Diction And Imagery In Ask Me By William Stafford

In the poem “Ask Me” by William Stafford, the speaker compares his life to a river. When the river has stopped flowing the speaker has time to sit and think about his life. The speaker is saying, that he has made mistakes in his life but his mistakes don’t define him. He can’t take full responsibility for what has gotten him to the certain point in his life because there have been people along the way who have helped him. People who have come into the speaker’s life have hurt and loved him. The difference between their pain and love is very small. The speaker will listen and give his advice to the person he is speaking to. They will both sit and ponder their lives as they look at the river. The river may be frozen but underneath, the frozen layer, the current

The speaker is going through his life as if he was going with the current of the river. Stafford uses diction and imagery to convey that the river represents the speaker’s “go with the flow” attitude about life.

Stafford uses compelling diction in order to convey that the river symbolizes the speaker’s nonchalant attitude towards life’s uncertainties. In the beginning of the poem the river has a literal meaning, “Some time when the river is ice.”(Line 1) He uses the river to describe the time of year. There is also a connotation to the river being ice, it could insinuate that the speaker is lost in life without the current of the river. The speaker has a tendency to go with the flow of the current. The speaker could be at a stand still, not knowing what he should do next, but when the current has stopped moving he has time to ponder his life. By asking, “Ask me/mistakes I have made”(Lines 1-2) the speaker implies that he has made mistakes in his life but the mistakes do not define him. The speaker vocalizes, “Others/have come in their slow way into/my thought.”(Lines 3-5) This makes the audience question why Stafford chose the word slow. Maybe he has