By looking loosely at the texture of the poem (illustration 4), I tried to uncover the meaning of the mystery. I focused on the texture of the beginning lines, where the mystery of attribution, as mentioned above, occurs (illustration 5):~~~
Line 1:
[something] takes care everywhere before names [take care]
Line 2:
this taking over of sand hillock and slope} “metaphor a”
as naming takes over} “simile a”
as seeing takes over} “simile b”
“simile a” and “simile b” are attributed to and enhance “metaphor a” to make an extended metaphor
**question: what is the first metaphor about, though?
---
Line 4:
this green spreading [,] upreaching [,] thick
this green --->spreads
this green --->upreach
this green --->is think fingers…
Line 5:
fingers from their green light [,] branching into deep rose, into ruddy profusions
this green --->is thick fingers branching from their green light into…
deep rose} metaphor a
into ruddy profusions} metaphor b; visual: red little bumps –or- slang: for annoying
**overall image: green finger-like branches going into red bumps an deep rose
[something] takes care everywhere before names [take care]
Line 2:
this taking over of sand hillock and slope} “metaphor a”
as naming takes over} “simile a”
as seeing takes over} “simile b”
“simile a” and “simile b” are attributed to and enhance “metaphor a” to make an extended metaphor
**question: what is the first metaphor about, though?
---
Line 4:
this green spreading [,] upreaching [,] thick
this green --->spreads
this green --->upreach
this green --->is think fingers…
Line 5:
fingers from their green light [,] branching into deep rose, into ruddy profusions
this green --->is thick fingers branching from their green light into…
deep rose} metaphor a
into ruddy profusions} metaphor b; visual: red little bumps –or- slang: for annoying
**overall image: green finger-like branches going into red bumps an deep rose
~~~
Other things I noticed were the motifs of nature, destruction and progression. The natural words used are: sand, hillock, slope, rose, sea, sun, cloud, bees, water. These are all significant to building the metaphors within the poem. The destructive/negative words are profusions, grey, dead, debris, was, cloud cover, the mass, old, burnd. However, it is the progression words that are most interesting motif to look at because they are used accordingly within the beginning to middle to end of the poem; therefore, it’s the most revealing motif as to the meaning of this poem. Branching (5) followed by flowering (9) then coming to fruit (13) and finally, the last word, ripen (18). “Ripen” is also an interesting last word to use because although it is a word of destruction, after ripening comes rotting, it has a far more positive connotation than all of the other words of destruction.