Rosenberg's Use of Words to Communicate Themes in his Poem
The Wasp’s Nest
Conceptualize a world full of people that isolate and alienate you-a
place where you don’t count or make a difference. This is one of the
major concerns in the Wasp’s Nest. Rosenberg appeals to our intellect
utilizing technical literary ingredients to spice up and flavour the
poem. My project is an analysis of his use of words and phrases to
communicate themes in his poem and to see how the poem has been made
memorable. To me, the poem on its own is a metaphor portraying life
and its elements of uncertainty and others.
In line 1’’ Two aerial tigers…’’, the wasps are being referred to as
‘’aerial tigers’’ because they do all their activities in the air
(aerial). They are referred to as ‘’tigers’ for two reasons. The main
one being that they are ragingly ferocious and much undomesticated.
The second one is describes their physical outward appearance as they
are yellow with black stripes just like the tiger. The use of language
here is very descriptive and this line being a metaphor aids the
picture to be conceived on the mental canvas.
Line 1 is memorable because it is quite unique the way one can find
such descriptive to perfectly describe the scenario.
“Striped in ebony and gold…’’. The use of sophisticated and exclusive
adjectives which are (‘ebony’ and ‘gold’) to illustrate the wasp’s
appearance shows how fascinated and beguiled Rosenberg is by the
wasps.
This line contributes to the memorability of the poem. This is through
the adoption of classy words to leave the words echoing in our minds
and it is savoured and relished by the reader.
Line 3-5 describes the state in which the wasps are in and how they
went about their preparation of their home. Here, we assume that the
two wasps are of the opposite sex thus, probably married or are living
their lives together. Therefore, another rational assumption is that
these two wasps are building a home, an investment that they can share
together and reside within.
These lines are made memorable because they unfailingly apply and
relate to our daily lives.
Line 7-9 depicts how worthless and valueless this ‘’huge’’ investment
is to Rosenberg or the persona and then again, I find these lines
ringing in my head because it is indeed an example of life’s bad
sides- when one takes their time to put something together and he
worships it with every fibre of his being but before others, it is
insignificant.
Line 10-14, is about how the persona has endeavored and made an
attempt to exonerate and get rid of the wasps.
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It is imperative for us, especially all poets and writers of prose that use language to express figurative meaning, to critique this theory because it only decreases creativity and denies that artist say anything beyond the literal with their words and metaphors. Davidson's ideas violently affront to the purpose of our craft. If we become completely dependent upon objective, literal meaning and learn to reject subjective, figurative meaning in words, we will consequently become less human and more detached from the world, from our natural surroundings, from our fellow human beings, and from the spontaneous, creative voices deep in our guts that often speak of truths literal expression cannot capture.
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