The Clashing of Sight and Sound

In Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold, the imagery between sight and sound clash. Sight is described as calm, full, glimmering, and vast. It is described pleasantly and creates a peaceful and relaxing scene. The sound, however, paints a different picture. The sea has a grating roar, perpetual sadness, and an unpleasant harshness. This sea is then compared to a sea of faith and ultimately the world. "Faith/Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore" (Arnold, 892). Faith has become like other seas, becoming harsh and sad. The world is a harsh and "stinko" place. The fourth stanza indicates that love is the only solution to surviving this harsh world. It only appears to be good and awesome because of our eyes, but our ears reveal the truth that this world is harsh.

Love and Laundry

In Sorting Laundry by Elisavietta Ritchie, the speaker makes metaphors comparing her love to doing laundry. The speaker wants to bring this person into her life, like she folds clothes.She goes through the rest of their lives like she folds the rest of the laundry. They have dinner, they share and chase their dreams, and they develop a respectability for themselves. The poem then shifts from a light-heartened and lovely tone to a more sad and depressed tone. They cannot throw away bad habits and features about themselves. They start to fight and grow apart. Eventually, the speaker discovers an affair: "the strangely tailored shirt left by a former lover" (Ritchie, 842). The speaker does not want to left alone and would be forced to fold her own clothes. The mountains of unsorted laundry or the joys and adventures to come would not be able to fill the emptiness that she would feel.

Drunk by Nature

I taste a liquor never brewed by Emily Dickinson features an extended metaphor comprised of elaborate diction and imagery. Her metaphor compares her love of nature to being drunk. Nature fills her with such a joy that it is only comparable to being drunk. Her imagery reveals several scenes of nature. Pearls as clouds, the Rhine river, air, dew, molten blue, endless summer days, bee, butterflies, snowy hats, and the sun all suggest nature. Her diction reveals how she compares nature to alcohol. tankards are filled with pearls. The speaker has become an "Inebriate of Air. . . And Debauchee of Dew" (Dickinson, 797). Bees are drunk and butterflies stop drinking their drams. In the last stanza presents an image that God approves of this drunkenness. Seraphs and Saints run to the window to watch and not to judge, while the speaker leans on the sun, rather than a lamppost.

Undersea Riches

In The Convergence of the Twain by Thomas Hardy, points out an irony in the sinking of the Titanic. The richest people planned and built the safest ship in the world. It was given bright jewels and opulent mirrors. With all of their money, the rich could not prevent their own deaths. Their vanity and pride prevented them from seeing their future: "No mortal eye could see/The intimate welding of their later history" (Hardy, 779). The passengers could not see that their ship was doomed to fail. The iceberg was meant to destroy the ship. The damage could have been less severe, if more money was put into safety and precaution, rather than jewels and mirrors. Their pride prevented them from seeing this truth believing it to be invincible. Vanity and pride always meet their downfall, no matter how invincible they may seem.