Oscar Wilde Figurative Language

Words: 1558
Pages: 7

Oscar Wilde is the epitome of contradiction. He is a brilliant, award-winning poet and a profound influence on literary history. Though successful, he was unable to evade the opinions of others. His highly publicized affair with Lord Alfred Douglas and outrageous persona caused the public to blacklist him; he refused to conform to societal norms and suffered because of it. People often limited interaction with him for fear of ruining their reputation. Oscar Wilde lived a life concentrated around writing and literacy and faced contention for his outlandish personality and morals: this led to Wilde using his personal life as inspiration for his works (Ellmann).
To begin with, Oscar Wilde had a childhood composed of literacy and affluence.
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At the beginning, the speaker sits outside with his lover. They are in the field where the speaker first confessed his love to her. The speaker explains how he wanted to be with his lover for eternity. At this point, it is possible he could be referring to a proposal. The speaker tells her to look around and observe the beautiful scenery. In the fourth stanza, a shift begins. The speaker goes from describing the scenery, to using it as a segway to discuss how their relationship is hindering both parties. He talks about how they have lived their lives in a dreamlike reality, and how neither of them deserves that fate. In stanza five, he explains that his love towards her will never vanish, marking the beginning of Speaker’s “breakup” speech. He ends the poem by telling his lover that they should stop seeing each other because their relationship is doing them both more harm than good. Figurative language is abundant in “Her Voice”. The statements “murmuring mystical seas” (“Her Voice 20”) and “ships tempest-tossed” (“Her Voice 33”) are both very different. The first one gives the audience a soothing feeling while the second one makes the audience feel unsettled. Also, this poem uses alliteration to describe the naturalistic imagery in this poem. The imagery is a direct reflection of the author’s attitude during different parts of the poem. Other examples of imagery are “wild bee reels from bough to bough” (“Her Voice 1”) and “with his furry coat and gauzy wing” (“Her Voice 2”) transports the audience into the scene where the poem takes place and allows them to paint a vivid mental image of the landscape in this poem. The personification used in this poem describes the mood of the poem. Two examples are “murmuring mystical seas” (“Her Voice 20”) and “sunflower sought the sun” (“Her Voice 9”). These examples show the bright, peaceful disposition at the beginning