Mary Oliver's Use Of Figurative Language In Crossing The Swamp

"Crossing the Swamp," a poem by Mary Oliver, confesses a struggle through "pathless, seamless, peerless mud" to a triumphant solitary victory in a "breathing palace of leaves. " Oliver's affair with the "black, slack earthsoup" is demonstrated as she faces her long coming combat against herself. Throughout this free verse poem, the wild spirit of the author is sensed in this flexible writing style. While Oliver's indecisiveness is obvious throughout the text, it is physically obvious in the shape of the poem itself.

Another example of metaphors in

What makes a story enjoyable? Is it the plot? Or is it the methods the author uses to connect to the reader? Plot is a big thing, but it is the literary devices that bring the story together. In the three stories, “The Tunnel” by Sarah Ellis, “The Skating Party” by Merna Summers and “The Bicycle” by Jillian Horton all have unique literary devices to make each story more intriguing and to give them the feeling of being part of the story.

To start off the poem, Soto used imagery to set the scene and allow the reader to understand what the poem is all about;"They leap barefoot to the store, sweetness on their tongues"(5-6). This quote is a superb example of imagery because it gives detail in one sentence to let the reader imagine the scene. Using imagery, this quote demonstrates how poor the kids were in the area and the neediness of a plain store that they even have “sweetness on their tongues”(41-44). To convey his meaning, Soto used a metaphor to show how unsatisfied he is with his life. “A brown kid getting across: “he’s like me”, I tell my daughter and she stops her mouth.

Barry communicates his fascination of the Mississippi through his intensely detailed sequences of the river, stand out word choice and use of juxtaposition with other rivers. If we were to imagine Barry’s passage without the use of these rhetorical devices, this enthusiasm would be largely dimmed and unable to convey to the readers. It is only through Barry’s use of words such as “radically alters”, “like an uncoiling rope” and as if it was trying to “devour itself” would the intense fascination that we get as readers of his writing be conveyed. The descriptions of the river flow, which could have just been described using words such as “fast” or “slow” has been granted with detailed complexity from Barry’s word choice. His decision to provide readers with almost a visual of the river through metaphors like “uncoiling a rope” and “snapping like a whip” allow us to envision the scene.

Anne Lamott 's essay, “Shitty First Drafts” explains to its readers that all writers, even the best, can have “shitty first drafts.” The essay presents the proper writing process from the first draft to the final piece of work. Her essay is intended to encourage writers who are in need of direction when it comes to writing and to teach inexperienced writers ways to become more successful in writing. Anne Lamott uses her personal experiences to build credibility, figurative language to engage the reader and provides the reader with logical steps for the writing process. To build credibility on her processes success, Lamott uses her own personal experiences.

Metaphors are an influential piece to the literary world due to, “the process of using symbols to know reality occurs”, stated by rhetoric Sonja Foss in Metaphoric Criticism. The significance of this, implies metaphors are “central to thought and to our knowledge and expectation of reality” (Foss 188). Although others may see metaphors as a difficult expression. Metaphors provide the ability to view a specific content and relate to connect with involvement, a physical connection to view the context with clarity. As so used in Alice Walker’s literary piece, In Search Of Our Mothers’ Gardens.

Imagery allows a reader to imagine the events of a story within their mind through mental images. Imagery can describe how something looks, a sound, a feeling, a taste, or a smell. Imagery is especially important when the author is describing a character or a setting. The short story The Man In The Black Suit by Stephen King has several excellent examples of imagery.

In her poem, “Crossing the Swamp,” Mary Oliver uses vivid diction, symbolism, and a tonal shift to illustrate the speaker’s struggle and triumph while trekking through the swamp; by demonstrating the speaker’s endeavors and eventual victory over nature, Oliver conveys the beauty of the triumph over life’s obstacles, developing the theme of the necessity of struggle to experience success. Oliver uses descriptive diction throughout her poem to vividly display the obstacles presented by the swamp to the reader, creating a dreary, almost hopeless mood that will greatly contrast the optimistic tone towards the end of the piece. While describing the thicket of swamp, Oliver uses world like “dense,” “dark,” and “belching,” equating the swamp to “slack earthsoup.” This diction develops Oliver’s dark and depressing tone, conveying the hopelessness the speaker feels at this point in his journey due to the obstacles within the swamp. As the speaker eventually overcomes these obstacles, he begins to use words like “sprout,” and “bud,” alluding to new begins and bright futures.

One example is, “The blue-green jewel of stock lint I’m digging from under my third toenail, left foot, hates you” (8). Imagery was created in these lines to show that hates are like lint which stock under her nail and hard to clean out. In another example, “The way I hold my pencil hates you” (4), her hates of him can be sees in every detail of her life. In this poem, imagery displays the visual images using words describing how everything links to him. In addition, “Look!

Imagery is a literary device that uses descriptive wording to put a vivid image of a scenario in your mind. Dickens uses imagery to describe the scenery and the change in Scrooge’s physical appearance throughout the course of the story. “eezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self- contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.

When authors want to make a point that leaves a memory or needs to make you think about something, they typically use imagery. It can inscribe an image to show the severity or serenity of the moment in a way different from the normal statement, in a deeper way that can leave you with a feeling of joy or fill you with sorrow. In Night, Elie Wiesel uses imagery to show that surviving during the Holocaust was difficult and often given up on. In the beginning, Jews were expelled from their homes, leaving the town barron.

Alice Walker uses imagery and diction throughout her short story to tell the reader the meaning of “The Flowers”. The meaning of innocence lost and people growing up being changed by the harshness of reality. The author is able to use the imagery to show the difference between innocence and the loss of it. The setting is also used to show this as well.

There are many talented poets, but there is something special about Langston Hughes that makes him unique. He has many eye-opening poems. Langston Hughes is definitely one of a kind. The poems Cross and Mother to Son by Langston Hughes, use figurative languages such as imagery and syntax to provide more climax. Imagery.

The images that the words create makes it feel as if you were really there looking at everything actually happening. Such as, “They stretched their beloved lord in his boat, laid out by the mast, amidships. The great ring-giver. Farfetched treasures were piled on him,and precious gear.” This is a great example of imagery.