The Poem Unrequited Love

Metaphors are considered to be one of the most important forms of figurative languages used in everyday speech, prose, fiction, and poetry. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, a metaphor is “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison” (Van Engen, 2008). Metaphors are used to enhance imagination of the reader when reading stories and poems. Metaphors make imaginative comparisons between two completely different objects; one object said to be another. For instance, in the poem Casey at the Bat, the author uses a metaphor to compare players to objects by stating the players are those actual

Sentences like “And how the lions in your eyes are all dying” (5) or “But the Egyptians used honey / To preserve their vital organs” (8-9) are perfect uses of metaphors in the sense that they characterize the situation and give the reader a vivid understanding. The ‘lions dying in the eyes of the beholder’ is a way of saying that all the courage, confidence and fire they had burning inside of them before, is now vanishing. It leaves one feeling empty and self-conscious knowing that whoever betrayed them, whether it be lover, a friend or a family member, had the audacity to do it in the first place. Another striking phrase in the poem was when Weslowski referred to the Egyptians using honey to save their most important organs. In a literal sense, the heart is one of, if not, the most vital organs we, as humans, have; it’s what keeps us alive. Speaking in a non-literal sense, the heart is something everyone wants to protect because no one enjoys getting their heart broken. Unfortunately if the occasion arises, one may go to certain lengths to shield what self-dignity they have left, or what pieces of their heart is still there. Half way through, Weslowski speaks about mohawks on skateboards (12), tattoos underwater (13), becoming the bad weather (14-16) or the music (17-19), or even becoming an empty coffee cup (21), he is pinpointing how certain people cope and the varying coping

For example, the story “The Sirens” in The Odyssey, on lines 690-691 Odysseus says “or know what death we baffle if we can. Sirens weaving a haunting song over the sea.” This metaphor is comparing death to the Sirens, this helps to identify that this is a dangerous route that Odysseus knows of and how he is still pursuing it. This metaphor helps describe the thought that Odysseus needs to

The poem “Love Song” by Carol Muske-Dukes is about lost love. She uses a sparrow that lost its family. The life in this poem is being lived in a house in a village. The poem suggests this when it states, “He and I had a blue landscape, a village street, some poems, bread on a plate” (stanza 5). The poem doesn’t tell us when this poem takes place only where it happens. The tone of the poem is nostalgic. The bird misses its family. Two times the poem shows that the bird is nostalgic, “All day it pecks at the tin image of a faceless bird.” (stanza 3-4), “Love was faceless even when we’d memorized each other’s lines.” (stanza 6) The 1st quote shows that he wants his family back because all he does is stay with a tin bird which is the only resemblance

“Love Poem” by John Frederick Nims is an excellent of example of an author using many types of literary terms to emphasize his theme of a love that is imperfect yet filled with acceptance. In, this poem Nims uses assonance, metaphor, and imagery to support his theme of “Imperfect, yet realistic love”.

Our eyes unconsciously record thousands upon thousands of bits of information every second. Our brain then acts as a filter to sort out what it thinks is useful and what is not. By doing this, the brain guides us into seeing only what is important. We never see the full picture; just what our brain guides us to see. Metaphors act in the same way in that they guide how people view certain topics and issues. A specific metaphor that becomes accepted by a large enough population of community will determine how most people in the community view that issue. In a way the metaphor skews the perception of those who hear it. This was the case for the metaphors of cancer in the late 20th century which we can see through Susan Sontag’s piece, “Illness as Metaphor”. We can also see this manifested in metaphors associated with people diagnosed with Morgellons’ disease in Leslie Johnson’s narrative, “The Devil’s Bait”. Both pieces deal with how metaphors have shaped the outlook of patients of their respective diseases. Metaphors obscure and shift our understanding of disease and pain away from the full truth into a smaller and less understanding perspective. The similarities between the metaphor of cancer as death and Morgellons as a farce prove that metaphors of disease isolate patients diagnosed with those diseases.

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-” “-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (Lee 30).

While reading the book “The Discovery of Poetry” by Frances Mayes, I learned a lot about figurative imagery. Figurative imagery is used throughout Edward Mayes’ poem to make connections between two ideas we typically would not associate with one another. A concrete example of figurative imagery in Mayes’ poem is found in the line that reads, “Men looking like they had been/attacked repeatedly by a succession /of wild animals.” I know that these patients most likely had not been attacked by wild animals over and over again, but when the speaker plants these images in a reader’s mind, the suffering that these patients have endured become more realistic to the reader. Sometimes using figurative imagery is much more effective than using a literal image. Mayes wants readers to know how ill some of the patients are. He goes on by describing the “200 miles of scars” of a patient and how “a boy who [had] shot his face off.” Mayes’ figurative images make a stronger point because they are so blunt. He doesn’t seem to beat around the bush; he tells every detail exactly how the speaker saw it.

