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inexperience prentices, court-huntsmen, and common farmers who have many jobs to do in the morning.
2. To Reinforce the Speakers’ Love Expression
Other significance of the figurative language employment is reinforcing the speakers’ love expression. If the love expression is stated directly, it will leave no
impression at all. Therefore, figurative language are needed to give more emotional effects in that love expression. The figurative language also provokes
the readers’ emotional response to the lovers and strengthen the love expression. One of the examples of figurative language employment lies in the line 1 of
second stanza in “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.” To show his deep love toward his lover, the speaker uses implied metaphor and states
“So let us melt, and make no noise.” Logically, human is impossible to melt. Thus, inviting his
lover to melt is not a common way to express a love. However, this unusual love expression can turn out the meaning of the love expression itself to be deeper and
more special. By saying “let us melt,” the speaker intends to unify their heart like
two solid objects melted into one liquid. If their heart is melted and united, they will not worry about the absence of the lover anymore.
The sixth stanza of the same poem also shows how figurative language gives emphasis to the love expression. In the last line of this stanza, the speaker
employs simile to ensure his lover about how their love works. This expression is powerful to make his lover believe in his strong love.
Our two souls, therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
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Like gold to airy thinness beat. John Donne, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, line 21-24
The employment of simile in the last line of this stanza is used to illustrate the real meaning of farewell. Their farewell is compared to the gold process.
Processing the best quality of gold is not an easy job. The gold is beaten in certain heat and thinness to obtain its best quality. The speaker assumes that farewell is as
same as that beating process. Farewell can expand their love’s quality instead of breaking it. For that reason, he compares their farewell to the gold beating.
After all, simile employed in the last line of the quotation above is effective to strengthen the speaker’s love statement. The presence of the figurative language
gives concrete illustration that makes the speaker’s lover realize that farewell is
not the end of their relationship. Even, their farewell is one of the ways to expand their love into better quality.
The speaker of “The Sun Rising” also employs figurative language to
emphasize his deep love. In this poem, the speaker uses figurative language to claim that his love is
stronger than the sun’s beams. He compares the power of his love to the power of the sun, one of which lies in the last line of the poem.
“This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.
” John Donne, “The Sun Rising”, line 30 contains two examples of metaphor. The first metaphor is used to compare
their bed with the sun’s sphere. The comparison is used to indicate that the speaker and his lover are as powerful as the sun. The second metaphor describes
the sun’s sphere which is compared to their room walls. By saying that the sun’s sphere is only as large as their room, the speaker intends to limit the power of the
sun.
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The metaphors are used to indicate that the speaker and his lover are the ruler of the world. Their bed functions as their throne in which they lead the world.
Therefore, the sun needs to shine to their bed only because it is the same as it shines to the whole world. The next metaphor strengthens the fact that the sun is
powerless because it is only able to rotate around the speaker’s room. Those metaphors are both used to compare the power of the lovers and the sun. By
stating that their bed is the sun’s center and their room is its sphere, the speaker reinforces that their love has overpowered the world as well as the sun, which is
considered as the most powerful thing in the world.
3. To Make the Love Expression Unforgettable
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