Lyrical poetry is a type of poetry that emphasizes strong images and emotions within its lines to convey the poet’s central message to the reader. This is compared to narrative poetry which uses plot, characters, and setting to tell a story. While it is possible for poems to contain elements of both lyrical poetry and narrative poetry, most poems are usually either one or the other or at least have characteristics of one of these poetic categories that is more prominent. “The Heart” by Jill Alexander Essbaum, “The Author to Her Book” by Anne Bradstreet, and “This Is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams are three poems that all employ various methods of lyrical poetry to emphasize their message to the reader. These methods include different
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Both Bradstreet, in “The Author to Her Book”, and Essbaum, in “The Heart”, employ metaphors within their respective poems. Bradstreet uses an extended metaphor in order to liken the process of writing a book to the labors of raising a young child, “My rambling brat (in print) should mother call” (Bradstreet page 657: line 8). By incorporating an extended metaphor into the entirety of “The Author to Her Book” Bradstreet is able to conjure up imagery of acts possibly more familiar to the reader than those of writing a book, and because of this, it becomes easier for Bradstreet to convey her many different emotions when writing and therefore, have her audience understand her message with more ease. While Essbaum’s “The Heart” does not employ an extended metaphor, line 2, “A thousand complicated doors” (Essbaum 738), is a metaphor that helps Essbaum convey how real and extreme the narrator feels toward the subject. I believe that Essbaum is saying that no matter the circumstances the subject will always have a place within the narrator. Literally, however, the poet refers to the heart with it’s "four simple chambers” (Essbaum 738:1). In this case, mentioning the heart both literally and metaphorically helps convey how real the narrator's emotions feel to them even though all their words are not literally
Both Bradstreet, in “The Author to Her Book”, and Essbaum, in “The Heart”, employ metaphors within their respective poems. Bradstreet uses an extended metaphor in order to liken the process of writing a book to the labors of raising a young child, “My rambling brat (in print) should mother call” (Bradstreet page 657: line 8). By incorporating an extended metaphor into the entirety of “The Author to Her Book” Bradstreet is able to conjure up imagery of acts possibly more familiar to the reader than those of writing a book, and because of this, it becomes easier for Bradstreet to convey her many different emotions when writing and therefore, have her audience understand her message with more ease. While Essbaum’s “The Heart” does not employ an extended metaphor, line 2, “A thousand complicated doors” (Essbaum 738), is a metaphor that helps Essbaum convey how real and extreme the narrator feels toward the subject. I believe that Essbaum is saying that no matter the circumstances the subject will always have a place within the narrator. Literally, however, the poet refers to the heart with it’s "four simple chambers” (Essbaum 738:1). In this case, mentioning the heart both literally and metaphorically helps convey how real the narrator's emotions feel to them even though all their words are not literally