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Question:
farhara
Student
College - Junior
What implication do the metaphors, imagery, and allusions (rhetorical figures) have within this poem? And why do poets use rhetorical figures?
The significance of rhetorical figures, it's uses, and the reasons for using them by poets. What effect does it achieve, and how can one tell this?
Answers:
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gbeatty Teacher
College - FreshmanPosted by gbeatty on Friday August 29, 2008 at 12:17 PMWow. That's a huge question. It is essentially asking about the nature of poetic language. As such, it calls for generalities. Poets use these special forms of language for several reasons: tradition, intensity, and connotation.
In this case, the allusions anchor the poem in a classical tradition ("Thy mount, to which thy Dryads do resort,/ Where Pan and Bacchus their high feasts have made"). This is part of the general function of transforming the forest from a common place to a special place. He's linking it to the gods, and forcing readers to re-see it.
The imagery is the easiest part of the poem to discuss. It "merely" creates vivid images and gives the reader pleasure, as when he writes " There, in the writhed bark, are cut the names." The "writhed bark" gives an image, and it moves into the realm of metaphor, the general function of which is to give and enhance meaning. The bark doesn't just grow: it writhes in pain.
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