Tuesday, December 16, 2014

In which stanza(s) did the poet use hyperbole in "The Solitary Reaper?"

I think that the best example of hyperbole can be seen
when the speaker, presumably Wordsworth, starts to wonder about what the song actually
means.  The song is sung in another language, one that is unknown to the speaker.  As
meaning is attempted to be assembled, it might be here where the greatest amount of
hyperbole is evident.  This is because since the meaning is not necessarily known, there
can be no "wrong" enhancement of the song's meaning.  It is in this section of the poem
where hyperbole is evident in what the song could mean and in what the lyrics trigger in
the mind of the speaker.  In seeing places or envisioning arenas of the world that are
so fundamentally distant from the moment where the speaker hears the song, hyperbolic
descriptions are employed.  To a great extent, such hyperbole works because the speaker
is able to convey how his moral imagination is triggered and how its expansion is such a
critical part to the song being sung by this woman in the field.  In the descriptions
offered in terms of what the song might mean and in what is initiated in the mind of the
speaker, there is much in way of hyperbolic language and
experience.

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