Metaphors The Figurative Language and Allusions

- . Shadow the beauties of Hamlet and Dante arose. Gibran, 1947, stanza 18, line 1-5 ‘Lust’ is attributed with human ability that sweeps ‘one thousand processions of the soul of woman ’. It is depicted as a person who has made thousand women live in suffer which can be seen in the line “...into the pit of shame and Horror”. At the same time, ‘Solitude’ is also portrayed as if it was a person. The way ‘We’ treat ‘Solitude’ by embracing it indicates the personification toward it. ‘Lust’ and ‘Solitude’ are two contradictory things in which each of them explain about ‘You’ and ‘We’. In the stanza, it is said that ‘You’ lie down under ‘Lust’ and ‘We’ embrace ‘Solitude’. The poet personifies ‘Lust’ as a person who has a power and ‘Solitude’ as a weak person. These personifications imply the meaning that ‘You’ live under the control of ‘Lust’ and ‘We’ live as the group of people who have nothing but silent and in the silent they find themselves feel peaceful. g. You curry for the favor of Greed, and the sharp Swords of Greed have shed one thousand rivers Of blood Gibran, 1947, stanza 19, line 1-3 ‘You’ is described as the worshiper of ‘Greed’. The lines “…have shed one thousand rivers Of blood prove that ‘Greed’ is personified as a killer person who has killed many people with its swords. By giving a form of human attribute, the poet gives a great illustration about how cruel ‘Greed’ can be if it lives around the people. Like the others personification in the previous part, this one also gives an explanation about the characteristic and the quality of ‘You’. Clearly, this personification shows the greedy of ‘You’ can torture other people in the society of the poem.

4. Symbols

a. Enlightening Darkness But you cannot see us, for we are tarrying In the enlightening darkness. Gibran, 1947, stanza 4, line 3-4 First thing first, it is important to know what kind of darkness which mean in this symbol. Quoting from Dictionary of Symbolism in umich.edu, about the meaning of darkness, It can encompass a primitive class and power of that chaos. It’s not essentially evil, yet it’s largely associated with death and destruction, captivity and spiritual darkness. The gloom which preceded the Fiat Lux traditionally represents the states that give rise to chaos. Darkness can also be linked to the time spent in the womb and seed germination, both of which take place in the dark Protas, 2001. From the quotation above, darkness is not always about evil things. It is related to the meaning of this symbol which manifests something different with many usual interpretations. In the symbol ‘enlightening darkness’, the word ‘enlightening’ gives the clue that ‘darkness’ has a positive meaning. The line “darkness can also be linked to the time spent in the womb and seed germination, both of which take place in the dark” means ‘darkness’ has a certain relation to the process of life. Then, it leads to the interp retation that ‘enlightening darkness’ symbolizes the spirit of being alive or to get rid of the hard situation. b. Eyes of Night, the heart of Dawn When we cry, our tears fall into the Heart of Life, as dew drops fall from the Eyes of Night into the heart of Dawn