Avarice
Money at that time was gold. Gold is mined from under the earth. Man is
the one who mined gold from earth and puts his stamp and raises money to a
valuable position and gets trapped in it.
Money is personified in the poem. In the first stanza, the poet wonders
as to how money minted from metal, mined from underground. “ bane
of bliss and source of woe “ could look
“so fresh and fine”. The second stanza mentioned about the process of giving
value to money. The poet indicates how
useless the gold under lying under ground; was to a country like a destitute
feature. Next the poet refers to the process of making money by heating the ore,
minting and stamping on it. Further he discusses, how the man transferred his
right by hammering with a man’s face. Herbert sees this as giving rights to
command the labor of man. The final couplets comments on, how gold usurp man’s place, has drag the man to the depth making him fall
in the ditch.
This poem is so relevant to the today’s society. During the time of
Herbert, gold was money and at least it has a weight. But what about the
currency notes as we have today? Does it have a value? We are the one who are
giving a value to a paper. Think a bit…… Don’t you find it comic?
Themes discussed through the poem are
·
A sarcastic vision of, role played by money in
the modern society.
·
How greed for materials gains leads a person to
his destruction.
·
How empowering money cause a moral deterioration
of humans.
Techniques used in the poem are,
·
Sonnet form
·
Rhyming scheme
“abab cdcd efef gg”
·
Third person point of view
·
Dramatic quality
·
Paradoxical nature
·
Contain metaphors
Eg:
Kingdom, Stamp and seal, Cave and grot, Ditch
·
Alliteration
Eg:
Fresh and fine
·
Assonants
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