Author Question: Is there a turn at the ninth line? If so, describe the focus of the octave andof the sestet. What ... (Read 76 times)

amal · **on:** Jul 20, 2018

Is there a turn at the ninth line? If so, describe the focus of the octave andof the sestet.

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What is the central metaphor of Aftershocks?

What will be an ideal response?

mcinincha279 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

As befits the title, both parts of the poem focus on the aftereffects of an earthquake. The controlling image of the octave is the pattern of cracks on the bedroom wall. In lines 58 (which we might call the second quatrain of the octave), there is a kind of metaphor within the metaphor: here the cracks are compared to a map on which the two people involved can see their uncertain future charted. The sestet focuses on the continued rumbling and pitching of the ground beneath them; as in the octave, its second half develops a comparison within the comparison, this time a simile: a trenchlike fissure that has opened up in the ground, leaving the two standing on opposite sides of it.

Answer to Question 2

As suggested by the title, the central metaphor of the poem compares the rupture of a relationship to an earthquake and its aftereffects; the two are fused in the brilliant bit of wordplay at the end of the poem, in which the word fault refers to both the geological phenomenon and responsibility for a personal failing or lapse in behavior.