Death Of A Young Son Figurative Language

1438 Words3 Pages

"Death of a Young Son by Drowning" takes the reader on a journey of what it feels like to watch your son struggle to live as he battles inner demons and ultimately ends up succumbing to them as he commits suicide, told from a mother's perspective. Margaret Atwood creates an atmosphere of melancholy and loss through use of figurative language, extended metaphors, and various rhetorical strategies.
Woven throughout are several similes and metaphors, and an extended metaphor is strewn about almost the entire poem, lasting from lines 2-21. For the duration of those lines, the son's tough journey through life is compared to a restless, difficult journey through rough water. "He, who navigated with success / the dangerous river of his own birth" …show more content…

Her "foot hit rock" (18), metaphoric for "rock bottom". She is at her lowest point. Her "dreamed sails collapsed" (18-19), metaphoric for how her dreams and aspirations died with her son. She is worn down and tired. The sails of her ship described in lines 26-27 are torn and tattered. On an actual ship, sails are what keep the ship going. Here, hers are worn and ragged. Her son has died and this means no more smooth sailing for her. What had previously kept her going no longer exists on earth, and the tradition of a son carrying on the family values and name is no longer …show more content…

It almost simplifies the act of burying someone, making it impersonal. It is hard for the mother to accept the finality of it all, it is inconceivable to her how he was ambiguously placed in the ground, just as a flag is. It is chilling how nonchalant it seems to bury him. However, the "flag" is symbolic of his grave/resting place. Flags serve as a representation of something, and this child that she has buried will always be a part of her, a representation of her. The flag is also symbolic of his gravestone, which serves as a reminder and representation of him- his life and where his body is laid to

Show More
Related

  • Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Contributions

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    The descriptions and words used create the most vivid images of a mother’s escape to freedom with her son. This poem takes you on both a physical and emotional journey as it unravels through the treacherous demands of freedom. A beautiful example of her ability to rhyme both internally as well as externally can be seen here,

    Read More

  • Poem Analysis: Always Something More Beautiful By Stephen Dunn

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    The overall themes of this poem are beauty, love, and destiny. The speaker constantly discusses beautiful things and how they can help us. Love can be felt throughout the entire poem. In the first stanza, the speaker verbalizes how he “came with love of the race.” He also expresses love for the beautiful things around him. The theme destiny can be seen in the third stanza when the speaker talks about staying on course. It can also be identified in the last stanza when he describes something inevitable that was about to

    Read More

  • Should Huckleberry Finn Be Taught In Schools

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is true that the voyage down the river has many aspects of a boy’s idyll. We owe much of its hold upon our imagination to the enchanting image of the raft’s unhurried drift with the current, the beauty of the river-all these things delight us...Then, of course, there is humor-- laughter so spontaneous, so free of bitterness present almost everywhere, grim a spectacle

    Read More

  • report on letters from a father

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...t is arguable that the birds fight is also a metaphor, implying the fight exists not only between birds but also in the father’s mind. Finally, the last part confirms the transformation of the parents, from a life-weary attitude to a “moving on” one by contrasting the gloomy and harmonious letter. In addition, readers should consider this changed attitude as a preference of the poet. Within the poem, we would be able to the repetitions of word with same notion. Take the first part of the poem as example, words like death, illness

    Read More

  • A Father's Phaethon: The Legend Of The Father

    1407 Words  | 3 Pages

    When the poem is read aloud, the explicit rhyme and rhythm of the lines becomes extremely obvious. In fact, the bouncy rhythm is so uplifting, it occasionally makes the audiences feel like it is too predictable and straight-forward. An example would be “bright with chrysolite”, the word “chrysolite” feels like it is forcefully implemented for the sake of the rhyme. This is somewhat similar to a children’s tale. Most children’s tale as we know it, conveys messages straightforwardly and are easily understood by children, it also has an amiable tone and a merry mood that engages the children 's attention. Similarly, the rhyme and rhythm of this poem is very obvious and explicit, creating a delightful, casual mood that appeals to a young audience. Even though the legend dealt with deep insights about parenting that are intricate and puzzling, the father delivered it in such a gratifying, simple manner that made even the most dark and dreadful matters: like the description of precarious beasts and vicious monsters to sound like a blissful adventure of friendly animals. The sole purpose of this contradiction between the tone and message is to make this seemingly strong and serious topic more tolerable and captivating to the son of the father. Unsensible, impulsive youth is very similar to restless children, a long insipid lecture about deep insights is very difficult for them to buy into. In the same time, a harsh, threatening warning will only make them obey unwillingly, and creating a doubtful relationship will make them uncomfortable to communicate or appeal to their parents. Clearly, the percipient father recognized the ineffectiveness of these unsuitable parenting methods. Instead, he conveyed the message in a uncomplicated, friendly way that made his son to accept his teachings more comfortably. A

