Contentment: Escaping Materialism

Contentment: Escaping Materialism Oliver Wendell Holmes gives an intriguing illustration of humble spiritedness in Contentment. The speaker enjoyments metaphor to trivialize the status symbols that folks strive to acquire. Alliteration is effectively used to place stress on items that the speaker considers luxurious. In each stanza, Holmes uses elaborate visual imagery to engage readers and highlight the materialistic desires of individuals. The speaker distinctly states his appreciation for modest living and his displeasure with a life aimed at acquiring material possessions. Metaphor, alliteration, imagery and tone are the devices that make this poem successful. Honors are silly toys (Holmes 1445, 20). Silly (20) gives readers the revenue stamp that these honors have no benefit for society. The assertion that honors are toys (20) makes these honors channelise unimportant and childish. The enjoyment derived from them is as brief as from a childs plaything. T he person being admired staff play with the idea of being honored as a child plays with toys. The speaker says, titles are plainly empty label (21). He contends that only the holder or seeker of a title assigns significance to it.

Holmes uses these metaphors, honors are silly toys and titles are and empty names, to expose the arbitrary nature of status. Perhaps, for just a single spurt,/Some seconds less would do no suffer (42-43). The S sound is repeated four times in quick succession to draw attention to the speakers assertion that a rapid or gaudy sawbuck is not necessary for travel. Even though horses are no lon ger used for transportation, the reader can ! draw parallels amid them and the luxurious automobiles that serve as status symbols today. Three more than uses of alliteration, some little extravagance there/Of red moroccos tremendous gleam/And vellum rich as country cream (53-55), lead in a collection of finely veneered books a luxury majestic what is necessary for contented living. The most important use of...If you trust to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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