an event dated back 20 years ago. Gioia uses dictions such as, imagery, figures of speech, setting, tone, and ballad to help readers not only comprehend the poem but to help them envision and feel it as if they were the ones experiencing the story. Gioia uses these means as a way of expressing his feelings and thoughts while explain to readers the deeper meaning of what “Summer Storm” really entails.

The music is soft as we dance the time away. Dance the pain away. Dance all of the outside world away. He becomes me, as I become him. Our faces seem to become more beautiful, or least his face does. he tells me that my face does the same, I don't quite know whether or not I should quite believe him. I want to, I will learn to make myself believe him. He's done me no wrong so far.

The sixth and final local metaphorical construction to be explored can be found in line twenty nine, “Suns have worn him, like an old sun-tool”. Instead of just using animals the poets makes use of nature to help portray the image of the old thatcher. The thatcher (tenor) has spent many a year thatching roofs under the heat of the sun, and has become tanned and rusty like his tools. There are ample metaphorical constructions to be explored in this poem; however, these six constructions are adequate in giving a clear description of the old thatcher and his way of life, thus proving how figurative language does contribute to the understanding of

Judith Wright extensively uses the structure of her poems to convey many ideas and themes. The structure of a poem is crucial to delivering its key message as it determines both the tone and how the poem is read. She shows the reader throughout the poem how the dust, which is symbolic of the barren emptiness that has “overtaken… dreams” of beauty and comfort as well as financial dependence, will consume the earth if the current environment is not conserved and protected. Wright’s use of title emphasizes this point in the clearest way she can and re-enforces her major concept to the audience. Another example of how structure is used in this poem is juxtaposition. The first and second stanzas are strategically placed next to each other because of their greatly opposing descriptions. In stanza one, the new world of dust and wind, many negative adjectives are used, such as “harsh”, “grief” and “steel-shocked”. Stanza two, which talks about the past, contains a wide range of positive adjectives such as “good”, “kinder” and “beautiful”.

With every end, there is a beginning. When the cold winter ends, there is a new beginning in nature where the trees and flowers start fresh as they grow once again. The poem “Spring”, takes us, readers, to a setting where the place shows complete nature. We are to imagine aesthetic scenery where spring has arrived and everything that happens during this season is happening right in front of us.