Symbolism In Robert Herrick's 'The Vine'

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Robert Herrick’s poem, “The Vine”, is rich with metaphoric and symbolic aspect to love, pleasure, and dominance. The poem, “The Vine”, as a whole is a metaphor because the speaker has taken the form of a vine or tendril in the poem. The poem is about a man actually dreaming of a woman, Lucia. Robert Herrick specifically uses certain words to express his love and feelings for Lucia. A simile in the poem that is very significant in its entirety is “And found (ah me!) this flesh of mine/ More like a stock than like a vine” (22-23). This line is important throughout the entire poem for the relationship between the speaker’s state of a stock and a vine. By saying he is feeling more like a stock can be interpreted as the growth has diminished and he can no longer love freely for a long time. His love for Lucia is hardening like the stock has or is coming to an end. The words flesh, stock and the phrase of “(ah me!)” (22) can imply that the speaker is happy to be waking up with an erection. The speaker is turned on by his sexual dream and has woken up with the feeling of pleasure. The pop of joy rising from this line interrupts the feelings of embarrassment and confusion, as the speaker is happy that this dream actually occurred. The (ah me!) also interrupts the poem, where the speaker’s dream is interrupted by him waking up. The poem in its entirety is the relationship between the speaker and the vine.

Sprouted, only to suffer from a one-sided loving & passionate state of mind, an illness is born - where flowers petals are wheezed out and regurgitated and can only be surgically removed, also severing all perceptions of emotions along with the petals; thus, forcing the individual into isolation, these effects are descriptions of the hanahaki disease (花吐き病). Within the petals folds, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck illustrates the beauty of passion and enthusiasm through the examination of the text that serves as a social action, also known as rhetoric, with the use of antanagoge and epanalepsis. Upon other petals, fluttering past swollen lips and tear stained cheeks; a petal depicts the use of amplification and symbolism through a racial perception.

One of the major

Hours upon hours in the sun's blazing heat beating on one’s back, with arduous, meticulous labor tending to a plant in needed in order to create an alluring flower is described in “I Have This Way of Being” by Jamaal May. Plants grow, just like humans grow physically and mentally, in the beginning they look similar, ordinary, and uninteresting, but over time they develop traits and features that make them different. Then, at the peak of the flowers life, they bloom into marvelous flowers that make them unique and exquisite from any other plant. Finding one’s self identity is an arduous and tedious task to accomplish, but in reward for their efforts one blossoms into being authentic person that understands their true self and projects their non manipulated true-self into society for everyone to see. In “I Have This Way of Being” Jamaal May uses the literary device of metaphors and conflict to emphasize that one has to struggle with finding theirself identity in order to become authentic.

(Walker, lines 4-8) The speaker used the comparison of a woman and a potted plant to emphasize how women are objectified and seen as a thing to control. A potted plant is only seen for her beauty, her sexuality, and what it can provide for a person. In Hurston’s novel, Nanny gives Janie away for marriage at the moment she sees her desire for pleasure. Nanny exhorts, “Dat what makes me skeer?

The poem Strange Fruit by Abel Meeropol, could be described as dark and graphic, as it embodies Southern violence in America. The poem describes the lynching of black slaves, which was generally presented to an audience of whites. Billie Holiday, a black female artist, would sing the poem to a predominantly upper-class white club. But strangely, the poem was written by a white man, Abel Meeropol. Although the last confirmed lynching was in 1968, there are other forms of racially motivated killings and violence in the United States today such as police brutality and the race riots formed by white supremacist in Charlottesville. White America is linked and always will be to the history of black killings. To understand what some of the lynching’s could have looked like, Meeropol made the poem very vivid with many examples of imagery within it as well as the many dark metaphors he placed throughout the poem.

Brontë shows how cruelty passes through generations through Hindley’s mistreatment towards Heathcliff. From the moment Mr. Earnshaw adopts Heathcliff, Hindley enters a state of melancholy and loathes that his father clearly favors Heathcliff over him. Mr. Earnshaw’s adoption of Heathcliff upsets Hindley, his father clearly favors Heathcliff over him. Consequently, Hindley reciprocates this hatred when he meets Heathcliff, comparing him to satan and wishing for his death. Heathcliff, unable to act against these cruel words, silently absorbs them. This interaction reveals traits of each character: the maliciousness of Hindley’s character, who hates on the young Heathcliff without reason; and the timidity of Heathcliff, fostered by his inability to stand up for himself. Although timid at the moment, Heathcliff assimilates this cruelty so that he can inflict it upon others, just as Hindley does the same to him. This depicts how the victim of suffering develops into the bearer of cruelty. Soon after Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Hindley assumes control of his household and unleashes even more cruelty on Heathcliff. In a fit of

