Thursday, June 13, 2013

What is the critical analysis of the poem "Delight in Disorder"?

Herrick uses metonymy; he is referring to the clothes AND
the woman who wears them.  The "disorder" of the dress "kindles wantonness" in the woman
who wears the dress.  He sees a "wild civility" in a careless shoestring.  He describes
the dress but is actually referring to the woman.  Metonymy is a figure of speech in
which a concept is referred to by describing or just naming something that it is
associated with.  In this case, the woman is described via the clothes.  You could also
call this metaphor or perhaps even analogy.  This poem bears some resemblance to the
phrase "let your hair down," in other words relax, be free.  Herrick implies that a
woman who is not perfectly dressed to every detail may be more free, less inhibited and
even more genuine - as if to say that a woman so incessant in attending to every detail
of her dress is compensating for lack of personality, elitism, or some other trait she
is insecure with.  You could draw other inferences here: a disordered dress implies that
she is more interested in more meaningful things or simply that she is not afraid to
look disheveled, not afraid to be "wild" despite what "society" has told her in regards
to how to dress and behave.  The disorder could also be an analogy to one of Herrick's
perceptions on Art itself; that too much attention to detail and effort towards surface
perfection put too much emphasis on form (calling to mind formal and formality) and 
this could mean lack of attention to raw emotion and/or it could mean that if disorder
conveys someone who is freer and not superficial, then she is also more profound or
thoughtful.

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