William Stafford uses language to depict the attitude of the speaker in “A Ritual to Read to Each Other”. He uses repetition of the first line to emphasize his point that the speaker and the reader are strangers, as with most people in the world, therefore one should not be quick to judge others. Stafford uses a descriptive metaphor in the poem about elephants holding each other’s tail. The speaker uses this unique example as an image that the reader can get about the ceaseless chain of conformity and unoriginality in society. He makes a strong hyperbole when he states that knowing what occurs but not recognizing the fact is quite possibly the root of all cruelty. Stafford is referring to those who know what is wrong and see it in the world,
