| 'like words, ... images in a poem tend to fall into overtone
themes united by either their denotations or connotations.' —
Ciardi : 'All metaphor is basically
a way of speaking of the unkown in terms of the known. The metaphoric formula
may thus be stated: X (unkown) = Y (known) ... [The poet's] contract is
simple: if the reader will bring a fluent and supple mind to play upon the
Y of the metaphor, the poet will engage to give him an experience of the
X. But he will also undertake to give him an experience of the pleasurable
interplay of X upon Y' |