Theme, Language and Metaphorical referencePoetry is the art of using language economically and embellishing this language with styles that evoke our emotions and describe our inner feelings. A sonnet is a fourteen line single stanza poem that describes themes in a metaphorical manner just like other types of poems do.The poem below is a sonnet from the Bedford text. It was written by William Shakespeare, the greatest poet of all times. I will base my illustrations for the theme, language usage and metaphorical reference in poetry from this sonnet.When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now,
Will be a totter'd weed of small worth held:
Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days;
To say, within thine own deep sunken eyes,
Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use,
If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,'
Proving his beauty by succession thine!
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.A theme is the message that a poem brings to the fore. In order to teach, caution or emphasize something. Normally, poems highlight issues that affect people in their daily lives. Real life issues are important themes in poetry since they are meant to depict man in his natural setting and influence him to live in a positive manner (Donne & Gardner, 2001).The sonnet above brings the theme of ageing into the foreground. Nature provides that everyone on earth ages day by day. The sonnet forecasts into the future when the youth will have become elderly and uses this to recommend that the youth waste but to quickly get a child who would follow after him and preserve his beauty. Forty winters which is the besieging army that digs trenches in the fields of the threatened city are the imagery used for the ageing. The trenches represent the furrows and lines which will appear on the young man's forehead when he grows old. The poem advices the man not to waste in life by engaging in self-pleasure but to get children thereby satisfy the world and mother nature that will be a measure of his life at the end.The poem uses economy of words like is customary of all poems. Unlike a novel, poems use few clearly chosen words to bring forth the message precisely as seen in the sonnet above. A long statement is briefly put in one phrase or line within this single stanza poem (Schoenfeldt, 2007).A number of metaphorical references are inherent within the poem. Ageing has been described by dip trenches that will grow on the young man's face while forty winters that will besiege the brow represent the number of years that will be added to the young man to his present age. The trenches to be dug by the army in fact refer to the lines that will appear on the young man's face with time.Setting, Character and plot in a StorySetting refers to the arrangement of a story in times of place and time. Time setting can be in the past present or the future while time setting refers to the actual location where a story is told (Donne & Gardner, 2001).The monkey Wrench Gang, a story by Edward Abbey, is a good example of a story set in the past. It describes the American west and how nature was under attack by the rapid industrialization at the time. The time setting in this story is during a period in history while the place setting is the American west, specifically the deserts of Colorado.Character refers to the human creation of the author in a play or a story. These humans speak and interact with each other just like humans do in a normal life situation. The characters are given traits depending on their actions and words to other characters or directly characterized by the author (Abbey, 1985).Abbey describes the characters in his story as follows: Bonnie Abzug, the Bronx exile and pro-feminist, Smith-the outcast and guide through the wilderness and technician who is rare to see and Doctor Sarvis, M-the liberal who torches billboards. These illustrations only give the roles played by these characters. On the other hand, the traits for a character can be exemplified by Hayduke who is seen as a comical and harmless man since he always likes to be clownish. The adjectives given to the character are in deed is character trait.There are round characters and flat characters in a story. Flat character appear only on a few instances or even once while round characters appear in all the events in the story. Round characters therefore develop the story since all the events center around them Hayduke is a good example of a round character while the Mormons are flat characters since they are mentioned on a few instances.Plot in a story refers to the occurrence of events in a sequential manner. Stories are arranged in chapters while plays are arranged in scenes. The events in the first chapter or scene influence the events in the subsequent chapters and this develops the story. The destruction of the canyons in the The monkey Wrench Gang leads to the formation of the gang who blow up the dam during its opening ceremony. This leads to the pursuit of the eco-friendly gang by the authorities, their arrest, serving their term and so on up to the end. The element of causality of plot is therefore invaluable in a story.