Diction shapes poetry in an artistic way by requiring the use of imagination for the reader’s comprehension. Due to a writer’s word choice contributing to the interpretation of the reader, the meaning behind each word hints at attributes of the poem like revelation of character, tone and theme. In poetic pieces like Bly’s “Driving to Town to Mail a Letter,” the skimpy length challenges the reader to use imagery to understand the meaning, while Olds’ “Sex Without Love” directly details the contrast between being involved in the act of sex but not including sensitive emotion. Further, the literal implication “Driving to Town to Mail a Letter” suggests that a man finds an abundance of peace doing what appears to be an activity as simple as driving on a snowy day to ship some mail out. Specifically, the five line poetic work opens with “It is a cold and snowy night. …show more content…
Driving around, I will waste more time” romanticizes the incomparable feeling that this cold night has on the speaker. Bly’s diction in the poem underscores the effects of appreciating landscape and the beauty of stillness in one’s desire, whether it be an ordinary task or an intricate one. On the contrary, “Sex Without Love” uses literal interpretation to convey the uncanny art of making love to someone without love. Sharon Olds’ appeals to religious by including “How do they come to God..and not love the one who came with them” which honors the moral importance of spiritually aligning with one’s partner when doing the act, but since it is normalized to be casual with one another the bewildered tone arises. Olds’ use of questions drives the reader to establish their own view of the matter, which aids in the overall confusion of the lack of admiration some have when partaking in a sensual
A Clean Well-Lighted Place Today in class we talked about plot in relation to "A & P" by John Updike. I had always thought of plot as just being the sequence of events, but after our reading assignment I realize that there is much more to it. I’d never thought of looking for plot in things like patterns. My reaction to "A & P" is mixed because I disagree with the main character being a hero (as Updike intended). While reading the story I thought that the girls who came into the store were merely