The Weight of Sweetness | Style

The Weight of Sweetness Style

"The Weight of Sweetness" proceeds from abstract statements to concrete images. Abstractions are ideas, and are rooted in the intellect. Concrete images are things which can be seen: blue hair, spilled milk, etc. Lee begins his poems by making connections among abstractions such as wisdom, sadness, joy, gravity, and sweetness. He then uses concrete imagery such as peaches to illustrate these connections. The connections themselves are made by way of metaphor. Metaphors make comparisons between unlike things, underscoring their similarities. For example, "the weight of memory" is like the "weight / of peaches" in that they are both heavy, the former emotionally so, the latter physically. They are also both "sweet," one figuratively and one literally. Lee employs enjambment along with a mixture of short and long lines to visually suggest the ways in which memory and emotion interact, how one thing or idea reminds the speaker of something else,...
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