Metaphors can be defined as those concepts where a term is used to portray a different meaning in a phrase than what it literary means. Additionally, metaphors are also used to make rhetorical statements where one is speaking of something else but by the use of words that do not have the same meaning. Moreover, metaphors can be used when one is trying to compare two different items with different meanings to portray the same meaning in describing something (Arduini 83). The book “Their eyes were watching God” has several metaphors, which have different analyses.

Writers write for a reason, they try to tell a story, describe an image or an emotion or an idea. And they do this to share a message. Metaphor is more than a 65 point scrabble word, it’s a decision that an author makes in order to further a message that the author is trying to share. Writing has a point. Both sherman alexie and joy harjo wrote for a reason, in their pieces “ a drug called tradition” and “ the women hanging from the thirteenth floor window” they talk about individuals relationships with their own future and past and the relationships of others.

Sharon Olds in "True Love" wonders about a true meaning of love in her uniquely written poem about a married couple. She hints that true love is about belonging to one another. That belonging or self-possession is reflected via ties of marriage. She further says that children, which are a product of marriage, only tighten marital bonds even more. The speaker starts her poem by describing two people having sex and looking at each other in a “complete friendship”. However, as much as the poem at first seems to have a positive meaning, the message appears to be quite opposite. In fact, “after making love, we look at each other in complete friendship" (2-3) sounds odd if used when describing the love between friends with benefits or a married couple. Friends with benefits contribute to unhealthy relationships that they are in, which is built on lust and only physical desire. Her poem, perhaps is an ironic portrayal of true love. A true love, if it even exists, is very difficult to preserve and can take a different turn especially within the marriage.

A poem is a piece of writing that partakes of the nature of both speech and song that is nearly always rhythmical, usually metaphorical, and that often exhibits such formal elements as meter, rhyme, and stanza structure. In her poem, “Variations of the Word ‘“love”’,” Margaret Atwood introduces to her audience the word “love” from many different perspectives. Google defines “love” as “an intense feeling of deep affection”, or “having a deep feeling or sexual attachment to (someone).” But “love” is not something that can easily be described. Atwood goes on to present and portray the word through different illustrations, beginning with cliché examples and ending with her own personal scenarios. The author’s tone and metaphorical language effectively conveys her perspective of “love”.

While people are often able to identify when they feel the emotion love, love itself seems to defy definition.  In her polemic “Against Love”, Laura Kipnis argues that love cannot exist as traditional expressions of love such as marriage, monogamy, and mutuality.  However, in her argument, she defines love incorrectly by equating love to expressions of love. This definition lacks a component essential to understanding the abstract concept of love: emotion. Recognizing love as emotion helps us realize that, contrary to Kipnis’ argument love by nature transcends all expressions of love. Love is subjective and exists in any and all forms. In her argument that love cannot survive as conventional expressions of love, Kipnis ignores the nature of love as emotion in favor of equating love to different expressions of love. Love is a force which exists above expressions of love; a true understanding of love can only come from an assessment of how individuals, not societies, respond to the emotion.

Joyce Carol Oates, an American writer, once proclaimed, “Love is an indescribable sensation- perhaps a conviction, a sense of certitude” (QuotesGram). Love, in the most profound sense, is entirely indescribable in every aspect. Each individual has been exposed to a different sense of love that has either affected or altered their emotional or mental state of being. The feelings associated with love come from a sincere interaction, or likewise, lack of this sensation. Celie, from Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, although dealt with many hardships throughout her lifetime, identified and grew effectively from her perception of the infatuation with her partner, Shug Avery. Their bond throughout the novel not only introduced readers into a dysfunctional, heartfelt relationship, but shaped Celie into a substantial, independent character, influenced her decisions for the good of her wealth, and showed her the true meaning and purpose of her place in the world.

What differentiates poem from other works of writing? What makes you realize that what you read is a poem but not a short story? Bearing in mind that the answer might differ from person to person, I believe that the crucial difference is that the underlying message is generally not obvious in the poem, and it forces the readers to think about it for a while to understand its deeper meaning. The fact that the message is not apparent in the poem, is often attributed to the usage of metaphors in the poetry. According to Oxford Dictionary, metaphors are the “figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable”. Even though they are used for different reasons