The Apparition Analysis

The Apparition Analysis The speaker conveys several attitudes towards the subject of “The Apparition” throughout the poem including a late shift of attitude between lines 13-14. “The Apparition” is a poem written by Donne about the relationship between a man and woman and how the woman has mistreated and abused the man and revenge is taken on the woman by the man’s ghost. John Donne, as the speaker, develops several attitudes towards the subject in “The Apparition” throughout the use of imagery, as well as by building up suspense and thereby releasing this pressure at the shift of the poem. The speaker uses several instances of imagery throughout the poem to explain more thoroughly and vividly what emotions and images and currently being emitted by the words of the poem. One such instance of the imagery is on line 11 when the speaker’s ex-lover is referenced as a “Poore Aspen wretch”. Before this line, it is explained in the poem that the speaker has died as a result of his ex-lover’s scorn, so the speaker returns to his ex-lover and her new companion by means of being an apparition as the title of the poem implies. The speaker frightens his ex-lover to the point that her appearance makes her look like a “Poore Aspen wretch”, meaning that she is pale like an aspen tree as well as cold and thin as aspen trees generally are in their arctic environments. The quote of “Poore Aspen Wretch” serves a dual purpose as not only imagery but a metaphor as well to compare the speaker’s ex-lover to what an aspen tree resembles, therefore creating the imagery that is evident to the reader of the poem. Another instance of imagery being used by the speaker in “The Apparition” is in line 4 when he asserted “Then shall my ghost come to thy bed”. This line is so clever because the speaker creates doubt in the mind of the reader that his ghost is possibly not in his ex-lover’s room tormenting her and it may just be her conscience. Imagery is unmistakable in the previously mentioned

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