President Barack Obama, is a master at straw man construction and weasel phrase employment.But unlike politics, poetry demands a more uncompromising language than engagement of straw men and weasel phrases. If the poet uses a weak phrase like "they say," he had better be prepared to back it up with some profound imagery or other heavy metal poetic devices and claims.
Ben Okri does not disappoint. The speaker has come to understand, albeit through the undifferentiated grapevine of "they say," that "[l]ove grows/When the fear of death/Looms."
from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Okri's They Say
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The speaker then claims that his "reason" or "physician," metaphorically his ability to think clearly, has deserted him. He no longer possesses the capacity for rational thought, because of his irrational longing for unhealthy dalliance with the slattern, to whom he has unfortunately become attached.
The speaker claims that because of his lost reason he confuses desire with death. He knows that his reasonable physician, were he still in touch with it, would at least keep him aware of the efficacy of keeping body and soul together.
from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 147
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