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Storm Warnings Poem Meaning

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Literal and Metaphorical Meanings in “Storm Warnings”
Adrienne Rich’s “Storm Warnings” is a poem separated into four stanzas with twenty-eight verses. This is a figurative poem that evokes the reader’s emotion. The poem may talk about a storm approaching, but the storm actually represents a person’s emotion. Rich did a great job using imagery to describe the mood, and feelings of the narrator. The use of imagery helps to reveal literal meanings; the use of metaphors helps expose the poem’s literal meaning in addition to metaphorical meanings. Adrienne Rich used imagery to create a sense of vulnerability in her poem. She begins her poem by using imagery to show the threat of the incoming storm. “Winds are walking overhead” and there is a …show more content…

“Weather abroad and weather in the heart alike come on regardless of prediction,” literally means the weather is unpredictable. However, it metaphorically means a person’s struggles are unpredictable. The poem continues to say that no matter what, you cannot change the weather, “Which clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter.” This means that the person will have to deal with struggles in life no matter what. The word “weather” is an important word in this poem because it has two implications: the literal weather outside and the emotional weather in the speaker’s heart. The words the author used illustrate the speaker’s emotions and character.
The texture and sounds in “Storm Warnings” create images and evoke emotions. The writer used alliteration in this line, “What winds are walking overhead”. The poem uses the alliterative sounds of “w” and “s”, which creates a constant motif in the poem. These sounds imitate the sound of wind. This creates the effect people would feel when a storm is approaching: uneasiness and chaos. This poem is filled with imagery, personification, metaphors, and many other uses of figurative language. Without this, the poem would lose the troubled mood of a storm

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