Compare and Contrast Essay on the Use of Imagery and Metaphors in Poetry

Introduction

In today's era of literature, poets effectively make use of an array of literary devices in their writing to help their readers comprehensively understand their primary themes. The two most significant devices commonly used are imagery and metaphor to enhance the authors' description efficiently. Metaphor in poetry is primarily used to compare two unlike things without the use of terms such as "like" or "as" whereas imagery is the description of an item, place or a person (Carston 198). However, just like many other explicative techniques, the more the authors use imagery and metaphor in poetry, the easier it becomes for their audience to have a mental representation of the main idea being discussed. This paper primarily centers on the use of imagery and metaphor on three different poems the "White Lies" by Natasha Trethewey, "To a Locomotive in winter" by Walt Whitman and "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke. Throughout their writing, the authors make use of imagery and metaphor to significantly give their readers a much excellent way to envision the principal themes of their work. Therefore, both metaphor and imagery are figurative languages used by poets to enhance their descriptions as well as to make reading an enjoyable experience.

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Exploring the Use of Imagery and Metaphor in Natasha Trethewey, Walt Whitman, and Theodore Roethke's Poetry

In her compelling poem titled "White Lies," Natasha Trethewey makes use of vivid color imagery to effectively convey a picture concerning the racism and moral dilemmas present in the South during the twentieth century as immensely demonstrated through her personal experience. The poet uses a lot of color imagery to provide the readers with a clear image of racism rampant in a society that gives rights and virtues according to the color of the skin. The use of colors like "near white," "high yellow," "that pink and green shanty-fied shotgun section along tracks," "red-boned" and "light bright" all translates to "white lies (Trethewey 3-7)." Whereas the use of many colors makes the reading more enjoyable, they also give a deeper meaning of the poem. However through the brilliant color imagery the readers can conclude that Natasha is a half cast of both Canadian and African American descent but her skin was white enough to qualify her "pass for white (Trethewey 7)." The colors imagery thus describes not only the speaker's white lies but also herself as almost a white girl staying in a black part of the town.

Furthermore, the use of color white in most poems is substantially used to describe the concept of purity, but for Natasha, in the poem, it depicted something far more than that. Whiteness provided her with a sense of freedom and hope as the only option to be accepted in society (Trethewey 3). Thus, the white lifestyle the young girl yearns for can be considered as a false purity because the white culture is not pure and it is not where the speaker belongs.

Similarly, in the poem "To a Locomotive in Winter," Whitman makes use of imagery in a special way to emphasize on his description concerning the progress of technology in the American transport sector that led to the innovation of the train. The locomotive specifically represents a technical progression in the state of America where the author describes it as a contemporary emblem or imagery of motion and power signifying the pulse of America as a continent. The author describes the machine as being powerful and strong to drive the American's technical future. The words he uses to describe the creation reveals that Whitman greatly admired the train. Through the use of imagery, the author can effectively portray beauty as well as the strength of the train. The imagery is evident when the poet states that "Thy great protruding headlight fixed in front, thy long pale floating vapor pennants tinged with delicate purple (Whitman 7-8)." The various parts of the train are illustrated spectacularly as the author explains some parts to have a delicate beauty, reinforced with the high strength. It is through this comprehensive description that the readers can easily comprehend how the combination of the different part of the train attributes to the motion of the machine.

In "My Papa's Waltz," poem Theodore Roethke enormously employs imagery to portray the negative character of an abusive father as explained by the son. The primary purpose of imagery in this poem is, however, to convey the boy's emotions as he enjoys a late dance with the father. A significant example of the imagery in the poem is where author states that "the father beat time on the son's head with a palm caked hand of dirt (Roethke 13-14)" to provide a clear description to the readers about the son's father who is an employed man but practices antagonism to his boy. The abusive nature of the father as illustrated through the imagery helps in understanding the pain endured by the son. Roethke also applies the sense of sight inform of imagery through the notion of the "waltz" symbolizing the father's fight with his son. However, visualizing the scene of events is vital in enabling the readers to understand the whole incident described in the poem.

Unveiling the Themes Through Imagery and Metaphor: A Comparative Analysis of "White Lies," "To a Locomotive in Winter," and "My Papa's Waltz"

In the three poems, the use of metaphor is evident where the authors use a comparison to describe how two seemingly distinct things appear to be similar in some way. In "My Papa's Waltz" poem, for instance, Theodore Roethke uses metaphor throughout the poem to represent the dysfunctional family. In particular, the author uses the son's father waltz to describe his dominion as well as drinking habit that makes the family have an unpleasant moment of dancing (Roethke 4). Another metaphor is apparent where the poet writes that "Dads keeps messing up and missing steps, scratching his kid in the process (Roethke 9-10)," probably to describe the father's mistakes in life that could be harmful to the kid in nonphysical ways. Equally, in Whitman's poem "To a Locomotive in winter" metaphor is significantly used to explain the impressive technological progression of America. The author metaphorically describes the locomotive as "the fierce throated beauty, presented as the epitome (Whitman 18)" of the modern technical world and the poet requests it to "merge in verse (Whitman 14)," emphasizing further on the issue of innovation and poetry. Also, Natasha Tretheway in her poem "White lies" applies the metaphor to help the readers profoundly understand her life experience as a black child white enough to lie about her racial identity to be accepted in the society. She describes herself as "red boned (Trethewey 1-5)" to refer to a racially mixed individual by explaining her skin as light or almost white color. The author also describes the soap that Natasha's mother uses to punish her for lying about her identity as "Ivory soap (Trethewey 22-13)" to describe how it would cleanse and purify the lying tongue.

One significant difference concerning the usage of imagery and metaphor in the three poems is on the themes emphasized by the use of these poetic devices. "White lies" for example uses imagery and metaphor to describe the theme of childhood experiences of a young girl who had the desire to be white. The story becomes enjoyable to read through the use of many colors. The use of imagery and metaphor are also used in "My Papa's Waltz" poem, to describe more on the theme of family. This helps the reader to understand comprehensively the moment in the life of a family described throughout the poem, where father and son are dancing around the kitchen while the mother is staring on them. In the poem "To a Locomotive in winter," the two poetic devices are used to provide a vivid description of the primary theme of the poem concerning the technological development in America through the innovation of a locomotive or a steam engine.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the three poems significantly use both imagery and metaphor to convey their meaning to the readers. In essence, imagery in poetry depicts the meaning of the poem and draws the readers into a sensory experience. Often images provide the readers with mental snapshots that are appealing to their senses of smell, taste, and sight.

Works Cited

Carston, Robyn. "Figurative Language, Mental Imagery, and Pragmatics." Metaphor and Symbol 33.3 (2018): 198-217.

Roethke, Theodore. "My Papa's Waltz" Poetry Foundation.org. Accessed from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43330/my-papas-waltz 14 February 2019

Trethewey, Natasha. "White Lies" Gladelys Wordpress.com. Accessed from https://gladelys.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/white-lies-by-natasha-trethewey/ 14 February 2019

Whitman, Walt. "To a Locomotive in winter" M Poets.org. Accessed from https://m.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/locomotive-winter 14 February 2019