The Discovery Vs This Poem
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Every poet has their own unique writing style and it can be seen within each poem that they write. This is true within the poems “The Discovery” and “This Poem” which was written by Elma Mitchell. Although each author writes in their own distinct style, they both use literary devices such as metaphors, personification, hyperboles and many others to reveal the message they are trying to deliver in each poem.
In the poem “The Discovery” the author uses metaphors to describe the deeper meaning of the poem. The poem begins with the line “Do not imagine that the exploration ends or that the map you hold, conceals further discovery” and from the beginning he uses a metaphor to describe your own knowledge; what you currently know; as the “map”. The way in which the poem is written makes it easy for the reader to link the storyline to their own life and apply the message to everyday situations. By using the map as a metaphor for your own knowledge, the author then goes on to say that to discover new ideas you must use what you already know as a guide; or a map; to lead you up to the point at which you no longer know, and that is when you begin to learn again. That idea shown in the ending lines of the poem “the moment when it seems most plain, is the moment when you must begin again.” which means that once you come to a point where you seem to know everything (“seems most plain”), you must go back to the beginning and take a closer look, because there is always something new to learn. The author also used personification to describe the land as being “naked”. The land was a metaphor for the discovery, and by describing it as naked it gave the image to the reader of a place where nothing was left to discover, or learn. All of the literary devices used by the author helped deliver his message to the reader by hinting at the deeper meaning of the poem.
In the poem “This Poem” by Elma Mitchell the author personified the poem itself by describing it as dangerous, and that it will give the reader undesirable side-effects. The strong use of personification in the opening lines of the poem helped deliver the first part of the message; “this poem is