Sunday, December 7, 2014

Andrew Marvell's "Bermudas" uses what figurative devices and presents what unresolved conflicts?

"Bermudas" begins with a four line stanza that comes from
the speaker. It says that the winds could hear the song of the people in a boat on their
way, presumably, to the Bermudas. Here, personification of the wind takes place, because
"The listening winds received this song."


The body of the
poem illustrates the wealth of life and happiness that is coming to the people on the
boat. It's described like a utopia, where:


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He hangs in shades the orange
bright, 
Like golden lamps in a green night, 
And does in the
pomegranates close 
Jewels more rich than Ormus shows ;              
 
He makes the figs our mouths to meet, 
And throws the melons at
our feet ;



We can presume
that "He" is God in this case. The land that they are going to is so plentiful that they
don't have to work to provide for themselves. God will "throw melons at [their]
feet."


The last four line stanza suggests that they have
not arrived yet. It's as if they had been told how wonderful and great this new land
would be, but they haven't actually set foot on it. You might compare it to when people
would come here, to the United States and "The Land of Opportunity." Many people found
it very different than what they expected. It was much harder for people to make a
living here than they thought.


That might be the
"unresolved conflict" you're talking about. The poem is left unresolved, because the
people are keeping time with their "falling oars." I also think "falling" is an example
of foreboding. If it was all going to end happily, Marvell might have used a different
word to describe the oars.

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