Figurative Language In 'Since You And Yusman Ali, Charcoal Seller'?

In the poems, ‘Since You’ and ‘Yusman Ali, Charcoal Seller’, written by Dionne Brand and Ian McDonald respectively, both authors are able to effectively elicit from me feelings of sympathy for the characters portrayed in the poems. Through both writers’ use of eloquent figurative language, I am able to develop sympathetic feelings toward the characters presented in both poems. Firstly, Brand’s consistent use of figurative language throughout the poem sets the foundation for which I am able to feel sympathy for the character. Brand opens with, “Since you, I passed some nights in hell” This metaphorical line portrays the character as someone going through an intense form of emotional turmoil; hell is known as a place full of suffering and

At the beginning of the poem, McDonald introduces Ali as a man who lived a happy simplistic life, until the day his four sons and wife died. This narrative in itself evokes great sympathy in me for Yusman Ali. However, as the poem develops the author goes on to describe the devastating effects the death of his family had on him, bringing forth greater sympathetic feelings from me. McDonald writes, “… whose heart [Yusman Ali] I think has learned to break a hundred times a day” By including this hyperbole in the opening stanza, the writer introduces the emotional disparity felt by Yusman Ali to the reader, using the adjective “hundred” to emphasize the intensity of Ali’s torturous emotions. This brief introduction to the emotions of Yusman Ali evoked in me sympathy for Yusman Ali. Continuing on in the description of Ali’s current situation, the narrator stresses the loneliness felt by Ali, “Yusman Ali was alone, alone, alone.” McDonald’s repetition of the adjective ‘alone’, emphasizes the extent of the isolation felt by Yusman Ali spurred on by the death of his family; This portrayal of such an immense loneliness causes me to feel sympathetic towards