In Chapter 5 of Literary Theory, Culler mentions that metaphor, as one of the basic uses in language, it is also treated as respectable. He said that metaphor is commonly used to provide a vivid visual image to reader through instance of example, by connecting the knowledge which readers have already known or experience they have gone through, readers can more easier to understand the situation or put themselves into the plot or image(72). For example, in the poem “The sea is history” written by Derek Walcott, the author implies that time locks the history up, but there is no physical barrier which stop people from found it, the author is actually means that all the container of memory, culture, history, are buried under the sea and have been forgotten, as time goes by, these records have become a part of the sea, and the sea have become their container forever until someone discover them and dig them out.

In my view, metaphor is an important way to express the author’s purpose in the article. Metaphor leads reader to imagine and consider what meaning is behind the article from different aspects. It might also encourage people to think creatively and persuade reader to act as well.

In Chapter 5 of Literary Theory, Culler talked about the “rhetoric figures”, “genres”, “poetry as word and act”, “the extravagance of lyric”, “rhythmic words” and “interpreting the poems”. The rhetoric part left a deep impression on me. Culler introduced four rhetoric figures to us, which are metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony. In my opinion, some of these rhetoric techniques have actually been used in our daily life. Take irony as an example, imagine one lady coming out of a salon with a new hairstyle and it suddenly rained, ruining her new hairstyle. She said, “what a nice weather”. But actually, she was complaining. I think this is an example of how irony rhetoric technique is used in our life, which is a verbal way.

“A metaphor treats something as something else (calling George a donkey or my love a red, red rose).” (72) When I was reading “Diving into the Wreck”, I found that metaphor is the main rhetoric technique of this poem. The wreck represents women’s rights and social class, which is neglected in a male-neglected society. The wreck is in the deep see. The same is true of women’s rights. I found this metaphor technique is interesting because this poem tells a story of diving into the wreck, which makes people wonder what the wreck is, how the story goes and what message the poet wants to convey. Especially in the beginning of this poem, the poet introduced her equipment for the diving, which attracted the attention of readers and continued reading. In addition, this metaphor helps transfer the meaning of this poem vividly by a story form.

In chapter 5, author talks about poetry and rhetorics. Poetry tends to create effect of persuasion and rhetoric tends to have effect of imitation. The fusion of both of them is important in literary work. Especially, he lists four important basic rhetorical figures: metaphor, metaphor, synecdoche and irony. In “The sea is history” by Derek Walcott, I found a type of art description that interests me. He states in the last section of poetry, “then came the synod of files, then came the secretarial heron, then came the bullfrog bellowing for a vote, fireflies with bright ideas and bats like jetting ambassadors and the mantis, like khaki police, and the furred caterpillars of judges examining each case closely.” I am not quite sure about it but I do think the method he used is metaphor. I believe he compares some of the most important positions in the country to tiny creatures that implying  no matter how small the country is or how lowly the people living in it are, as long as the country can independently develop and free write its own real history. That will be the historic moment and event. The history is meaningful.

In Chapter 5 of Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, Jonathan Culler discusses some of the ways poetry asks us to think about how language works. This week you are also annotating the two poems that are the subject of your first paper. For this blog post I would like you to consider the chapter from Culler’s book alongside your reading of the poems. Find one or two places in one of these poems and identify a rhetorical or poetic technique Culler describes in Chapter 5. Why does this technique jump out at you as being important or interesting? How does it help shape the meaning of the poem?