Summary Of If Only There Be Sorrow By Mari Evans

“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them” (Shakespeare). Shakespeare is widely considered one of the greatest literary artists of all time; with many of his works being listed under ‘classic’ or ‘must-read.’ But what determines something as a great literary work? Is it possible that the constrictive boundaries put on by literary canons have impeded our judgment of what is deemed acceptable to be put in the canon itself? It is my belief that the confines that the literary canon forces upon us restrict our appreciation of other great literary works. The canon would have us believe that the works that are not suitable for it are lesser because they have a quality that

The poem uses different literary devices to help communicate its message to the reader, the most prominent one being repetition. Evans uses repetition by repeating words that begin with ‘un’ and end with ‘ed,’ such as ‘undreamed,’ ‘unrealized,’ and ‘unattained.’ Evans also uses ‘undone’ and ‘restrained’ while neither words have both the ‘un’ at the beginning and the ‘ed’ at the end like the other three words they start and end the pattern adding to the overall flow of the poem. This poem, in particular, leaves the reader with a sense of ambiguity, another literary device that Evans capitalizes on in this piece. The overall ambiguity of the poem comes from the mystery of who the person is that has led a life so unfulfilled and things that they have left undone. There is also ambiguity in who is the person of their affection, and why it is they withheld their love from them? The poem is overall very mysterious and leaves the reader with many questions left unanswered. Another aspect of this poem that makes it so great is it’s innovative use of word spacing. In lines four through six the speaker is listing the things to be sorrowful for and as the speaker does so Evans changes the start of the line, moving it further and further over. By doing this Evans is making the poem

Despite it being a song this lyrical poem uses many different literary devices, one of the most notable being repetition. This is most obvious in the bridge of the song in which the speaker repeats the phrase ‘someone will love you’ six times and the phrase ‘but someone isn’t me’ twice. This use of repetition is very impactful because of the message it sends to the reader. You read it and you can clearly the see the picture it paints of being let down by someone you care about, how they reassure you multiple time that there’s someone out there who will love you like you do them but that they are not that person. In addition, another noteworthy literary device used in this lyrical poem is metaphor and simile. It is evident in lines four through six in which the speaker first compares how they treat people like jewelry, something they use or wear until something newer and shinier comes along. The speaker then speaks about how they ‘didn’t mean to try you on’ using metaphor to explain how the speaker uses people until they are no longer convenient or no longer serve a purpose. Above all else though, the strongest part of this lyrical poem is the message it sends to its readers which is that the speaker is owning up to how they’ve mistreated people and used them in past. This is