Sorting Laundry

Elisaviette Ritche's poem Sorting Laundry conveys the speaker's relationship with the person being spoken to as a withstanding and loving partnership. This analysis of the woman's relationship with the man she loves is discovered through symbolic use of words such as "head over heals" "wrinkled to be smoothed, or else ignored" "and seams still holding our dreams,"(Ritche, pg 841). All of these referring to laundry but symbolic of the two's relationship. The extended metaphor giving the idea to the reader that the kind of relationship being  discussed is flawed, but works out. The two deeply love each other and enjoy one another's company even after some time: "recycling week after week,"(Ritche, line 17, pg 841). The tone in the first 14 short stanzas, all describing the items the speaker is folding and revealing their symbolism, is reflective but shifts in the last few stanzas. Once the speaker calls to mind a former lover of hers upon discovering his shirt amongst the pile, the speaker becomes more worrisome. The speaker ponders what would happen if the person being addressed would leave her, just as her former lover has gone. This idea shows a drastic shift from positive thinking and focusing on the good in the relationship, to troublesome over possibilities of a relationship no more. Overall the change in tone help to depict the speaker's internal worry amidst a situation that seemingly is going so well.

I taste a liquor never brewed

I taste a liquor never brewed by Emily Dickinson is an extended metaphor in which the speaker is comparing an appreciation for nature and summer with alcohol intoxication. It is made clear that the speaker is talkng of large consumption and intake of nature's beauty with the diction used "air, sun, summer days." The speaker gives figuative meaning to lines such as "inns of molten blue," to refer to the bright blue summer sky. This soaking in of the sun, done by the speaker, enjoying nature's blessings, cannot restrain himself from more and more admiration. "I shall but drink the more,"(Dickinson, line 12, pg 797)! While others become disinterested with nature after some time, the speaker admires all the more, that which the heavens praise. "Till seraphs swing their snowy Hats and Saints to windows run to see the little Tippler,"(Dickinson, lines 13-15, pg 797). The poem depicts a prasing and cheerful attitude and reaction from the seraphs and saints, one that would not be expected or likely if the poem was refering to alcohol intoxication.

Batter my heart, three-personed God

Paradox is one important and notable element in the poem Batter my heart, three-personed God by John Donne. The speaker, being "betrothed" to evil, seeks God to change themself, and the only means to do so, according to the speaker is imprisonment. "Take me to you, imprison me, for I, except you enthrall me,  never shall be free,"(Donne, lines 12-13, pg. 840). The paradox of imprisonment is used to show the speaker finds it necessary to put them in jail in order that they may be free. This seemingly contradiction  in fact shows some truth. God should lock them up so as to be with God and imprisoned from the evils that plague them. Imprisonment yields freedom from sin, temptations, and evil. Furthermore, the last stanza is also paradoxical: "Nor ever chaste, except you enthrall me,"(Donne, line 14, pg 840). The speaker will not be chaste if God does not grant them renewal and new form.The speaker wants God to ravish them into being one with God, and for God alone: chastity. There is a somewhat double meaning to this ravishness, the speaker being seduced into wanting God and on the flip side, being taunted and lured into sinfulness.

The Convergence of the Twain

In The Convergence of the Twain by Thomas Hardy imagery is used to convey the deep vain of the tremendous Titanic ship, marked with a lifestyle of wealth and taking immense form on the glassy sea, summoned by force to meet a terrible fate. Stanza IV depicts the showiness and wealth the ship is a symbol of: "Jewels in joy designed, to ravish the sensuous mind,"(Hardy, lines 10-11, pg.778). The speaker in the poem condones such a lavish lifestyle of jewels and riches and in a way, through the use of imagery it is understandable how the speaker sees the titanic in a picture of grandiose, pride, and vanity. "The smart ship grew in stature,grace, and hue,"(Hardy, lines 22-23, pg 779). The imagery evoked by these lines further the idea of the extravagance and huge the appearance of the ship and how it can be portrayed as being vain in it's greatness. Furthermore, the speaker goes from the opening stanza, the ship in solitude, standing lone in the sea, to meeting it's fate of ultimate consummation: convergence with an equally extravagant and vain structure, the iceberg, perfect that they are united to the same fate of coinciding together. Just as "The Immanent Will" or "Spinner of the Years" prepares this outcome, the force commands the result in the final stanza: 'Now!' Though, who The Immanent Will is or Spinner of the Years is unknown, the imagery of such a force or creature is shown as having stronger or more ultimate control over the fate of the Titanic, willing it to crash and sink.