The culture of set societal rules and conventions urges Catherine to be with Edgar, compelling her to be ‘the greatest woman of the neighbourhood’ due to them being relatively firm in their gentry’s status. This suggests the importance of her social status against the nature of her love for Heathcliff stating, ‘we would be beggars’, through employing the word ‘beggars’ the reader crafts the idea of her belief that she won’t survive without her status. Catherine admits ‘It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him’ Thus implying a swelling sense of her vanity and pride; enough to enjoy the position she gains from being married to Edgar despite her admiration for Heathcliff, being ‘more than (herself) than (she is)’and

His love is so great it would, ?grow vaster than empires? (11-12). Although Marvell tries to equate his love for his mistress to plants, his argument is undermined by a plant?s biological incapableness of contemplation and reciprocal physical affection. Nevertheless, the speaker continues his praises of love, but points out that there is not enough time for further praise because time is passing quickly.

When Heathcliff returns three years later, his love for Catherine motivates him to enact revenge upon all those who separated him from her. Since he last saw Catherine, he has “fought through a bitter life”; he “struggled only for [her]” (Brontë 71). Nelly observes a “half-civilized ferocity” in Heathcliff’s brows (Brontë 70); she views him as “an evil beast…waiting his time to spring and destroy” (Brontë 79). Heathcliff’s obsessive love for Catherine becomes a menacing threat. Heathcliff reproaches Catherine because she “treated [him]

Throughout the poem the gardener grooms his plays. They state: “I dock the dead, the damaged, and diseased… I stand knee-deep in bits, well-pleased I’ve put a few squares of world to rights” (1-4) and “So wrinkling, stiffening, stooping, short of breath, I spend my weekends saving plants from death.” (13-14). Most people associate destruction with death, damage, and disease; while wrinkling, stiffening, stooping, and being short of breath are all solid signs of old age. Although the gardener is steadily growing older, and they can’t help themselves, they get satisfaction from helping their plants grow and overcome death.

Robert Herrick, an author from the 17th century enjoyed writing about intimacy and pleasure within his poems. The poem to be discussed throughout the paper is The Vine, by Robert Herrick, because of it’s rich metaphoric and symbolic aspect to love, pleasure, and dominance. Essentially the poem, The Vine, as a whole is a metaphor because the speaker has taken the form of a vine or tendril in the poem. The poem is about a man actually dreaming of a woman, Lucia. Lucia is referred to as dainty and the speaker describes her physical characteristics which helps the reader picture what is happening. Robert Herrick specifically uses certain words to express his love and feelings for Lucia. The simile in the poem that is most significant in its entirety is “And found (ah me!) this flesh of mine/More like a stock than like a vine” (22/23). In these lines, the speaker is waking up from his sexual dream. The speaker explains that he is feeling more of a stock than a vine. This is symbolic because the title of the poem is, The Vine, as the speaker has transformed himself into a vine in his dream. By saying he is feeling more like a stock can be interpreted as the growth has diminished and he can no longer love freely for a long time. His love for Lucia is hardening or ending. The physicality of the stock to a vine can also imply that he is waking up with an erection. The speaker is turned on by his dream and has woken up with the feeling of pleasure. These lines are extremely important to the entirety of the poem because it ends with the speaker waking up from his dream and the reader is aware of how he feels.

Robert Herrick speaks about this “vine” as it is his male sexual appendage that wraps and intertwines itself within Lucia, his lover in this poem, so she may not escape his grasp. The speaker of Robert Herrick’s writing describes that he is so in love with this subject, Lucia, and his desire to have her for his own because he needs structure for himself. The tone throughout this whole poem is very confused and chaotic because the speaker seems as if he is jumping between the need of love from Lucia its joyous feelings, or for the benefit of his own sanity so he will not remain isolated and alone. From a Freudian perspective of psychoanalysis, I would look into Robert Herrick having a deeply repressed love and misconnection with his mother, such as an Oedipus complex, and this is why he is so needing of the love from Lucia. The Oedipus complex resides within the relation of a blood-family; a mother, a father, and a son (Son- Oedipus complex; daughter- Electra complex). The Oedipus complex revolves around the envious feelings towards the father, from the son, because of the bond that the father has to the mother. Because there is a lack of a loving bond between the mother and the son, the son unconsciously has the Oedipus complex, also known as “penis envy”.

Even though Heathcliff was unbearably mean to Cathy, she refused to be squashed. She made her own happiness by planting plants from Thrushcross Grange at Wuthering Heights and reading whenever she could. She also chose to rebel against Heathcliff’s tyrannical rules, even going as far as to fight him about them. Another key example of Cathy adapting is in her romantic relationships. When she was forced to marry Linton, she made the best of it, insisting to Heathcliff that, “you have nobody to love you; and, however miserable you make us, we shall still have the revenge of thinking that your cruelty arises from your greater misery,” (page 240) because although she was not happy with Linton, she knew he loved her. And although Heathcliff wouldn’t allow Hareton to be with Cathy, she fought past that and they fell for each other.