Question

In at least one hundred words describe how bly uses sarcasm in his poetry to evince an emotion reaction from his readers. How is this emotional reaction strengthened by bly’s ironic language and imagery

Answer 1

I do not know the poems by Robert Bly that you have read in class, but I would argue that in poems such as "A Dream on the Night of First Snow," for instance, the author uses a very graphic, visual, and arguably sarcastic language when talking about his dream - he first mentions a girl whom he met in an attic and who "talked of operas, intensely," and he abruptly changes topics and goes on to refer to his happily encounter with a salamander (which seems to have amused him more than the girl) and to describe, meticulously and almost humorously, the way the little creature "strode over a log" and left. One can clearly picture the salamander striding "confidently like a chess master" and rising up "like a tractor," and almost feel for it, while one can also smile slightly thinking of the girl who talked intensely about operas and was left alone by the speaker in the attic while she continued to do so.

Another example of Bly's use of imagery and sarcasm with the goal of evincing an emotional reaction can be identified in "The Bear and the Man," which brings a bear closer to a man, and vice versa, by referring to a loss that both of them have experienced: the death of their respective sons. Ironically, the bear's son was killed by a trap, set (it can be inferred) by a man, and the man's son, who was inebriated and alone in the woods, was killed by a bear. The bear knows "his kin," abandoned down jackets among them, and so does the man, although the speaker seems to imply that the former knows more than the latter. They face each other and may fight at any moment, but the speaker, instead, reminds the reader that they share a grandmother (a reference to the Ursa Major or Great Bear) that watches them closely from the sky, in an attempt, perhaps, to reconcile them.