Figurative Language In The Burning Girl

The poem “The Burning Girl”, by Mary Karr, depicts a young woman who is experiencing great distress due to the depression she is inflicted with. Karr presents this through the recurring symbolism of the girl “burning”, along with other figurative language and literary sound devices being used to illustrate a vivid mental image for the reader. Sound techniques such as rhyme, alliteration, and assonance are partnered with metaphors and personification to paint the picture of this poem. “The Burning Girl” is a free-verse, narrative poem. Tonally, its language and imagery provide an overall somber tone, although occasional glimpses of beauty appear here too. It takes place at the Wimbledon Championships, a tennis tournament, which it is implied

Personification and alliteration are being utilized here to allow the reader to more clearly envision the scenery. Additionally, the burning girl is introduced here along with basic rhyming in the first lines, “While the tennis ball went back and forth in time / A girl was burning. While the tonic took its greeny / Acid lime, a girl was burning”. While this is a free-verse style of poem, rhyming and other aforementioned writing elements are incorporated throughout in order to create emphasis and/or tone. In this instance, the rhyme emphasizes the line “a girl was burning” and establishes it as the main idea of the poem. As the poem continues to progress, it becomes evident

One drop could’ve / Brought to life the deadest Christ, and she / Emptied herself into that blazing child with all her might”. Clearly, the mother’s love is extraordinary and healing as expressed by the imagery here, especially, “One drop could’ve / Brought to life the deadest Christ”, going to show just how powerful her love is. Plus, she is giving “all her might” to try and remedy this girl, and still it is not enough, the girl still burns. Next her father is brought up, described as “the devoted king of helicopter pad / And putting green”. This summary of him, along with the fact that his love levels towards his daughter are not mentioned, give the feeling that he either is not very concerned with the well-being of the girl or is just unaware of her situation, too preoccupied with his own life. Either or, it is certainly not helping her case. Lastly, Karr details her/the narrator’s relationship with the girl, which goes as follows, “I was the facile friend of friends insisting on a hug / Who hadn’t been along for years of doctors, wards, / And protocols. I forced her sadness close”. This displays that she acknowledges the girl’s melancholy and really wants to assist her, but in her attempt to help is in a way invalidating her, and making her issues seem like they are easy and have a just as simple solution. As she says, she was not there for the years when she was visiting doctors and what not, making it