The Writer by Richard Wilbur is a very interesting poem. Wilbur writes about his daughter's life and what she has done, what she is doing, and what she needs to do in order to break out and become the successful writer he wants and knows she can be. To portray his message, Wilbur utilizes first metaphor, then symbolism in order to display his daughter as accurately as he can. The usage of symbolism is a more appropriate and complex figure than the metaphor, and allows the reader to obtain an in depth look at who "the writer" really is.
First, Wilbur Gives a metaphor about a boat. The boat described by Wilbur is used to show that his daughter's writing is like the journey of a cargo ship. The four words he uses to utilize the metaphor are prow, gunwale, cargo, and passage. Literally, the prow of a boat is the part that …show more content…
A symbol is something that represents another thing that is bigger than itself. When using the boat metaphor to describe the daughter, there are only four ways in which it can be used to describe her writing life. Once you place a figurative but defining meaning on prow, gunwale, cargo, and passage, you cannot get anything else from the girl. Since it is so easy to interpret the meanings of these words, it also puts more of a complex label onto the