Poetic devices used in this poem??

Question

It is the poem George Gray by Edgar Lee Masters. Here is a link. Thanks!!

http://www.bartleby.com/84/64.html

Answer 1

Actually, this is a very simple monolog with very little subtlety in its use of poetic devices. Perhaps its distinguishing features are an extended metaphor, personification, and scattered use of consonance. Read it aloud carefully but thoughtfully.

George Gray

I have studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me --
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one's life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire --
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

(1) The extended metaphor has the speaker comparing his life to a ship in the security of the harbor. He has refused to set sail, that is to take risks; hence, he has refused his destiny (love, sorrow, ambition) and has lived a meaningless life. The metaphor is implicit from early in the poem, but is given direct statement in the concluding lines: "life without meaning . . . is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid."

(2) The personifications occur in lines 7 & 8:

Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.

Frankly, neither of these images is very imaginative or engaging. What I think gives the poem its distinction is the way it sounds when it is read aloud. The poet captures the voice of a somewhat bookish, self-conscious recluse, whose vocabulary is filled with abstractions rather than rich with the concrete imagery of experience.

(3) What ties it all together, however, is the repetition of the "s" sound throughout, a kind of hiss or lisp that informs and undermines the strength of the voice. It begins subtly in the very first lines:

I have Studied many timeS
The marble which was chiSeled for me --
A boat with a furled Sail at reSt in a harbor.

Notice how this sound is repeated once or twice in almost every line: "it pictureS my deStionation," "I Shrank from itS diSilluSionment," "waS afraid," "dreaded the chanceS," "the windS of deStiny," "end in madneSS," . . . Then notice how it rises to a climax in the "torture" of the last two lines:

Of reStleSSneSS and vague deSire --
It iS a boat longing for the Sea and yet afraid.

As you hear the sounds of the poems the speaker's listlessness is in effect chiseled in the sound of the words: destination, disillusionment, sorrow, chances, destiny, madness, restlessness, desire, the sea.

Signficantly, the sound effect is not the boldness of rhyme or even alliteration but the subtle, understatement of consonance--vague, indirect, but repeated, insistent. Not the strong, melodious sounds of r's, b's, and m's (as in marble, harbor, boat, torture)--these are undermined, they do not stand out except in contrast, as in the soft, sibilant sounds of restlessness and desire.

For George Gray, the "gray" sounds of ssssszz have won out in his life. He talks as a Lester Simmons, not with the roar and growl of a GEORge GRrray. Just listen.

Answer 2

properly, there is no longer probable 5 considerable poetic instruments, yet some issues that are used are: rhythm rhyme figurative language (similies, metaphors, personification, onomonpeoia, assonance, others like that) and company. (the style you organize your words and placed them into action)