    Read More

  • The Laughing Heart Figurative Language

    480 Words  | 1 Pages

    Figurative Language in used throughout poems so the reader can develop a further understanding of the text. In “The Journey” the author uses rhythm and metaphors throughout the poem. “...as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of the clouds..”(25-27). The author compares the star burning to finding your voice. Rhythm also develops the theme of the poem because throughout the story rhythm is presented as happy showing growing up and changing for the better is necessary and cheerful. In “The Laughing Heart” the author uses imagery and metaphors to develop the theme throughout the book. “There is a light somewhere. It may not be much light but it beats the darkness”(5-7). Always find the good out of everything, even it

    Read More

  • A Literary Analysis Of 'A Story' By Li-Young Lee

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and

    Read More

  • Robert Updike's The Great Scarf Of Birds

    428 Words  | 1 Pages

    At the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts by telling the reader the place, time and activity he is doing, stating that he saw something that he will always remember. His description of his view is explained through simile for example “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets of their branches” (Updike), captivating the reader’s attention

    Read More

  • New Criticism Analysis of My Papa’s Waltz

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.

    Read More

  • Louise Erdich Indian Boarding School The Runaways

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem contains the central idea that many of these children never understood what home really means. In Native American culture the people venerate earth and it is referred to as mother nature which we see in the poem. The rails cut right through their home but they don’t view them like the average person. They view the tracks as if they are scars across mother earths face and her face is the Native American’s homeland. She is scarred for eternity but she is perfect in their dreams. This symbolism is ironic because the children try to reach home using the railroad that ruined natural life for them and many other Native Americans. In the second stanza the speaker says “The worn-down welts of ancient punishments lead back and fourth” (15-16). Which can be talking about the marks on the children’s bodies after getting caught while running away. But the “word-down welts” can also symbolize the welts that were put on mother nature throughout history. The last five lines of the poem sums up the symbol of hope through their memories and dreams. The last line of the poem says, “the spines of names and leaves.” (20-24). The “spines” symbolize the physical strength of the children and their ability to maintain hope individually “names”, and for their tribe

    Read More

  • Parent and Son Relationship in one of Nye, Naomi Shihab´s Poems

    638 Words  | 2 Pages

    In a typical family, there are parents that expected to hear things when their teenager is rebelling against them: slamming the door, shouting at each other, and protests on what they could do or what they should not do. Their little baby is growing up, testing their wings of adulthood; they are not the small child that wanted their mommy to read a book to them or to kiss their hurts away and most probably, they are thinking that anything that their parents told them are certainly could not be right. The poem talks about a conflict between the author and her son when he was in his adolescence. In the first stanza, a misunderstanding about a math problem turns into a family argument that shows the classic rift between the generation of the parent and the teenager. Despite the misunderstandings between the parent and child, there is a loving bond between them. The imagery, contrasting tones, connotative diction, and symbolism in the poem reflect these two sides of the relationship.

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Moose

    1407 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem is launched by a protracted introduction during which the speaker indulges in descriptions of landscape and local color, deferring until the fifth stanza the substantive statement regarding what is happening to whom: "a bus journeys west." This initial postponement and the leisurely accumulation of apparently trivial but realistic detail contribute to the atmospheric build-up heralding the unique occurrence of the journey. That event will take place as late as the middle of the twenty-second stanza, in the last third of the text. It is only in retrospect that one realizes the full import of that happening, and it is only with the last line of the final stanza that the reader gains the necessary distance to grasp entirely the functional role of the earlier descriptive parts.

    Read More

  • Jonson's On My First Son

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    The phrasing of this poem can be analyzed on many levels.  Holistically, the poem moves the father through three types of emotions.  More specifically, the first lines of the poem depict the father s deep sadness toward the death of his son.  The line  Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy  creates a mental picture in my mind (Line 1). I see the father standing over the coffin in his blackest of outfits with sunglasses shading his eyes from the sun because even the sun is too bright for his day of mourning.  The most beautiful scarlet rose from his garden is gripped tightly in his right hand as tears cascade down his face and strike the earth with a splash that echoes like a scream in a cave, piercing the ears of those gathered there to mourn the death of his son.

    Read More

  • Sailing Home from Rapallo by Robert Lowell

    1092 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the most distinctive characteristics of the poem is the way the reader experiences Robert Lowell's personal journey. At the end of the poem Lowell shocks readers with the reference to his mother, whose corpse is "wrapped like panetone in Italian tinfoil". By this stage it can be seen that the poem itself is a journey through Lowell's emotions, from the initial suffering to the final callousness and apathy. Lowell is initially overcome with grief, but as he takes a physical journey back to New England, he is forced to take an emotional journey into the complex relationship he has with his mother. It is only after he embarks on this emotional journey that he comprehends his true feelings towards his mother, and completes the journey by the end of the poem. Robert Lowell reaches the conclusion that he was never very close to his mother, and is not as affected by her death as he thought he was. Robert Lowell's emotional voyage and evolving character combine to make a journey, which is a distinctive q...

    Read More

  • Metaphors in The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    The two roads presented in this poem represent difficult decisions we are faced with in life. He uses the relationship between the paths and real life decisions throughout the whole poem. This is an example of extended metaphor, which is used to help the readers understand the analogy between the two. The man in the poem said: “long I stood” (3), which lets us know the decision was not made instantly. It was hard for the man to make a final judgment.

    Read More

More about Death Of A Young Son Figurative Language

Open Document