You have certainly picked a poem with a wealth of examples
of figurative language! Remember, when studying this poem it is important to note that
this is one of a sequence of elegaic poems written by Thomas Hardy mourning the death of
his wife, Emma, looking back on his life. Some critics argue that this is perhaps his
bleakest poem in this cycle. You can judge for
yourself.
The metaphor I will focus on comes in the last
stanza, where it describes the wind as "oozing thin". Of course, wind doesn't literally
ooze, what this metaphor does is compares wind to a thick substance like mud that
expresses the kind of pressure the speaker of the poem needs to "falter forward" against
the pressure of the wind. This impacts us because it helps us imagine the speaker, left
by himself, pushing himself forward against the pressure of the wind, haunted by the
"voice" of his wife.
Of course, Hardy doesn't just employ
metaphors - you will want to examine the use of alliteration and onomatopoeia as well in
this excellent poem. Enjoy and good luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment