imagery

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Professor

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Billy Collins Use of Imagery in Embrace

Billy Collins ' poem use conflicting images to drive home the point that people are multi-dimensional , even paradoxical . The title evokes positive images of two people hugging in camaraderie , friendship or love . It evokes images of tender moments in ones own life . The rest of the poem , however , is neither sentimental nor tender . The first line itself speaks of a parlor trick , a game , instead of a real occasion of people expressing esteem or love for each other . The

poem , in one breath , suggests a sentimental , or even romantic , theme , and , in the other , it reveals that it is all a mind trick played successfully by the writer

The poem uses a child 's game to show us that people are not always what they seem and there is more than one side to person . In the second line of the poem , wrap your arms around your body , Collins used not only visual imagery but also tactile ones . The reader does not only picture in his mind an image of a person with his arms wrap around him he also remembers the feeling of wrapping his arms around him when he used to play the game . The imagery used is not only visual but also the awareness of one 's body , tactile imagery

In the third and fourth line , the poem starts to expound on its theme by presenting one view of a person playing the parlor trick . The poem says , and from the back it looks like

someone is embracing you ' Again , the poem evokes the visual and tactile image of a traditional embrace . It engenders positive feelings of warmth , affection and love . Collins used this to provide a contrast in his presentation of the second view of a person playing the trick The contrast will be presented in the later part of this . The view at the back is presented in a more positive light in succeeding lines

In the fourth line , her hand grasping your shirt , Collins reinforced the positive image by using her hands ' instead of the person 's own hands . The use of the word grasping ' suggests strong emotions between the two people embracing . He evoked the picture of a full-bodied embrace instead of a tepid one . In a non-passionate moment , two people embracing may wrap their hands on the back of the other and may even give each other an approving pat in the back at the same time , but they do not grasp the others back . Grasping ' suggests that the person is over-come with emotion or passion

The picture of a passionate embrace becomes even clearer in the next line , her fingernails teasing your neck ' This line is very effective . Again , the poem not only uses visual imagery but tactile ones . This line reminds us of the ticklish feeling of someone teasing our neck , goose bumps rising in our skin and the fine hairs in our forearm reacting wildly to the stimuli...